Highways, Byways and Lazy Days

Bengaluru, South India, Monday 5th May 2025

I start today's post with much happiness that I will see J this afternoon for the first time in a two-and-a-half weeks. Despite my almost incessant wanderings around the world, she and I are meant to be together, and despite the excitement of my travels, there's something missing when we are apart.

My last post ended on 30th April, when we had walked down the hill and into Yuksom. Transport since then has been by car and aeroplane. That afternoon we made the 50 klm/2-hour drive into Pelling. Below is a screenshot of that journey from Google Maps - you'll see why such a short distances takes so long.

Trevor's Plan B had come to fruition, and he had been in Pelling for a couple of nights already, so it was good to reunite with him and find out that he was fundamentally OK.

Pelling held two great attractions to me - one missed, one fulfilled. Pelling sits high on the west side of a hill (lots of them) at about 1,800m. In theory it is possible to look across the valley at the vista of the great mountain, Kangchenjunga. But as I know well, the mountain weather gods often hold very contrary positions to any hopes of mine, and so she remained tantalisingly shrouded for my time there, even after I got up at 4am for a peek at the peak. Ahh well, I do have my views from the plane all that time ago when we flew into Bagdogra right at the beginning of the trip, and the other 4am view from half-way up the hill above the Dzongri high camp. That'll do.

The one fulfilled?? Let me return to my fundamental purpose of coming along on this trip, namely to at least partially follow in the footsteps of great grandfather the Hon James Campbell. The translation of the "Sikkim Pass" which I have referred to elsewhere, reads:

Mr James Campbell expressed his wish to the Deputy Commissioner of Darjeeling to visit Pemionchi and Jongri.  At the request of the Deputy Commissioner I have the honour to address you, the Pemionchi Lamas, that you will be kind enough to have all the bridges put in order throughout the road, and supply him in his camps with fowls, eggs, milk and rice to any quantity that may be required by him.   This letter is written by Laso Kanji, representative of the Sikkim Court on the 4th of the 9th Bartea# month* under orders of the Deputy Commissioner.

* 29th October 1886.

My research some years back, which I have subsequently had confirmed in the past few days, had revealed that Pemionchi is the previous name for Pemayangtse Monastery. And Pemayangtse is immediately adjoining our accommodation for the night at Pelling.

It is not clear from his writings whether James actually visited Pemionchi, but the connection to the Pemionchi Lamas (above) is sufficient for me. And of course Pemayangtse today is not Pemionchi of yesteryear, the old monastery having suffered the ravages of fire at least once and possibly twice. But I am sure that the heart of the old monastery still beats somewhere, and so I was delighted to spend some time on 1st May wandering around the place. A few photos follow:

That afternoon we travelled to Kalimpong, where we were to spend two nights. Interesting town. It lies only some 30klms west of Bhutan as the crow flies, and a little over 50 klms south-west (ish) of the southern border with Tibet. Given the apparent influx of Tibetan people into the area post-1959 I had expected a more Buddhist feeling to the place, but that didn't materialise. It was in a somewhat surprising state of disrepair; frankly, a bit grotty.

But like any new and different place there were still some interesting finds. We visited the Tharpa Choling Monastery, and later a small, private Lepcha museum, the Lepcha people being the main indigenous people of the Sikkim area (even though we were by now out of Sikkim, and back in West Bengal). They seemingly migrated from Cambodia and Tibet in centuries past, and number perhaps 80,000 people, or perhaps 15% of the Sikkim population. (Coincidentally I had met a young man a few days back in Yuksom who teaches Lepcha language at the local high school He talked about the challenges when the language is rarely spoken, having been crowded out by Nepali, Hindi and Engish.)

A few photos of the day-and-a-half in Kalimpong follow:

Which brings me to now. On Saturday I bade farewell to the group, most of whom were heading home via Delhi, and headed south to Bengaluru on Air India Express flight IX2747 to Bengaluru (previously Bangalore). Good trip. Catching an Uber from the Bengaluru airport was an experience. Wandered smewhat aimlessly around central Bengaluru yesterday, and today is a lazy day as I catch up on these posts, plus head out to Bengaluru airport in a little while to greet Janet.

Bengaluru is a huge city. Regarded as India's "silicon valley", there's clearly money here. And the fairly typical Indian chaos on the roads also. Some photos:

J and I start our little 9-day tour around South India tomorrow. In summary our itinerary is:

• Nandi Hills, Bengaluru

• Coimbatore

• Coonoor/Ooty

• Mysuru (previously Mysore)

• ... back here

Goals are: each other's company, sightseeing, food. There may be more posts - stand by ...