Dochula Pass

27 May 2008 (Day 12) - Takin, One Weird Animal
Today we went to Bhutan School of Arts & Craft and Folk Heritage Museum in Thimphu. It was nice to see that Bhutanese try to preserve their traditional art and craft works through their younger generation. At the museum, we saw the traditional Bhutanese house and we learnt their culture from their point of view. Surprisingly, all Bhutanese houses/buildings (even now) have penis sculpture/painting (see below) outside the house/building esp above the window. They believe it'll ward off evil/bad things.Then we proceed to the zoo (not again!!!). We were not really interested to go to the zoo but since Raj told us that we can only see the 'special' animal ONLY in Bhutan, so we decided to go and see what's so special about the animal. It turn out that the animal is really special. It called Takin and ONLY can be seen in the Himalayan region esp in Bhutan. It's also Bhutan National animal and if anyone get caught killed this animal, they'll get life sentenced in prison. Takin looks like a mixture of sheep (head), yak (horn & fur) and cow (see below). We never seen it before and it's quite interesting to see it live in front of us. According to the legend, during the 15th century, Lama Drukpa Kuenlay or the infamous "Divine Madman" asked to perform a miracle. He demanded a whole cow and a goat for him to eat. After he finished everything, he stuck the goat's head on the bones of the cow and Viola!! Takin starts running around and grazing the grass. This same Madman had a power to ward off the devils with his strong and extra long penis. That's the reason why most Bhutanese houses have penis sculpture.

After that we proceed to Thimphu town for lunch even the Gas Station look unique (see above). The lunch was not good this time and I complained to Raj about it. After that, we stopped at Thimphu market coz I wanted to buy a Gho. Gho is a Bhutanese traditional men costume. Bhutanese are compulsory to wear it everyday either to school, university, work (private & government) etc except during their leisure time (even then they'll still wear it). In the spirit of being in Bhutan, I wanna wear it while I'm in Bhutan (see below). After that, we proceed to Punakha (1,300m) the former capital city of Bhutan. Along the way, we stopped at Dochula Pass (3,200m) where the impressive 108 stupas were built overlooking the northern mountain chains. In Buddhism, stupa is the place for them to keep the ashes (kinda like a graveyard for us). The reason they built 108 stupas were for the remembrance of the war between Assamese (Indian state) and Bhutanese militant. It was not their intention to kill the Assamese militant who were their allies and protected in Bhutan but due to pressure from Indian government. I don't really remember the exact year it happened but it was not too long time ago around 2003 kot. That's why Bhutanese government built the 108 stupas for the Assamese soldiers soul to rest in peace. The history of Assamese militant in Bhutan was another long story to tell so I decided not to dwell on it so much here.
We arrived in Punakha around 5 pm and check in at Meri Puensum Hotel. It was a nice resort on top of the hill overlooking Punakha town (see above). We hit Punakha town afterwards but it's just a very small town with nothing to see or buy. After a while we went back to hotel for dinner. After dinner, we chatted with other tourists there while having a drink at hotel bar. It was really nice to share our experience and heard theirs. We chatted until around 12am before we called it a day. Overall, we really enjoy our Bhutan trip so far.

History Of Bhutan Part 1

26 May 2008 (Day 11) - Another Long Journey In Between The Mountain
We woke up quite late (8 am) today and after breakfast our guide (Raj) and driver (Ramu) already waiting for us at the lobby. I mentioned in my much earlier post that Bhutan is one of a few countries that we can't visit independently. The country policy requires that all foreigners (except Indian Nationals) must hire a guide & driver from Bhutan local travel agent. After much research from the web, I choose 'Keys To Bhutan Tours & Adventure'. The reason I choose this agent coz their website looks professionally organize and the testimonials sound promising. So, here we are in Bhutan with them as our guide. I communicated with them by email my preferred itinerary and they'll try to accommodate my request and a few of their suggestion for the final itinerary.Today we're going to Thimphu (2,300 m) i.e the capital city of Bhutan. Before we started our journey to Thimphu, we stopped at a crocodile farm in Phuentsholing. The best part was that they allowed us to go inside the crocodile cage and see the crocs close up. They were well fed so we don't need to worry too much. The crocs look funny coz I never see a fat crocs before. After that, we proceed for our 8 hours journey to Thimphu. The journey was very tiring coz half of the road condition was bad due to construction but it was a very scenic drive up the mountain (see below). Along the way, we stopped for lunch and here we tasted Bhutanese cuisine for the first time. It's a bit cheesy and spicy but I like it. We arrived in Thimphu around 6.30pm and after check in at River View Hotel we hit the Thimphu town coz this is the only day we'll be in Thimphu coz tomorrow we'll go to Punakha. The hotel was quite nice and comfortable. The best thing was we can see the Thimphu town and the river from the balcony (see below). Thimphu town is beautiful and looks traditional yet modern. There is a stadium construction for the 5th King coronation (maybe by end of this year). We bought a few things there and head back to hotel for dinner. We asked the hotel staffs whether there's any bar or club open in town coz we would like to check out the clubbing scene in Bhutan. Unfortunately, we arrived on Monday and all the clubs were closed. They only open during weekends and some days on weekdays. So, we went back to our room and rest coz we were quite tired from the journey.
Bhutan Modern History : Bhutan first open to foreigners in 1974 and then there were ONLY two tourist visited the country. They were from National Geography coz they were filming the 4th King coronation. After that, there was no more tourist coming to Bhutan until a few foreigners in 1982 coz it's very hard to get in/out to/off Bhutan and there are so many requirements imposed by the government for foreigners. The ONLY airlines that can fly in/out of Bhutan is their national carrier i.e Druk Air which start operating commercially in 1985. All foreigners (except Indian Nationals) are compulsory to fly Druk Air either during entering or exiting the country. I found out that most Bhutanese were well educated coz they studied outside the country but surprisingly technology came very late in Bhutan. They had their first television ONLY in 2000 and computer & Internet in 2003. It's a landlocked country on top of Himalaya with 75% forest greenery and they intend to keep it that way. Bhutan got their name from Indian Sanskrit i.e Boo-Tan that means flat land on top of Himalaya. The other name for Bhutan is Druk which mean dragon given by Tibetan monk who visited Bhutan long long time ago and apparently saw a dragon came out from his teapot. So, they name it Druk land. Until now Bhutanese called themselves Drukpas (Druk people) among them and their country as Kingdom Of The Dragon (even the flag has a big dragon on it). They only called themselves Bhutanese with foreigners. Bhutan is a new democratic country (earlier this year) coz their 4th King requested it after 100 years of monarchy (1907 - 2007). Surprisingly, Drukpas refused to accept it coz they really love the King and want the country to be ruled by the monarchy system. After much deliberation, they reluctantly accept it and as expected not many Drukpas turn out during their 1st general election. Bhutan has around 700,000 population and the ratio of the male and female is 1:4. So, you'll see more girls in Bhutan than any other country and at the eastern part of Bhutan the male:female ratio really alarming with 1:10. I'll tell you the history of ancient Bhutan in my next post.

