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So the holy grail of a trip to the Himalayan foothills for a lot of people is to see, well, the Himalayas. We knew that the optimal time for viewing them is the late fall, with dry cool weather and crisp blue skies, and had set our expectations pretty low. Whether we got a good view or not was not going to make or break the trip. But when we woke up in Pelling after a persistent rain and fog the day before, to find that the weather had shifted and the sky was blue and the infamous haze had been washed away, we were amazed to find out just how close to the mountains we really were. The mountain above is the third highest in the world, clocking in at over 28,000 feet, and was about 30 km away from us. Walking outside to see this brought an almost physical reaction, an involuntary exhalation and an ahhhh, which I have felt before only when walking up to the lip of the Grand Canyon and looking over the edge. We may not see this again this trip – who knows – so best to enjoy it now…

OK, enough of that. Before there was TikTok there was Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim. Another Scrambler meets Wild Mouse of a drive in which 3rd gear seemed beyond reach and the markings for 4th and 5th on the gear shift just there for decoration. See screen grab of one section below. There are scatterings of shin-high concrete blocks along the outer edge of the road to act as guardrails, but they seem to be in place more as a gentle reminder not to drive off the road than to actually prevent that from happening. Given their low profile they are more likely to simply impart some initial spin to your vehicle as you do a Thelma and Louise off the edge than to keep you on terra firma. But for all that we sure missed them when there was nothing there at all.

Anyhow, what with all the switchbacks and hairpins and going down one side of a foothill by 1500 meters and around and up the next it takes a while to actually get anywhere. We pulled off for a break and our guide pointed out that we could see the hotel we had left two and a half hours earlier. But there is lots to see. There are beautiful rice terraces, which we saw from the top of a cliff directly overhead. And there is Sikkim’s only tea plantation, swarming with tourists where there were souvenirs to be had but deserted another mile down the road where we stopped.

And then we hit Gangtok, which is a misdescription of our arrival, since it is another hill town with only one road in and one road out and more cars than seems possible, so that “hitting” Gangtok means snaking in a continuous stream of traffic for the last 6 or 7 kms, but it all still seems to avoid absolute intractable gridlock. What makes it pretty easy as a pedestrian is that Gangtok has some crazy innovations – a long and spacious pedestrian mall and, more amazingly, sidewalks. They are on the main couple of roads, protected by a decorated railing, and including a few overpasses to let you cross the main street without fear. Our Darjeeling guide is very impressed with this, which he says is reflective of Sikkim’s rule oriented approach to things, as he says that if a sidewalk was installed in Darjeeling it would instantly become a market, a clothes drying venue and a scooter parking lot – why waste that space on pedestrians when there is a perfectly good road to walk on?

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