Pelling - day one

Have been out of email range for a couple of days, so this is being written very much after the event, so THINK I've got the date correct, but who knows.....

I got a share jeep from Gangtok to Pelling. I'm gradually acclimiatising to share jeeps- they're really not that bad. The scenery was fantastic. The mountains we were travelling through were forrsted (no idea at all if that's the correct term), so all green & verdant & lush. The only splashes of colour, apart from the grey roads that wind around the mountains, are the clutches of pretty, rustic pastel coloured clapboard and plaster houses, which cling in clusters to the mountain sides and on the floors of the valleys. I did find myself wondering about the impact on the psyche of living in a landscape like that, either clinging perilously on to a really steep slope, or just surrounded on all sides by seemingly impenetrable cliffs and sky.

Pelling is strung along several stretches of mountain road. I checked into the Norbu Ghang Resort, which is at the top of town, next to a wide patch of sandy ground, where the local kids play football. The Norbu Ghang is lovely- I can well recommend if you're in town! Make sure you go to the Resort and not the Hotel- am sure the Hotel's very nice, but....

As well as conventional hotel rooms, the Resort has several little cottages sat around a little landscaped garden. Mine had a fantastic view of the mountains- my first morning there, one of the waiters came and knocked on my door, to tell me to look at the view, as the cloud had cleared, and we could see the snow capped peak of the K____ (sorry, I can't remember what the big mountain's called, but it begins with a K).

The staff at the Norbu Ghang were great- the guy that runs it is a real star. Think it's a Tibetan place, as every time I came down into the reception area, they had tapes of religious chanting (? Might not have been religious. If there's a Bhuddist equivalent to Val Doonican then maybe that were he) playing.

I arrived there in the early afternoon, and went for a nose around the Pemayangtse Monastry. It's about 3 km from Norbu Ghang, mostly uphill, but didn't start to get really steep until just below the Monastry, and I have to admit to having to stop for a couple of breathers. As I reached the Monastry, three other Europeans were just leaving, and I recognised them as staying at the same hotel. They were with a guide, and had come by car, so I allowed myself to feel a little bit smug, having got there under my own steam.

Once they'd gone, there were no other tourists there besides me. I had a quick look around the ground floor, but the guy at the hotel had told me to make sure I looked upstairs. I could hear chanting coming from somewhere, and it seemed to be above, so I collared some poor little guy that was sat outside, and asked him to show me where the stairs were.

I got upstairs to find a large room in which was sat a group of monks, in an 'L' formation. They ranged in ages from about six or seven to fully adult (some maybe even as old as me!!) They were chanting and banging little finger cymbals, and had got this really nice harmony thing going, with the bass notes of the adults balancing the higher voices of the kids.

In front of them, towards the middle of the room, was what the old theatricals amongst you will recognise as "a bit of business with a table and long pole" (theatrical reference for the benefit of my family, who are reading this and all as camp as christmas). Two monks were trying to hang some cylindrical silk banners from the ceiling, and were having to use a pole to locate the necessary hooks. The ceiling was too high for them to reach on their own, so one of them would stand on the table and fish around in the rafters with the pole til he realised he was in the wrong location, so he'd jump down, him and his mate moved the table a couple of inches to the left, and the whole thing would start over again. It probably loses a lot in the telling, but was quite funny to watch.

I sayed and watched for a bt, then walked back outside. Some monks in mufti (jeans, tshirts etc) were rehearsing a dance for a VIP visit later in the month (I hadn't the heart to tell them I'd turned up early!!). A line of them, clutching little round shields, moved slowly in formation across the courtyard, turning and rotating. Although they were only in casual clothing, you could get the gist of it, & I bet it'll look fantastic on the night- from what I've read, they dress up in masks & all sorts for festivals & happenings. They were kind enough to let me film them on my mobile, and consequently I'm running out of battery, because I can't find anywhere to recharge it!

Then I walked back to the hotel. Lot of building work going on in Pelling- someone obviously thinks it's a town on the up. So if someone wanted to buy me a holiday home somewhere, for my birthday in January, as an investment, say....(again this is directed at my family. Sorry for calling you camp.)

Will complete the rest of this later, as I'm off to get some lunch.

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