The Trip to Gangtok

Chris, Grace, Corrina and I left Boston on Saturday, February 2 at 9PM.  We flew first to London and then to Delhi.  I was impressed with how modern and clean the Delhi airport is.  The last time I was in India, I few in to Chennai. The Chennai airport looks like it has seen heavy use many decades without a significant update or face lift.  The Delhi airport, in contrast, was much like any modern airport in the US.  The artwork throughout the airport has a distinctive Indian theme.  Here's an image of a 10-foot tall sculptured hand standing above the customs entryway.

At Delhi, we had a 10 hour stop.  Chris knew about a pay-by-the-hour hotel in the Delhi airport, and we stayed there for about six hours.  The rooms were teeny, so we had to get two for the four of us.  They were very comfortable.  It made the extended stay in Delhi quite enjoyable.  At the end of our stay, we caught a flight from Delhi to Bagdogra.  

From Bagdogra, we had a long car ride up to Gangtok.  The ride took about 5 hours, which is about what was expected.  What's a bit funny is that if you use Google Maps to view the route from Bagdogra to Gangtok (there is really only one way to go) it says it should take only 2 hours.  Ha!  Google maps needs to be updated a wee bit to take into account actual driving conditions.

The first hour and half of the car ride was through a region called Siliguri.  It was a fairly typical (vibrant, dirty, crowded) view of "suburban" India.  Siliguri is known for it's furniture making and we saw a lot of small workshops making everything from statues to bed frames.

After Siliguri, we passed into the most heavily forested area I had ever seen in India (though I have only been to Mumbai and Chennai).  This area is the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary.  Right after the sanctuary, the road got a bit smaller, and started climbing in elevation.  We were on our way into the Himalayas!  The road from here on out was like no road I've ever been on.  At times, the road was a single car's width, where traffic in one direction had to wait for cars to pass coming from the other.  There were, in most cases, concrete blocks or posts along the side of the road that ostensibly prevented drivers from going off the steep cliff on the edge of the road.  In the US, this road would have had large steel and concrete guard rails along its length.  Here in India, the cars drove much slower, but more responsibility is given to the driver to be safe.

The drive up into the HImalayas was quite stunning.  Garishly decorated trucks and buses mixed with small economy cars and jeeps navigated the often unpaved road.  Passing slower moving vehicles was common even though there was no passing lane -- there were no lanes!  The view from the road showed steep, sometimes near vertical hills rising up.

And on the other side, precipitous cliffs that dropped off tens to hundreds of feet.

We drove almost a hundred kilometers up into the Himalayas, and saw a lot of people working on the roads.  We saw no heavy machinery in use.  Instead, individual people were doing heavy labor by hand.

In the above picture you can see six women loading concrete by hand into a large form (to the bottom left).  The woman on the top left was helping the woman with the shovel.  You can see a rope she is holding that is tied to the base of the shovel.  When the shovel load of concrete is lifted, she adds her strength to the load by pulling on the rope.  

More soon about Gangtok.

Your guest blogger, Glenn