Sat- In Pelling
- Pelling sometimes had view of the Himalayas
| Sat - Explore
- hotel was quite full - including the patronising nutcase French walking girls "Well, you don't understand cos you are mostly in cities, walking on roads".
One can't win with these people who have made up their minds before listening.
- walked 3Km West to Sanga Choling monastery with view
- then had to 3Km back cos I had left my jumper up there.
- walked 2Km East to the Pemayangtse Monastery - nothing to see except a huge tacky diorama upstairs.
- Some very credible local told me of major corruption problems with this monastery ... They run DPC Academy school which is promoted in the guidebook as "the place for foreigners to volunteer, help orphans etc", but apparently children are kept on meagre food rations, and money sent by ex-teachers to them often seems to go missing ... yet the monastery abbot lives very well.
| Sat- Explore 2|
- next door West is a restored heritage hotel Elgin Mount Pandim, with Fantastic Views. The managers gave me a tour.. It was originally a weekend house of the King and the government took it over as a lodge, but of course they made a bad job of it so now it's been renovated by a private company.
- View down onto Pellings 200 hotels
| Sat- Explore 3|
- The LP guidebook is again crap as it claims Rabdentse the ruins of the old capital are next to the monastery when even if you cut at the road bend they are 1.5Km away.
- nice views, but again disappointing as they have clearly been recently been rebuilt and there is no museum to explain the old civilization and ruins.
- Afternoon went down to Dhara Market, not that special no one showed me the 100 year old house..and by the time the locals had finished talking to me there was no transport back up the hill..I walked 6Km before a truck gave me a ride.
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Sun- Geyzling Market.|
- The market wasn't that great. I bought a yeast block thinking it was cheese, but then I did manage to buy some cooked Taro and Sweet potato at last some carbohydrate not ruined by Indian spicy cooking.
- Nothing special to see .. Wasted 3 hours in Cyber cos of load shedding and almost had to walk 12Km back up hill.
- Pelling is cold at night - so came up with a plan to go to Jorethong and spend one day exploring those villages before leaving Sikkim
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Missed out on North Sikkim
- The newspaper reports serious protests in the north against hydroelectric projects as the Lepchas regard the land as sacred maybe I should have travelled in that area to get a better understanding of the people.
| Monday - got bus to Jorethong
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- Once you are back at Legship thhe way to Jorethang is all flat as it follows the river.
- Jorethang didn't work out as no hotel would lower it's price below 250Rp.
- Explored town and then crossed the big bridge and upto the old bazaar ..nothing much to see... Another 1Km and I was at the bridge to Darjeeling area. Then found I'd made a mistake ... Little traffic travels on this road only 4 jeeps per day so the last jeep was already full when it arrived... the border guard made them take me
- Actually Darjeeling is 10Km in a straight line you can see Jorethong and the river valley from it, but the road is 30Km wind through the tea estates of Singla Bazaar.
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- Jorethong_bridge
The Jorethong bridge doesn't reach fully across the gap, car wheels kept getting stuck.. one day it will fall
- Made it into Darjeeling one day early so stayed at the TV Tower backpackers (Musty room)
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