Mandi i'm off: Gangtok,Sikkim

Finally left Darjeeling just after 1pm,there where 12 of us crammed sardine like into a Mahindra Jeep.For the first hour or two we zigzagged down the mountain through a panorama of steep tea plantations,with the jeep,in it's lowest gear.At the bottom and crossing the fast flowing river that separates West Bengal from Sikkim we began the torturous and slow climb up to the border post at Rangpo.Foreigners have to have an " Inner Line Permit" and go through immigration and passport control here and the whole beaureaucratic process takes some time,and patience.

Onwards and upwards,it began to get dark and it began to rain,luckily only the last hour or two of the journey was in darkness,literally as the lights on the jeep didn't work.

It can be daunting and a little demoralizing disembarking from your transport in the rain,in a strange dimmly lighted town,that is perched on the side of a mountain.

Darjeeling was once part of Sikkim until annexed by the British Raj for use as an R and R center for its troops fighting in Nepal.Then after the debacle of partition Sikkim kept its independence as a separate kingdom until in turn annexed in the seventies by India as a strategic buffer against Chinese aggression in the region.Leaving Bhutan as the last surviving independant Himalayan kingdom.The people are a mix of Tibetan refugees,Nepalis,Ghorkas and Sikkimese tribes people,the religion is predominantly Buddhist and the food a combination of Indian,Tibetan,Chinese and Nepali.Here endeth the lesson.

Across the valley,from my Gangtok hotel window .