~~Trip to Mystique Land-Day 6~~

It was like getting up on weekend after a hectic week @ work. After having morning tea we got ready to explore the city.Breakfast consisted of pancakes and Momos, turned to be one of our favourite delicacies. We had Momos where we stopped for rest of the journey. Momos are simple veg stuffed in rice flour which is streamed. this is served with Chili chutney.When served boiling hot its tastes delicious. Once done with our breakfast we hired a local taxi to go to Sikkim zoo. Which was just seven kilometers from our place but most of the journey was uphill.

When you badly need to lose weight or need a place for work out ,Sikkim zoo is the place to be. The whole zoo is located in a hill and you need to walk quite a distance to have to look at different kinds of animals they have kept there. As KG said Red Panda is one of the kind which exists only in these regions and state people are proud of it. Their transport services is called as Red Panda services.When we reached the zoo it was a deserted place expect for me and KG no one took the risk of doing a trek to have a full visit. Sometimes the trek will be useless when walked more than 1 Km to see a Himalayan black bear but our wonderful the bear was sleeping inside the den. The zoo keeper was friendly guy maybe surprised to see us there ,he let us to pet the panda and even take photographs with it.

From there we went Ganesh Tok the signs of Hinduism prevailing in that region, the temple was located in a small hill and we need to climb that.From there we could get an excellent view ofKanchenjunga mountain range. Ganesha idol was looking majestic and more colorful. After having a simple prayer we left the place before having a place of momos in the near by shop.

From there we went to Enchen monastery one of the oldest one in that region. This is the old gurukula kind of places where children are sent when they young.They are made to study and learn stuffs from the monks who manage the place.There we saw kid monks playing with stuffs and doing some crazy things. There were prayer wheels all around the place and we were asked to rotate it in the clockwise direction. We did as long as our hand went tired.

From there we were dropped at MGmart,were planned to shop for the rest of the evening.First we stopped at a Bengali sweet shop and had two wonderful rasogullas. Then we went inside lal bazaar. We stopped at sweater shops,there were piles of it very difficult to choose from.Prices start from 100rs onwards and for 300rs you could get a decent one. Apart from that KG got a Ganesha wall paper,he later told me it was glowing in the night, maybe because of his bakthi.

From there we walked to lal bazaar complex, that complex built by the state government is the biggest market which is frequented by the locals.You get all kinds of fresh vegetables, fruits and all other grocery items.In the 1st 2nd and 3rd floor the place was flooded with clothes shoes and other accessory shops. KG got a weirdo watch which I hope he will post it in one of the freaky Friday pics. I asked for a similar piece but only one was available.We left the place walking back to our room.While we were walking past a saloon shop people there called us inside. Realising that we didn't have a shave for that entire week we went inside and had a perfect shave.He pleaded me to have a hair cut by saying he will cut like Shah Rukh Khan style but knowing that the guy will regret once he places the scrissors on my head I politely rejected his offer.

After that we went to Tibetan coffee shop had a cup of tea since I got tired of coffee ,Then came back to the room relaxed for a while. Night we tried our luck at the Sikkim lottery,its a kind of online lottery and the ticket costs you 10rs and within an hour we would know the result. We enjoyed a bit sight seeing by relaxing ourselves in the benches of MG Mart. Then we tried dinner at a Tibetan restaurant.We had noodles which was plain and bland. Since it was hot we managed to gulp it. We went back to our room with all the things scattered around ,we needed to pack all those junks back inside and leave the place next day.

Click here to read KG's version

Click here to read day 7

(Will end in next episode)

Movie I saw..

Friday when I had to restart my weekend plans my colleague asked whether I m interested to come for GOA a much hyped tamil movie which is getting released that weekend. Since I had nothing special to do I said fine lets go, after few minutes he said "Sri I booked the tickets but I could manage to get only in 2nd row". It been quite a while I went to theater to watch a tamil movie,last one was in Cochin. The last tamil movie I watched in Tamil Nadu was during my college days.

He had booked tickets in Sangam theater which took 15 minutes by walk from my house. I had a bottle of miranda with me ,the security guard checked whether its sealed and smelled it checking whether its not liquor! It was a lovely to experience the whistles,noises and claps all around after a long long time. The atmosphere was buzzing waiting for the movie to start.

