November 26 Kalimpong/Gantok

Actually the stomach issue started yesterday . Got worse, so no breakfast. Took a nice shot of the snow capped mountains. Was feeling from!! We drove by van to Gangtok. The roads from New Jalpurguri Junction were all uphill, S bends, just turns on the edges of the cliffs overlooking the green river below. We passed a big hydroelectric station over the river, and the scenery was very green, luxuriant, vegetation, creepers, bamboo etc. Lovely. We turned onto the Gangtok road. Gangtok is in the autonomous Indian province of Sikkim.  We had to present passports at the border, and at all hotels. The river is used for washing, fishing etc, but also provides sand and rocks for the constant roadwork. Monsoons wreck roads annually, and they are fixing them all the time. I noticed so many women involved in cutting rocks with hammers, and totally involved in the road construction. Some of the roads, there is a guy heating the asphalt with a torch!! At the border I saw a musician playing an ethnic stringed instrument, that looked like a violin, but cradled in his lap. He played Frere Jaque for the tourists. I asked him to play a Sikkimese tune, and I was very impressed with his musical ability. We left the border post, and drove through various towns in Sikkim province, ascending. We headed for the Rumtek Monastery, Buddhist I believe. The roads have lots of landslides, and we saw terracing of the mountain to make maximum use of the land to grow rice on a mountain slope.Very high up the mountain, with vertical prayer flags, and some horizontal ones as my pics show. We arrived and had a meal at the cafe at the entrance to the monastery. I should never have had the vegetable soup, a big mistake!! We ascended a steep path to the monastery, turning the prayer wheels clockwise. It is a very green monastery....totally espousing reuse, recycle, renew, and plant trees. In fact I have pics of senior and junior monks taking saplings from a truck, as they were no doubt going to plant a tree each. I have lots of pics of all of this, and we entered the monastery compound. We were allowed to take pics outside but not inside the monastery. I caught some very junior monks, peeping over the balcony, grinning!! All on photo. Then we wandered around the outside of the monastery taking pics, and then left. I saw monks on the roof of their sleeping quarters. The roof is a favourite place, as everything goes up in construction...not much flat land here. One guy on my pic is sitting on the roof checking his cell phone. Everyone of course has cell phones. We walked down to the entrance gate, which I have a pic of. There are garbage cans around with the words, "use me" on them. Littering is a huge problem in Mumbai, and most places I've been, but the monks are doing it right!! Then by van to Gangtok. It was a long drive of hairpin bends, tons of road construction almost everywhere. We got to the hotel. I changed my room as it was dismal. I got a better room, but check out the views out of my window!!!!!!!! In Gangtok, and most places here, people build homes, floor by floor. You HAVE to go up as there is no flat land. The roof is full of open rebar, which looks awful, but is evident everywhere. We freshened up at the hotel, and left in the early evening by taxi for the main pedestrian mall. It was quite impressive....no cars, and no beggars in this area. It is lit up as you can see in the pics. It was quite a trek to get there. I drew money, and we walked along the pedestrian mall, checking out the shops. Some guys came up to me, and wanted pics. If you are a westerner, they want pics with you!! Everyone, except me ate Nepalese/Tibetan food at the restaurant afterwards.The young people with us went to town with the food. It was cheap. Our guide, Abhey is Nepalese and knew all his foods. He had his own Kalimpong jar of chillies which he put on his food.....very very spicy. My stomach does not deal with this!!! We walked back up high stairways to the taxi rank, and drove back to the hotel. We were at the Maple wood hotel. Looked quite nice, and staff were attentive. I was on the toilet right away. Then I wanted a shower.OMG. The water seemed hot, and the mixing of hot and cold was a gong show. I tried to have a quick shower before the water went cold.Too late....my hair was full of shampoo. I called reception, and they came to fix it....another 15 minutes to get the water going....I'm wrapped in towels.....oh the phone didn't work, so I went up to reception with shampoo in hair. After waiting 15 minutes I tried the shower again. Not acceptable. So the guy tried a shower in another suite. Another 15 minutes to get the water going. That water was luke warm, but I toughed it out, and went back to my room. Please laugh, but I did not appreciate the experience. This is India where these things happen. I complained to the tour leader. The hotel gave me a hot water bottle, which was great, and I was warm....remember this is cold up in the Himalayas, as it's winter now. I had a very careful breakfast of toast, tea, and boiled egg.