Our Sikkim trip: A comedy of mishaps (Part 4)

25th May 2010 – Try try and try again!!

Next morning (25th May 2010) we started early at 9AM attempting for destination (i.e. Uttarey) once more again. We were expecting new surprises on every turns of the hilly roads. I took some snaps of the place affected by the land slide last night. Miraculously we reached Uttarey around 2pm without any remarkable events J. While the car stopped at the hotel gate (Green Valley Resort, Uttarey) I had a feeling that the hotel was a cut out of a residential house. The hotel is run by Reesham Associates (E1/8, Sudakshina Estate B 96, Raja SC Mallick Road, Kolkata 700047. Phone-9830440463/9433119535/9830705512. Proprietors: D.S. Ghose & Mohana Ghose ). The sky was also putting on a depressing color with clouds everywhere.

This place is a village in a valley surrounded by green mountains. It’s near to the border between Sikkim and Nepal. There are three guys brought in from villages of West Bengal to run the hotel. They were very decent except for the youngest one. Before entering the hotel I was asked to produce the booking money receipt. Our rooms were in the second floor terrace. The floors were covered with plastic mat with multiple holes here and there. The beds were very similar to the ones used for carrying the dead bodies to burning ghat J (as per Hinduism). The walls were damped with moisture. The bathroom had all the necessary fittings but the construction seemed to be new and still wet so we had to use it carefully to avoid any damage. There was a notice pasted on the bathroom wall saying “the guests will be responsible for any damage” J. We had some snacks and tea from the hotel. The vegetable momo was really good. Later we found out that the chef has got a nice experience of cooking for the marriage houses. I noticed that the owner of the house is a Sikkimese who stays in the same building. He is a nice gentleman. I had a long and interesting chat with him on the trekking programs that he conducts from Uttarey. The hotel runners actually took lease from the house owner and run their business on his premises.

Land slide on the way to Sikkim (we kept the faith :)

The evening was cloudy and the night was cold with a temperature nearly 13/14 degrees centigrade. We enjoyed the weather after the burning heat of Kolkata. Night sky was clear and we could see the moon, it was just two days before the full-moon. My daughter was getting restless while missing her cartoon on the TV. Though during the reservation the rooms were promised to have TV but there was none in reality. During the dinner time, Manab Mandol (one of the hotel guys) brought a nice looking menu with delicious food items on the list. We got excited and requested for the favorite items but they are found to be actually missing from the kitchen J. So finally we ended up with Rice, daal (lentil soup), fried potato, vegetable curry and a chicken curry dish. The taste of the food was good, as if we are dinning at home.

Sensor Bridge on Dentam Valley (on the way to Uttarey)