The movie is a treat for your eyes ,set in Goa you know whats gonna come and director never fails to fulfill our expectations. Since I was in the second row I could watch it more closely. Its a one line story where three guys from the village are on a mission to find their respective (foreign) woman in Goa.

The full movie is a laugh riot and you will enjoy it,if you are the kind of person like me who will laugh for the every silly jokes cracked. I have attached the pictures of heroines who have acted in this film, hoping it will give you an inspiration to watch it ;)

~~Weekend planned by Mum~~

I planned for a trip home this weekend

Chances these kinds of conversation occur many times ;)

Some two weeks back my mum called

Mum: Book your tickets for the weekend on Jan 30th,31st , we will go somewhere !

Sri: Where?

Mum: You choice ,you can drive anywhere ,Ooty Kodaikanal where ever you like .

Sri: Ok fine ,weekend is blocked no other plans from my side

Last week

Sri: Amma , decided where we are planning to go.

Mum: Sri I have got a program on Saturday will be occupied till evening. But anyways Sunday is there right , we will plan one day outing

Sri: Hmmm(not convinced enough)

Mum: Hey we can start Saturday night itself(!!! where?) or you can take Monday off ,will ask appa also to take off. fine

Sri:Let me see

Friday morning

Mum: Sri ,this Sunday I have a felicitary function( paaratu vizha!) and I cant say no to that.

Sri: Great!

Mum: Hey you can come to the function (and clap hands) people will be happy to see you.

Sri: I will do it from here!

The good thing is I never booked tickets for the trip because I know what will happen if my mum plans anything :))

~~Chat at Coffee Day~~

On republic day I met two of my old room mates, we stayed together in Cochin when we were first posted there.After few years in the job they quit the company and went on to do their MBA. They passed out during mid of 2009 one of the worst times to get out from B school although both of them were lucky enough end up having a jobs,one in an IT company and other in Web start up.

We were discussing about our life in general and it was pathetic to see them slogging hours in their respective companies, one was saying that he is working way past 12 everyday and other had unrealistic targets to meet everyday. Compared to what they do my job seems to be heaven to me. Not even six months into their job they got frustrated and looking for opportunities to switch companies. Thinking of it,I m lazy enough to update my resume!

Yea they have doubled their salaries on due course with more workload but there are many things which you need to sacrifice to get those! Given their life styles I would never do an MBA just to have growth in my career.

~~new version of old song~~

This republic day zoom TV has retaken "Phil Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" with new sets of artists.

I still like the old one though! In the new version Bollywood personalities have taken a front seat!

This new one is agonisingly 15 minutes long and the video I got in youtube is split into two part

~~Trip to Mystique Land-Day 5 (part-2)~~

After taking pics with the Yak we stopped for lunch at Changu, there were lots of shops around and we went to a shop which was less crowded so that we can finish off the lunch quickly.We ordered two plates of Maggie noodles.While waiting for the food to arrive we were looking outside,there were minute particles of dust like thing falling on the ground. The girl in the shop told something like"ye mousam ke paheli barff".Since my hindi vocabulary is limited to around 100 words,I didn't get last word. Seeing me giving a blank ,so what look, she got disappointed. After few minutes when street was fully covered with white dust I got excited and asked her "is this snow".She gave me a "that's what I said look " and nodded her head. Once we got boiling hot noodles we tried to finish it as soon as possible so that we could enjoy sometime in snow.

We opened our cameras and were clicking non stop,wherever we turn around there was something beautiful to click in that white back drop. There was excitement all around.Even yaks and dogs seemed to enjoy the snow.Since our driver had literally threatened us to have lunch and return back as soon as possible we went to jeep half hearted. There we had the first conversation with the family who came from Bengal.

lady : We had come here around 10 times and this is the first time we are seeing snow"

Me(proudly): This is our first visit

lady: You are really lucky ,even people living in nearby areas who often visit these places wouldn't have experienced snow.

There I thought of this quote which I later commented in one of my pics "Good people bring rain but great people bring snow".

Once the driver came,we started our journey back to Gangtok , snow by the time had painted the entire stretch in pure white.What started with gentle snow flakes started pouring now,the whole road was covered with snow.We saw few kids playing in the snow one was taking a small kid in a sledge another one made a snow ball and threw it at jeep's window.The more we saw those people the more we wanted to be in snow and play.We pleaded with the driver to stop the vehicle for two minutes just to get down and take pictures but he was adamant saying that we need to reach before it gets dark and never know how heavy the snow will become. You can see a boy ready to throw snow at our jeep on the right side.

