Sikkim, India.

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 foyer by two staff in full-on formal Indian-style uniform, one giving us the traditional himalayan white scarf welcome and the other profferring glasses of sherry on a silver platter. Delightful. After being shown to our (very noice) room through the (also very, very noice) lobby I had two panicked thoughts: we have no appropriate clothing to wear in this hotel, and did I miscalculate the number of zeros on the room rate?

A woefully underdressed Karl feeds his internet addiction over a beer in the lobby bar.

For the past three days we've done absolutely nothing except enjoy the views of the forested hills stretching up to the snowy peak of the world's third highest mountain. We've lounged around the room enjoying the view. We've lounged around the lobby enjoying the view by the fireplace. We've enjoyed the view from the dining room and from the garden. We've had pre- and post-dinner drinks by the fireplace. We've been generally completely spoiled. And the hotel is managed by an incredibly friendly and welcoming Australian/Tibetan couple so that the whole place feels like a big B&B.

Karl enjoys a beer and views of Kangchenjunga from the garden.

This is the way hotels should work.

The scenery here is basically the same as Bhutan but with much more development so that the hillsides and dotted with villages and terraces. The managers here say its increasing all the time.

Monastery under scaffold.

Brave man on bamboo scaffold.

 

We did drag ourselves out to visit two monestaries and the ruins of the 17^th century former capital/palace of Sikkim. And we walked to the nearby village to have lunch on a different lawn with a view of the mountains. It was a refreshing change to get out and about without a guide and to wander into monestaries with no tourists where you weren't completely certain if you should be there or not.

The ruins of the former capital.

Young monks watch their friends play football.

Old monk just doin' nothin' much.

I highly recommend a trip here if you're in the market for a rest in pretty surrounds and a touch of spoiling. I'm so relaxed I occasionally forget to breathe.