There are times when you have been planning since forever, and it is hard to recall how many times the idea has been cancelled. I am talking about a Stupa that I and my closest friend were thinking about going. It was really funny as we would decide the time to visit this beautiful monastery on a Friday night, and the next morning, we would be busy with something or end up at different places. It continued for more than a dozen times .So whenever we placed the idea in our minds we would laugh over the fact that it surely was not happening.
The same event occurred yesterday as we were leaving for the White Monastery. A clear day turned out to be gloomy, rainy and foggy. It felt that the universe was conspiring for us to not go. As we had left from our homes, we went ahead with the actual plan. Wishing for the downpour to get calmer and lesser, we reached the Hulchowk area from the ring road. The place is not that far from Hulchowk, Armed Police Force Headquarters. About half an hour drive inside from the main road, the roads are narrow and there are some slopes which are steeper, like scary steep. I have been driving since quite some time, but it sure was an adventure driving in those lanes. Since it was the first time for each one of us and me being the only driver, quite a thought was given before leaving for the height. I am sure, being on the wheels was decent (pun intended) and I did not horrify my buddies apart from the times when I could not stop swearing on the pedestrians who were holding their hands and walking. I still don’t understand why hikers would block the roads by clustering together. Anyway, we reached the entrance in few minutes and the tricky part was parking the car. Little did we know, there was a parking inside and we would not have to take the trouble of a U-turn in the most challenging way.
Enough about the drive, let’s get on how wonderful the place was. In the rainy weather we could see hundreds of people around and I am sure they had no idea how the weather would change all of a sudden. Saturday is the only day this monastery is open from 7 to 5 P.M. Entry pass at the entrance of the Druk Amitabh Mountain leads you to 3 statues in a slope and each one of them is decorated beautifully with emerald, turquoise and other stones. The statuette on the top was surrounded by other idols. The statues made in ample space, we could see some gardening around. The place was clean and no plastics were forbidden. There were monks staying at the premises, some of them were really young at age. As we were on the height, the clouds were getting denser and in no time it started raining heavily.
After clicking some pictures and as we got done with the V-BLOG we sat in the only cafeteria for some coffee. The drive back was as interesting as the uphill was and we did lose our way to the main road once again. Seto Gumba is surely one of the attractive places but the best visit is on a sunny day as you can catch a glimpse of the town too.
P.S:: THE LINK TO THE V-BLOG: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk7d_pUR2uQ
