Darjeeling to Gangtok To Pelling to Kecheperi Lake to Yuksom

Alright so it's been another long while since I've updated but it's been getting hard to find anywhere to get on the Internet the further we get from the larger cities.

From Darjeeling we took a Jeep all the way to the Capital of Sikkim, which is Gangtok. Now when I say "Jeep" it's not exactly the nice Jeep Wranglers we have in the U.S. but rather a fairly old Diesel jeep that's a little bit longer then a land rover. Sometimes they have a solid roof and sometimes they have a soft top. All of the luggage gets tied down to a rack on the roof and they drive horrendously fast on these mountain roads. I think they are designed to seat anywhere from 6 to 8 people but it usually ends up having close to double that amount making a 4 hr drive rather uncomfortable. Anyways on the drive to Gangtok it was a very scenic drive. We started be heading out of town and we were almost immediately post-poned by another "Gorkhaland" demonstration. It didn't last too long but it was pretty impressive to see that many people marching along the road. After we got out of the city we started winding our way up and down different ridges. We passed through a lot of different types of vegetation as well. It seems that in only a couple hundred feet here the climate can change almost completely. From giant Japanese cedars to groves of Bamboo, it's all very different then anything I've seen before.

Along the way we passed through the town of Teesta, which is also on the banks of the Teesta river. This is is where the majority of the whitewater rafting takes place in North East India and the Teesta river looked huge. All the way through the town we could see stacks of boats just sitting on the side of the road, enticing people to come rafting with them. Most of the equipment looked pretty ancient but I was tempted to have a go at it anyways...

When we arrived in Gangtok, which sits on a knife like ridge, we were dropped off at the furthest place possible from where we wanted to go. After trying to get some directions, a lot of walking uphill with 50 lb packs, and a little swearing, we made it to Tibet Rd.(where all the cheap hotels are).

We managed to get a hotel that sort of had hot water and a TV but over looked a huge pile of garbage next door. Overall it was fairly clean and probably worth the $4.25/night that we paid for it.

The next day was spent mostly trying to find and arrange a Jeep to take us to Pelling for the next day. This isn't exactly an easy task when there is over a 1,000ft of elevation gain in one city and you have no idea where you are going.

Once we finally secured a Jeep we decided to head to one of the nice restaurants in town to have a beer. Seeing as it was my 23rd Birthday. I'd probably had rather spent my Birthday in any other town then Gangtok, which is essentially just a bunch of cement boxes perched on a hill with not much character to it, but we still made the best of it. We also had a great dinner at a restaurant called Tangerine, which was in the basement of a really nice hotel. They had a Japanese themed interior, complete with floor cushions and rice paper lights. The atmosphere was great and so was the Sikkimese Pork Gyaree that I had along with a Blue Diamond for a drink.

The next day it was another 5 hr Jeep ride to Pelling. Along the way we managed to blow out a tire in the middle of the jungle and for some reason our driver didn't think it was necessary to carry a spare, neither did 10 other Jeeps that passed by... Now this is something I just don't understand seeing that all the tires on these jeeps seemed to be just re-treaded over and over and just asking for a blow out. Anyways, after about an hr of waiting for a spare to come around we finally made it to Pelling.

Pelling is basically a cluster of hotels on a ridge over looking some very massive Himalayan mountains. We stayed at a nice little backpacker hotel that supposedly had great views of the mountains. We had been in the foothills of the Himalaya's for over a week now and I had yet to see any mountains due to a lovely layer of clouds that seems to always be hanging around...

The day after that we took a walk to a monastery that over looked the town and the mountains(supposedly) and then to the ruins of Rabentse. The Monastery was really cool and had a huge library of Tibetan writings which are all wrapped in a decorative cloth and some magnificent wood workings.

From Pelling we set out on foot for a walk to Kecheperi Lake. The trails aren't exactly marked here and they are full of different paths that branch of and meet up again. We made out way down from Pelling towards the Rathong River. We had to stop and ask local farmers the way but we eventually made it down to the river and to a rickety old bamboo bridge that crossed it.

Going down was the easy part...now we had to hike all the way back up to the lake. Supposedly there are some short cut trails you can take but we ended up following the road most of the way running into children on there way to or from school who were very excited to see us. They would all run up to us and say "Namaste" or "Hello" and wanted their pictures taken. Most people we passed along the way either said hello to us or made sure we were headed the right way...with what little English they could speak.

After about 2 hours of hiking uphill, and feeling very exhausted, we heard what we thought was another diesel tourist jeep making its' way up behind us. It turned out to be this couple from Spain who had modified their van and driven it all the way here from Spain. I guess they had been driving since august and planned to keep going for another couple of months. They offered us a lift to the top which we gladly accepted and after a little conversation we parted ways. Turns out they are headed to Nepal as well and if we run into them there we definitely owe them a beer.

So we spent the rest of the day exploring Kechioperi lake and relaxing. The lake is the holiest lake in Sikkim and they say that if even 1 leaf falls on its surface a bird will immediately pick it up. It also has the power to grant wishes.

We stayed the night in the Trekkers hut a little ways from the lake and enjoyed a home cooked meal and a traditional Sikkimese Beer called a Tongba. Tongba basically is a fermented Millet beer that you keep pouring hot water into to keep it from getting to strong. It tastes kind of like Sake and a little bit of a Hard Cider.

The next morning we were off Trekking to Yuksom. This trek was described as more of a "walk" but it turned out to be a really hard, steep hike down and then back up again to Yuksom. Again we hiked down and over the river and then back up again.

Yuksom is a quaint little town with only a handful of hotels and a nice little Internet center. After our gruelling hike we treated ourselves to a nicer hotel that has hot water and Delicious food . Today we are just exploring around the towns different Gompas and Monasteries and trying to figure out what we are going to be doing tomorrow.

We were planing on heading to Nepal but we are hearing Rumors that the borders have been closed and that there has been some political clashes happening over there. Supposedly China is blocking any climbers from climbing Everest and has sent plain clothed security agents in to stop the threat of Tibetans who are planing to March in protest of what has been done to their people and of the Olympic games.