Karl and Kara In The Himalaya

Managed to tear ourselves away from Pelling and head for Darjeeling. On top of one these high forested hills is a city of 100,000 people. And lots of tea plantations. Originally part of Sikkim the British/East India Company managed to convince the Raja to lease it to them and it eventually became part of India. There's still an independence movement wanting the region recognised as Gorkhaland (as in the Gurkha regiments of the British army who were recruited here). Tea plantation. Women toiling in a tea plantation. Drove up a crazy-steep road to get here, my neck was actually sore keeping my head upright. And have settled into a week of doing nothing in preparation for the big Everest trek. High on a hill with a view of the snowy Kangchenjunga Darjeeling's a combination of colonial England (high teas, fireplaces, old houses) and India (crowds, chaos, colour). High tea at the Windermere, dahling. Guidelines for appropriate behaviour in the sitting room at t

Flew from Bhutan back to north-eastern India. Had a five hour drive up wind-y (not blowing air but with lots of corners) mountain roads to Pelling. As we were driving along, readjusting to the heat, chaos and general madness of being in India the CD selection played “I like to have a drink with Duncan.......” and then some Irish trad. Weird. Huge development happening up here, we passed four hydroelectric plants under construction and lots and lots of road construction. Apparently India likes to pour money into the area to convince the locals they want to be part of India. Sikkim was an independent kingdom from the 17 th century with a Tibetan background. It fought wars and signed treaties with its neighbours and so kept a degree of self-determination (and its royals until the 70s) despite being controlled by the East India Company, then Britain and now India. The present population is mainly of Nepalese origin. So arrived at our hotel to be greeting in a very fancy fo

Bhutan. Fan-bloody-tastic. The country with an official measure of Gross National Happiness has made me immensely happy. Started with a great flight out of Kathmandu (once we managed to extract ourselves from Kathmandu airport, no mean feat), in smallish plane (think Aer Arannn or Qantaslink) with a lowish cruising altitude so we were below-but-felt-level-with a broad sweep of the Himalayan range including Everest for most of the trip. Played “guess which one is Everest” and regretted not having done more research.   Had a hint that Bhutan was maybe going to be civilised when we managed to get a snack and a glass of wine on the hour long flight. Then came a very interesting landing, we got lower and lower among the hills and along the valleys, then another bank/turn, then lower and lower, another swoop/wobble/adjustment, lower still, surely touchdown will be any moment, another turn/adjustment. There was about one metre of stabilised approach before landing,