So, I've been in India now for almost three weeks. Kolkatta, where I flew into, was very busy and I was more jet-lagged than I had anticipated I would be, and there's not much to say about those three days. I took an overnight train to Darjeeling which was cooler but no less busy due to the Durga Puja festvities and the several thousand Benagli holiday-makers who had decamped to the north to escape the heat of the plains. The one place in India that I wanted to visit was Sikkim, a tiny Himalayan state tucked between Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan. There was an earthquake in north Sikkim just before I left, and I wasn't sure if I would be able to come or not as the roads were closed, power was down etc. Happily for me, and lots of other travellers, most of Sikkim is open and it is georgous. To begin with, the people are amazing; warm, friendly and welcoming. The food is trustably clean and delicious. And the scenery is really stunning.
I've been in West Sikkim where I spent one week in a tiny little village at the top of a hill. At the bottom of the hill is Kheotchapari Lake, the most sacred lake in Sikkim (if you eat the fish you will die!) and a popular destination for day-trippers. There's not much to do in the village except eat, read books and go for little hikes in the surrounding area, all activities that I find very enjoyable when travelling! One walk I did was to the Meditation Cave. We got a bit lost on the way and got leeches all over our clothes, never pleasant experience, but were eventually shown the correct path up the hill to the cave.
The view from the top was glorious; you could see the lake, shaped like a left foot, and the little village and then the foothills of the Himalayas stretching out in front of you.
After a week in the village, I dragged myself back to the real world and am now in a place called Pelling, though Pelling is very odd. It's not a town as much as a two-mile strip of hotels, all of which have been built on account of the view of Khangchendzonga, the third highest mountain in the world. There's not a lot to do here apart from gaze at the mountains which are only 16km away. The BEST thing is to get up hideously early and watch them change from pink to white as the sun gets up but I have to confess that I failed to do that this morning. There's also a couple of monasteries, including the oldest in Sikkim, and some ruins which I'm going to visit tomorrow. And eat. And read. And eat some more.....
(photos to follow)
