Day 107, General Jimmy Singh's Farmhouse [Tuesday 18th March 2008]
Previous day: Day 106, Buddhabare, Kaffer, Samthar Ridge [Monday 17th March 2008]
Next day: Day 108, Samthar [Wednesday 19th March 2008]
The lodge owner cooks us another tasty meal of puri and dum aloo. Then we set off for Samthar, accompanied by a black and white stray dog who seems to have adopted us. He waits while we stop to go on the canopy walkway. He rests when we rest. He's quiet and doesn't fight with the ither dogs, though, so we're happy for him to tag along — not that we really hve much choice.
Today we walk about 15km through acres of heavily terraced hillside farmland. Chortens dot the landscape — Buddhist memorial statues. The sound of a rushing river drifs up from the valley below. Everyone you pass here gives a proper namaste, with joined hands.
We have to as kthe way a few times, including once an old toothless Nepali woman who spoke no English but gestured down a barely visible track which wound all the way down into the valley. Eventually we reach the Samthar ridge, with extensive views on either side to the misty hills, terraced with farms, and the long flat valley below. We pass lots of enthusiastic and friendly schoolchildren, and finally arrive at General 'Jimmy' Singh's farmhouse. Jimmy's at home and comes out to meet us. He shows us around the house — a lovely old stone and wood building that looks highly susceptible to monsoon rains — and we decide to treat ourselves to a nice room for the night.
Jimmy points out that they need to replace half the wood every year because of damp and rot. Inside in the dim light there are yak skins on the floor, low padded chairs and cushions, oil lamps, a wood fire and a shelf full of bamboo tongba cups. Our room is in a cottage in the tiered garden behind the house. It has wood-lined walls, a big, comfortable bed and Buddhist bits and pieces everywhere.
We ask for a snack and get given a 3-course lunch: soup, noodles, fried rice, egg curry and a sort of honeycomb thing for dessert.
In the evening two other English guests turn up and Jimmy joins us all for a drink and a chat. He's an ex-army General, very tall, with a white beard and a cap where he used to wear a turban. He commands the room and is very talkative, chatting about trekking, budget airlines, Indian trains and the Nepali taste for alcohol (he says they favour strong beer, such as Hit which clocks in at 8%).
We all sit down to a hearty dinner of soup, sorpotel (Goan pork curry), chana masala, veg, rice bread and gulabjamun! All this is prepared by two girls Jimmy has working for him. He tells us old army stories about the Indo-Sino border, rejects out of hand the Gorkha's brave military reputation as British propaganda ("They're brave when they're drunk, but they are not brave soldiers. Although the kukhri is a very useful weapon,") and explains that his business model has now been picked up by the tourism industry and christened 'integrated village tourism'. All profits from the Farmhouse go back into the community through a school complex he has built nearby. The Farmhouse and the school both employ local villagers, and there is also a village homestay and a women's handicraft group.
After a long and talkative dinner we all retire to bed. The stars shine in vigourously on the dark garden. Other lights glow hazily from the top of a distant hill. I struggle for a while with the New Left politics of 'Multitude', a book I found on the General's shelf.
Next day: Day 108, Samthar [Wednesday 19th March 2008]
Previous day: Day 106, Buddhabare, Kaffer, Samthar Ridge [Monday 17th March 2008]