Sikkim

Next stop Sikkim, which is a couple of hours by jeep from Darjeeling. Sikkim is a tiny state in India bordered by Bhutan and Tibet. India has poured heaps of money into this state on roads and electricity so is one of the most developed places. It also has no taxes and is a big producer of booze. Not surprisingly it also has the highest rates of alcoholism! The people are of Tibetan and Nepelese decent so also has a 'not India' feel about it!

Foreigners have to get a special permit valid for two weeks to enter which is more a formality and a pain in the butt than anything else. So with permit in hand i arrived in Gantok, the capital. It's a little like darjeeling, on the side of a mountain, but not so big. There are some great monestries around the town and it also has a nice vibe. They even close one of the main shopping roads in the evening which makes u feel like your walking down a mall, something unheard of in main India.

After a couple of days of exploring I was off to Pelling, a little town in the mountains a couple of hours west of Gantok. The trip there was an adventure as we were in a share jeep (12 of us crammed in) negoitating this windy mountain road at night during a big storm. Indian roads are generally one lane only and safety rails are unheard of. Lumps of 2ft high concrete are placed randomly but don't think it would help that much. Needless to say it was quite a relief to arrive safely at our destination. The power was off (which it does quite often up here) so the candles were out which made the guest house really cosy and hooked up some friends i meet in darjeeling just happened to be staying there! Garuda is a funky guest house and next morning we were treated to views of the snow covered Himalyas from the roof top terrace. The boneless chill chicken is also to 'die' for...

The next day i went off on a 5 day monastic hike. Not as epic as the Singraliia ridge trek but still nice. Day 1 I hiked to lake Kuechperi (pronounced 'catch a perry') which is very scared to Buddhists and it they believe that birds remove the leaves that fall on to it. I stayed for 3 nights in this little monastic village perched up on ridge with stunning views (when it wasn't raining) of the surrounding mountains.Most of the kids living there attend the monastery. Pella and his son run a couple of guest houses and server up some great local food including local yak meat! Very tasty. It was a magic place and i meet some great travelers also including a couple of fellow aussies and a Spanish couple.

During my stay, I went for a solo mission to find some Buddhist caves and got a little 'geographically challenged' . I ended up going off track which was crazy as i ended up crawling my way through thick rainforest. Eventually, I found the caves but ran out of light and had to find my way down a mountain track in the dark! Luckily it cleared and there was a little moonlight. I didn't get back to 7 and everyone was really concerned. Ooops. Lesson learnt!

The next day was brilliant trekking on the next stage to a tiny little village at the base of the mountains called Yuksom. The first half of the trek passed through pristine forest in a valley following a river. The track passed a little cabin where a Lecha (one of the ethnic groups in the area) family live. The father called out for me to come down for tea and i ended up eating popcorn and drinking tea with Dad, mum, their son, baby and grandma. See pic.


After arriving in Yuksom in the pouring rain i checked in to a lodge and was checking out the town when i heard some great music. Following my ears, i came to a house where the family where having a purja as it was the 49th day of morning for their grandfather. I was invited in to sit with the monks and lamas and given Chang (see pic) which is a fermented millet drink served in this great bambo mug and food. One of those spontaneous travel moments. Later that evening, i also meet this peace activist Israeli guy who told some interesting and funny stories about serving in the army some interesting insight into the conflict.




Yuksom has a 'curfew' where shops and restaurants have to close at 8pm. To enforce it the local policeman runs around at 8pm blowing a whistle! A little bizarre. The restaurant simply put the shutters down and we continued on inside for another hour.









From Yuksom it was on to Tashiding and I walked with a entertaining Spanish couple, Mitre and Jatio and Mika from Japan. It was a nice walk along a road along with great views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. Tashiding itself was pretty average but the 400 year monastery, half-an hour's climb up a steep track from the town, made it worth while. We were lucky enough to be able to sit on some monks chanting and drumming. Brilliant.

Then from Tashiding, we caught a early morning Jeep back to Pelling. The start of the trip was 15ks downhill along a scenic road to the bottom of a valley. I would have given anything to have had my bike with me!!

From Pelling, I caught another morning jeep down to Siliguri, where i was catching a train from and back to the madness (and heat) of India. It was a real shock after weeks of little traffic to be sitting in the middle of a car, truck, bus, rickshaw, bicycle, cow and pedestrian jam!