Hotel Himalayan Heights Gangtok

here i am. in sikkim. staying at a kapababa's sanga on the mountain side. life is good. challanging, frustrating, overwhelming (in both good and bad ways), stimulating, and wonderful. let me explain.

as you may remember, i felt the desire to come home soon after arriving in india. it's most wonderful, of course, but it wasn't the same mystic and magical india that i remembered. after completing a vipassana meditation course, i felt content and grounded ...

... When we got back to Darjeeling we had a nice relaxing half day of watching tv in our hotel room, walking around the city, and eating good food. I really liked Darjeeling with its famous tea, good food, and amazing views of the Himalayas. That afternoon we did a taste test of teas, which I thought tasted mostly like warm water, but were evidently some of the best teas in the world. One had won an award for the best tea in the world, or something like that. It was ...

... night with Bayram at Lazy Frog's in Patara, Turkey. We stayed at the Blue Bird. Upside, each bed was 50INR. Downside, what you pay for is what you get, but it worked. We had to wait for cheese to arrive from Gangtok for the pizzas at the Last Beer Bar and Restaurant, so we parked it on a small grass clearing overlooking the hills about 50m down the hill from the restaurant. With our iPod speakers busted out and some Hits (Sikkim beer), we were joined by ...

... I've seen used in various ways. The most interesting was as a ladder. There will be buses with people inside, luggage on top and people on top of the luggage! How no one falls off is beyond me! And then it starts to rain... makes me realize the ridiculous things i can find to complain about. So far I still have not gotten sick and am keeping my fingers crossed. Ironically, I've had less trouble w/my stomach here than I do generally in the States... maybe its the ...

... přesun nás zmohl a tak se ke klásteru přímo plazíme. Opět jsme odměněni krásnými tvary přírody okolo nás. Je vidět hlubokánské údolí pod námi, do kterého se příkře svazují - některé kolmě - okolní kopce a sem tam se převalují nadýchané mráčky na úrovni nasich očí. Tento kláster - Tashiding Gompa byl zalozen jedním ze tří lámů, kteří v Yuksomu korunovali krále. Samotný kláster se rozprostírá na ...

... a tak jeho cesta sem nebyla zmařena. Taky nám pověděl, ze jedna ubytovna z průvodce v Sighiku je zavřená - bohuzel jsme si nezapamatovali která. Ocitáme se tedy v Mandanu, oba dva nás bolí hlava, máme hlad, nemůzeme najít pokoj a jedinné co chceme, je postel a klid. Já zůstávám s batohy u silnice, kde si okolo mě stouplo a posedalo několik Indů a jak uz to tak chodí, jen tak na mě hledí, zatímco Massimo prochází ubytovny. Vrací se jestě víc unaven a zhnusen tím, co mu nabízeli. Pr ...

... train, Darjeeling Himalayan Railway connecting the town with the plains was declared a World Heritage Site in 1999 and is one of the few steam engines still in service in India. It takes 8 hours to get from the town of Siliguri in the plains to the hills of Darjeeling which normally takes a car/jeep about 3 hours.. City/Town square Happy Valley Tea Estate (closed for construction but we trekked ...

... flu it looked like we were destined to eat only noodles. We did manage to get our hands on some pork but this was not really pork meat; it was more pork fat and actually still had the hairs in it. Back in Darjeeling though, Chicken had returned, and we hit it hard, Mark managed to eat an entire chicken (although it was a skinny racing chicken) The next day was a travelling nightmare. It started off with a breakfast cut short to rush down to the steam train which we ...

... about troubled countries in Africa and how they are different now versus 20-30 years ago. Plus his misguided views on Apartheid which I strongly disagreed with but nevertheless let pass. And that was basically that for the trek. It was well worth it. There are tons of things that I have left out or forgotten but here is one fun random tidbit. There were many pack animals to carry various things. Horses and otherwise. The otherwise are called Dzo (Jho), and they are mule-like ...

... trek. Day1 trek Yuksom -> Bakhim We went past the shops and hotels down the main market road in Yuksom and reached the Police check-post at 9AM. The cop was busy playing carrom board with one of his cronies. He pretended to ignore us. All of us stood faithfully watching him until our guide Gombhir asked him for registration. He refused to yield telling it was too late to start the trek. We would never reach Tsoka or even Bakhim. He suggested us to go back and return the next day ...