Accountant Adventures: Sikkim Skyline

In the cable car

I woke up in the morning to have tea and cookies brought to me in bed. For breakfast I had an amazing assortment of home prepared foods that were both delicious and filling. When I returned to my room after breakfast my bed had been made for me. During the day we had a driver drive us all over town. Later in the day when we came back and I was wet I was once again greeted with hot tea and cookies. With treatment like this, I don’t know how they will ever get me to leave.

I did my laundry by attaching the hoses to the washing machine and then running it a few times until the water stopped being black. Then I hung my clothes on the clothes line on the roof to dry. When I ran out of bottled water I walked down the street to get it for myself from the store. Prajwal’s Aunt and Uncle, who we are staying with, called Praj’s parents to tell them about the low maintenance, self sufficient American.

We rode the cable car in Gangtok that goes from nowhere to nowhere, but does travel over the city and provide spectacular views. Then we went to the Monastery and met up with one of Praj’s friends who works there as a historian. She took us around to all of the exhibits there and explained everything in further detail. There was an exhibit on the history between Sikkim and Bhutan and then on the main level was a Buddhist exhibit. It was very informative and interesting.

As it started to rain and the fog rolled in Praj insisted that we go to a lookout point, high in the mountains above Gangtok. We drove on a windy wet road up and around for 45 minutes into the rain and fog. When we got to the top we couldn’t see a thing, a real shock.

We went to the only Italian place in Gangtok for dinner because our first choice was closed on Tuesdays. They call it Italian because they have pizza and spaghetti, never mind that they have a bigger curry section. I was really craving some pizza, so I ordered it. You would think that I would learn to never eat other types of food here but I keep trying. The pizza was AWFUL, there wasn’t any sauce and they added peppers, chilies and onions, all items that were not requested but are apparently added to every pizza.

There is only one casino in mainland India and it is located in Gangtok. The only other casino is on a riverboat in Goa. I couldn’t be so close to the only mainland casino and not go, so went to have a look around. The entire casino is the size of two hotel rooms, in fact I think that’s what they actually used. They have 2 roulette wheels, 5 slot machines, a blackjack table and a few other games. I played blackjack for an hour and lost more than a weeks worth of spending money for India.