Our next stop at Rishyap - a small village cradled in the Himalayas

Sunrise from Rishyap
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The next day, i.e. Dec 24th, we left Loleygaon for Reshyap. The road leads us thru Lava ( at a distance of 24 kms from Loleygaon) , where we spent a couple of hours and visited the lovely Lava Monastery and the Neora Valley Nature Interpretation Centre. Lava also has beautiful cottages run by the Forest Development Corporation, but the small town was too clumsy and densely populated - so we decided to travel to Reshyap, a further 11kms ahead. One more point to note is that the last 4 kms of the road to Reshyap is still unmetalled and full of boulders -- so you definitely need a strong 4 wheel drive vehicle to enter Rishyap. Reshyap is a pristine little village of about 100 to 150 huts and about 15 hotels ( most of which are little huts modified into hotels). All the hotels are pretty basic and the best place to stay is undoubtedly Hotel Sonar Bangla, which has 8 well furnished rooms priced at Rs 1000/- and Rs 1200/-. Electricity has made its way into this village less than 2 years ago, and this place still owns her virgin charm. There is nothing much to do, but play with the clouds all the time, and watch the majestic Kanchendzonga ranges on a clear day. Don't expect to find grocery and medicine shops and restaurants -- however expect yourself to be kissed by the clouds and inhale tons of fresh unadulterated air !!!

Hotel Sonar Bangla, Rishyap
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Christmas Day saw us getting some magnificent views of the sunrise on the mighty Kanchendzonga mountain ranges -- and no !!! this time we didn’t have to travel to any sunrise point -- it was from the comfort of our hotel rooms. After a quick breakfast, we decided to undertake a small trek upto TiffinDara mountain top, which is approx 3 kms from our hotel. Our guide was a small kid studying in class 5, who was back home on Christmas leave. On further interrogation, we were informed that the kid's father was a local hotel owner and his mother a doctor in Singapore. And he was carrying a giant kukri ( the local name for a dagger) presumably as a security - should we ever encounter a wild bear !!! This was a fascinating trek through the dense forests, as we trudged our way up towards the mountain top, deftly negotiating the bushes and boulders and fallen trees enroute. We stopped at times gasping for breath, only to be mesmerized by the enchanting beauty of the woods. We could feel the silence and taste the freshness, as we heard the wind blow. It took us about an hour and 15 mins to reach Tiffindara, from where we could get a 360 degrees view all around. However, just as we approached Tiffindara, there were thousands of trees that were felled ( not sure if this was done legally or illegally) - however since no aforestation was in sight, it appeared to be the job of the land sharks, who, with their unholy nexus with the local headmen have done even more damage to the ecology in such small places, than what they have done in the larger cities !!! After a brief halt at Tiffindara, we retraced our steps back to the hotel - all that we carried back was the sight of the giant pine trees against the backdrop of the magnificent snow capped mountain ranges - sights that were firmly etched in our memories.

Reach out to the clouds at Rishyap

Rishyap
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We spent a couple of days in Reshyap, lazing around the villages, meeting the villagers and getting a feel of their lifestyle. On Dec 27th, we hired a vehicle to drop us to Lava bus stand , and from there we boarded another vehicle to travel upto Kurseong.