7 Nights in Gangtok

Going to Sikkim is like going to another country. Technically we’re still in India, but to me this feels more like Tibet. Sikkim is the northern most state of India which borders Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet. In fact Sikkim was its own kingdom until 1975 when it became a state of India. The local tongue is Nepali, not Hindi, but almost everyone speaks some English. Tourism is a major industry for Sikkim and the government is trying very hard to make tourists feel welcome. In Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, there are fines for spitting and littering, and for the first time in India we actually saw real trash bins in public spaces. When we arrived in Gangtok, there were virtually no tourists here because of the strike in Darjeeling shut down the only road to Gangtok. What few tourists we did see were all Indian nationals except for about 4 other foreigners (we can tell they were tourists because like us, they had cameras). This suited us well as all the hotels were empty and discounts for rooms were readily offered.

Typically we like to stay at budget hotels because, well, we’re on a budget. But the weather was very cold and we both came down with colds. Our $40-per-night room at the Bamboo Grove Retreat was great, but even with a space heater and extra blankets, we couldn’t get warm. So we did something we almost never do – we moved to a 4-star hotel. This is India, so 4-star hotels like the Nor-Khill can be had for $110 per night after some negotiating. The Nor-Khill was a beautiful and opulent British colonial-style luxury hotel that looks like it has been frozen in time since it was built in 1932. The staff wore uniforms right out of old b&w movies and they were very eager to please. In fact, the hotel facilities used to be the guest house of the former king of Sikkim when royalty still ruled the land. But the most important thing was that our room was warm and we could take hot baths.

Gangtok is a very walkable town despite the fact that the entire city was built on the side of a mountain. There were several Tibetan monasteries and Hindu shrines in the area, so we visited them all. The markets were fun, the food was cheap and the entertainment rather cheesy (“live music” in Gangtok really means a guy singing with a karaoke machine). But the best meal we’ve had for a while was a tasty Sikkimese dinner at our hotel, complete with a fermented barley drink called chang. We would have stayed in Sikkim longer, but the weather didn’t cooperate. Many of the better tours from Gangtok involved a 4 or 5 hour drive north to the base of the Himalayan mountains, but the weather forecast up north was either cloudy or snowing. And the strike never let up, so we gave up on the idea of going to Darjeeling as well.

The next stop on our itinerary is Singapore, so when it came time to leave we had some decisions to make. We could just retrace our steps back to Bangkok to catch a cheap flight to Singapore, but we wanted to avoid the dirt and grime in Siliguri and Kolkata if at all possible. The nearest airport from Gangtok was in Bagdogra and fortunately SpiceJet had cheap flights from there to Chennai which would also allow us to make connections to Singapore. Since we had the time, we decided to make an unscheduled stop to see what’s around Chennai. Our guidebook recommended Auroville, so that’s where we’re headed next.

(See more pictures of Gangtok)