Post Trek Travels

We hope you haven't missed us too much, but we're back again now!

Well, we were last in northern India at the end of our marvellous Singhalia ridge trek. The trek wasn't the end of our holiday though and we spent a great few days exploring Darjeeling and the he historic kingdom of Sikkim.

As we need to move on to more recent adventures, we'll just give you some of the highlights of our second week.

In Darjeeling we enjoyed pre dinner pink gins at the Windermere Hotel, a real relic from colonial times. We were served by a waiter in the most amazing Indian costume which must have been quite an embarrassment to wear today.  

Not being the most sophisticated bears, we didn't realise that a pink gin didn't include any tonic! We cracked after a couple of sips of the neat stuff and had to order some tonic.

In Darjeeling we also had an exciting visit to Himalayan Zoological Park and the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute; both share the same site.

Take our word for it, Yorkie and I are climbing on this rock face (Everest?) inspired by the words just above us - May you climb from Peak to Peak. Close by was the site where Tenzing Norgay was cremated and where his ashes remain.

The highlight of the zoo visit was seeing those red panda which had been so elusive on our trek.

There were quite a few of them and they weren't in hiding. They were truly beautiful and we were so pleased to see them at last.

In Sikkim we stayed in some marvellous hotels. Our favourite was this beautifully decorated family run hotel the Netuk House Hotel in Gangtok. Our male minder is in the doorway of our upper room with balcony.

We were welcomed with glasses of Sikkim cherry brandy (delicious) and also got to try the local millet beer which was served hot and drunk through a straw (not so delicious). We were also served a traditional Sikkimese meal which had some, interesting, elements.

We did a fair amount of temple visiting. Here Gio admires the artwork at the famous Rumtek monastery, founded in the !6th Century.

We also attended a full Buddhist service with lots of chanting, gongs, horns and cymbals. Sadly photos don't convey what a sensory experience was; we really needed a recording for you.

After a whistle-stop tour of Sikkim, we had the authentic experience of an Indian sleeper train journey. Much to our surprise we slept quite well and arrived in Calcutta in time for breakfast.

In the afternoon we had a guided tour of Calcutta and what a gem it is. It is a beautiful city with some lovely architecture, historic buildings and lots to see and do.
 

Go particularly enjoyed seeing the Victoria memorial. It was just down the road from the Calcutta cricket ground and race track. Sadly there was no racing on the day we were there.

We much preferred Calcutta to Delhi and would recommend a visit to anyone. We will be waxing lyrical in the relevant chapter of the Friendly Planet Guide. The only downside was that we it made for a long journey home to England as we had to fly to Delhi first before boarding our flight back to London.

We do like India and we're sure we'll be back.

Love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

Party Time

The Lodge had a fine dining room which we'd discovered when we went there on arrival for tea and biscuits. We were especially impressed by 2 lots of framed words from the Dalai Llama that were on the walls - how's this for an example - are you inspired or not?

One moment we were planning to eat our final trek meal in the dining room, then the next moment we weren't. What had changed? Dilip had discovered that we would be sharing the dining room with the the other trekking group, the 'hoorays'. This didn't meet with Dilip's approval at all, and the next thing we knew, the dining tent - which we thought had been put well away, not to be seen by us again - was coming out and being erected on the main lawn ...

We all thought this was great, as the dining tent was so familiar and it was where we'd enjoyed every other trek dinner.  Being in the dining tent that evening was even better than on the trek, as there was a crate of Sikkimi beer (pretty strong at 8%) to enjoy (pacing ourself at that strength of course!).

As always the meal was tasty and filling and for pudding we had a special treat. Manilau, the cook, had baked a special Singalila Trek cake - served an a silver salver no less. We had to take a photo quickly as it didn't hang around - it was cut and consumed pretty quickly.

After dinner came the serious business of final speeches and tips and thank you's to the trekking crew, who had done such a fine job of looking after us ...

Then came singing and dancing: first a Nepali song, then a western one, and so it went on, alternating, for a while. As we went outside for the Hokey Cokey (what else?) everyone was having a great time and we were mixing well across our respective cultures. We looked across to the dining room where the Hoorays didn't look to be having anything like as much fun.

And after the entertainment there was a proper bed and a bathroom to look forward to - what more could anyone want?

Lots of love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

The Nearest Thing to 5 Star Luxury

It's now time to tell you about the final day of our Indian trek ('about time' we hear you say!).