There are somethings which happens when you want to, even though the driver didn't want to stop the vehicle he had to do so at a place because of traffic getting blocked up in a place. I commented that "If driver can't nature can".The guy in the back commented that "We just asked for 2 minutes but given the situation I suppose we would be struck for two days".

But who cares what we wanted was to enjoy and play in the snow, without caring about anything we used that opportunity well. We got down grabbed snow flakes in the hand made balls and all sorts of non sense we could throw at each other.We took a lot of pictures relishing every moment of it.Still there was no movement in traffic. Its been more than a hour or so and it was getting dark.

Driver who went ahead and assessed the situation said that there is a steep upward slope for around 25 meters and whatever vehicles which goes up gets skidded back due to snow. The way is too narrow at a given time only one vehicle can go up with one side you have rocky mountains and other side its frightening bottomless valley.We asked what we are going to do he confidently replied saying that his vehicle is a wonderful Mahindra Maxx which wouldn't let us down. But at that moment nothing was moving forward as no vehicle had the guts to climb up in that narrow stretch.

Then came our saviours two people from the army. They didn't have any modern equipment which would help in clearing the snow. All they carried with them was a stick with a red flag tied at one end.One by one the vehicles started moving via the slope ,since it got dark we couldn't see how the vehicles were moving up.There were few vehicles like Qualis and Scorpio which couldn't make up that 25 meter slope and got struck there.Given this scenario our ultimate moment came,our turn,the road was open for our vehicle to move up, the army personal gave his thumbs up. Everybody in our vehicles kept our fingers crossed. Our poor driver after a small prayer started the ignition,put on the 1st gear and pressed the acceleration on full throttle mode.

We were on the way gliding up on the slope ,so far so good , 5 m.... 10m......15m........ When we were all thinking we are about to make it ,our vehicle stopped then skidded and tumbled backwards,my heart stopped for a second. No more acceleration proved useful and the only way the vehicle was moving was in the reverse direction,with one side having a dark valley.The driver shouted at us to stop the vehicle(!),all the people except for the two kids got out the vehicle and stopped it from moving further down.We were like Hercules holding the jeep (ok group of Hercules).All this in the heavy snow. The other army personal came to our rescue he took a piece of rock nearby and placed at the back tyre which stopped it from moving further down. Then along with him we pushed our vehicle up. For every few meters the vehicle moved up the army personal placed the rock behind the tyres. Slowly we pushed forward. What a 2523CC Mahindra Maxx engine cant do we the people did, pushed the vehicle over the 10 meter stretch ably guided by the army personal . Team work really pays! Below pic you can how deep the valley is on other side.

That reminded me of a master card moment , travelling to Sikkim costs 6500 rs ,travelling in the jeep to Natu La costs 650 rs but the adventure we had -getting struck in the snow and got rescued by the army people...its PRICELESS. When we thanked the army person he asked where we are from we said Chennai he replied back "Naan koda Vellore than". He wasn't proud as if he had done a great job but for us he was like an angel from the skies helping us.The respect I had in army personal grew 10 folds.They are the real heroes who apart from guarding the nation, building roads and infrastructure at those difficult terrains, help people without any expectations. Only when we see them at work we come to know of the sacrifices they make to make our life easy.Once we crossed that barrier it was slow journey back to Gangtok,no one spoke in the jeep all of them praying that we should reach safely.

We reached Gangtok after a 2 hour ride.Once we got down we ordered two tomato soups to refresh ourselves.There was India Srilanka match played at Eden Gardens, India was chasing a huge total with Sachin and Sehwag gone early we never had hopes and switched it off . We went out for a walk,explored places like lal bazaar but we didnt shop anything as we had a whole day left. For dinner we stopped at Parivar a vegetarian restaurant in MG Mart.The food was really great there. Once we were back the match was headed to a exciting finish,the room boy joined us,he was a funny fellow who got excited at each ball delivered and giving his suggestions on how we should wrap up the match.When he asked how was the trip I forgot what to say for snow in hindi I said buff blush and finally he got it and asked is it Barf.

After India won the match I crashed on the bed ,never knowing I m going to see and pet a new animal the next day.

