Day 119, Tashiding [Sunday 30th March 2008]
Previous day: Day 118, Tashiding [Saturday 29th March 2008]
Next day: Day 120, Jorethang, Sikkim [Monday 31st March 2008]
We get a shared jeep from Tashiding back to Pelling via Legship and Geyzing, where I eat a deepp fried potato sandwich for breakfast. At Pelling it's a grey, rainy day so we hang out at our hotel eating snacks and watching some TV.
We do manage to hike up to the Pemayangtse monastery, up a winding path on the outskirts of Pelling. There's a ceremony taking place there, and it's full of monks. The chanting is deep, rumbling and sounds completely alien. Young monks sit following the prayers in books. Long, low tables are spread with food and tea. We pass through and look around upstairs. When we go back down the ceremony is over, and the monks spill out onto the lawn outside, next to the worn circle in the grass which is part of another ceremony.
Later we have a beer and watch the fascinating, and horrible, documentary 'Grizzly Man', about a sad, troubled fantasist Timothy Treadwell.
Next day: Day 120, Jorethang, Sikkim [Monday 31st March 2008]
Previous day: Day 118, Tashiding [Saturday 29th March 2008]