Goodbye India.. Welcome To Bhutan

25 May 2008 (Day 10) - Himalayan Water Rafting Drama
I was really excited when I woke up coz today we're going to do water rafting at Teesta River and then we're going to enter the Kingdom of Bhutan 'the landlocked country'. After breakfast we proceed to Rangpo (East Sikkim) check post to stamped out our passport. No doubt we're going to miss our stay in Netuk House esp for their extremely delicious Sikkimese food. It took about one and half hours to get to the check post. We have to start the rafting after the check post even though Teesta River flows from Sikkim but we can't start the rafting from Sikkim maybe because we need to check in & out to/from Sikkim. So, we have to start from West Benggal state i.e just about 300m after we check out from Sikkim.
As expected, there's no other people start rafting from there and the crew have to bring the raft all the way to the check post. The water is very very cold coz it came from the glacier but luckily it's hot and sunny at that time. The rafting was really enjoyable coz we went through some really rough rapid. We almost been thrown out from the raft at one time coz the rough rapid. The best part was that we did the rafting our self (as per my request) on most of the smaller rapid. It's not that easy though but it was real fun. There was some freak incident happened during our rafting adventure. Suddenly, we saw a bridge construction going on along the river and we don't even see there was a wire hanging midair until we're like 20m from the wire. Since the rapid was very fast, we don't have enough time to avoid the wire and the wire almost cut us through (in the head maybe..). Thank God all of us managed to get down inside the raft avoiding the hanging wire BUT the wire stuck at our raft and it's like a battle of who's stronger i.e Rapid vs Wire. The rapid push us through but the wire pull us back strongly and the raft almost capsized. With the quick thinking of one of the crew, he managed to unstuck the wire from the raft using his shirt to loosen it coz we can't use our bare hand due to enormous pressure.We get out of the incident unscathed. We didn't realize that it took us 3 hours to finish the rafting adventure. Towards the end of the rafting, the crew let us swim in the river. The water was really really cold and even though the rapid looked mild from the raft but it push us rapidly down the river. I had to swim very hard to get back to the boat. It was really tiring swimming against the rapid but it was fun. We arrived at the end of the rafting point at 1pm and after we get ready our self then we proceed to Bhutan. We're really hungry and asked Palden to stop anywhere that's clean for our lunch.
After lunch, we slept in the car coz we were really tired and let Palden drove us until the India-Bhutan border. As we arrived Jaigon (India border town) around 5pm, we have to stamped out our passport at their immigration office. We were so shocked to see that Jaigon was extremely dirty with rubbish everywhere on the road. I think it was even dirtier than Agra. The funny part was, there were a lots of signboard say 'Green Jaigon, Clean Jaigon' BUT there were tons of rubbish under the signboard (typical Indian town).

We proceed to Phuentsholing (Bhutan border town) and check in at Lhaki Hotel. At last, we were in Bhutan. Phuentsholing was a much cleaner town compared to Jaigon even though it's just side by side with only a Bhutan's police post to separate it. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Palden coz our Bhutanese guide and driver (their country policy) will bring us around for the whole Bhutan trip. We were quite sad coz we kinda developed a great friendship with Palden and he did his best to accommodate all of our requests no matter how difficult some of it might be. His not only our driver but we learnt a lot of Sikkimese and Buddhism culture through his eyes/view. We'll definitely miss him.

We met our Bhutanese guide, Raj and he arranged the Bhutanese visa for us today. After we gave him all the documents, we took the opportunity to explore Phuentsholing town. It's quite a nice town with some good architectural building. If we walked further (there was no gate to separate it), we'll be in Jaigon (India) already and we can't turn back (if Bhutan police stop us) to Bhutan coz we don't have our passport and visa with us hehehe (even the visa is valid ONLY for single entry). Apparently, it is Bhutan second biggest town BUT it look small to me. Since we don't intend to buy anything we just head back to the hotel for dinner and rest. We can't wait to start our Bhutan journey tomorrow.

