The Royal Plaza Gangtok Sikkim

... the massive Himalayas.We reached Pelling after a five hours journey and checked in a very familier hotel. And we saw the KANCHANJANGHA, so close we cannot believe. The next day we saw meny tourist site, like Rimbi falls,Rock garden,Khechipedi lake, Pemiangshi Monastery, etc. But above all rose the magnificent kanchanjongha,Janu,Kabru and Pandim.

... the benches in front of the trekkers hut. We went upstairs to our rooms, dropped the luggage and scurried down to view the scenery. The view was splendid. A huge valley bisected by a river lay in front of us. The clouds were playing hide and seek with the distant mountain tops. There was a student group from a Nainital boarding school. These chaps turned out to be quite friendly and were led by by one of the boy's father who apparently was quite familiar with this territory. He was ...

... I had been thinking how on earth can they drive on this. It was steep steep switchbacks, hair pin turns, bumping the whole way. Every 15 minutes or so, the jeep would break down and we'd stop whiel the driver fixed it. I was absolutely terrified the entire way. At one point, we were going up hill and we'd just come around a switchback, so behind us was empty space pretty much, and the engine of the jeep started ...

... the next 8 days. We eat a filling breakfast and set off into the overcast day. After clearing our permits at the trail head, we begin our journey into the Himalayas. A stone path leads us out of the village and into the cloud shrouded forest. Trees appear and disappear with the rolling mists as pristine rivers and waterfalls become the whisper just beyond our vision. We cross suspension bridges of varying quality from steel and concrete to shoddy wooden structures spanning raging ...

... and praying, they put some offerings on a small table and shuffled off to one side. As it was time we left for the flight, I popped some rupees alongside the rice, etc and we bowed ourselves out. (The praying was still going on when we left the airfield an hour later) So Guy was going up in a chopper! They had found 2 other people so the cost had lessened. I didn't want to go in case I was sick and spoilt the flight (Jane Manning - you know what I mean!!!) So Guy asked Mani if he ...

... chodi, tak jsem spolu zustali dalsich 10dnu. V Peelingu jsme navstvili dve monasterie, svatbu, bohuzel, jeste v zacatcich, ale hlavne jsme s e kochali vyhledy na hory. Popojeli jsme dale ke Khechalpuri jezeru, kde jsme bydleli u mistni rodinky. pekne nam vyvarovali.Takovy klid a mir, tam na u nich na horach. Dalsi destinaci byl Gangtok, hlavni mesto provincie. Odtud jsme chteli vyjet na vylet ...

... they don't spend much time there! The space would have been used by a monk and an apprentice, who was learning how to be a monk from the more senior monk. The quarters had two storeys, with a ladder for climbing from one flight to another. Below the temple containing the stupa for the 10th Panchen Lama was a courtyard where monks were debating, just as we had seen in the Sera monastery not long ago. We walked down to see this and also to see the main assembly ...

... before it reached the end of the platform! After a pleasant if less eventful flight to Bagdogra airport I was looking forward to a picturesque drive from the airport up to Darjeeling. It did not concern me that the driver responded that the ride would take three hours when the sign said 77kms. Well, after more than three hours of driving up the winding hills, cris-crossing the Toy Train tracks while trying to avoid oncoming ...

... mon petit village a flanc de coteau au milieu des montagnes ! Ouf...j'aurai pas fait tout ce trajet uniquement pour voir du beton et du brouillard ! Mais il ne me restait plus qu'un jour et demi sur place... Je suis arrive en debut d'apres-midi. Il faisait toujours aussi beau mais on ne pouvait pas voir les montagnes juste en face a cause de la brume eternelle... J'ai visite le monastere de Pemayangtse et les ruines d'une ancienne capitale du Sikkim tout proches. C'etait ...

... and as our jeep slowly rumbled over fallen rock and washed out roads I wondered how many more we were going to have to cross. Mountain life... All the driving up and down does wreak a bit of havoc on your body. I usually felt continually naseous on the curvy roads as we drove straight up and then down. Our barometer for altitude was a potato chip bag we had with us. When we were really high up (over 2000 m) the chip bag would start to expand ...