I would not recommend Sikkim to people who have a fear of heights or who get easily car sick when there are too many turns. We traveled a mere 75 km in 5 hours, winding our way down from 7000 ft to 1000 ft, then back up to 7000 ft, then repeating the sequence once again, hence the five hours.
We said goodbye to our hosts this morning and were once again festooned with the now familiar cream-colored ‘safe travels’ scarves. Our hosts also gave us a beautiful turned wooden container out of which the traditional beer is sipped through a straw.
They did recommend that we not try this beer as it is not only very strong but also known to make people who are unaccustomed to the brew, very sick.
It was hard to say goodbye. We have every intention to come back. It is the perfect place to hang out for awhile and write a book or sew a quilt or some other big project like that. I can’t think of a more peaceful place in the world; the perfect antidote to Afghanistan.
We drove off in the rain and the clouds which made us happy to travel along paved roads (mostly paved as it turned out). We stopped at the first pass to have a Nescafe cappuccino, then at another to have momos (dumplings) and spicy potatoes before arriving at our destination, Gangtok, Sikkim’s capital city.
Compared to rural West Sikkim East Sikkim is bustling and noisy. There were even noises up in the sky; a helicopter brings people in from Darjeeling; folks who don’t like or have no time for the zigzagging roads that lead to Gangtok.
We drove through a few towns that had large Indian flag banners tied to posts and houses in anticipation of a victory over Pakistan in the World Cricket Cup. It is a bit like the USA hockey team playing the USSR team in the olden days. But things are not looking good. Axel watched a few minutes and found the Indians behind. A message flashed across the screen ‘this is a game, not a war,’ to remind people that losing from Pakistan in cricket is not the same as ceding Kashmir.
We are staying in a hotel that is built in layers against the mountainside (hillside people would say here). In between the rooms are thousands of flowers, orchids, azaleas, primroses, snapdragons. Even the inside spaces are filled with flowers. It is not clear what this place is first, hotel or nursery.
Sylvia's Journal 
West Sikkim sounds like a slice of Paradise! Glad you got to sample it and I hope we, too, can visit some day.
In our office, today was a semi-holiday because so many of our software people are Indian or Pakistani. They joked that a war might break out right here over the cricket match… but at the end of the day it seemed peaceful.
Best wishes to you both, Larry