Click here to read KG's Version

click here to read Day-6

(to be cont)

~~Mike Rowe's TED talk~~

Good one , no job is a dirty job!

~~Pic for the day~~

Need your valuable comments ;)

~~Trip to Mystique Land-Day 5 (part-1)~~

Early in the morning ,

KG: What is that weird sound howling, chattering, jumping , purring etc. I m not able to sleep

Sri(in dreamland): I think cats ,they are the kind who purr and make these kinds of noises

KG:Do cats walk and sleep on the roof ,if so, there is not a single cat but family of cats.

Sri: ok ok I will check it( and I slept again)

That morning we were subjected to mental torture by those creatures which were making sounds like thotothotohtohtohtootoht ,kreeeeerkerkerekrkekrekrekke,yaooayoaoyoayoaoyaooyoa,dhahtdahdttatahtdahtahttdaa,prrrrrrrrrrrrccrrrrrrdrrrrrrrr etc. Once I reached the threshold limit I went out and looked up the roof,the noises were louder and still I couldn't make anything out of it,since it was coming from the other side.I threw my slippers up and it hit the roof DHOMMM within a second some 30 odd thing(I thought bats)flew away from the place. It took sometime to realize those were pigeons which were causing us trouble. We then complained to our hotel aunty ,she immediately transferred us to a deluxe room at another side of the hotel where pigeons cant even seek into.

We had planned to goto Natu La the famous Indo China border, vehicle was supposed to pick us from the hotel.We had our morning breakfast consisting of pan cakes,honey toast and scrambles. Visiting Natu La is not a simple affair, we need to get special permits which we had applied in advance.Vehicle picked us on dot but went on to the taxi station and stopped there.This time we didn't take a exclusive vehicle but a shared with a Bengali family and a north Indian family . We safely booked the front seats in advance and other 8 people stuffed themselves in the back two rows of the SUV. Once the vehicle was jam packed we started our journey to Natu La. After two hours of rough drive we stopped for a tea break at Changu, the other two families went for shopping in the road side shop while KG was torturing the driver asking him to get them back in the vehicle as soon as possible.

Once we got them packed into our vehicle we started our journey once again to our ultimate destination Natu La. Lets go back and look at the history,the route we were travelling was no ordinary route,the route is in existence for more than 3000 years.Its called by the famous name "Silk route".This route was used by traders, merchants, pilgrims, missionaries, soldiers, nomads and dwellers from Ancient China and Ancient India. I was wondering how people used this as a trade route in those days when there we no proper made of transport, a rough route filled with difficult terrain and unfriendly weather conditions.Having said that only because of the risk and sacrifice taken by those people we are able discover hidden beauties in that place as well as across the world.

This route was closed after India China war of 1960's and only in the year 2006 it was reopened for trade. But I heard that not much trade happens across this border because which trader with right minds would buy china products after they are taxed across the border and try to sell those, when their products are littered throughout the country and are available at a cheaper rate. Apart from that the road is horribly bad and most of the product(eg China bowl) would be shattered into pieces when its brought via that route.Its good to see Government and BRO are widening the road but the progress is damm slow given time taken for the raw materials to reach there,availability of labour and importantly the climatic conditions.Sample of the route below

After two traffic jams where lost more than a hour or we reached Natu La. We had to climb some 500 feet to get to the border area.Since the day was Christmas eve the place was crowded with tourists, as a result of that Indian Army had a difficult time controlling the crowd. We had to maintain a 5 feet distance away from the border but being Indian who would listen to the rules, there were people getting close to the border and army had no other option apart from man handling those people and push them back. We tried to get a close snap with the Chinese army people I got one correctly but poor KG was literally pushed by the army person before I could click one. Given below is a view on the China side.

From there we visited Indian army office ,they had a telephone booth from where we could call our nears and dears.Hey I forgot to mention in the last three days of the trip we were entirely cut off from the world,no mobile signals anywhere, except in Gangtok.I tried to call to call home to tell about this issue before the North Sikkim tour and my mum didnt pick up,she has a habit getting tired attending phone calls for the year and in December she wont talk to anybody.Since mobile issue was not properly communicated my dad got worried when he tried reaching my mobile unsuccessfully during those days.Only after hearing my voice after three days my dad got his life back, it shows how a small information when not properly communicated could lead to unnecessary worries.

