Pelling and Darjeeling

Pelling was a little mountain town, centered around tourism. There is not much to do there, and most people use it as a base for daytrips or for trekking. We stayed 2 nights, arriving late in the day the 1st night. We ate dinner at this small restaurant, called 'Open Restaurant', run by a Sikkimese family. Kat is now hooked on momos. That day, we hiked up to Pemaganste Monastery, then down the hill to the town of Geyzing. We took a jeep back up to Pelling, ate lunch, then hiked WAAAAYYY up to Sangacholing Monastery, which is one of the oldest in Sikkim. I seriously almost died on the hike up. Am sooo out of shape!!! While at Sangacholing, it started to torentially downpour. I find that some monasteries are definately more affluent than others, as they are much cleaner and in better shape. I don't know how many monks are in the state of Sikkim, but there must be tons. There are monasteries everywhere. I am starting to be able to recognize some of the statues/paintings, but still am pretty bad at it. Karma must have pointed out specific boddhisvattas hundreds of times, yet I still don't really remember. From Pelling, we took a jeep down to Geyzing, then booked tickets on a jeep for Jorethang from there. The trip down from Pelling we sat in 1st seats, which actually wasn't that great... got kinda woozy, but not too bad. I love these Pudina Hara capsules that were suggested on an India travel forum. They are just mint extract, and are quite good for managing motion sickness and general nausea. Trip from Geyzing to Jorethang we rode 3rd seats, which wasn't too bad. The jeep had no door on Kat's side, and an open window on the back, so there was plenty of airflow. Jorethang was HOT!!! About 34 degrees, according to the people at the tourism office. You know its hot when even the locals are wilting!!! In Jorethang, we found the ticket booth for booking a jeep to Darjeeling. The road to Darjeeling is as described in our travel guide: precipitous and hair raising. It is incredibly narrow, bumpy, and steep throughout. But the views are amazing!!! Part of the journey winds through many magnificent tea estates. The tea fields themselves are in impeccable shape! It took us 5 hours in total to get from Pelling to Darjeeling.