Buddhism 101

24 May 2008 (Day 9) - Rumtek Monastery
We woke up around 7.30am today and went for breakfast. The breakfast was as good as the dinner last night. After breakfast we set to go exploring Gangtok with Palden. Actually I'm thinking of going to Tsomgo Lake (another one of the holiest & highest lake in Sikkim) but since we require special permit and we have to go through an agent to get it so we decided to skip it. By the way, it's just a lake and foreigners can't even go beyond the lake area (only Indian nationals are allowed) due to close proximity with Tibet. In Sikkim esp in the north of Sikkim foreigners require special permit to visit each place due to sensitivity with Tibetan border. So we decided to go to Rumtek Monastery, another monastery???? Actually we visited one monastery too many already but Palden said this one is different and he'll go along with us inside to tell the history. I'm not really convinced coz I thought all monasteries are the same but we just go ahead to Rumtek.Surprisingly, Rumtek Monastery was one of the most beautiful monastery that we had been through out our journey so far. It was rich with history and I had a crash Buddhism course with Palden during our almost 2 hours there. I found out Buddhism is a very interesting religion or should I say philosophy?? I learnt in depth about Buddhism as much as I can absorb during the visit. It was really an enjoyable and enriching experience to learn about other culture/religion through their own eyes/view. The more I learnt about Buddhism, the more I convinced that Islam is the right religion for me.Rumtek History : Rumtek Monastery was the exact carbon copy from one of the monastery in Tibet built by the 16th Karmapa who fled from Tibet to Sikkim to seek refuge due to pressure from China government (their political and freedom of religion issue). The thing about Tibet and China can always get complicated coz China wants the reincarnation of the 15th Karmapa to be from a Chinese race (Han) coz it's easier for them to control Tibet BUT the reincarnated Karmapa was chosen from the Tibetan race. When we talked about Buddhism reincarnation, things will get more complicated even Palden kinda doubt about it a bit. The reincarnated Lama must be certified by a few existing Learned Lamas (either Dalai Lama or others). The 16thKarmapa was certified by the previous Dalai Lama (13th kot, tak ingat la) when he was 6 years old. According to history, once he was certified by Dalai Lama, he fled from Tibet. I'm just curious, how a 6 year-old boys managed to fled from Tibet through the mountainous region of Himalaya with a lots of check point to pass??? even Palden was curious too. In Gangtok, the 16thKarmapa instructed the followers to build Rumtek as a carbon copy from his previous monastery in Tibet (coz they fled with all the valuable prayer items etc). No bad for a 6 year-old huh??? Since the 16th Karmapa died, there is issue regarding the reincarnation of the 17th Karmapa coz there are 3 boys claimed to be the reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa. One is Tibetan, the other is Sikkimese and the last one is Bhutanese. All three are certified by different Learned Lamas. So, it's difficult to know who's the REAL reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa who can rule Rumtek Monastery. Since it's a sensitive issue, all three reincarnated Karmapa can't pray/visit at Rumtek Monastery in order to avoid misunderstanding among the believers. It's like even you're reincarnated but you're not even welcome to your own house. It's kinda funny coz they put the 17th Karmapa (the Tibetan one) photo in the monastery. The reason why there are 3 reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa was according to Dalai Lama, each Lama can be reincarnated by their mind, body and soul (tetiba jer keluar fatwa baru pulak kan). So the Tibetan Karmapa is the strongest coz he was reincarnated from the SOUL (katanya...). I'll tell you more about Buddhism (from their own eyes/view) later on in my next post.

In Rumtek, they kept the flying black hat for the crowning of the Karmapa. It's believed that the hat was being woven from the hair of angels. It has to be kept locked in a box. Even when during the crowning ceremony, the Karmapa have to hold on to the hat or else it'll fly back to heaven. Nobody has seen the flying black hat since 1993 when the 16th Karmapa died. Maybe it flew off to heaven already la.
Our next stop was Institute of Tibetology where we learnt more about Buddhism history. Then we took a cable car in the town. The cable car ride was not as spectacular as I thought. We have to cramp with other tourists in just ONE cable car. It's hard to appreciate the view when so many people inside the cable car. After lunch we went to a local handicraft institute where we can see how all the handicrafts were made. it's nice to see their government preserve their local culture through younger generation. We bought a few things there as our souvenirs.
Since there was a flower show going on so we decided to check out the flower coz Neo wanted to take some pictures of the rare Rhododendrons. After that we went back to our hotel and can't wait for dinner time hehehe. The dinner was again superbly delicious and I'll definitely miss this lodge coz of the excellent food. After dinner, we hit the town again for the last time before leaving to Bhutan tomorrow. I accidentally bought a Tibetan motif carpet for my mom (even we had a very limited space left in our backpack) coz it's really nice and cheap (I can't help it, hehe). We went back to our lodge and can't wait for our white water rafting adventure tomorrow and then we'll proceed to Kingdom of Bhutan. Bye Bye India......

East-South-West

23 May 2008 (Day 8) - Mystical Journey Over Himalayan Mountain
As I predicted, we can't see the sunrise over Mt Kanchenjunga this morning coz it get really cloudy due to the rain last night. So, we slept again until 8am. After breakfast, we checked out from the hotel leaving for Gangtok. I'm quite sad leaving Pelling coz we had such a great experience here with a great hotel service. The drive to Gangtok (West Sikkim) took another 5-6 hours coz we had to go down south then went up to the west of Sikkim. The journey was mystically beautiful coz we drove through the cloud in between the Himalayan mountain. That was really an enjoyable journey for the eyes and soul.

Along the way, I asked Palden if he knew anyone that can arrange white water rafting for us in Teesta River coz from what I read, it mentioned Apr-May is the best time to do rafting in this region with Grade 3-4 rapid. That's sound really interesting coz I really wanna do rafting in Himalaya. Fortunately he had a friend that can arrange that sort of thing. Since there are a few types of rafting so I decided to do the longest (25km) and the most challenging one (Grade 4 rapid) only for the two of us in the raft. I don't want to join the commercialize rafting that they organize coz it'll be so boring for me. I need to get my adrenaline going for the rafting adventure in Himalaya. No doubt we have to pay much more for that but I don't mind paying for the experience. According to Palden, they didn't normally arrange the challenging rafting that we choose esp for two persons coz not many people wanna do/try it (only the crazy one like us heheh) but thanks to Palden coz he managed to arrange it with another 4 local crews that will join us. We need at least 6 persons in the raft to stabilize it due to higher volume of water in Teesta River. I was so excited and can't wait until Day 10 for the rafting adventure in Himalaya. For now, we continue our journey to Gangtok. Here I attached picture of Gangtok town from far. We arrived in Gangtok around 2pm and after check in at Netuk House (see picture below). I purposely choose to stay in the traditional house rather than predictable hotel. I think it ONLY has 10 rooms and they don't normally accept Indian national guest. It was a really nice traditional lodge. The design (exterior and interior) was exquisite and really beautiful. The owner was really friendly and even though there's no TV in the room, we really like the place. Then we went out to the town for lunch and surprisingly Gangtok (1,600 m) is beautiful and quite a modern town on top of Himalaya. The weather was warmer than Pelling and Darjeeling but it's still much colder than Malaysia. Since we like to try something new everywhere we go, so we decided to try a Tibetan Restaurant. They served all Tibetan cuisine and it's hard to choose coz we don't really know what to try. We asked the owner to recommend us dishes that we can eat with rice coz some of the dishes are standalone (without rice). The food was really nice (no wonder the place was full house) and it's quite spicy. After lunch, we ventured out Gangtok town. It's just like going from one shop after another until we found out that there is some sort of Market Fair going on. So, we went and check out the fair but there's nothing really caught our eyes to buy the stuff there. Maybe we already did some shopping in Darjeeling and our backpack almost full. We need to save some space for our shopping in Bhutan later on our journey. Since we're quite tired after the long journey, we went back to our lodge and chill out at the balcony doing some reading with an evening tea overlooking the Himalayan mountains (see picture below, isn't it beautiful??). We can even see Mt Kanchenjunga from here but it's from different angle. It felt really peaceful and relaxing. We went for dinner at the lodge and surprisingly they served us an authentic Sikkimese dinner set and it taste really really good coz it's home cooked. This is one of the best food that we had during this journey and I wish we can have it everyday heheh. We finished almost everything on the table and really had a full belly back to the room. We did some planing where we wanna go tomorrow before we went to sleep.