Coming back to the army office, we got our certificate of visit signed by the Garrison officer and we took photograph with the person on duty.It was one of the proud moments.I took that certificate and showed to everybody in my office as if I have climbed Mount Everest.Then we walked back to our vehicle. From there we visited a Baba Harbhajan Shrine.There was a small shop from there I got few souvenirs like small purses and a heart shaped mirror which I gave to Swathi.There was ice skating arena over there and the two families who accompanied us were enjoying the skate there.But it didn't amuse us as we had enough fun with the snow during our North Sikkim trip.

On the return journey we experienced our first snowfall. How will you feel when the first snow fall experience turning adventurous(could have been disastrous) and unforgettable experience.

Click here to read KG's version

Click here to read day 5 part-2

(to be cont)

~~My bro's Blog~~

My Bro entered the blog world today ,started with a very good and detailed post !

Its one of his real experience .

This is the link ---> sivasfailedattempt

~~Trip to Mystique Land-Day 4~~

We didn't have much travelling to do like the previous day we slept well and got up leisurely.Its feels royal when you are woken up by the room boy with a cup of hot tea in the morning. When I was lazily waking up for the day in the bed,KG went to toilet to finish his morning chores, after few minutes he came back and said water is not coming in the tap, he added that he used the remaining water in the bucket and also emptied the flush tank. What am I supposed to do then! I went and asked the room service and responded that the tanks are full. Then I called them to my room to check the issue,they analysed and said the water in the pipe had got frozen, OMG what is the solution ? When the sun is up, the water will melt and the pipes will start working again. I cant wait till that time and I asked them a bucket of hot water. They brought a bucket of boiling hot water which I was hesitant to use as I didn't want to risk burning my....So I asked for a bucket of cold water which was freezing cold, then it took some time to do mix and match to make water at the right temperature. Now I realised the importance of tissue paper and how it makes the job easy in the cold countries.

Once we had our morning breakfast hot puris with aloo mutter, Sonam was waiting to pick us up,he was saying that there was a flat tyre and it took sometime to fix it up. We started our journey to zero point,a place where there will be snow throughout the year.Road were never better and by this time we got used to it.At one of the check points the army officer said that air is little less in one of the tyres but Sonam said he can manage with the same.But after few kms the tyre had gone completely flat since the spare was used in the morning we were stranded in middle of nowhere. Luckily Sonam managed to get a spare tyre from the vehicle which passed us and we were able to continue our journey.Without helping each other you cant survive in that part of the world or a matter of fact in any part of the world.

When we reached zero point the whole place was covered with white blanket of snow,Sonam asked us whether is the place better than Switzerland, I haven't seen Swiss to answer his question.But from the economical point of view this place is much better than going anywhere in the world to see snowy mountains.I took the first step in the snow carefully but within few steps the snow cracked and one of my legs went inside,I recovered from it only to get into a similar situation some 2 feets nearby. Then one of the person around shouted towards me to follow the footsteps such that it will be safe,after that I never experimented new terrains there.Then we tried lots of experiment in the snow 1st taking few pieces in the hand,then tried sat on it, then slided and then rolled over. That was really the place we had fun.

On the way back we planned to visit Yumtang valley,which is famous for its colorful backdrop during the spring.Since it was December it was a mere shadow of the beautiful valley.We just stopped for a coffee break at a scenic shop and as usual the coffee was terrible.

Next destination was hot springs where we were told we can have a dip in the hot water from natural springs but due to our bad luck some local girls were taking bath at that time we were not allowed to have bath at the same time (with them). Also it was our 4th day without bath and nature didn't allow us to break that wow.

When we were back to our hotel ,lunch was ready. Bengali cook had prepared lots of dishes which would feed a battalion ,we were put into a situation what to try and what not.He pleaded me take their delicacy Bengali fish which I politely refused.He even tried saying that was a vegetarian dish which I finally told him to give to KG.

Our way back to Gangtok was uneventful,when we reached Gangtok it was almost 8.Our manager asked us what we want for dinner ,we said just Aloo parthas. He scolded us saying that its not breakfast time and we need to have proper dinner.He made us order tomato soup which was delicious at that time.Then we had our dinner. We watched television, being tired for the day we crashed pretty soon.

