....Sikkim is known as the 'Hidden Land' and it's protected by both mountainous terrain as well as its legendary mystical powers. Sikkim is an impenetrable secret kingdom locked for eons behind the hidden gates of its highest mountain, Kanchendzonga.
The road is dramatic and winds around precarious edges of bottomless chasms and up endless steep hairpin turns to higher alpine forests of pine, fir, oak, flowering rhododendrons and magnolias, past tea plantations and pretty hillside towns with wooden houses built on stilts, painted turquoise and blue, perched on the side of mountains.
....Pelling (2,058 m) is fast becoming a popular tourist destination, but is still a quiet town perched on the edge of a mountain, with some of the best views of the Kanchendzonga range in Sikkim. I’m staying in Upper Pelling at the Garuda Hotel, a shabby Tibetan place run by Buddhists with great decor and atmosphere.
....Khecheopalri Lake is one of the most revered Buddhist pilgrimage sites and is believed to be an emanation of the goddess Tara. It’s shape looks like her footprint. Magically, the surface of the lake remains clean in spite of it being surrounded by the thick forest.
....I meet the boys for a local cocktail. We settle into the plastic chairs alongside the dirt road and order a ‘tsonga,’ made from fermented millet, served in a fat bamboo glass and drunk through a wooden straw. The fried yak cheese momos and Sikkimese noodle soup are delicious.
