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Our next destination one early morning (hitchhiking with a couple from Bombay) was another small village called Tashiding, where we first had breakfast in a very simple lodge. That morning we did another steep hike to visit yet another monastery (�guys, haven�t you seen enough of these�?�), but this one was really worth the effort: there were so many colourful prayer flags everywhere, the sun was out, there weren�t any other visitors and there were |
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some beautiful stupas in the �backyard�. We spent a few hours taking pictures (I used Mommy�s camera) and just took in the atmosphere. And getting there we passed 2 quaint villages with friendly people. We decided not to stay in Tashiding but to move on to Rabongla, hitchhiking with another middle class Indian family that had rented a Jeep with driver for their holidays in the hills.Rabongla is on, you got it � a ridge, with faraway views in two opposite directions and is a bit of a transportation hub for the surrounding area. After checking into a Tibetan run guesthouse we visited the market and bought some fresh vegetables and tea. So for the first time we tasted the apparently famous and very expensive Sikkimese Timi tea: it was indeed delicious. For dinner we asked for our vegetables to be cooked in local style together with chicken curry. You should know that even though menus in India have a variety of meats besides chicken (mutton, pork, but usually no beef), these are almost never available� The next day we had 2 interesting excursions. After breakfast we |
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started off with a walk to the nearby Tibetan refugee village, where we visited a carpet weaving workshop. It was most interesting to see how the ladies were using all sorts of colourful wool and handlooms to weave tradi-tional Tibetan patterns. The nearby shop had an interes-ting collection and the folks chose two large ones to carry home. In the afternoon we wanted to visit the Timi tea estate. As there wasn�t much public transport to go there we resorted again to hitchhiking, which worked quite well. Arriving through an amazing setting of moun- |
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tain slopes covered with tea plants we found out that it was lunchtime and all the workers were resting in small groups near the factory. This allowed us to mingle a bit with them so when they started picking leaves again we had some good laughs as Mommy was helping them out while Papa was videoing. We didn�t stay to visit the factory as we had witnessed the tea drying process earlier in Sri Lanka. So after saying our farewells to the workers we headed back to Rabongla, got our packs together and boarded a Jeep to Gangtok. |
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Back in the capital Papa had his hair cut (including complete head and back massage) and went to the hospital to have his ankle checked as it was still hurting him. X-rays showed no fracture and the doctors recommended rest and a bandage. Otherwise we didn�t stay too long in town, which lacked the charm of the villages. We found Sikkim cleaner than India and it was interesting to know that there�s a plastic bag ban all over Sikkim: in shops you can only get paper bags. We ate some nice pastries at a modern bakery or watched the French tennis open on tv in our room. My parents also spent some aggravating time on the internet: as it turned out, India�s cyber cafes did not have great connections, except for in the big cities. |
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