Chapter 13_Guests of Honour

Chapter 13

Guests of Honour

Back in Gangtok, our agent had told us that he had contacts in the military and we could get their help, if need be. Perhaps, he had communicated with them about our arrival and the military had arranged a reception for us? But, bike trips, even long ones like ours, weren’t a big deal these days and why would they want to receive or honour us? Shedaaa….!

Khan, the half-nosed king in the land of no-nosed ones, was the one who communicated with the jawan (in Hindi). He tried to explain that… Nope, the guy wouldn’t even let him say a word. He took the documents from Khan; apparently we didn’t have to get it verified at the check post as we were the guests of the army! The jawan then got on to an army truck and asked us to follow him. Four confused souls followed him obediently.

A valley hamlet on the way to Lachung…

The creature in my head started listing out all sorts of weird possibilities – “they are suspecting us to be terrorists and taking us to their camps for questioning, they have mistaken us for some other officials who are on a similar bike trip”.

“Wait, what!”

Suddenly I remembered that we had seen another gang of bikers, four of them like us, a few kilometers back. They were then chilling at a view point. Perhaps, they were the ones who were supposed to be received by the army! I raced ahead and discussed this possibility with the boys. Khan responded that there wasn’t anything much we could do now. The jawan wouldn’t let Khan utter a word – he had taken ‘courtesy’ to a different level.

The road ascended upwards from the check post. We followed the army truck for about 30 minutes, and reached the top of the mountain. There was an army establishment on the side and the truck went in through the gate. Our vehicles were stopped by a female security guard. Before she could ask us anything, the jawan came running towards us. He explained something to the guard, after which he ushered us in. Khan made another attempt to clarify things. It was then that this jawan realized that he had mistaken us for a group of army men, who were on a similar trip like ours!

My worst fear was that this guy would lose his temper and tear away our permits. However, he seemed to be in a state of delusion. Perhaps, the poor chap had to travel all the way back to the check post to receive the original ‘guests of honour’. He handed over our permits to us. They didn’t have the Chungthang check post’s seal on them, as the procedure had been skipped on the assumption that we were the guests of the army. Would the seal-less permits be an issue later on? We hoped not.

The road started descending now. A few kilometers later, we stopped to absorb the beauty of a mighty waterfall. The water fell from a great height and sprayed itself into minute droplets. It was refreshing to feel them on our face. Thorappan and I were exhilarated and vocalized it in the form of “ente ponne…”, “pwoli” etc. This was the biggest fall I had ever seen in my life. After spending a considerable amount of time imbibing the grandeur, both through our eyes and mobile cameras, we continued to Lachung. Another great fall welcomed us soon; but it wasn’t as grand as the previous one (to our eyes) and we didn’t stop there either. Soon we reached the entrance to Lachung, an arch with the words ‘Welcome to Lachung’ carved on it. After the mandatory photo session, we proceeded further. Another couple of miles ahead, houses started sprouting on either sides and we stopped at the first tea shop.

Mahesh bending backwards to get a full view of the falls…

It was a house cum shop that sold most of the household items and liquor. By now, we were used to seeing liquor bottles displayed in almirahs, which in our part of the world were occupied by ‘Ponds’, ‘Cuticura’, ‘Head & Shoulders’, ‘Neelabringadi Thailam’ and the like. We ordered tea and took out our mobiles to look for OYO rooms. The shopkeeper was a girl of our age, or perhaps a couple of years older. Khan addressed her as ‘deedi’ and the rest of us followed suit. She told us that they had rooms as well, at 800 per room on double occupancy. However, OYO quoted us rooms at cheaper prices, one being very adjacent to this shop. We booked the nearby one and went there after tea. There was no one there, not even a fly. While we were trying the different phone numbers displayed there, a passerby told us that the landlord stayed next door. I went and enquired there. The lord wasn’t around and I was given another number to contact. After some time, 3-4 gentlemen came and told us that they were in charge of the property. They then (mis)informed us that they hadn’t received the booking confirmation on their OYO app. Network issues, apparently. Even their main office in Gangtok couldn’t confirm our booking! However, they were ready to give rooms at INR 800 per head! Once again OYO-fied (the phenomenon of being made a fool by OYO), we went back to the tea shop. We ordered another round of tea and started to look for other rooms on OYO.

‘Welcome to Lachung’

“This is an unfamiliar place for you guys. You shouldn’t trust random people. Be careful while booking rooms”, said deedi in a tone of concern, on hearing about our OYO experience. No OYO ratings account for such kind gestures. We decided that our Sikkim host would be deedi. After a bit of negotiation, deedi agreed to offer us rooms at INR 600 per room. It must have been 6 PM then, one of the most peacefully ended days of our trip.

However, I wasn’t done for the day. I rang up OYO customer service and blasted them for their pathetic service. The wounds from Kolkata hadn’t healed yet. The poor lady on the other end patiently listened to my ranting, and apologized for the inconveniences. We had to climb a flight of steps to reach our room, which was in another building behind the main one. Half way up the stairs, I had to stop to grab some air – both because of fury and altitude.

It started to rain and we quickly unloaded our luggage from the bikes and settled down in our rooms. Thorappan went for a couple of Tuborgs and I gave him company with a Breezer. It did help chillax a bit. Khan burst one and Mahesh sat a silent spectator to all this. We did our day’s avalokanam.

One of the cute little fur balls…

The place had a small restaurant as well, mainly catering to the guests staying there. We were the only guests that day. As we finished our avalokanam, we were asked to go down for dinner. The restaurant was a cozy place, with dim lighting, cushioned low seating and pictures of the flora and fauna of the mountains displayed all around. Outside were two cute little dogs, who had caught our attention right from when we had entered the place for tea. After spending a few minutes with those adorable fur balls, we settled down for dinner. There was a small window that connected the dining room to the kitchen and through which the cook passed the food to the cheerful guy who served it us.

“Chor idatte chetta?” [Brother, shall I serve rice?]

“Malayalam engane ariyam?! (How do you know Malayalam?!]   

(to be continued…)

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Out of Curiosity...

Bhim Nala Waterfall is located on the Chungthang-Lachung route. It is one of the tallest waterfalls in Sikkim and is also known as 'Amitabh Bachchan Falls' due to its height. Internet sources also give another name to this falls – Bhewma Falls.The other gorgeous waterfall, adjacent to Bachchan, is the one that we stopped at. The name of this waterfall is not clearly mentioned anywhere. Deedi says that it is called ‘Bob Waterfalls’.  

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Bhim Nala Falls