A Trip to Sikkim, Darjeeling and Kolkata- part 1

We made a trip north- departing Bangalore on Sept. 4 and returning Sept. 12. We arranged most of it through a travel agent in Bangalore who has been pretty good.
We flew from Bangalore to Kolkata (still called "Calcutta" by many people) where we did not actually have to enter the terminal. They had people on our second flight wait on the plane and then they took us by bus to our connecting flight. This was a little confusing, but saved us the hassles of dealing with the terminal. The ongoing flight to Bagdogra was only about 45 min., so even the middle seat was not so bad. We were able to get seats with more leg room. At Bagdogra we were met by our guide and driver for the next 5-6 days and we drove off toward Gangtok in Sikkim.
The guide said the trip normally takes about 4 hours, but since this was late in the monsoon season there were many landslides that made the road rough and more difficult to navigate. It took about 5 hours for the trip.
As we left Bagdogra toward Siliguri, the driver and guide decided to take a smaller side road because the main road is in terrible condition and would take longer to driver over. They were probably right about the road, but soon after entering the side road our car was accosted by a group of young men who were "collecting money for Puja". Pujas seem to be anything from a prayer to a ceremony to a festival. In this case they were simply extorting money from passing vehicles in a Puja season, most certainly just to get money. The driver and guide told them they should leave tourist vehicles (which are usually not hard to make out) alone. They still hit the car and threw things which was a bit scary, though we did not think we were in serious danger.
This happened three times on this small road and the driver paid twice. Later we saw some other guys near Gangtok in Sikkim and the guide said he thought they were legitimate collectors for a Puja. On our return to Bagdogra we encountered a group again and we had one such attempted collection near Darjeeling for a total of 6 times. This was our first encounter with this sort of thing in India. In 4 of the cases they seemed a bit threatening in one they seemed legitimate and in one they seemed harmless kids looking for money.
The Drive into the mountains or hills of West Bengal toward Sikkim was pretty at times, but rather harrowing at times. The road was generally rough with many potholes, which made it uncomfortable, but in the numerous places where there had been landslides the road was only wide enough for one vehicle to pass. Sometimes, barely wide enough. It was clear that people had been working on keeping the road open and in some places there were heavy machines to help move the boulders. We wondered when the next slide might occur while we drove along!
Foreigners need permits to enter Sikkim, but it seems that this is mostly just a formality. We had to stop at the border of the state and fill out some paperwork. They record passport and India Visa information and take a one of the passport size photos you have to bring. They told us to bring 4 such photos, but they only took 1. The proximity to China is one reason for the security, but they are also trying to protect the natives from too much foreign influence.
The last 45 minutes of the trip was in the dark AND with moderately heavy rain too. In some ways it was better because we could not see the danger! However, the driver was good and our car had higher ground clearance than many others making the trip, so we thought we were less likely to have trouble. We arrived safely at our hotel- tired from the rough ride and settled in for dinner and a restful night. Except, there was loud music with a thumping bass sound a little too late into the evening. We were able to move rooms for the other 2 nights. The hotel is supposed to be the best near Gangtok and it is new. It was pleasant in many ways, but a little to artificial in is decor. The management seemed anxious to get feedback to improve the place. Because this was monsoon season, rates were lower and the place had few quests- except the party using the ballroom, which we think was a wedding party for 2 nights of our 3. Food was good, but not great.
Our itinerary had us going to a Buddhist Monastery that was some distance away, but when we learned the roads were rough we decided we could forgo that trip. We had originally planned 4 days in Sikkim, but changed the 4th day to be near Darjeeling when the hotel was not able to confirm room availability. We were going to go to a well known lake with mountain views, but when we inquired about this the guide said that the road was closed due to slides, but might open the next day. He also said that his last visitor there was from the UK who wrote in his notes "this is the most dangerous road in the world". Since it is a rough road and there had been recent slides we decided against doing that as well! We took a drive around the valley to a monastery on the opposite hill from Gangtok. Rumtek monastery is quite nice but not spectacular. There is a long story associated with it about the disputed successor to the "crown" or whatever one might call it- some leadership position at least- and the presence of a large hoard of gold. They make all foreigners register before going in and the army guards the place. Somewhere, we also read about some leader who has been prevented from taking his throne by the Indian government because he is from Tibet and that might irritate the Chinese. In any case, it was a pleasant visit, but lots of uphill and downhill walking as well as driving. We then visited a small village and took pictures of some nice views before going on to a waterfall and stream that has been made into an "energy park". This was a nice place, but similar to many such places in India, the maintenance has not been as good as it could be. We then returned to our hotel.
Our next day started with a visit to the Institute of Tibetology (or something like that). There is a nice little museum with decorative and religious items from Tibet- mostly related to Tibetan Buddhism. Janet's knees were hurting, so she had more difficulty on the hill climbs. We decided we wanted to visit some crafts shops. The guidebook mentioned a government shop, but this was quite disappointing- good for cheap gifts, but not quality items. Our guide did not seem to know much about crafts or craft shops, but said that there were more on the main street- MG Road. So, here in Gangtok, Sikkim- the main road is "Mahatma Gandhi Road". They have done a nice job with the road by turning much of it into a pedestrian mall rather than a road where you are in constant danger of being run down! However, the craft shops seemed few. We did find a couple that had nicer items and we bought a couple Thanka paintings. These are Buddhist themes and, supposedly, come from Tibet. We spent awhile looking at these and finally returned to the hotel for the night.
One thing that continually amazes us is the types of work that people do manually in India. This is really true in most of the world where labor costs are low, but we had not seen so much of it first hand before. We saw many examples of men carrying all manner of things up the steep hills of Gangtok and Darjeeling. We took a few pictures, but some of the most amazing things we missed. In one picture you see a guy carrying a metal wardrobe with mirror on it! We later saw two guys each carrying a similar item made of wood- those must be heavy! The strain on their joints must be awful, yet they do this every day for a small amount of money- very small!
It rained each night and was cloudy- foggy each morning and much of the day. We left the next morning for a tea estate near Darjeeling.
Here are a couple pictures of some of the land slides along the road, though they are not the best indicators of what we saw.
The drive toward Darjeeling was also mostly on rough roads that are narrow and down or up mountain sides. there were some pretty views, but they were a little hard to enjoy.