Sikkimese Delight

22 May 2008 (Day 7) - One Day In Yuksom
We woke up around 7am and no sunrise viewing today coz we're too lazy to wake at 4am. Too bad it's cloudy this morning coz it was raining last night and we can't even see Mt. Kanchenjunga from our room. Today, we're going to Yuksom where was once the 1st Capital of Sikkim. After breakfast we started our journey first to Kechipalri Lake or famously called 'Wishing Lake'. Along the way, we stopped at the waterfall just to feel the fresh & cold water of the Himalaya. People come to Kechipalri Lake to do their prayer. I don't know either it's for Hindu or Buddhist coz I saw Hindu went to the lake and pray as well. According to our driver (Palden), if we see the lake from the top of any mountain, it'll look like a one giant foot print. Of course from the legend, someone holy step into it and became a lake (something like that) and it's one of the holiest lake in Sikkim now. That's why people go there to do their prayer esp during their religious festival. The weird thing was that there's not a single leaf in the lake even though it was surrounded by the forest. According to Palden, wild ducks are kind of the caretaker of the lake and they'll take away all the leaves that fell in the lake. Surprising huh??? or maybe they just vegetarian heheeh. I forgot to mention that when we hike up towards the lake we stop at the mini temple and I spin around the big bell just for the fun of it. After visited the lake we proceed up north to Yuksom. I'm kinda excited to be in Yuksom coz now we can do some hiking up the mountain and the second one was Palden promised us that he'll try to get us a traditional Sikkimese lunch complete with a Yak meat coz I kept on requesting to taste the Yak meat. Once in Yuksom, we started our hiking to the 1st Ancient Capital of Sikkim. We can see Nepal on the other side of the mountain. The hiking was moderate with some steep hill but we kinda penat jugak la. We took some pictures with the locals and surprisingly, the locals in Yuksom speak comprehensible English even for the small kids coz in Sikkim, English is their medium language in school. I'll post a few pictures of the local kids here. After that, we decided to climb all the way up to the oldest monastery in Sikkim i.e Dubdi Monastery. It's not that we really want to visit the monastery but the climbing part made us eager to go there. We thought it was just a simple climb, in the end we end up climbing a very steep mountain for an hour in order to reach the monastery. It was really unexpected and tiring experience. I wonder who'll go there just to pray. As expected, there's no monk in the monastery coz it's really far up the mountain and it's just a small monastery meant to be a history of Sikkim. Buddhist will go there only for special religious occasions. At the monastery we met with the Swedish family with two kids. We chatted with them for about an hour up there and we went down together. We didn't realize it was almost 4pm and we didn't even have our much anticipated lunch yet. We're so hungry and rush back to Palden where the lunch was ready at his friend restaurant. Palden thought that we're lost in the mountain coz it took us quite a long time (5 hours) to get back and almost want to ask people looking for us.
The lunch came and as expected they prepared us a very traditional Sikkimese food with Yak meat. The Yak meat was really good and I really like the taste of it. It's hard to describe it coz the texture of the meat is different but taste really delicious. They even gave us a lentil soup that normally prepared only during wedding or special occasion. It was something like a green herb that grow in the mountain and it taste superbly delicious. The last dish was like a scramble egg with cheese made from Yak milk. The taste a bit different but really something that I never taste before. We love all the lunch dishes and really thanked Palden that help us to be able to experience the real Sikkimese food and the Yak meat.After lunch we just chill out for a while in Yuksom before heading back to our hotel in Pelling. We reached Pelling around 6.30pm and Palden invited us to try a Sikkimese way of life. Since we got nothing much to do, we just join him at a local bar and there he ordered us a Millet Beer. It's a traditional alcoholic drink for Sikkimese and they'll drink it everyday esp during winter and festival coz it can get really cold during the winter. They made the beer from fermented millet (a kind of cereal plant) and surprisingly it taste really nice and sweet. It's like 'air tapai' that they fermented from rice for Dusun ethnic in Malaysia. The beer can really made you feel warmer (since it's raining and very cold at that time). They served the Millet Beer in a very big bamboo glass. It's one really really big bamboo glass. I can hardly finished one glass of it but Neo was already at number 3. We chatted until 8.30pm before we went back to our hotel for dinner. At that time, I asked Palden if he ever met any Malaysian that travel in this part of the world. His answer : We're the first Malaysian that he ever met on his 8 years experience in tourism there. I'm sure they were Malaysian travelled to this region before but the number might be less than 1,000 people. What a shame coz it's one of a very beautifully unexplored place that you can ever be.

During dinner, we chatted with the staffs of the hotel coz they're really friendly and they said they'll pray tonight for us to be able to see sunrise over Mt Kanchenjunga tomorrow morning. I doubt it'll happen coz it's raining again tonight but their thought that count. We really enjoyed our day and it's one of the best experience in our journey so far.

Entering Once 'Kingdom Of Sikkim'

21 May 2008 (Day 6) - Half Day Around The Mountain
Today we woke up a bit late and after breakfast, we start our 4WD journey entering Sikkim. Our destination is Pelling which situated in the west of Sikkim.
Some History : Sikkim was an independent country/kingdom until 1975 when they joined India as one of their state. They had a Maharaja but was brought down by the people. The Maharaja Of Sikkim lineage still around but they're no longer remembered. People of Sikkim are from three major races i.e Nepali descendant, Bhutia which came from Tibet (but some of them are originally from Sikkim) and the authentic Sikkimese i.e Lepcha. Most Lepchas live in the north of Sikkim. All the three races called themselves Sikkimese (not Indian) and proud of that. Anyway, they don't look like Indian at all. Interestingly in Sikkim ONLY Sikkimese can own (buy/sell) the land there. In some part of northern Sikkim, ONLY Lepchas can own (buy/sell) the land. It's kind of like an autonomy state in India but still under Indian government administration. The funny part is all Sikkimese surname will be reflected by their races. If they're Lepcha, (like our driver) his name will be Palden Lepcha. Bhutia will have Bhutia as their surname and Nepali will have Rai as their surname. Enough of the history....

