Day 99, Singalilla Ridge [Monday 10th March 2008]
Previous day: Day 98, Singalilla Ridge [Sunday 9th March 2008]
Next day: Day 100, Kanchenjunga [Tuesday 11th March 2008]
Wake up at 6am and have a quick look around Tumling. The sun is just peeking over the hill. I see two drongos sitting in a bush. We are in a tiny hamlet, just a couple of houses. The mountainside is quite barren, we can hear he bells of yaks clanging now and again.
We have a feast for breakfast — Tibetan bread, cheese omelette, banana porridge and big mugs of tea. Around 8.30am we set off. Santosh elaborates on yesterday's lesson on the politics of the area. He tells us that most public sector jobs in the Darjeeling Hills go to West Bengalis, and that Gorkhas (which he says means 'people of the hillds') are seriously underrepresented. He also says that Gorkhas and Nepalis don't like West Bengalis, because they're so noisy. Everyone in the hills speaks Nepali. The Gorkhaland movement aims to secure jobs in the government for Gorkhas. This quota system, often referred to as 'reservations' in the Indian press, is a large part of politics in this country. Every caste, religious and social grouping it seems has their own 'reservations' in public sector jobs. It's not unusual to see a job ad in a newspaper, usually by the Indian Railways, seeking administrative staff to fill a particular quote, such as 'female and handicapped' or 'elderly male'.
Santosh tells us that 'Sherpa' is actually a Nepali caste, but often gets mistakenly used interchangeably to mean 'porter'.
The trekking is easier today, and the weather is warmer. We still haven't had a clear view of the mountain range we're walking along, though, as clouds and mists have been ever-present. There's patches of ice here and there. We see two very dark brown deer, who scamper up a near-vertical cliff upon seeing our approach.
We pass a group of singing Bengalis, who left the lodge a couple of hours before us this morning with a lot of fuss and noise. We reach Kalapokhri at 3pm and stop for the day. Santosh offers us momos and Nepalis yak for dinner. The trekker's hut is a bit like an alpine ski lodge, all pine paneling and creaky floorboards.
We chill out for a while in our room, then go for a look around. The mist has thickened and visibility is down to around 20 metres. The village is cold, dark and deathly quiet, and we get a strange feelign of displacement. It feels so remote here. The mist skews our senses and it feels like we're floating in the clouds. All we can hear is the gentle fluttering of prayer flags.
Dinner arrives, steaming soup, momos and chewy, rich yak meat. We eat and watch in amusement and awe the operation that begins to prepare the Bengalis dinner. There's a production line — one person pounds and kneeds the roti dough, another rolls the dough into roti-sized balls and a third rolls the dough into a flat pancake shape on a small wooden block. A fourth person then frys the roti in a pan and finishes it off with a quick charring in the wood fire. Each one then gets thrown nto a big basket and kept warm. They must make several dozen in this way.
I have myself a flask of tongba with dinner. It's millet beer — a scoop of fermented millet is put into a hollow bamboo cup, which is large enough to require both hands to hold it. This is then repeatedly topped up with hot water as you drink it. It's a pleasant, clean, sweet drink, a bit like sake, and is mildyl alcoholic.
Next day: Day 100, Kanchenjunga [Tuesday 11th March 2008]
Previous day: Day 98, Singalilla Ridge [Sunday 9th March 2008]