Out to breakfast, which is served on the veranda of the tea house below, we eat on our own. The two couples are off today, and we will be the sole guests for this evening. As such, we get to request dinner choices. Matt chooses Indian and I ask for a big salad. They have so much lettuce growing in their garden
that I am tempted to go out there and start munching just like a bunny.
After breakfast, we pack up and head out on our walkabout with a guide. We walk down a nicely sloping road for a couple hours, through a village:
and tea fields being tended by the people living in the villages.
My knee starts hurting from the downhill, so I hop in the car until the bottom, and wait there only about 10 minutes before Matt and guide arrive to meet me at the small suspension bridge.
It’s pretty cool, and we walk across on our way to the big suspension bridge, which was built in 1902. The other side of the big bridge is the territory of Sikkim. We walk through the village that’s a little ways further down the road, then head back across both bridges to the camp that the estate has by the river.
As we walk into the “camp”, we see a small wooden cabin that is elevated and has two simple bedrooms, I read in out estate info that guests can stay down by the river overnight if they’d like. A small table with a tablecloth, two chairs, flowers and two place settings is sitting facing the river (behind me in the picture). We are guided to a couple of comfy chairs, where we prop up our feet after the 4-hour hike, enjoy some homemade lemonade, and yours truly even has some swigs of beer!
We are served some barbecue-grilled chicken that has been coated in spices and some red marinade (looking a little tandoorish), that we dig right into.
It’s hot and juicy and bursting with flavor, staves off hunger pangs for me and we both settle in to read. Then someone comes and asks us to move to the table because lunch is being served! They come our with 4 or 5 plates, filled with salad nicoise, tomato and cheese covered in vinaigrette, two kinds of quiche, warm, homemafde garlic bread, herbed butter and spicy cucumber salad. We fell on the food like wolves and didn’t come up for air for a while. Appetites sated, we protested the carmelized bananas with shredded ginger, but somehow did them justice.
Loading ourselves into the van for the drive home, I asked to be let out to walk the last 30 minutes. I couldn’t eat like that and just roll back into my room. The guide and I walked the last bit, then we were walking up the path by the tea factory once more.
Headed to the room where I filled up the 4-legged old OG bathtub and settled in for a scalding soak. Now that feels mighty nice after that long hike! dressed and went into the sitting room to work on the blog, but their Internet service is almost nonexistent. Couldn’t get anything done in that department, but did enjoy the blazing fire, the managers company, and tea served with some chicken tikka. Back to the room to read, and play some cribbage with Matt out in the little sitting room. Closest game yet, and due to some strategic planning and walking, I won my first game of the trip (happened with Matt in pinhole #119, so he and I were equally surprised!), then Matt and I headed down to a room in the new tea house for our dinner. Sat in front of the fireplace, which was having issues. Matt dug into his mutton curry, rice, dal and paratha (like a fat, fresh, buttered tortilla) and I proceeded to eat a whole serving bowl of salad with some cauliflower and peas on the side. So nice to get some veggies – and rice pudding for dessert!
Walked slowly back to the room and crawled into bed for another delicious nights sleep.