Feedback from Sikkim trip in November

SilverMaple

Here’s some info from our trip round south Sikkim, east & west, in November. We made much use of info from this forum when planning - thanks to Janice in particular. Many of the places we visited have been covered by other posts on this forum. So I’ll stick to just a few discoveries or surprises.

· Lingdum monastery, just outside Gangtok, is a large (300 monks) and beautiful Kagyu monastery in a majestic wooded mountain setting. Very friendly monks and the biggest monastery cat you ever saw. A taxi will get you there. The monks will make sure you see their cat. The guide books don’t highlight Lingdum, if they mention it at all – I don’t think they can have been there. It’s on a similar scale to Rumtek but in grander, higher landscape. You could combine it with a trip to Rumtek, same general direction.

· Mintokling hotel at Gangtok is really nice. It’s in ‘green Gangtok’, the lushly wooded high ridge, where the Royal Palace is, not in the brown concrete modern Gangtok, where almost all the other hotels are. It’s very green, peaceful and secluded in a traditional Sikkimese building with a garden with prayer flags and a friendly rabbit. Really good meals – we ended up preferring it to the Gangtok restaurants. Both Sikkimese and very tasty Indian dishes. Details on http://www.mintokling.com/

· At Sangachoeling Monastery near Pelling, there are 2 monastery guest rooms which Lama Sonam wishes drawn to the attention of travellers. Sangachoeling is a small, very old monastery, secluded on top of a very steep pine-covered mountain. There’s a brand new road almost all the way up (very, very steep) but you have to walk the last 15 minutes. Amazing views from the top. A very ancient, peaceful feel – the scenes you witness of religious practice can be no different from Tibet 300 years ago. It’s a Nyingma monastery and many murals and images have a very Tantric character. Re the 2 guest rooms, each has its own front door, bathroom and toilet and the one we saw had 3 beds, electric light, a cooking ring and an electric fire (NB cold nights in November!) Lama Sonam is happy to accommodate foreign visitors either on arrival or by advance discussion on his mobile phone: 9730 77405.

· At Pemayangtse Monastery, don’t miss the huge, multi-storey, 3 dimensional Zandokpalri mandala. It’s on the top floor of the 3 storey main temple and you have to look for the stairs up. On the right side, as you enter, of the ground floor main shrine room there’s a door leading to stairs to an upstairs library and second shrine room. From there you need to look for the stairway to another floor on top which houses the great tower-like mandala.

· The Bon religion monastery at Kewzing, which Janice told us about, seems to be thriving, even expanding. An English-speaking Bon lama was very welcoming and showed us round. It’s on the main road and very accessible.

· Surprised how the public jeep from Darjeeling to Gangtok combined extreme cheapness (125 rupees per seat) with very safe driving on those perilous roads and no delays or breakdowns. Glad we didn’t hire our own jeep for that bit.

· Surprised at how much English is the language of Sikkim. In Gangtok we couldn’t find any written signs which were not in English. I’d tried to learn some Nepali but needn’t have bothered.

· We had no problem in staying 100% vegetarian in Sikkim. So many travellers avoid meat in India that ‘vegetarian momos’ are widely on sale. They’re not that tasty, though, & we were glad of the common option of Indian veg dishes.