Sikkim

My first destination in Sikkim was Pelling but there were no direct jeeps
from Darjeeling so I hopped in one heading more or less the right direction
and waited until they had squeezed 16 of us and lots of goods into it. It
was a very slow bumpy steep journey. I can see why there aren't any busses.
At the border we needed to do the paperwork and show our Sikkim passes.
While we were doing this another jeep turned up heading for pelling
containing Josh and Radney who I had met in Darjeeling, so we switched jeeps
and had loads more space on better roads for the second half of the journey.
They seem to be building a hydro plant around every corner here.
Sikkim is stunning, but the visibility has been poor most the time, with
just occasional glimpses of the mountains through the clouds. Josh, Radney
and I walked up to a monastery on top of a hill near Pelling where a
cremation was taking place in one part and young monks where playing cricket
in the other.

Then we hopped in a jeep to Yuksom (one of 4 spellings I've seen here). It was an amazing road, even going behind/through a waterfall. In the
evening we drank the local beer, Tongba, where you are basically given a big
wooden mug of slightly moldy millet and a kettle of hot water to poor in.
You can refill it 7 or 8 times and it gets you quite drunk.

The next day we hiked towards Tashiding which was really cool. You can't go
anywhere around here without spectacular views.

After about 15km it started to rain again and as we'd hit a road we hitched
a lift in a jeep back. In the evening we drank more Tongba with some French
guys and an American we'd first met in Pelling. Yesterday Josh and Radney
headed off as they want to get around Sikkim in a few days less than me, so
I hiked up to the local monastery with the other guys and played a few games
of chess.

Today is the first real sunshine I've seen since Kathmandu and the plan is
too hike to a lake (about 4 hours away) but we've spent a long time waiting
for the community centre to open (the only internet in town), and I've been
being a bit ill again so we'll see what happens.