Since I am the laziest person known to me, there wasn’t much for me to do in Yuksam. So I take a tour of the town (which lasted about 3 minutes) and headed out.
The road to Pelling is not the best roads. Mostly broken with occassional metalled portions. But never got so bad as to cause problems. Halfway came the detour to the Khecheopalri Lake (hope I got that name correct). One of the holiest lakes for Sikkimese people, the lake is situated at a perch of 10 kilometers above the main road to Pelling.
This lake is one the most beautiful lakes I have seen in the trip. Tranquil. Peaceful. Quiet. Just the way I like things. There are Tibetan prayer flags fluttering everywhere. After doing what everyone does, I decide to take a little detour to the other side. I see two guys looking confident as they wade through high grasses so I follow them. Like a sheep. The grass keeps getting higher and eventually leads into a swamp. There is two feet deep water under that grass. My shoes and jeans are soaked. My feet are freeing but we press on and make it to the lake. One step ahead the water becomes over 3 feet deep. This is messy. And exciting.
From there I head to Pelling and check into a nice hotel recommended by the hotel guy in Yuksam. Owned by one Mr Basak who himself is an adventure enthusiast. And then head out to see the town’s attractions.
Then the ruins of the second capital of Sikkim (Yuksam was the first one). A funny sign comes half way to the climb. Then leads to what are primarily ruins of stone buildings with no roofs left. Made for some nice photo ops.
Night was spent mostly learning salsa. On a television with a instructional tape. This absolutely hyperactive and crazy Slovenian girl made all the boys working in the hotel dance till 10 in the night. She was nuts. Too bad I forgot to ask her name in the night.
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