- Planning |
- Although it's a state Sikkim is not really part of India proper; it was a separate country until 1973. Like the highlands inside India it feels completely different, apart from people watching Hindi movies almost everything else is different.
- The people are mostly different as well most are ethnic Nepali so that's the language and many other look Tibetan, you would not call them Indian. However the place feels much more functioning and less broken than Nepal; the roads are pretty reasonable and cars much more plentiful than Nepal. Each town has dozens of jeep buses all lined up.
| Mon - Leave Kalimpong
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- I decided to head for the villages on the west side starting with Tashiding a monastery village and onto Yuksom trekking territory similar to Nepalese mountains.
- 9.30am I was on a jeep bus to Rangpo. Cos it's like a separate country you have to a special permit to enter. I was filling in the permit forms and registration books myself at the tourist office before the workers turned up. Including registering back at border it took 20 minutes. ... Jeep to Singtam market town.... Waiting ages .. Jeep to Rabongsa very cold ... Thought about walking across to Tashiding, but no info (actually route is too up and down) I decided to go around by road so picked up a jeep bus to Legship. 4pm thinking it was too late for transport I looked for a hotel. Actually this was a mistake as the jeeps leave the mountain in the morning and return in the afternoon.
- Legship bit boring except talked to people at the 3 day funeral wake.
| Tue - to Tashiding|
- Since there is no transport in the morning I set off walking the 14Km ... 2Km back to junction then 2Km to bridge then steep shortcut over the road switchbacks. 2nd shortcut "oh my God", but eventually came to road.. I must have cut-off 5-6Km cos the next sign said 4Km after then got a ride with government engineer last 3Km arrived 11am. - Hotel explore ...then upto monastary a disappointment... it has a "looking at this Stupa will absolve all your sins" .... another religious scam it looks like any other plain stupa. The top floor viewpoint was closed.
- tashiding_monastery
- tashiding_monastery Drum
- tashiding_monastery Drum 2
- The rest of the village is a bit boring, but not as dirty as Nepal. The Bluebird Hotel was a good and cheap place to stay
- People in England try to save Electricity ha ha ! : One strange thing is here at hight when you look across to the otherside of the valley it doesn't look like the Himalayan countryside, but like a huge city. The villagers now have almost free electricity from the huge Indian Government Hydropower schemes so they leave the lights outside the house on all night.. I guess to scare away animals.
- sikkim_path_workers
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Wed- walking from Tashiding to Yuksom|
- The walk wasn't that great as at this time of year the views are all clouded.
- At 12 the path passed through Pokhari Dara, which has a holy pond, but no restaurant. I managed to get tea from the shop, but for some strange reason the locals drink it with salt in, ugh ! I could feel it zapping my energy as I drank it.
- The path skirts the next village Nessa, but I managed to get some decent tea from a school owners house.
| - Breaking Rocks with hammers is good money| - Apparently in the Sikkim Guaranteed Work Scheme- each villager is guaranteed 100 days work in each year, financed by the Government of India. - I was astounded to see in so many places people breaking rocks with hammers.. I tnought this degrading to people as this job can be done so much more efficiently with machines ... However later in Geyzing I noticed one woman doing it spoke good English she told me she gets 10Rp per bag, and it takes 10 minutes this makes 60Rp per hour = 2400Rp per 40 hour week = 35 pounds per week , which is actually a pretty reasonable wage in India.
| Part 2 to Hongri with hammers is good money|
- the path is a bit up and down , until you reach Hongri Gompa an old monastery with a View of the whole area
- hongri1z.jpg
- hongri2z.jpg
- Again up and down for 45 minuts until you reach Tsong village. I was considering stopping at a homestay, but the place wasn't at the east side apparently it's changed to another villager on the west. I was about to start my canned fish lunch when a woman called me over. | - Homestay
- I was a bit apprehensive, but I thought "I'll give it a try"
- One has to admire them for the enterprise , but it wasn't an atmosphere I liked. Like in Tansen Nepal I thought there was too much emphasis on the money making part rather than the mutual cultural exchange. They weren't interested in me, no-one around could speak English, I couldn't eat any of their food cos it's all spicey Hindu and their boy was a pain in the neck.. Yet she expected me to stay 3 days.
- She was a very busy woman running a home and farm .. In a good homestay the people are interested in you and show you things, but she was too busy to take an interest it hadn't even sunk in where I was from when I left she asked me for my address in Italy.
- They were Hindus and no one around spoke English..For me it would have been better with Bhuddist or Tibetan people as 1. their food is not so spicey 2. They are educated in English. It's my fault for not learning Nepali, but it makes a real difference when there is a good person who can explain things in English.
- Their 7 year old boy was a pain as well; quite aptly nicknamed Monkey : a bit selfish and ill disciplined ... .. He would be in grabbing your things etc and threw rocks off the path without thinking about people below.
- 2 months later I met another tourist Tom from the UK who said exactly the same things as I said
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Thu- Today's hassle
- I'd tried the homestay, but it wasn't great so I decided to down walk to Yuksum. But first I had to pay. Her price had been 120Rp and then pay what you like for food so I thought 150Rp. By morning she had decided she wanted 200Rp, which was OK suppose and she expected me to post photos to her. Since she had stopped me when I expected to be sleeping inYuksom I hadn't made any preparations about small change I only had a 100Rp note and a 500Rp note. I had to spend 45 minutes walking around the village asking everybody if they had change, but nobody had. (if you are going to run a business it's your job to have change not the customers.)
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Like a free photo machine
- One guy did help me look, but then took it for granted that I could take photos of his family and post them to him. I'm all for cultural exchange and friendsip, but I felt a bit like people were treating me like a free photo machine. It's actually quite a lot of work for me to edit photos print them and send them .. Its not a 10 minute job.
- could have been worse I suppose
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