Along the way to Sikkim, we first stopped at one of the finest Darjeeling tea production factory. The Darjeeling tea can fetch up to Rs10,000 (RM780) per kilogram depending on the quality. Normally the first flush i.e before monsoon (Apr-May) is the best quality. Coincidentally, we had the opportunity to buy the first flush (it cost me Rs500 for 100 grams) and the taste is really really good. No wonder people all around the world sought after the Darjeeling Tea. Then, we stop at the tea plantation and took some pictures the women plucking the tea. It's a hard job to do. The road that we passed along the way was very scenic and the pictures that we took can't really justify the magnificence view. You really have to be there to experience the God nature creation at His best. Here I attached a few pictures of faces of Darjeeling/Sikkim. Enjoy it!!!
We stopped for lunch at the border town of Jorethang. There we tasted our first Sikkimese food i.e Momo. It's like a dimsum with their chilly paste. The food was quite nice but the place was a bit dirty. Then we entered Sikkim from Ramam Check Post (West Sikkim). We have to stamped our passport to enter Sikkim and showed them our Sikkim Travel Permit (we arranged the permit in Darjeeling). It's like entering into another country and we can only stay in Sikkim for 15 days (permission for extension of stay can easily be done in Sikkim). After the check post, we proceed to Pelling and we slept along the way coz we had a full belly until our driver ask us if we wanna visit the Ancient Capital Of Sikkim. Since we're kinda tired being in the car, so we went to explore it. The place called Rabdentse which was once the 2nd Capital Of Sikkim. It was all the way back to 17th century. Since it's located like a stone throw way from Nepal (where they're at war at that time), they moved the Capital City to Gangtok (East Sikkim) and it remain as the capital state until now. There nothing much left there and we won't miss anything if didn't go there either.
After some pictures, we proceed to Pelling. Along the way, again we stop at one of the oldest monastery in Sikkim. What can I say, monasteries are all the same but we did chit chat with a few student monks there and they're human after all. Before this I thought monks are really holy and have a very strict discipline but when we chatted with them, they're just like us. They socialize just like us (they even have girlfriend and going out with them openly). Most of them have hand phone and I observed some of them busy 'smsing'. The different is that they have to wear their monk's costume everywhere they go and they study Buddhist at the monastery. I found out also that they learn other things as well at the monastery like Mathematics, English, Science and all the basic secular subjects. Here I attached faces of the monks.
After that we proceed to Pelling (2,100 m) and arrived around 4pm. It was an 8 hours journey down and up the mountain again (with few stops). We checked in at De Regency Hotel which was a new hotel and the design was quite nice. According to the website, we can view Mt Kanchenjunga from the hotel. We'll see if that will happen. The weather in Pelling was as cold as in Darjeeling. It'll go down to 8 C at nights. After check in we roamed around Pelling town which is a very small town. There's nothing in the town but at least it's as clean as in Darjeeling unlike the stereotypically dirty Indian towns. Even though, it's a quite small town but we love the place coz it's really 'nature-lovingly' relaxing and the service in the hotel was excellent (highly recommended). We called the night early coz we hope to wake up early tomorrow to view sunrise over Mt Kanchenjunga from the hotel balcony. I'll tell you what happen in my next post...

Borneo Games 2008

The Games ended today and sad to say that we failed to reach our target of at least bronze medal. Sabah team finished forth placing but at least it was an improvement from last year edition where we finished last. Personally, I'm not satisfied with my performance for this year Games coz I lost 2 out of 3 matches. I played too safe and didn't take much risk in the games. I lost the 2 matches because I'm too afraid to lose the point and I didn't hit my normal strokes instead opt for a safer but attackable strokes. Maybe the nerves getting out of me. Mentally, I need more competitive matches to get my game going as what I did in practice. At least the score was quite close and it give me hope for next year edition. Overall, I'm happy with Sabah Tennis team performance coz we're very supportive of each other and eager to do better for next year edition. The team are young and improving. I'm sure we'll be able to get at least a silver medal next year. Since we have to play 3 matches (best of 3 sets) within 24 hours, my body really aching right now and I need a very good relaxation massage for the muscle. I'll continue my travelogue in my next post coz now I really need a good rest.

Holiday, Course & Games

It has been quite some time I didn't blog any post. It just that I had a quite hectic schedule lately. After my holiday ended, I have to go for a course in KL early this week and this weekend Borneo Games started (14-16 Jun) and I'm representing Sabah team for tennis. So, I'll continue my travelogue when the Games ended. Since it's a 16 days journey, so it'll a while for me to finish it heheehe.

Tomorrow morning (8am) I'll have my first match. I hope I can contribute a point for Sabah team. Our target this year is to get at least a bronze medal coz we don't want to end up in the bottom two again. As usual I'll play the single slot and year after year I always contribute a point from my match for Sabah team. I hope the trend will continue again this year. Yesterday we had a good practice session together. I think this year team is much stronger than the previous year. I saw the commitment to be the best that they could for the Games. I'll keep you posted on the Games progress and result. Wish me and Sabah team a success for this edition of Borneo Games!