We were on our way back to civilisation; indeed we were even due to end the day in a small town. Before the town though, came lots of small settlements; we were still in lovely countryside but we were passing schools, smallholdings, houses and even a tea shop ...

... we stopped for delicious ginger tea which was served in these beautifully patterned and colourful mugs with their own lids. Roasted sweet corn was passed round for us to nibble on - very scrummy and a lot healthier than our usual snack of crisps or chocolate.

We knew the tea was fresh and local when we turned round and saw tea drying in the sun ...

... it was very grey and made me think of Earl Grey, it was hard to imagine that this might have been the ginger flavoured tea we were drinking as it didn't look gingery.

Just before lunch we did our final downhill and forded a river, as the bridge over it was apparently unsafe. We were now down at the bottom of the valley even though we were still quite high (2,286m)  by British standards.

Our final 2.5 miles was along road - part dirt track and part tarmaced. It was strange to have to get out the way of an occasional car. It was an easy, mostly flat walk with lots of interesting things to see along the way. There was this lovely clump of bamboo, which was a lot more colourful in reality than it looks ...

... there were also colourful roadside shrines and temples. 

All too soon we reached the small town / large village of Rimbik. We'd been told we would be staying at a basic lodge where we would be sharing 2 showers. As this would be our first shower for nearly a week, we were planning a rota with strict time allocations. As we arrived we were pleasantly surprised by how nice the lodge looked and how beautiful the gardens. The best surprise, however, came when Dilip told us that most of us would be getting private verandah rooms with, wait for it, an ensuite bathroom.

We got one and it was lovely - front door as below ...

... we sat outside, as you can see, relaxing and enjoying the gardens, so as to let our minders shower first; bears are generous like that. 

The real icing on the cake though, was to learn that our rival trekking group (the hooray Henrys introduced in our Camp Wars post) were also staying at the lodge and they had not got ensuite rooms so were having to queue for a shower. This really was one up to Dilip and Exodus and we couldn't help but secretly chuckle and count our blessings.

The men in our party went off for a shave and head massage at the local barbers, then it was time for our farewell meal with our trekking crew. We had an interesting venue for this - find out where, next time.

Love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

Volunteering is Fun

We're still in England, not India, as we wanted to share news of a wonderful volunteering day we had this week.

Regular readers will know us (Chris and Benny) as office bears who help our female minder out in the office. That office is Victory Housing Trust and, full marks to Victory, they recently gave all staff an extra 3 days leave which is to be used for volunteering on projects which benefit the local community.

Through our minder's new job (long story) we became acquainted with Heritage House, a day care centre which does marvellous work with the elderly who they describe as 'the beautiful elderly' (we like that).

When we first visited, builders were finishing work on a fine new conservatory. The Manager (the delightful Mary) needed to furnish the conservatory and get it ready for use and had no-one to help. That's where our minder, a colleague of hers, and us of course and the new volunteering leave came in. We applied for and were granted a volunteering day, so along we went.

This is us outside the new conservatory. As you can see it was a lovely sunny day, and as there was a fair bit of physical work, moving furniture, we had frequent breaks in the sun. Just look at the size of the open doorway! - we're sure all the day care visitors will love the breathe of fresh air they will get. 

Manager Mary had done a lot of clever thinking and thought of a way to mix the ultra modern conservatory with old things that would be familiar to the centre users. We moved in the dresser you can see, and an old dining table and chairs and filled the dresser with lots of memorabilia from the last century which we hoped would make the guests full of nostalgia for their younger years. There was also an old radiogram and we even did a spot of dancing to Barry Manilow. 

We filled the conservatory with brand new chairs which looked great and were very comfortable.

We tested them out and, with the suns rays on us, and the hard work done, it was hard to keep our eye lids open.

Sadly we couldn't make the official opening the following day, but we're sure it will have gone well and the room will be much loved and gets lots of use.

Best wishes to all the lovely people at Heritage House and keep up the good work.

Lots of love, Chris and Benny xxx

Hey Oop Chuck

We decided our readers needed a break from India, and thought we go bang-up-to-date with a report of today's avian activities.

We haven't travelled up north (just incase you were confused by our post title) but we have been looking after a friend's 5 chickens - what fun!

Chicken feeding and egg collecting is the perfect job for me ('nature notes' Chelmer) and my gardening bear friend, Tommy. We wandered over to the home of the girls late morning, and found them eagerly awaiting our arrival. It gave us a warm feeling to have our appearance so enthusiastically greeted.

