We're not in Kansas Anymore

When we arrived on Monday night, it was dark.  It wasn't until the following morning that, in the light of day, that the extreme vertical nature of this land became apparent.   There are hilly cities back in the states, such as San Francisco and Seattle.  But they have nothing on this place.  If you take a snapshot of one of the hilliest drives in the states, Lombard Street in San Francisco...

...you'll get a bit of a sense of what all of Gangtok is like -- but still it hardly holds a candle to Gangtok.

Here's a view from up the street from Chandmary House, where we are staying… 

In addition to the density of houses spread across the steep hillsides, there's a plethora of prayer flags and rebar.  Rebar?  Yeah.  A large fraction of houses here are in a near-constant state of construction.  Most of the houses are built of concrete.  Concrete floors supported by concrete posts reinforced with rebar.  The way construction works here is you save up a bunch of money, and then construct until the money runs out, you then save up again and construct again, and the building is completed in that fashion.  The upper unfinished floors are barren slabs of concrete with rebar sprouting where future support pillars will be erected.  It makes the landscape almost prickly in appearance.

Cheers,

Glenn & Corrina