Foothills of the Himalaya - a 6-week trip.

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Wednesday, 21st May. It appears that all the time I have been saying that we are in Sikkim, we have actually been in West Bengal! So much for my geography! Today we travelled 4 hours over the W. B. border into Sikkim, and stopped at Rangpo for our visas [and cheap booze] before completing our journey to Gangtok. Our trip had taken us through forests of teak trees. We stopped at the viewpoint of the meeting of two rivers: the muddy Teesta, and a clearer river.
Our present hotel is the Nor-Khil Palace which has a garden fit for sunbathing but unfortunately by 14:00 there was no sun! However, the food seems to be good, and the rooms very comfortable.
Our Guide is called Umesh, and he is from Darjeeling. Our rather daring Driver [regarding his driving skills] is Asoka who is also from Darjeeling but is from the Gurkha community. The Gurkhas are well-known by their bravery and trustworthiness, both aspects which come very reassuring to both Alison and myself when we go round corners on two wheels, and he attempts to overtake when there is no room! We are travelling in a Toyota that is said to be 3 1/2 years old; personally, apart from central locking, it appears to me to be over 20 years old but who am I to question it?
The food to-date has been very good but from my wife's point of view has been mainly Indian. Most of our fellow holiday-makers have been from India - mainly Mumbai [Bombay, as was] - so I suppose the hotels are catering for the majoriy. I, on the other hand, can cope with curry for breakfast, lunch and tea. However, I have made the serious mistake of plumpimg a lot of the time for Dal with the attendant 'wind.' Net result of 6 bowlfuls of dal per day: well, let's say, I could have travelled the 4-hour car journey today by jet propulsion using biogas!
Diesel here costs about 36.5 Rs per litre [<40 P per litre.] The main cars are Tata, Mahindra and Toyota but there are a few Suzukis and Chevrolets. In the main these are 4-wheel drive but there are also a lot of small Dormobile-types of various makes, and quite a few small family-hatchbacks; how their suspensions cope with the badly pot-holed roads I don't know. Mind you, once we crossed into Sikkim, the quality of the roads improved vastly, and is actually better than in Scotland. I have seen no traffic lights since leaving home but on reflection that is not too surprising as I am sure that the lovely Indian drivers would simply ignore the red signal anyway!
The temperatures have been about 24C in Kurseong and Gangtok but as low as 16C in Darjeeling. Mornings have been partially sunny but the afternoons often see a lot of cloud, mist and heavy rain that lasts for 1-2 hours. It is a lot cooler in the evening but there has been no frost.
We have had no problem with the altitude yet; we were only at 4,500' in Kurseong, and 7,000' in Darjeeling. Breathlessness [well, no more than usual on steep hills!] has not been a problem but my lips did appear a bit duskier than normal in Darjeeling.

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