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Heading another way
There is a road from Pelling to Dentam. We tried walking down
that road to some extent before being told that the road further
ahead was now closed due to construction work.
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| The road to Dentam |
The land sore above us to the right, and down into a valley to
our left.
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| The valley to our left |
The picture below shows a far away view of the dragon's tail
leading to the Sangacholing monastery.
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| Dragon's tail from below |
Returning
Our short stay at Pelling is now over. Unlike our earlier trips
to North Bengal and Sikkim, we are not exactly unhappy
to leave for Kolkata this time. But still the thought that the
Himalayas might miss us is saddening.
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| The Himalayas waving a farewell |
It is possible to go to Siliguri directly from Pelling, but
there is only one
car a day, and that leaves at 7:30 in the morning. Later in the
day one's only bet is a detour via Geysing (or Gyalsing). The car
service from Pelling to Geysing is quite frequent, takes Rs 20
from the pocket and adds 30 min to the watch. Unfortunately, it
also adds a lot to the thermometer. Geysing is unromantically
hot. We were told at Pelling that the last car to Siliguri leaves
Geysing at 2pm. We had arrived before 12 noon with a plan to
see around the place in the interim. So imagine our consternation (not unmixed
with a feeling of being saved by providence) when we were told
that there is only one car for Siliguri that leaves at
12:30. Unfortunately, there was just one seat left, unless
one of us agreed to sit at the back. As the only other
alternative seemed a nightstay at Geysing (not to mention missing
our train to Kolkata) we agreed.
All
we could do is to gulp down a hasty lunch, which was cooked in
such a hurry that the cook forgot to add chicken to the chicken
noodles that one of us had ordered!
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| The least unromantic view of Geysing that we could manage |
When we returned to the car station from our lunch the car from
Siliguri had already arrived, and was almost ready to leave for
Siliguri again. Pretty punctual, we must admit. Now came the
important point where the passengers have to decide about the
seat distribution. Not that it should have presented much of a
difficulty, since the tickets already categorically mentioned the
seat numbers. But there was one foreigner lady who had bought two
tickets for herself, and others needed some time to reconcile
themselves to the idea of one seat going vacant while they
huddled together in their seats. Also one of us insisted that we
must stay together. So the problem of seat allocation appeared as
complex as a typical analytical ability question asked in
competitive exams. However, the driver who had a commanding
appearance (and a ruddy face that announced that he in turn was commanded
by alcohol during the nights) solved the problem quite
easily. As a result we found ourselves nestled quite close
together in the middle seat. The locals were all huddled together
in the first two rows. The foreigner lady and a foreigner
man unrelated to the lady got the back seats. Occasional
passengers whom the driver deigned to give lift now and then were
also accommodated at the back.
The journey back to Siliguri was long and, was quite uneventful,
not counting
the rummaging of the car by some women activists in search for wine
which was illegal in the district. This rummaging was pretty
bootless, as the women had no hope of finding the bottle of
wine which our driver had bought from a wayside bar in Sikkim,
carefully wrapped in a towel and stowed safely in some secret
place. Apparently the women themselves knew the fruitlessness of
the search quite well, so they did not waste much time with us.
The foreigners had to go through some checking at the Sikkim-West
Bengal border, while the rest of us waited on a bridge. It was
around 3pm.
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| Tista from the bridge at Sikkim-West Bengal border |
We arrived at Siliguri at around 6pm. A brief dinner followed by
a journey by auto-rickshaw down a road jammed with traffic to NJP
marked the end of our weekend adventure.
What we should have done...
Pelling itself is less charming than some of the neighbouring
places like Yaksum and a lake. One needs at least three days to
do full justice to these charming vicinities. Allegedly, it is
difficult, if not impossible, to visit Yaksum and return on the
same day.
Also it is a good idea to go to Pelling directly from NJP. It
costs something like Rs 180 (Nov, 2009). If one arrives at NJP early
enough (?) in the morning then one might also consider going to
Pelling via Geysing.
We would never recommend making Pelling the base of a Sikkim
trip. It seems that trips based at Gangtok offer a much wider
range of possibilities. We hope to test this hypothesis during
our next trip. Stay tuned!
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