The (Exhausting) Trek to Yuksam

The day dawned crisp and clear. There were few clouds in the sky. Once again, the mountains across the valley could be seen clearly and it was a magnificent sight. It seemed a good omen to begin the trek to Yuksam. I was feeling strong and my back seemed to be fairly sturdy. I figured I would probably make it through the day. I did hope though that I wasn't going to hold Robin and Kenichi up too much. 

We ate a hearty breakfast, paid our room and board and headed out, but not before saying a final good-bye to Sonam's father. He had been the cook for the Dalai Lama and had told us a bunch of stories the night before. He was a very interesting man.

Back down the hill to the village below, for the third time, I was getting very familiar with the path down the mountainside. It didn't make it any easier, and certainly not with 15 kilograms to carry with me. But it wasn't too bad.

From the village at the bottom, we headed down the road for a bit until we found the shortcut down into and across the valley. It was beautiful. We walked through villages on the mountainside. We walked through quiet forests, quiet except for the birds in the trees. I don't know quite what to say about the scenery, so I will let the scenery speak for itself.

I managed quite well. Down was not a particular problem. Gravity did most of the work. But on the other side, we continued to follow the shortcut instead of following the road, which was much longer. For me this may have been a mistake. There were a couple of times where I wobbled and almost fell down. It was quite a tough climb with the extra weight. I was really wishing that I had left a bunch of stuff in Darjeeling, or somewhere else along the way. But I had not thought I would do something like that and so...

And in the end I made it. Robin and Kenichi got way ahead of me at times, but I still managed to catch up in the end, at the village of Yuksam. We finished up at a spot in the village, reputed to be the spot where three monks from the surrounding mountains met and crowned a fourth person as the king of the area. That was the birth of the kingdom of Sikkim. The thrones for the various participants was still intact.

So was a tree that was planted at the time. It was now quite massive.

Then it was into the village itself where we got some well-deserved refreshments and found a spot to spend the night. It had been a successful adventure. But it had also convinced me that I was going to be in no shape to deal with Nepal in any sort of reasonable timeframe, given my other goals for this trip. So, Nepal has been scratched off the itinerary for this point in time. Oh well. A spot to come back to.