Next morning (27th May 2010) we prepared early (11am) for our next destination - Rinchenpong. Luckily a car was ready to drop us to Rinchenpong (Quite unexpected!! I was expecting the unavailability of car will add to our comedy of mishaps). It was a 1.20 hours drive to Rinchenpong, which was covered within expected time with out any deviations ;)
The hotel at Rinchenpong is called Rinchenpong Nest and is also run by Reesham Associates. The position of the hotel is really good. One can see the peak of Kanchenjunga from his/her room. Though there is a construction going on which might cover the view sooner or later in the future. The hotel guys were very active in pulling out our luggage from the car and placing in our rooms which were at the ground floor. The rooms were better than what we had inUttarey. It had carpet on the floor (though the carpet appeared to be clean, I discovered afterward that the place below the beds are never cleaned up ;), a dressing table, table, chair and the bathroom was also properly constructed. But the rooms did not have any Televisions here as well. The hotel guys asked us whether we were hungry (of course we were) and care for any lunch. The kitchen and dinning room was on 2nd floor of the building and we were instructed to go up every time for a meal. By the way, all the hotel guys and servicemen usually stay in the kitchen (with the doors closed) along with their manager. So if you need anything you know where to find them ;)
Hotel room (at Rinchenpong Nest, Rinchenpong)
While we went up and was ready to order for our lunch, the same lucrative menu (what we had in Uttarey) was provided. From my experience in Uttarey I asked for the actual availability of the kitchen items. They might have been a little offended on me since I underestimated their menu card J and I ended up asking for the same old items i.e. rice, daal, potato fries, egg, chicken. On asking for the estimated time they said, “we will call you once the food is ready”. I was still insisting for a time so that we can plan for a site seeing trip on the same day. Finally they got irritated and said it will take 1.30 hours to serve. It was already 1.20pm and we were all hungry. So we estimated the serving time to be at 3pm and wanted to reconfirm with them. They got offended again on this and said “did we say that?”. Finally I reduced the order items with rice and potato fries only so that they can make it a little faster.
Below the bed (at Rinchenpong Nest, Rinchenpong)
Anyway, that was a nice beginning in Rinchenpong J. While they were on their mission to prepare our lunch I took a walk down the street to cool down my frustration. I went to a nearby market place within 10 minutes of walking distance from the hotel. Some hotels, small restaurants and couple of small shops were there. I went to a hotel to check their prices and found a room (similar to the ones we took in Rinchenpong Nest) with a television costing Rs. 700/- while ours were Rs. 800/-. My frustration level pumped up even more. Finally I came back to the hotel with a potato curry (since we need a side dish with the lunch :) bought from one of the restaurants in the market. There was one more decent discussion took place between my wife and the manager’s wife on an egg omelet (for my kid) while I was out in the market. My wife asked for another omelet while the manager’s wife got irritated and gave an unimpressive facial expression closing the kitchen door on her face. My wife got irritated with that and expressed her dissatisfaction with “Is this how you behave with a guest”. Finally the omelet was served with a passive dialog from the manager’s wife as “talks too much!!” (indirectly pointed to my wife). 
Dinner at Rinchenpong Nest
After the lunch (unexpectedly a daal was also served in the lunch) I called up Mr. Sahadeb, the hotel manager and tipped him with 100 bucks asking for a better service. I got the idea from the great story of Mullah Nasirunddin, who went to a spa with a dirty dress and received a poor service but tipped with a golden coin. The servicemen repented and thought that if the service was better than the tip could have been even more than one coin. The next day when Mullah came into the same spa, he received a pleasant service but he tipped with only a copper coin. The servicemen got frustrated and asked him the reason for this. On asking he replied that, the golden coin was the price for today’s service while the copper coin was for the previous day ;)
I noticed a sudden improvement in the service. Rinchenpong was also a small village area but with good market places (one was just at 10 minutes walking distance from the hotel). The weather was still getting ruled by the clouds and rain. Finally we got a glimpse of the white snow peaks just before dark. It was a marvelous view. If a straight line is drawn from Kanchenjunga to Pelling (another place in Sikkim, famous for the most prominent view of Kanchenjunga) and extended toward south, Rinchenpong will fall next in that line. So it’s all most the same view of Pelling but from a distant point. We got a nice view of full-moon rays falling on the snow peaks for a while after dark but a bunch of clouds rushed in and captured the view in a while.
Meanwhile the manager came to me informing that, the hotel proprietors did not receive any money from the travel agent (i.e. Dolphin Holidays) for our reservation (though I produced the money receipt to them before entering the hotel), therefore, I need to pay the entire money for their hotels in Uttarey and Rinchenpong both. I realized that I am not carrying so much of cash to pay for the reservation for the second time. So our trip was getting more and more spicy. I called up the travel agent and reported this. They got furious on this but eased the situation saying that they will take care of the issue. One more mishap added to the garland JDuring the dinning time we really missed our chef in Uttarey. The food here tasted like the one served in poor hospitals (I guess the chef here had a similar background :).
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