Pelling, West Sikkim, Day 2: I am a wimp

Now, where was I?

For my second day in Sikkim, the guy at the hotel had arranged a trip to Khecheopalri (pronounced Catch a Perry) lake in the afternoon, so in the morning I decided to walk to the second main monastary in Pelling (or walking distance of my hotel, anyway), Sangachoeling Gompa. This, again, is about three km from where I was staying. I found out later that there is actually a road from Pelling to the Monastery. It's currently under construction, but walkable. However, the guy at the hotel decided to give me the alternative directions. I'm sure that to someone with a degree of spatial awareness and no capacity to fall down a lot, these directions represented some sort of short cut. However, they involved walking through woods slippery and wet from the rain, climbing up muddy hillocks (ditto), and half sliding, half walking down steep slopes, with staircases made out of large stones set at irregular intervals in the hillside. It also involved walking through these little woodland hamlets, prompting the inhabitants to leave their little wattle and daub cottages to laugh at me.

After a while of this, I thought maybe I'd just give it up as a bad job. I'd just slid down yet another slope, and was suffering the indignity of being helped up by some stick like old crone who looked 104, was probably 60, and weighed about four stone. Anyway, she very kindly offered me a little seat outside her house to sit on for a few minutes, and I got chatting to her & her son & grandson, and it was then that I found out that there was a perfectly decent road I could have been walking along, instead of the slipping and sliding I had been doing.

The old woman's son took me down to the road, and set me off in the right direction, and off I went. Again it was pretty much all up hill, but do-able. Someone I'd earlier asked directions from, however, had pointed the monastery out to me, and it sat on top of this really high hill, which suggested that things would get a bit tougher at some point.

I kept walking, and finally reached the bottom of the hill that the Monastary stood on top of. As I'd thought, the path leading up to the Monastary itself was incredibly steep, and I did try, but after a while decided to give it up and turn back. It seems a shame to have got so far and then given up, but I'm pleased I made the one on the previous day.

The Lake was nice. Sorry- I'm not really into natural wonders etc. It was very peaceful, and looked lovely with the prayer flags fluttering over it. I got chatting to this nun, that lives in a little shack at the lake, and she insisted on showing me her medicine room. I asked if she was a doctor, but her english wasn't very good, and she didn't understand.

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