We got straight down to business topping up the corn bowl and scattering some around, so that those lower down the pecking order got a look in on the grub. (We were sad to see 2 of the 5 girls looked looked very hen pecked round their tail feathers and we just don't understand why all creatures can't live as companionably as all of us Bears Unlimited bears). 

Next came the exciting bit of looking inside for eggs. We were in luck, there were 4 beautiful big eggs today. We gathered them up ready to hand over to chef Oakley.  Thank you girls.

We could get used to looking after the chooks, but sadly, we've only got 1 day of it, as our friends have a rota for chicken feeding, to give several people a chance of some free eggs.

Maybe, one day, we'll get some chooks of our own.

It's dark now, as we write, so we'll say goodnight and sleep tight girls.

Love Tommy and Chelmer xxx

The Hunt for Red Panda

After lunch, the big downhill continued, and for the first hour we all had to be quiet. This was quite hard for us, as we'd just made a new friend in Brian, and we wanted to continue chatting away happily and getting to know him.

However, there was a good reason why we needed to be quiet and it was one which was worth being quiet for. We were descending through bamboo forest which is red panda territory, and there was the possibility that, if we were quiet enough, we might see one.

Now, we really, really wanted to see a red panda as they are one of our favourite animals (after bears and hamsters). We got ourselves organised so we could scan every bit of flora and hopefully miss nothing. Yorkie, being the smallest, looked at ground level ....

.... while I, George, looked into the tree tops, and they were very tall ....

....  while Gio and Brian took a side each and looked at eye level. We couldn't have been more vigilant, but sadly, red panda sightings were not to be that day.

It was lovely jungle-like terrain though and the greenery was amazing; when Gio stood in front of these huge ferns he looked just like an Red Indian brave with a big head-dress ....

By the time we'd caught up with Ratoo in a grassy clearing, we'd left the bamboo forest well and truly behind, and with it our dreams of getting up close and personal with a red panda. Never mind though, our camp site was now in sight just across the valley in the cleared green area behind Gio's head and it wasn't going to take too long to get there, as one of the cook crew had walked across to meet us with a kettle full of hot orange - very refreshing.

The camp site was on the edge of a village. The downside was we were pestered by the local children wanting to peer in our tents and follow us everywhere; on the plus side, we had 2 permanent toilets and a local lady invited us to look round her house and to see her animals and sweetcorn store.

This was her house; it was very clean and nice and she was clearly very house proud.

It was lovely to return to civilisation and to meet the locals.

Lots of love

George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

A Life of Brian

After a last scenic visit to the toilet tents, we were on our way again, for what turned out to be the best day's walking of the trek.

First we were heading for the high point of Phalut, which is a small settlement on the Singalila ridge and marks the point from which we would start our descent to lower altitudes (good news for those suffering altitude headaches).

The path to Phalut started off as a lovely ridge walk, with a steep 1 km ascent at the end. Rather confusingly Gio is not looking in the direction of the trail; had he turned his back to the camera (which he thought would be rude) he would have be pointing in the right direction. Our path was basically along the left hand edge of the picture, then to a white blob on the right hand side of the distant mound, this being Phalut. Although Phalut appeared on kilometre marker stones, giving the impression of being almost a town, it was only about 2 houses in size which is why it doesn't show up in the picture.

We were first to the top, and while we relaxed waiting for the rest of the party to arrive, we looked back along the trail - and spotted our male minder half way up - look carefully and you should see a stick figure standing in a grassy area just to the left of the path - that's him!

We also took some time to get better acquainted with Ratoo who was ambulance horse for the duration of the trek. He mostly carried one of the party who was not at all well, but, for a short while he had a different passenger following a fall resulting in a banged knee.

We felt a bit sorry for Ratoo as he had to travel with the trekking party which meant he got separated from his fellow ponies in the baggage train and had a longer working day. As he lacked equine company we thought bear company might be the next best thing.

Talking of company, we had some great company of our own when we got introduced to Brian the Lion from Wales. We'd heard rumours that there was a fellow cuddly on the trip, but as we hadn't met him, he was either very quiet and shy or, he didn't exist.

We were very pleased to find a) that he did exist and b) that he was a most friendly and charming seasoned traveller. In no time at all we were getting on like a house on fire and we found we had lots in common. We were introduced at the lunch break and we had so much to talk about we were in danger of not doing the delicious lunch dishes justice. Fortunately Yorkie realised we were neglecting lunch in time, and rounded up some dishes before going into scary piranha mode.

We hope this wasn't going to put Brian off us. 

Lots of love, George, Gio and Yorkie xxx