World Heritage & World First

20 May 2008 (Day 5) - Unseen View & Tuuuttt Tuuuttt (sound of the train)

We woke up very early today at 3.30am coz yesterday we asked our driver to pick us up at 4.00am. The only reason for us to wake up this early coz we wanna go to Tiger Hill (30 minutes away) to see the sunrise view of Mt Kanchenjunga which is the third highest peak in the world standing at 8,598m. We didn't even had a shower coz it gets extremely cold during that hour even when we use the hot water. Unfortunately due to the cyclone and overcast weather yesterday, it's really get cloudy this morning and we can see nothing. Finally after waiting for an hour, we saw the sun already rose in the thick of the cloud and we can't even see the beautiful full view of Mt Kanchenjunga from the Tiger Hill as well. We kinda disappointed not to be able to view one of the magnificent place to view the sunrise. As it getting very cold up there, we decided to go back to hotel for breakfast. Along the way, we stopped at two monasteries in Darjeeling town. Since most people here are Buddhists, monastery play an integral part of their daily life. The thing about these monastery in the Himalayan Region is once you enter into one, it feels like you already enter all of it coz the interior and exterior design were almost the same for all (no doubt it's very artistically beautiful). From the statue to the painting, it's all almost the same except a few small things which I'll explain later on in my next post. So, the excitement level of visiting one monastery after another will definitely be in declining mode.
Also along the way our driver spotted a kinda fine view of Mt Kanchenjunga. So, we stopped for a pictures and at least we got to see the view first hand (i attached the picture here). You can see the snow cap mountain on the background and that's Mt. Kanchenjunga. After breakfast, we took a shower then we proceed to Tibetan Refugee camp. The fled from Tibet during the Chinese invasion of Tibet around 1950 and settled at the Refugee Camp in Darjeeling. These people are Tibetan and they just hold a refugee card coz they have NO nationality. Since Tibet is not a country, they hold no passport. They're neither Indian national nor Chinese national. We chatted with a few of them and they're holding a prayer for the monk that died during the riot in Tibet at the time we were there. They're really nice people that fight for their freedom of religion coz China doesn't allow that to happen.
Next stop, we going to ride the famous toy train. They called it toy train not because it's a toy BUT the train is much smaller compared to conventional train. There was drama during the train ride. Since we're going up the hill suddenly the train stop and slide down the hill due to insufficient steam (the train powered by steam). It's not scary coz the train doesn't move that fast but we felt kinda funny for the whole episode. After 30 minutes, the train start moving up again to our destination. We stopped for pictures at Batasia Loop (the most photograph site along the railway) and then proceed to the second highest railway station in the world (stated there) i.e Ghoom Station located at 2700m. Actually I knew it's the third highest after Tanggula Pass (5,072m) in Lhasa-Golmud, Tibet and La Raya Pass (4,313m) along the Lake Titicaca route in Machu Picchu, Peru. The train journey was amazing and we got to know the history of the railway from the museum at Ghoom Station. I'll be too long if I wanna tell you about the history, no?

After that we went to Himalayan Mountaineering Institute coz I'm interested to know the history of mountain climbing in Himalaya. The first man succesfully climb the Mt. Everest was an Indian national i.e Tenzing Norgay. Actually he's a Sherpa from Nepal but Indian government gave him the citizenship. He's the pioneer in mountain climbing in Himalaya and became president of one most influencial climbing institute in Himalaya (I forgot what's the name of the institute coz too much info to remember during the whole journey). Too bad this time around we won't be able to do some serious hiking due to time constraint. So we learnt all the history of climbing and they even found an eagle died at 27,000 feet and brought back at the museum. It's amazing huh? I think the eagle must somehow get lost in wind storm coz i think it's impossible for the eagle to fly that high. Since the Zoological Park is in the same area as the Institute, we took the opportunity see the red panda and snow leopard which are a rare species. We browsed around the zoo for 10 minutes hehehe coz all the zoo are the same anyway, no?

Later that day we hit the town again. This time we went for a horseback ride along the mountain. It was so amazing to be able to do horseback riding on the Himalayan mountain. I really enjoyed the experience. After that, we went shopping again hehehe coz Darjeeling town is really nice place to walk and window shopping. Maybe the cool weather play the part as well. We found out Darjeeling has a Shopping Mall and it's quite nice given the town situated on the hill. Since this is the last night we'll be in Darjeeling therefore we explored most part of the town and eventually we went to the square where there's live performance going on for some sort of concert. We call it a day around 9pm and went back to our hotel. Tomorrow we'll have another long journey to Sikkim.

One Journey After Another

18 May 08 (Day3 ) - Goodbye Sheraton MughalToday we're going back to Delhi coz we had a flight to catch to Bagdogra. That will be our real journey begin. Delhi and Agra were just a stopover kinda like entree. Today we had breakfast exclusive for the suite room stay. The breakfast was really nice. After breakfast we continue sleeping until 1pm. We check out at 2pm before taking a long bus journey back to Delhi. We arrived Delhi 7.30pm and there's no point staying at a 5 star hotel just for a few hours sleep. So we decided to stay at the Incredible Home Stay in Karol Bagh area. The room was clean and comfortable for its range. After dinner we went back to sleep coz we need to wake up at 6am tomorrow to go the airport.

19 May 08 (Day 4) - Cyclone In Darjeeling
We arrived at Delhi domestic airport around 7.30am and it was so full of people. The airport kinda like 'reban ayam' with no designated gate for boarding. Even the announcement was not that clear. We flew by Air Deccan kinda like Airasia copycat in India. The flight was delay for about an hour coz of heavy traffic and than another hour in the air coz we can't land in Bagdogra due to heavy rain. In the end the two hours flight became three and a half hours. The funny part is, this is the only airline we seen people don't really follow the rule. They simply walk around even when we're about to land.When we landed our driver (Palden) was waiting for us outside the airport. I already prearrange a car and a driver for our 7 days journey in Darjeeling and Sikkim coz I know India public transport is not so reliable. We're so happy coz our driver was very friendly and knowledgeable about the area (i attach our picture together Me, Palden & Neo). The rain just stop and our driver told us that cyclone just landed in Bagdogra and Darjeeling coz along the way we can see a lot of trees fell down on the street. Darjeeling is about 3-4 hours away from Bagdogra (500m) and it's situated at 2100m above sea level. So, there was a very winding and narrow road up the hill. Actually, there are three roads leading to Darjeeling but two of the road was closed due to the cyclone. The driving was really nice coz we drove along the mountain and it's very scenic. Along the way, we stop for some pictures and lunch at Kurseong (KOR-SIANG). The food was not bad maybe coz we're so hungry already. The temperature here was great coz it's cool and windy. I don't remember what time we arrived in Darjeeling but we check in at Viceroy Hotel (one of the good hotel in Darjeeling.... katanya...). the hotel was good BUT the service kinda way below average (not recommended) and we'll be staying here for two nights. After check in, we hit straight to the town on our own coz it's very near to the hotel (we let our driver rest and meet us again tomorrow).
Surprisingly people in Darjelling don't look like Indian at all and they're polite and friendly even though we're still in India territorially. It's really chilly up here as well. After some pictures we went back to the hotel for dinner and then again we hit the town. This time we went shopping coz a lot of nice things they sell here. I felt like wanna buy a lot of things but I don't think we have enough rooms in our bags. People here are not pushy at all (unlike in Delhi & Agra) and it's really convenient for us to browse through before deciding what to buy. We really like this place and can't wait to explore on this mountainous Himalayan region. For now, it's time to sleep.Some History - Darjeeling is made to be a hill station during British time. It was part of Sikkim before British kinda loaned it and eventually it became part of West Benggal state. The people here mostly from Nepali descendant (they called themself Gorkha) and some are Tibetan. Here where the famous 'Darjeeling Tea' grows and the tea is really nice. I can drink the tea all day long. Obviously the main industry here is tea plantation and the 1st flush of a good quality Darjeeling tea doesn't come cheap either. Population in Darjeeling growing at a faster rate and the man made lake that the British built for water supply (good for 10,000 people) is no longer sufficient to cater their population. So, most of people living in town have to buy water supply from a tanker that looks like an oil tanker. During their last election (7 months ago), the separatist party had won and they demanded to be separated from West Benggal and form a Gorkaland state coz West Benggal is too big to care for them in term of road condition, other infrastructures and all. I hope and I think they'll get an independent state soon coz they're not even Benggali. Darjeeling also have the famous 'Toy Train' which is one of World Heritage Structure. I'll tell you more about the toy train on my next post coz we're going to have a ride on it tomorrow.
Note: All the fact I got it from the locals and our driver. I guess it should be more accurate rather than sometime misleading book.