But in the night we heard some weird sounds like someone howling and also heard somebody walking over the roof. We were too tired to check it out but the sound continued throughout the night, getting louder as the night went on...

Click here to read KG's version

Click here to read Day 5 part-1

(to be continued)

Book I read..How ?

After a long time I got to read John Grisham's Ford County , its a collection of short stories based on few events happened in and around the region. After reading his masterpieces like Partner,Testament etc it wasn't much impressive but anyways we can read it once.

But I have to add something interesting here ,its on how I read this book, when Diana came for winter holidays she got me a reading equipment.

As I spend hours everyday travelling in the bus, I used to read books to kill my time.I would make sure that I take a place under the light which comes at the price of sacrificing the window seat.So with this funny thing in my hand I could sit comfortably in a window seat and read the books. There is no need of straining the eyes since light is pretty bright or at least bright enough to read books. Expect for "idu rombha over aa irruku" looks from the fellow passengers this is a handy device!

Thanks Diana :)

PS:Who selected this ,you or Ganesh ?

~~Pic for the day~~

Can you guess what is this ?

Yea these are small pieces of sugarcane, their rough skin peeled out completely and nicely cut into small pieces such that we can eat as if we are eating just another snack!

This is yet another luxury for being at Grandma's place :)

~~My dad's birthday and my mum's gift~~

When I was in Trichy last week my mother and me were discussing what gift to buy for my dad, it was the same usual discussion she gave specifications like the gift which we get should be used everyday,memorable and its something which he hasn't got a chance to experience in his lifetime.Since my holidays was cut short by two days I didn't have time to go for shopping. So while leaving Trichy my mum told she will use the money I gave her few weeks back to get a gift for dad.

I remember one of my birthday present where my mum gifted me a wall clock and hung it in our living room. Since she wanted to change the clock in the living room she found my birthday as an excuse.Feeling cheated,I asked her in what way this gift will be useful to me,she said whenever you see the time you will remember that it was gifted by her and its one thing which is used everyday.Even now when I go home and see the time I remember this incident.

Since I gave her the choice to make the final decision , I called her sometime during the weekend to check whether she has made up her mind to get one. As usual it started with the same discussion.

Mum: I need to gift something which he likes the most .

Me: Get books ,he likes those more than you !

Mum: NEVER , I wont be responsible in adding to the garbage we have in our house.

Me: What about dresses?

Mum: He has stuffs which will last for the entire life time .( I think the same applies to your sarees and salwar collection)

Me: Why don't you cook something special for the day?

Mum: What to cook?

Me: Leave its a bad idea ,not on his birthday!

This conversation continued we were discussing about some electronic stuff which he will never use or accessories which wont impress him. Finally it was my mum who nailed what to do.

Mum : Sri,last time when we are getting ready for a reception I asked your dad how I am looking, before leaving!

Me: ok

Mum He didn't give me a proper answer

Me:So?

Mum:There is a problem in his eye sight!

Me:ooh

Mum:So this birthday I m going to take him to an eye doctor ,have a through check up and will get him new glasses

Me:mmmm

Mum:See the thing I m getting him will be used by him everyday and give him a new experience!

Me: Amma ,you are brilliant!!!

Hope my dad had a wonderful birthday gift :)

~~Trip to Mystique Land-Day 3~~

This was the day we planned for our important destination in our itinery,the day we are going to climb great heights. The newly bought leather jacket,thermals,gloves,shoes etc would be tested for their quality that day.The room boy woke us at wee hours around 4:30am but given the freezing temperature we were not ready get out of our bedsheets.Since we had to leave 5 and still we had 30 more minutes we continued to sleep.Again at 5 room boy knocked the door with tea,since something hot was served we got up. I tried to brush my teeth but when my brush touched the teeth it was like a electric shock that I decided not to go further.KG was wise enough not to try brushing.We drank tea which was like Amirtham at that time,wore all our winter clothing one by one.Ended up having three layers of clothing. When we reached our jeep Sonam gave us a shock saying that the diesel in the tank got frozen and it took sometime for him to heat the engine and bring the vehicle back to normal.


It was just 60km journey but the thing is,the road was bad for the first 30kms and for the next 30kms there was no road such that we cant complain about road conditions.Since it was dark we don't know the way we were going but the excitement was very high and sticked our faces on the window. Once day become little clear we spotted the snowy mountains around ,it was looking majestic and marvellous.When the day's first sunlight fell on them, it was looking even more beautiful.We asked our driver to stop our jeep then and there,got out in that freezing weather took pictures of those mighty mountains.


