Gangtok

We have been in Gangtok for 2 nights and leave today for Darjeeling and am just hoping the drive there is better than the one we had to endure to get here.
We flew in from Kolkata to Bagdogra after a pleasant flight. There was a huge military presence there and it seems Indian officials love to scan you and your luggage indefinitely! Eventually we were all through and allowed to enter the Indian state of Sikkim which before 1975 was it's own Budhist state.
We had a lunch as supposedly we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us. Little did we know what was ahead of us!
We had to go in cars as buses can't travel these roads but what they didn't say was that neither hardly can cars. We were with Bridge and Frank . It didn't take long for us to realise that this was no Sunday afternoon drive. With sheer drops below us, rock slides above us and it seemed every bloody truck in India coming towards us we battled on. The normal road due to a big slip was closed so had to use the" alternative " route which made that back road at Paekakariki seem like a main road. Frank sat in the front with a very grim face and his foot was doing a lot of breaking! Poor Bridge sat in the middle at first between Brian and myself and was so bounced around that it was like riding dodgems! In the end she andI were hysterical with laughter as the seat belt was just about completely decapitating her! When I had a turn the seat belt not only was strangling my neck but just about giving me a mastectomy! At least we could laugh but it was a pretty terrifying 71/2 hour drive . I am sure the scenery was magnificent but our eyes were on the road ahead! One truck had completely broken down so after endless waiting we could finally scrape past. I really am impressed with their drivers here! We managed to have a couple of loo stops ..squatters which some manage better then others and will say no more!
It was a very bedraggled group that arrived at 8pm to this stunningly beautiful Mayfair hotel which is very Budhist and so peaceful. Again how lucky are we. There are flowers planted everywhere in pots and a beautiful old library with large bedrooms.
Yesterday I considered staying behind at the resort just to try and get on top of the rumbly tum but fear of FOMO had me in the cars and supposedly up through wonderful scenery and lots of wild life. Again more windy roads but to be expected ,as we climbed up to Lake Tsonga , a glacial lake at 3750 meters which is as high as Mt Cook.
We stopped on the way at this funny little tea house and we're immediately hit with the high altitude and some of us felt quite light headed. One of our group required oxygen mainly because ex bossy nurse Naylor advised him to take some as he looked decidedly unwell and blue around the gills. He perked up later thankfully!
The wild life we saw was a truck load of sick looking chooks, a dog with a nasty infected foot and some yaks.
The scenery was stunning with the Himalayas in the distance and we were meant to see Indias highest mountain Kanchenjunga but cloud cover prevented us. It seems very Tibetan here or Nepal like and our guides speak Nepali.
Our guide knew nothing much about NZ except they knew who Jacinda Adern was as she had a baby while being prime minister and carried on working with her baby. Apparently that was huge inspiration to the woman here.
The lake was slightly underwhelming but it was an adventurous day out . I forgot to mention we did go to a beautiful Budhist temple on the way home.
The food here is different to the Bengali food not that I unfortunately are up to eating much. Their specialty are little dumplings and very tasty
We listened with dodgy wifi to the triathlon and so close to another gold but great to get silver.
Next stop Darjeeling and the tea plantations so had better get up and get ready for departure. Everyone is in great spirits and a few rumbly tums but not too badRead more