Lovely Lachung

OK - enough of the pity party. The netbook is still on the fritz, but that doesn't mean I can't fill you in on some of the adventures we've had since my last post.

Thankfully, two days ago we pawned off to a different local travel agency, Macropolo World Travels, for an excursion up to Lachung and Yumthang valley near the border with Tibet.
We were really impressed with the organization of this excursion. Not only where everyone we interacted with professional but they also seemed genuinely proud of what they were showing us, whether it was breathtaking mountain views or how to drink local millet beer (more on that later).

We had a government-required guide (someone to ask questions!) and driver, who took us up 6 hours in the rain to Lachung. During the drive the surrounding mountains were just bathed in fog and there were times when visibility on the road was just a couple of feet. This was prime landslide territory* so there were many occasions where we were just driving through mud, rock, and sometimes small waterfalls.

Unfortunately, the rain held up all through the night and into the next day. Visiting the Yumthang valley was eerie because the clouds were right on top of us at times. It was cool, but mildly disappointing because we knew we were missing this (click for link)

The day was not a wash out by any means though... our guide, Ajay, was extremely personable and when he found out we were interested to learn more about local culture/customs he was happy to show us. We had butter tea - tea brewed with butter instead of milk, so it needs to be churned to keep the butter and water from separating. Best to think of it as a sort of creamy broth rather than tea though... We had local millet beer - literally, fermented millet in a large mug that you pour hot water on but you drink with a straw. Little like drinking mate with the opposite effect. Taste would probably be closest to a sort of pungent sake with a slight hit of bubbles. Pretty freaking cool.

And we were invited to sit in the kitchen while the cook cooked for the whole hotel, just because they heard I was interested in learning how different cooking is in India. The kitchen was a whole new world of fun - there were like 10 guys hanging out in this fairly large kitchen: one head cook, about 4-5 helpers, and another 4-5 hangers on. I was pretty pleased to see that style-wise the cooking was really similar to what I had already seen with Prem --- just all the pots and pans were way bigger.

And then it was time to head on back to Gangtok -- but lo! The sky had completely opened up for us ... and holy crap! The mountains were right in front of our hotel! Like, right there! And we had had no idea!! All the drive back was like a whaling expedition - with our guide pointing out "hot spots" where our prey was likely to poke out its head. It was awesome! Just whet our appetite for Pelling, where we hope to see Kanchenjanga and Darjeeling for our trek.

What a change a couple of days make. We were sad to leave Lachung and our guides. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. We're being told that there is a strike by drivers being threatened in Darjeeling and so we're pushing our itinerary up, skipping Tsonmgo Lake entirely, and rushing to Darjeeling as soon as possible... that way if the strike does happen, at least we'll already be there.

(shrug)

We'll see. But we're excited nonetheless.
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* During the rainy seasons (June and July) they have to shut down the roads entirely because of the danger of flooding and rock slides.