I must say this was one of the chance bookings that I had made...not a person to take any sort of risks while taking my guests on a tour, I was totally convinced while talking to Shiva, the host of this beautiful home stay that we will not be disappointed. He is a soft spoken Gurung, who went out of his way to make sure that we had a lovely stay in his home.
We reached Darap late in the afternoon . A bit of confusion and they had assumed that we wont be arriving for lunch, hence had to wait for a wait on reaching for the food to arrive. And it was worth the wait..Radha may not be able to cook exotic stuff but they are homely and definitely very tasty. One day she prepared a typical Gurung breakfast and each one of us hogged on to it as if we haven't had breakfast for ages..:-)
We never realized how fast our two nights passed by....as it was a relaxing holiday ,none in the group were interested in going for the sight seeing trips around Pelling, though we did visit the monastery and the waterfalls.
A visit to the Darap village was a eye opener too. We learnt that many women in the village suffer from Lung cancer, a possible cause may be the the traditional cooking methods using the firewood. The houses are built with low ceiling, and without any outlet. Hence, the smoke remains indoors. Coupled with their tobacco eating habits, its no wonder that many women suffer from this dreaded disease. Shiva was keen that we should do something about smokeless Choolahs for this village. Will work on this project soon.
All in all, it was a well deserved holiday for every one of us .. truly an amazing holiday in the mountains...
