Exploring Gangtok

We enjoyed the luxury of a leisurely morning today and then spent the day walking around the heart of Gangtok.

We discovered that our lovely, peaceful hotel is unfortunately not very conveniently located for getting into town easily, but our hotel arranged for a taxi to take is in, which showed up eventually. A lot of the roads surrounding the city itself are horrendous. The worst we’ve encountered on our trip. So it’s a slow 30+ minute drive into town on rough, twisty roadways.

Despite that we enjoyed poking around Gangtok. We rode a gondola that we honestly thought might take us to a higher viewpoint than it did, but it was a handy way to easily get elevation in a city built on a hill. In the heart of the city is a mall/street closed off to cars that was full of shops and people. Even the grocery/department store that we visited had a stunning view.

We came upon a fire engine in the middle of Gangtok that was filling water bottles for people out of its tank. Later we learned that the main water line/source to the city was damaged by a mud slide 7 days ago. I guess we are lucky to be far out of town after all, where the water system is fine.

We have booked an auto tour for tomorrow to Tsongmo Lake with a couple of other Rickshaw Run participants who we ran into in town. It’s about a 2 hour drive higher up into the mountains. We had to apply for a special travel permit in order to go on this trip tomorrow because we will be within several miles of the Chinese border! Wow!Read more