Happy Hours Make Happy Days

There is never a dearth of happy hours in my life.  They can never hide from me – I usually find them by instinct. The week gone by was pretty much fun, what with Vidur being at home, enjoying his study holidays. Did I say enjoy? Yes. In fact, he came up with the phrase happy hours to describe these two weeks before his exams begin.  We’ve been having a pleasant time at home, cooking, clutter clearing, working and going out. Did I say going out? Yes, I did! After almost a month and a half, I actually put on footwear to go out!

Remember that post I wrote about Myntra? Well, those guys organized a get together for their valued customers on March 8. I took Vidur along and we had a very good time meeting the team, a fun evening wrapped up with a really nice dinner. They gifted me a bottle of wine.

On the occasion of Women’s Day, they also had a special offer called “Happy Hours” with solid discounts and I enjoyed shopping some stuff for my friends.

By the way, the week before, I had a nice time being interviewed by Matthew McEwan and talking about being an early riser. Do check it out!

To celebrate being mobile again, I decided to spend a few happy hours making plans for vacation-time coming right up after Vidur’s exams are over at the end of this month. Well, not exactly mobile, as I still can’t twiddle my toes – but “better than before” is a great state to be in. believe me.

If  there is one place I am eager to visit again, it is north east India – Sikkim in particular. Remember I posted about feathered friends and landscapes from there last year in June? Oh, what bliss. This time, rather than get a travel agent do the planning, I’ve decided to look for air tickets and do it all myself right from the itinerary to the accommodation to the local travel. It is a good thing we visited once, so that is an advantage. But it was such a short trip it just wasn’t enough. It literally rained on our parade and it wasn’t safe to visit all the places we had planned.

So let me show you some of the sights we missed during our trip, through my dear friend Ravi’s eyes. Yep, he was the one who inspired me to visit Sikkim and generously as always, he says his pictures are my pictures. I like it. A lot.

Here we go then!

Let the happy hours begin!

This is a beautiful sight! The Teesta river undulates all over the place and is full of energy. It flows like someone is chasing it. Lovely memories!

Tiger bridge over river Teesta on the way from Siliguri to Gangtok. The road over the bridge leads to Tibet.

I am so sad we didn’t visit the Rumtek Monastery last time. I love monasteries. I believe Gangtok alone has more than 200. My dream is to visit them all. I love the glimpse of a monastery as we travel, safely sheltered in nature. Sigh! Look at the skies!

Inside Rumtek Monastery

Inside view of the Rumtek Monastery

Now this is a sight I never tire of seeing. You know, all the drums rotate together during prayer time. It is a beautiful sight.

Here’s a little monk at the Labrang Monastery

One of the young monks at the Labrang Monastery

Butter lamps – they light hundreds of them! and it is such a gorgeous sight.

Butter lamps at the Dom Monastery, Ravangla

Every where we travel in the north-east, there are prayer flags of different types, shapes and sizes.

The prayer flags fluttering away on the mountain slopes

Here’s a cute shot of school kids dressed in their traditional clothes all ready to attend a function! What sweet smiles!

Cute young kids of the local school in Ravangla all dressed up in traditional attire for a function

Here’s a unique sight. White prayer flags

Prayer flags on the road to LingBon Monastery

And what is life without some spice and variety?

The fiery hot red chillies of Sikkim

I am so looking forward to visiting the Northeast again. I hope it happens soon. Armed with our air ticket and our backpack, there is no limit to the joy we will experience this trip.

I just realized that ten years ago, our budget was limited to train and bus travel. We just couldn’t afford it. But today, I am grateful we can, at least once a year. And thanks to air tickets India is such a fabulous destination and there are so many places to go, sights to see. My fondest wish is to see as much of India as possible over the next ten years.

So that’s an account of my happy hours.

What incident do you recall that you would dub happy hours?

And now, off to Unknown Mami’s place. From there, who knows where we’ll go! One thing is guaranteed though. It will be a fantastic trip!

Have a great week ahead!