Four Nights in Gangtok and the World's Your Oyster...(Part 1)

 The guide book was not overly kind to Gangtok - describing it as a series of concrete boxes stacked on a hill.  While I must admit in retrospect that it lacked both the charming traditional feel of Yuksom and the busy urban character of Darjeeling, I also think that if you're not looking for either of those in particular, Gangtok is a pleasant little city.

Panorama of Gangtok from the Hotel Sonam Delek

Somewhat precariously perched on a steep mountain side, Gangtok is essentially a series of tightly switched-back roads and steep staircases, lined with multi-story buildings which (in general) sport at least one inn.  Because Gangtok is a tourism hub for all of Sikkim, hotels (which in this part of India means either an eatery or lodging or both) are one of the primary businesses.  The nicer places are higher on the hill, with 'Tibet Road' being something of a 'Hotel Row'.  


Our first night, we walked down to the "MG Marg" (Short for Mahatma Gandhi Marg or Street).  About a half-a-mile of this major street has been turned into a pedestrian mall - quite a modern planning concept and one that I certainly appreciated from both a tourist and professional level.  The street is lined with restaurants, banks, trinket shops and pharmacies, and sprinkled with a fair share of guide service offices.  It would become the center of our stay in Gangtok, and we felt all hip and local when we said we'd go grab dinner 'on the Marg'.  

Our first experience on the Marg at night - this place was hopping no matter what time of day.

By the light of day - such a great place to people watch, too!

The middle of the street was landscaped with lots of flowers and this tribute to the street's namesake

The first night, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at a small fast food joint called the Roll House.  Literally a hole in the wall in one of the steep alleys off the Marg, they had a menu of different rolls and momos (Tibetan dumplings) as long as my arm - but when you ordered anything other than the special you were out of luck.  Good thing the specials were always delicious!  

mmm...paneer momos...like Taquitos for Tibetans!

Finally, though, the time confusion portion of the jet lag was really setting in.  Although it was only about 7pm, we were hitting the wall hard.  True - it'd been a long day anyhow, but our best efforts to stay awake and acclimate to the new time zone ended before 8pm.  Call us wimps - we were done.


The next morning, we were up very early (as you can imagine).  So early, in fact, that it was a challenge to find breakfast.  It seems that India is not a country of early birds, rendering the streets almost peaceful as we walked about in search of breakfast and a new hotel. (As I mentioned in the previous post, our hotel room was only going to be available for the one night).  Without a good map of the area, we headed off in a direction we hoped would bring us to the Hotel Pandim (also recommended highly by travel guides and internet searches).  We walked up a beautiful staircase to the Ridge Road.  As its name implies, the road follows the ridge at the top of town, with amazing views in all directions.  The town has built a lovely park along the side of the road, and we enjoyed the plants and birds that were just getting warmed up with the first rays of the sun.  

The park along Ridge Road

Kids playing before school starts

What followed was a bit of walking in circles along steep roads that seemed to encourage walking in circles.  Though not technically lost, we had no real clue where we were or in what direction we needed to head to find a place for which we had no real address or location.  I did have my maps on my phone, but I think that the GPS and the roadways don't really line up - particularly with the extreme vertical relief of the town.  Nevertheless, we had a lovely walk about town for a little over an hour before we finally found Hotel Pandim, where we got a lovely breakfast out on the terrace overlooking the town.  

Prayer flags leading down the hill toward a stupa (a Buddhist holy structure)

The wall of the palace temple

Tibet Road

One of the more gentle staircases

Breakfast on Pandim's terrace

One of the furry residents...quite the clown this one

The common room/dining area at Hotel Pandim

We found it very interesting that the two or three hotels that we looked into before checking out of Hotel Sonam Delek were all a little hesitant about showing us their rooms.  It was clearly not because we weren't welcome, but because they seemed somewhat embarrassed by the quality of their offerings compared to where we were already staying.  The fact that we were Americans exacerbated the situation.  Evidently visiting Americans are largely seen as being very wealthy and particular in Sikkim - something we encountered repeatedly.  If America is the 'Golden Mountain', then Americans must be just swimming in loot and accustomed to incredible luxury.  It is also said that that Americans - even more than Europeans - tend to be charged more by local shopkeepers and services as well.  We didn't see much evidence of this, but it did take a fare bit of encouragement to convince the manager at Hotel Pandim that we liked the room he had to offer and that we really wanted to stay.  Before we left, he rattled off many apologies for everything that (he perceived) went wrong during our stay - whether it was any fault of the hotel's or not.  This extreme hospitality was a bit embarrassing for everyone, I think, but we certainly felt like honored guests during our stay in Gangtok.


We Triple Bagged our stuff into our new digs and then set out to see more of the town.  Now that the morning hours had slipped away, the town was once again fully awake and ready for our prying eyes.

Our room @ Hotel Pandim - complete with a balcony and a nice view

Very basic, but for 700rs (about $15) per night, it was just fine.

More of the Marg

Odd that we never use this turn of phrase in the states... ;)

Some of the very busy intersections had pedestrian bridges - more efficient I suppose than traffic signals might be...

It was time to start getting serious and booking our trek, but little did we know that there was a little cloud descending upon our plans.  Or at least, descending upon my person which made furthering our plans much more complicated...