Hotel Soyang Gangtok

... after going to 3 different offices around town and filling out form after form. They want to know who is going up there since China is close by. Many areas near the borders do not allow foreigners but Indians can go where they please.

I wanted to check out Sikkim to see more of the Himalayas but I ran into the same problem I did before...... Monsoon Season! So frustrating! The worlds 3rd ...

... because that is what is on my mind. Okay, now on to my actual travels from the past month. I left for Darjeeling at 5 in the morning on September 26. My house had lost electricity about an hour earlier, and when that happens in Delhi the ceiling fans stop working and it becomes unbearably hot. The heat woke me up and after seeing what time it was I decided to get up early. I gave my Mom a call and walked around the quiet empty streets outside my flat. Those same ...

... soon return to England to earn some more dough; won't be as easy this time around. We woke up before dawn, glanced out of our window (where you could see all the mountains) and sprinted to the roof deck for the greatest sunrise I've ever witnessed. Not quite accurate, we missed the sun, but saw its awesome glow off the mountains. Mt. Khangchendzonga is huge, mighty and completely snow covered and I would argue a more impressive mountain than Everest save for ...

... managed to leave 1 of the 3 shirts I brought with me at the last hotel we stayed at in Siliguri. This was my first time out alone. Gabe has handled the money so now it was my turn to haggle over prices. All went well and I got a shirt. Maybe now I won't be stared at so much. I don't know if the stares are b/c I'm white, female, Western, have curly hair or wearing a shirt with a collar which you do not see any women wearing. Both of our shoes seem to be a source of curiousity as well ...

... chorten, otisk nohy ve skále a spousta přacích barevných vlajek. Chorten je posvátný bílý monument čtvercového půdorysu a věří se, ze tenhle v Yuksomu obsahuje hlínu a vodu ze vsech částí Sikkimu. Můze se vám zdát divné, ze písu o takovýchto věcech, ale kdyz tu člověk je, je obklopen místními lidmi, zvyky, nasává atmosféru - jednoduse to vnímá jinak a to je na cestování právě to zajímavé.... Z Tibetu do těchto končin p ...

... je mozné, ze nevypadly ze zahrádky - nebyly totiz vůbec připevněné. Phodong je díra v horách s několika domy. Podle průvodce jsme okamzitě zamířili do jedné ubytovny a museli se spolehnout na sousedy, aby nám zavolali majitele. Nasli jsme správnou budovu, ale dole, kde má být příjemná restaurace bylo očividně jiz dlouho zavřeno. Majitelka se objevila a pronajala nám roztomilý fialový pokojík s modrobílými dveřmi, který bych v těchto končinách vůbec nečekala. Restaurace byla sice zav ...

... last tour. Lots of sensitive border proximity here so all the foreign tourists need to be accounted for...especially the potentially dodgy Americans! Gangtok is the capital of the former kingdom of Sikkim (an Indian state since the mid-1970's). There's quite a mix of Nepalese, Tibetan, Indian and ethnic tribe cultures here. The capital is on a west facing ridge that overlooks the Ranipul River and valley ...

Just past noon the jeep stopped somewhere in Darjeeling near the main taxi stand. By train, cyclo, and truck the trip from Kolkata took about 16 hours. The overnight train landed in New Jaipalguri that morning. A cyclo took me 8 kilometers to the Jeep stand, and the 4-hour Jeep ride into the mountains completed the trip. It was the one-year anniversary of being on the road and I was tired. A contemplative mood settled in for the last couple weeks in India. Time to kick my ...

... else? Literally, of course, no. But they were just thin enough to give us a massive view of the Pandim range, which stood up above us to the right as we walked across the wet mountain-ripple hills. It was an awesome day as we walked to a valley just below this enormous Pandim range and holed up in a tinier, colder trekker's hut at around the same altitude of 3900m. That afternoon we played UNO with one of our porters, the Swiss-German couple of Thomas and Conny, and an ...

... of straight road anywhere in Sikkim. This is what we call "Ghat section" in south Indian parlance. In-fact, the only stretch of stretch road that we saw in entire Sikkim was the M.G.Marg, the main shopping street in Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim. All the roads were built by the BRO, the Border Roads Organization a government of India company. There were advertisements through out roads proclaiming this grand achievement of the company. They are now building roads now in Afghanistan ...