QUITE THE TRIP

In my experience I find that I fall into the most bizarre of situations when planned to avoid any such discomfiture. One of such incidents happened when we were on a vacation in Sikkim. Here we means my mother cousin and of course me. As we all know that a tour of Sikkim is incomplete without visiting the Tsomgo Lake. To do that we had to have a vehicle which were on hire at the state transport corp. there. In order to be comfortable we decided that its best we hire out the whole sumo which is meant for 10 people to accommodate 4 instead (including the driver). I guess that had the god of sustainable use of natural resources hot on our trail.
The reason to get to the lake for was the snow. The lake wasn’t going to be frozen over at that time of the year but the hills and mountains around will probably be snow-capped Ours was one of the first cars to leave for the lake that day. Here I feel I should share a piece of info: we were staying at the deorali lodge in Sikkim and if you ask them nicely they would help arrange for the car before hand so you don’t have to haggle your morning away with the taxi guys and their brokers. Back to the trip, it hadn’t even begun that our car had to get its brake fixed. It sounds really bad for the terrain we were about to embark on but believe it or not I was oohing and aahing my lungs out didn’t realize much about it. So this must have infused my mother and my cousin with a misguided sort of optimism
Believe me from the petrol pump the road just got better and better (in terms of aesthetic appeal). I think the drivers of that route probably have on of the best jobs in the country (well minus the stiff back and tedious hour lousy pays and the list goes on...). Just tell me how many people can say that they drive past the Himalayan shadows for work everyday. The road was one of the most beautiful I had been on. Once you can see the Himalayas peeking close you know that it was worth getting up this morning.
Alas! This didn’t last much long the car had a break failure and we were stranded on that beautiful stretch with nothing much. But the view remained great as always. As ours was on of the first few cars to leave that morning we couldn’t get any cars to beg to take us back and the inflow of cars till the lake was quite inconsistent that day. There was the disaster stranded there for hours calling the hotel guy, other taxi guys or who ever we could begging the cars passing by to take us with them but some were full and couldn’t help it and some just drove on.
It was little over two hours that we finally found a car. There we were again crammed into the back of a car with the bends of the road threatening to throw me off throw that giant window at the back. But the truth be told all the three of us were having a great time. We were talking laughing out hearts out and enjoying. So when were at the lake the stiff neck from being thrown around in the car and all the other woes were forgotten. We ran up the hill (with the exception of my mother) slipped on the snow (I ate some) threw snow ball slid on it played got tired and came back. I did abstain from riding the yak on the basis of PETAish ideas, visited the markets down. And returned the same way. Really all us have those people to thank for the life.
So here it is THANKS FOR THE LIFT, BECAUSE OF YOU HAD A GREAT TRIP.