April 20th Walk to Sanga Choling Monastery

Farmer's Daughter

Sanga Choling Monastery

After 2 days of driving we planned a walking day today. We are high on a hill so we took the first path down towards some farms. The path turned into stairs and down we went. At the first junction we split off into a farm where a few small fields had been carved into the hill, There were cows and goats and 3 small houses. We met 2 men and a baby and Joan taught the baby to wave. After a few minutes we left and headed back up the stairs. It took an hour to ascend 487 stairs and walk out. After the warmup we walked 1 km uphill to the tourist bureau. We learned the monastery I wanted to visit was only 2 km farther on so on we went. The first 500 meters were gentle but then came the mountain. We paced ourselves and on we went. Another hour walking uphill. The auto traffic on the road wasn't heavy but passing presented a problem. We were a lot closer to the SUV's than we wanted to be. The cars often had to stop when the road narrowed or 2 cars met on a hairpin curve. It seems Indian cars do not have a handbrake, The standard method of starting a stalled car on a hill was to put a large stone behind the rear wheel and drive away leaving the stone on the road. There were several large stones on the road. The monastery we visited was the oldest in Sikkim. It had been restored in 1966, but the paint job looked brand new, both interior and exterior. After the visit we returned to our hotel by foot.

Mount Kangchendzonga

Joan did at least 7 km today – all up hill.

April 19th Half day trip to Tashiding Monastery

From Our Balcony

Monastery Door

Tashiding Monastery

Pelling is in the Himalayan foothills. There is no flat land anywhere, therefore there are no straight roads in Sikkim. We left at midday for a trip to the Tashiding Monastery. It was a 2 hour drive because we were constantly going over mountain passes or circumventing deep valleys. We had a nice visit at the monastery but on the way home a storm happened. We had thunder and lightning, rain, hail, and fog. The driver really earned his keep but Joan is a little grayer today.

April 18th Fly to Sikkim and Taxi to Pelling

We flew into Pakyang Airport in a Bombardier 400. The last few kms it looked like we were flying into a mountainside. Then the runway appeared cut right into the mountain, It seemed like a very short runway. Then we took a taxi to Pelling. The distance wasn't great – about 120km. But it took 5 hours of tough driving. The first 5 km from the airport were nice paved highway. Then we hit the potholed and missing pavement sections. I felt better because I didn't think it was fair for Sikkim to have better roads than Quebec. None of the roads were wide so passing in any directions was slow. We arrived at our hotel and when we looked out from our balcony the view was fantastic. We're in Sikkim..

April 15h to April 17th Kolkata

Kolkata is too hot. We spent 3 days in Kolkata (Calcutta) and the hot temperatures defeated us. It was too hot to walk anywhere and we couldn't wander around Kolkata to see the architecture. We took cabs to visit the highlights. Some afternoons we went back to the hotel just to relax in the air conditioning,

The streets of Kolkata teem with life and everywhere seemed to have large crowds of people. We were having coffee one morning, watching the people go by, when I just had to photograph the people. For an hour I took pictures of everyone who walked by, Only 2 people stopped to ask what I was during and only the religious people asked for money. At night the crowds got bigger and the street vendors set up on all the sidewalks. In dark spots people lay down on the sidewalks to sleep. People had to walk on the roads but the trucks, cars and motorbikes did not slow down. The horns honked constantly until I couldn't tell who was honking. Joan was fortunate to take out her hearing aids since the honking went on until 1 AM and kept me awake,

Belur Math temple

Laundry Man

Darshinewar Temple

We visited the Victoria monument, an impressive building and well maintained park, One afternoon we visited a temple called Belur Math. The drive there and back was an education. Going. it seemed to be constant slums for 12 km. We visited the temple until sunset. The way back there were vendor's stalls every inch of the way. The crowds really come out after dark.