We stopped at a restaurant at 14000 feet a placed named Thangu.It was so cold that when I went inside I thought of hugging the furnace which was keeping the room warm.We were served with boiling hot noodles which we gulped it down like a hen eating its food.From there we started our journey to a place which is not connected by roads,the hotel guy told that the temperature at the Gurudongmar lake at night was somewhere around -10C.We reached an army check post,glad to know the army officer was a tamil guy.Check his comments in KG's blog, which we will never forget for the rest of our lives. We continued our rough drive ,where ever we look there was a view point.There were yaks grazing around which was the only sign of life in that place. After crossing two more check points we finally reached the destination.







Even google map dont give a proper route to gurudongmar lake so had to search from someother source,red line shows our route to the lake

This was the first time I m seeing a lake which was completely frozen(except for small portion of lake which never gets frozen at any point of time), it was a clear sky and the sun was shining like a moon with its rays having no effect on us or the surroundings. The frozen lake with the back drop of snow covered mountains made me wonder whether its actually in India. It was a beauty and treat to our eyes because everything around was perfect and natural, except for few colorful flags there was no sign of man made things.I really felt that the ten hour journey we made to reach this point at a height of 17100 feet is really worth it. There was a temple near the lake which was built by the army personnel.I visited the temple and pushed the gong of the bell, the sound from it filled the entire place which made realise how calm and serene the place is. Even after taking countless number of snaps we were not satisfied and thought we can take more.


From there we started our journey back to Lachen, on the way we stopped at a home to have tea.That's the good thing about Sikkim you needn't have to look out for restaurants ,people there are good hosts and make you feel comfortable.There we met a army personal from Kerala who was glad to see us coming from the South. We gave lift to two other army people who were telling us how cold the place would become in the winter. Being stoned because of the rough journey and getting up, early I slept on the way back even though we were driving on the same road which broke my back in the morning.


After having the same delicious rotis made by the sweet family in Lachen, we were in a mood to have a short nap but our driver Sonam asked us to vacate the place as soon as possible and start the journey to Lachung. We did later come to know that he is from Lachung and wanted to see his family. Way to Lachung was not so special this time we got used to all the scenic beauties around us. I read somewhere in a blog,to hear Tibetan songs while touring Sikkim. I asked Sonam to play the same.I was expecting to hear some traditional music but it turned out to be more of Western. Even though we didn't understand the language it was interesting to listen to those.


Once we reached Lachung ,we were taken to a nice hotel from which the view of the town was excellent. And our room was made up of wood such that it can withstand cold climates. We took a walk and explored the town ,we walked over the bridge built by the BRO, had a terrible coffee at a home cum shop(KG took me there because the girl making coffee was looking good), then went to a Hanuman mandir where we found the place was surprisingly warm. Finally we had our dinner,cook was a Bengali and he had cooked roti and paneer butter masala. Anything given hot at these conditions felt tasty to our taste buds. After having a wonderful dinner we went sleep.


Next day an interesting situation was awaiting for us , I realised that day, why Western countries use tissue papers!

Click here to KG's version

Click here to read Day 4

~~Haiti Earthquake~~

It is depressing to read about the news coming from Haiti, its been more then 96 hours since the tragedy had struck the island.

Given below are links to pictures which makes us understand the real impact

pictures from Boston globe and time

Natural calamities are the one which brings the need for proper disaster management.

I read a blog on what and what not to do in these circumstances.

What and what not to do

Hope there is proper management in relief work !

~~The movie I saw..~~

After a long time I had time to catch up with an English movie. The movie was "Up in the air" starring George Clooney, I would never think twice before seeing his movies and given its directed by Jason Reitman who has films like 'Juno' and 'Thanks for smoking' under his belt, I was waiting for the right time to catch up with this one.

Its the story of a man who does a tough job-firing people. Any company which wants to fire people and never have the guts to do it calls for his services. So most of the time he travels around the country not having any commitments in his life.One of his weird ambition is to have a million flyer points. Apart from that he is a public speaker who preaches people on why its not good to get into relationship and carry that burden in our day to day lives. Now the story unfolds where he mentors an young ambitious MBA chap while having a relationship with another woman without commitments and a sister who is getting married asking him for a simple favour.

