Pre-trip, the boss of the trekking company wished us a safe journey and tied white prayer flags around our necks. It was a nice gesture. The design of the flag was pretty intricate.
Previously the head abbot of the monastery we stayed in tied pieces of red thread around our necks for good luck. We need all the luck we can get.
This is the jeep we took.
And here are some photos of the people in the jeep.
This boy in the photo was the driver's assistant. It was a rather comical sight to see the big and burly driver and his tiny assistant together. We never found out how the boy was related, if at all, to the driver.
Some scenery along the journey...
This is the Teesta River.
And finally, we arrived at our lodging for the night.
Unpacking and unloading...
The rooms at the hotel were spartan, but clean and very comfortable, better than most of the accommodation we had so far. Toilets were communal, and the water was FREEZING. Bathing was particularly painful, if you do not know how to operate the hot shower like me and Tim.
There were even makeshift maps of the various trekking routes!
Noodle soup was prepared for us at the homely kitchen by the girls manning the hotel. We had them in the kitchen building.
The resident dog was very friendly. He took my seat at the kitchen table. I had to get my own chair. As you can see, he refused to budge. Coincidentally, I think this dog is the same breed as my dog! Only that it is probably not pure breed.
Post-snack and before dinner was served, we took a walk around Yuksom.
The children here are STRONG. And happy.
Once again, our dog magnetism is overpowering.
We met interesting people during our walkaround.
This is Tashi Duma. She is 20 years old, and mans a shop. We bought gloves and scarves from her shop. She is also wearing an SMU windbreaker. Apparently SMU does community service projects in Yuksam.
And this is Kinzong, a member of the Kanchenjunga Conservation Committee. We had a long and good chat with him over hot tea at a restaurant, and we walked about everything from the status of women in Sikkim to how to say the word "help" in Nepali.
We returned to the hotel, and was greeted by tongba, the local alcoholic drink made from fermented millett seeds. Hot water is poured into the big tubs which contain millett seeds, and the resulting alcohol is drank with a wooden straw. It is a bit like japanese sake. We were a bit apprehensive about taking alcohol before a hike, but we gradually gave in to the light-headed charms of tongba.
After sipping tongba, we had dinner in the dining room of the hotel, which looked suspiciously like it doubles up also as the living room of the family that runs this hotel. Dinner was very filling, a sign of things to come at the trek. The girl who served our food had HUGE hands, which were probably due to years of hard labour. We shared the room with an American couple that just finished a day hike from Yuksom.
This scary-looking black dog entered our hotel rooms. He was in fact very friendly. We had to shoo him out, before resting for the night in preparation of the start of the trek tomorrow.
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