Disclaimer: Since I got a few feedback from you guys about my previous post that smell racism. So, I just wanna stress out here that there's nothing to do with racism. It's just what I experienced and encountered first hand. That was just truly how I felt for the whole thing.

Much Ado About Taj Mahal

17 May 08 (Day 2) - Long Day In Arid Land
We woke up as early as 6.00am to get ready for exploring Agra. After we had breakfast at Taj Bano (one of Hotel's restaurant) it's already 7.20am. Our car and driver have been waiting for us at the hotel lobby. The car was ok and quite comfortable and the driver was friendly.

First stop, I asked the driver to send us to Taj Mahal. Along the way, we can see how dirty the city was. We can even see pigs running around the town (no kidding). Since we have to walk like 200m before reaching the gate, all these Indians trying to sell from chilly to souvenirs. Even worst, they pull our hand in order for us to buy from them. It's a very long 200m walk for us coz they're very pushy. This experience was even worst then I faced in Istanbul and Beirut. Coincidently, at the gate we met with Malaysian family holidaying there and we chat a bit with them and they share the same feeling about India even they went there with a tour package.
Personally, I don't understand what's the hype about Taj Mahal. It's just a building built coz of love. Yeah, it's intricately beautiful and Yeah, it's full of history (isn't all building full of history???) BUT to go to Delhi and Agra just to see the Taj Mahal, I just don't think it's worth it UNLESS you wanna go through what we went through yesterday. I can't really appreciate it that much. It's just another intricately beautiful building just happen to be one of Seven Wonders of the world (isn't it 8 wonders now).
Second stop is the Agra Fort, it's the same scenario all over again. Those Indians trying to sell thing to us and a lot of guides roaming around there persuade us to take them to guide us. They said the place is very complicated to venture and we'll miss out on the history. Come on, I'm not that stupid to hire a guide to know the history coz I can read all that in the book and the place itself was very easy to navigate. Since it's getting very hot in Agra, so we decided to get back to our car as soon as we finished navigate the Agra Fort.

After that, we proceed to lunch but since this morning our driver suggest a few places that we can buy souvenir so we decided to visit a few of his suggestion. We didn't really like what we saw but Neo end up buying t-shirt for his dad. I'm quite worried where we'll have our lunch but thankfully our driver brought us to a very clean and nice place. We had a very good lunch there.
Next stop is Fatehpur Sikri which is 1 hour away from Agra. Since it's so hot (45 C) and we had a full belly so we end up sleeping in the back seat until we arrived at the destination. Once we got out from the car, we can hardly open our eyes coz the temperature and wind were so hot and the land was very arid and dusty. Since we're quite tired and the driver also suggest us to get a guide for this site (actually we don't want any guide at all at first) so we just went along with his suggestion coz it doesn't cost that much for the guide. All my prejudice was right, the guide end up pushing us to buy a few thing at the site. I really regreted having decided to have a guide now. Once Indian always Indian. They're really not worthy of living coz they always wanna cheat and lie to other people. No wonder their country really SUCK.

Since it's very hot, we decided to call it a day and head back to our car. Unfortunately, the car broke down and we have to wait about 30 minutes for a replacement car. We head straight back to the hotel coz I'm tired of this city and never wanna go anywhere else except our hotel. It was a relieve finally we're in our suite room. The exceptional service in the hotel doesn't end yesterday. We have a butler to prepare our bed for a night time and provide us nutrition for our good night sleep. They prepare us a few local herb for digestion and almond in the water for the skin and hair etc... They even have aromatherapy for us to sleep better. The butler can even prepare a bath for us. I really like their service and never wanna go out from here.

Dinner time, we went to try another restaurant in the hotel i.e Bagh e Bahar which served quite a nice food with kinda live band performing. After dinner we try to book a train back to Delhi for the next day. Unfortunately, all luxury train seat to Delhi was taken. I don't want to share a seat with a pig on the normal train. So, we got no choice other than taking the long bus journey back to Delhi. After that, we went back to our room and sleep coz it was a very hot day we had. I'll continue with our journey on my next post. ciao....

India Oh India

16 May 08 (Day 1) - Dark Day In Dark Cities
We started our journey from KLIA when my brother sent us to the airport with another car (remember the car that got stalled the other night) from Seremban around 6am. Me and Neo kinda excited to start our long journey ahead. At the airport, suddenly I got called from my brother that the car got stalled AGAIN!!! Thank God it was after he sent us to the airport but still I kesian him have to wait for my dad in the highway.

We touched down Delhi around 11am (Delhi time) and I felt that I wanna go back to KL straight away. I hate India so much, from the people (very rude and full of scam), the city, the weather and the environment. It's really a DARK country. At that time, I kinda regret my decision to fly to Delhi just for the Taj Mahal. First, for a big capital city like Delhi, the airport really SUCK!!! and SMELLY as well. Even though now the airport under construction for being upgraded, I don't think it'll be even close as good as KLIA. Since we went there during summer, so there's nothing much we can do with a very hot (40 C) and arid weather. Indian people are VERY EXTREMELY RUDE and even at the immigration, they just THROW back our passport to us. If I wanna tell the bad attitude of the Indian, I think I can write a dedicated post just for that. So, I'll just summarize my first hand encounter here.