George Clooney has shown his class throughout the movie, another thing which impressed me were the dialogues delivery, arguments like 'Sell marriage to me' and 'try firing me' or the time he convinces his brother in law. Apart from that there are few emotional on how people will react once getting fired ,will make us think about recession period last year and how the corporates reacted to it. Its a wonderful movie,so watch it once when you find time.

After the movie ends don't miss the experiences shared by the people on how they overcame the rough patch in their life after they got fired and what gave them will power or courage to continue their life.

~~Have you seen a singing bowl~~

We have come across a singing woman, a nightingale or a cuckoo. But have you seen a singing bowl. Its one of the kind which is manufactured in Tibetan areas.



The bowl is usually made of bronze and a wooden stick comes along with it.We have to gently rotate the wooden stick along the edges of the bowl.Its not that it will sing a song for you but once you rotate the stick along the edges you will hear something like a OM vibration which within few minutes will fill the room. The bowl comes in different sizes and the pitch of the sound varies according to the way we rotate.

It is believed that these bowls are used for meditation,trance induction and prayer. And mostly Tibetan Buddhist used these bowls. Given below is a video I got from youtube on how to use the bowl correctly. Her bowl is little bigger than what I have.

~~Trip to Mystique Land-Day 2~~

Before we went to bed on previous night, the room boy asked us what time should he wake us up for morning tea,KG said 5:30 so that we could see sun rise.I really don't know whether the room boy knocked the door at 5:30 since we got up only around 6:30, I went out looked for sun still could not see the sign of it.When our bed tea arrived we out to look for the sun rise only thing we could find was mountains all around.Then we could see sunlight still no sun ,only then we realised we are looking at west and the sun had already risen in the opposite direction.

That day we had to start our adventurous journey to North Sikkim around 10 am. Morning we went to MG mart had hot puris at a Marwari restaurant.We talked with our travel agent, he said there was a landslide on the way to N.Sikkim and our journey might be delayed by an hour or so. Since we need to kill the time we asked hotel aunt for a nearby tourist spot.She suggested to goto flower which was a km away.But 1km in mountainous region is not a easy walk,it can be horizontal or vertical and we ended by climbing up for most of the journey.Phew!

The much hyped flower show was a small place nothing compared to the flower shows I have seen in Ooty or Bangalore. But the place was well maintained such that proper heat is maintained for the flowers to sustain.From there we went to Sikkim tourist postoffice,it was my suggestion that we can send picture postcards from this place for new year to our nears and dears.But to our disappointment that post office was like our normal post offices only selling inland letters and stamps.

Since the Mahindra Max which was supposed to take(it was the only vehicle which could such rough mountainous terrain) got struck due to landslides, a maruthi omni came to pick us up.It was a rocky one hour journey before we could get to our vehicle.Around 12 clock we started loaded our luggage to our own Mahindra Max which was looking like a giant compared to Omni. Thus began our journey our journey to highest points.We had lunch on the way proceeded further up.



After an hour ride we stopped at the check post,our driver went out taking our permits.He came back and informed me that the police woman needs to talk with me.Surprised I got out and went to have a conversation with her.Looking at my innocent face she asked me "Can I do a favour for her?".I said sure!She asked Could you take a girl in your jeep and drop her home (at a place some 30km up from there). I said not a problem.Just telling this incident to let you people know, how decent we were that even the police trusted us to such an extent to send a girl alone with us in our jeep.We talked with girl, came to know her dad has passed away and it has taken her more than 14 hours to reach that place from downhill and another two hour journey in our jeep to reach her home.Felt sorry for her.

After droping the girl we had a coffee break at Chumgthang, a small town. From there Lachen was around 30km which took us more than two hours to reach.When we reached Lachen we felt how cold climate can get,should have been under 5C.We stayed in lodge managed by a small family.They were a sweet lot and we managed to make a decent conversation with them.They were stilling cooking with woods which was making the room warm and economical compared to gas.The rotis prepared by them were delicious and when the lady offered to make us rice the next day, we insisted on making the same rotis.

The driver then gave us a shock that we had to get up at 4:30am the next day to start our journey to Gurudongmar lake in that ruthless weather ! Did we make it ?

Click here for KG's version on day2

Click here for day 3