12-31
I had originally intended to go to Sikkim today, but b/c I liked the French couple so much and they were trying to organize a New Year’s Eve party, I figured it would be much more fun to stay and celebrate NYE with some friends rather than likely by myself in remote Sikkim (you need a special permit to even get into Sikkim). This along with the fact that I really needed to use a lot of internet to work on figuring out booking Indian trains (this is really quite difficult as they get booked so far in advance, but there are lots of tricks to getting more less last minute tickets. I can’t book far in advance b/c I never know how long I will stay, but I can’t waste too many days sitting around waiting for trains as I have an aggressive schedule with lots to see and just a bit over 2 months to do it.) I also needed to deal with some stuff for applying for an Antarctica position. Unfortunately the power was out for half the day, but I still had some time to get stuff done.
I also did some touring stuff and in the morning took the cute toy train from Darjeeling to Ghoom 10 kms away and then walked back checking out the views of Darjeeling.

In the evening I met up with the french couple, Sago and Ben, to have a new years feast of masala curry. We tried ordering a bunch of different drinks, but the restuarant was out of all of them. Finally we found they had long island ice teas, but it turned out to be mostly ice and I am pretty sure rum and coke. I guess the Gorkhas aren't quite into making cocktails yet. The town closes down at aroud 8 because of the 9 o'clock curfew, but we found a bar (with terrible karaoke) that would pretend to be closed and looke all locked up but be open until midnight. So we headed there, had a few beers, sang a few songs, and then did the countdown.

1/1/11 Happy New Year!
I had to say a sad goodbye to Wangchuck the owner of the homestay. I think he really liked me and he gave me a tibetan scarf to say goodbye and even a hug (I have noticed that Asians hardly hug). I took a jeep from Darjeeling to Johtan in Sikkim and then transerred onto another jeep to get to Pelling. I arrived in Pelling a few hours before dark and walked around a bit, thought it was quite foggy and cold (it's at 7100ft). But it is nice and quiet and friendly and has some good food.

1/2/11 I was quite surprised to wake up to gorgeously clear skies and amazing views of some very close mountains right from my hotel window.. Darjeeling had nice mountain views, but Pelling is much more in them. One of the mountains was of course Kanchenjunga as it is quite huge and dominating. Took a day long jeep tour in which me and 5 other Indian tourists visited 2 waterfalls, Khechuperi holy lake, Pemayagtse Monastery, and the Rabdentse ruins on the way to Yaksom. Rabdentse was the 2nd capital of Sikkim (during the 16th century). The driving itself was very nice and of course the roads were crazy with good views of little villages on steep mountains plunging down to river gorges.
Sikkim is an interesting place because it was an independent kingdom until 1975. It was then taken over by Nepal, then Tibet, then the British (not necessarily in that order) and finally decided to join India in order to protect itself from China. Because of this, they actually rule autonomously and you are required to get a separate permit to enter. Wangchuck helped me get the permit, so it was easy enough to get in. Because of the difficulties with the permit and being out of the way (the same is for the next place, Assam, that I am visiting) there are hardly any foreign tourists visiting the area, which makes it nice for India as it means there are not touts or hassling and the locals are genuinely friendly.) Sikkim is one of the places (along with Tibet, parts of Nepal, and part of China--which of course to promote tourism, China has actually named a city Shangri-la) that claims to be the fabled (and mythical) Shangri-la described by author James Hilton in his novel Lost Horizon.

1/3/11 Today I took a jeep to Siliguri and then a autorickshaw to NJP where I am now waiting for my night train. This was my first time in a real Indian city in the daylight (Darjeeling and Sikkim are much more tibet/nepal influenced). It was quite eye opening. Incredibly crazy traffic with streets full of bicycles, rickshaws, autorickshaws, jeeps, busses, trucks; all making one big mess with of course tons of honking. Trash everywhere and smells too. Cows wandering around. So many...so many street urchin kids and sick/disabled adults on the streets on top of beggars of course. People digging through trash and using the toilet just anywhere. So much noise and chaos for all of the senses. Well good thing is I won't be spending much time in cities I don't think other than as transit points and a few of the more touristic ones like Varanasi and Agra.