RUDE encounter (after immigration) - Since we decided to go to Agra straight away from Delhi, we try to buy a taxi at the airport to Sarai Kale Bus Terminal coz there's no more train leaving to Agra until the next morning. The Indian at the taxi counter scolded me for giving him the wrong Rupee note and shooed me away. It was a total shock coz I don't even understand what he wants in the first place. DAMN Indian!!!!

SCAM encounter - After we got the taxi, I asked them to go to Sarai Kale Bus Terminal coz I knew there's a lot of bus leaving to Agra there BUT the taxi driver have ANOTHER idea. He told us that we can't buy bus ticket at the Bus Terminal (contrary from what I read) and FORCED us to go to the 'Travel Agency' to get the bus ticket. Since we kinda trapped in the taxi, so we just go along with his suggestion. At the Travel Agency, they try to sell us their package to Agra that'll cost us Rs14,000 (RM1,100). I said NO WAY. Then he tried to persuade me to believe that all the bus ticket was sold out. He even ask me to talk on the phone from 'konon-konon nye' the person from the bus counter that told me all bus ticket to Agra was sold out for the next FOUR days. I just couldn't believe it and you STUPID INDIANS can't fool me that easily. In the end we refused to take whatever they offered us even my heart kinda racing a bit coz we're being outnumbered by the STUPID INDIANS. I just remain cool and ASK our taxi driver to send us to the Bus Terminal no matter what. On the way to the bus terminal, our taxi driver suddenly stop and REFUSED to send us there and he asked a tricycle to send us instead (which we have to pay again). Since it's doesn't cost that much and we just wanna get out from the taxi, so we decided to take the tricycle and get to the Bus Terminal as soon as possible. STUPID INDIANS!! I HATE THEM!! No wonder they're sooo dirty and smelly.

At last, we arrived at Sarai Kale Bus Terminal after more than two hours drama on the road (which actually just 20 minutes from the airport). At the bus terminal we observed that Indian are extremely poor. The condition of bus terminal is REALLY bad. It's like we're in a pig farm or something. It was dusty, unimaginably dirty and smelly coz Indian will urinate everywhere there. We're quite surprise even as dirty place like that we saw a women wash her kids cloth on the dirty tarmac of the bus terminal. How can it be hygienic coz it's like you do your washing in a pond of urine BUT that's INDIA. My decision was right coz there were a lot of bus leaving to Agra and we can just easily buy the ticket in the bus itself. So, we decided to wait for an air-conditioned bus coz the one without look so bad. Once the AC bus arrived, it look just about the same as the one without except with semi functional AC. It's still quite hot inside during the 5 hours journey to Agra. It was so uncomfortable but at least we're on the way to our destination. We arrived Agra around 7pm and we have to take a tricycle to our much anticipated hotel coz I already booked a room at Sheraton 'The Mughal' Agra. It's one of the luxirious hotel 5 star hotel in Agra. I just can't wait to get there and rest coz it has been a long and torturous journey so far. Still, the tricycle driver had ANOTHER idea. I asked him to send me directly to the hotel BUT he went and picked up his friend in turn tried to sell another tour package to us. I refused everything and he went and picked up another friend of his to sell another tour package again but this time I told them that I'm not interested and I just wanna stay at the hotel the whole day on the next day.

At last we arrived at arrived at the luxurious Sheraton Mugal and we felt relieved after all the unexpected incident along the journey. From today experience, my expectation was very low regarding the hotel service (even it's 5 star) BUT we been treated like a KING. Since I'm a Platinum card member of Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG), they automatically upgrade us to a suite room. It was expected coz I always been upgraded to a suite room for all SPG group of hotel BUT they sent us to have a check in at the room itself. They don't even ask for my credit card for deposit. The room was really nice and they even have a full body massage chair. The decor and furnishing was very amazing and it's even better that suite room that we stayed in Le Meridien in Bangkok, KL or KK. They even have a complimentary wine and snack bar for us. All of sudden, we felt relieved and don't even want to get out from the hotel. It's like an oasis in the middle of the dessert. I'll tell you more about the hotel in my next post coz we stayed two nights there. You can check out the website at http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=422
to have an idea how we felt during our stay there.

Indeed we didn't go out that night coz I can never imagine eating at a very dirty place outside the hotel. So we had dinner at one of their restaurant i.e Peshawri. The ambiance of the restaurant was amazing and the Indian food served was very nice and clean. I don't mind that it costs more rather than I'll have a diarrhea for the whole week by eating outside.

Since the next day we planned to go to Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri etc so we decided to hire a car and a driver for one whole day from the hotel to bring us around. I had enough of Indian public transport and scam that'll pop up along the way. I rather pay one time more rather than being conned from one after another. After I did all the car booking with the hotel, we just spend the night on the massage chair in the room and sleep like a baby coz it has been a really long journey and we're extremely tired by now. By the way, we need to wake up early tomorrow coz we hired the car from 7am to bring us around. I'll tell you what happen on Day 2 of our journey in my next post. ciao....

Welcome Home!!!

Hi everyone. It has been weeks since my last blog and what was an amazing journey that had been for me. Since there has been a few request for me to blog my last travel experience, so I'll blog it in a few episodes coz it's too much to tell in just one take. I'll start the first episode in my next blog hehehe.

Here I'll tell you what happen after I came back in Malaysia on 31 May 08. So, I can do the prequel later on hehehe. Since I arrived Kuala Lumpur from Delhi at 7.40am (which is almost 1 hour delay with the perasan 'five star' Malaysia airline tu), I went straight back home to sleep and rest. Later that day, I went to KL to buy some stuffs and met a few of my friends. I end up having dinner with Alie, Malis, Adrie and their kids at Paddington Pancake, The Curve.

After that, I went to Fadli new house at Laman 38 (which cost RM70K to renovate). They (Fadli and Raz) still do the paint job inside so I willingly watch them paint the house without helping for couple of hours hehehehe. Then I went back home to Seremban which I arrived around 1.30am. I need to get a good rest coz I really lack of sleep and rest these couple of days. Then the next day I went back to Tawau to start working again..... to be continued (in prequel) heheheh