real pain in my ass. Who knows whether we're storing up good karma for the future or paying back something we did in the past (or in a past life!), but our relaxing mountain adventure has seemingly been anything but. I don't mean to be hyperbolic -- believe me, the beautiful mountain views and the COOL BREEZE alone make this trip feel worth it -- but, we're incredibly disappointed with how it feels like this trip is slowly spinning into a tailspin despite us having booked this trip through an agency intentionally to avoid these types of pitfalls.
To be fair, we were warned before hand that Sikkim, while a developing tourist destination, doesn't have the same infrastructure for tourists that say Rajasthan has ... but we assumed that meant amenities at the hotels like fancy furnishings ... not say, the hotel not knowing that we were scheduled to stay there ... or not say, drivers being only contractually obligated to drop us off at the 4 or 5 sights they were scheduled to go to rather than actually being able to tell us what they are... or not say, feeling like we're just cash cows for the tour operator's cousin-brothers who own and operate all the hotels we're staying at ... or (most importantly) not say, no one seemingly having any freaking clue how to get our permits for the outreaches of Sikkim!!!
Sikkim is wedged between the Nepali and Tibetan borders; and especially considering how contested the Tibetan border is with China, India has a vested interest in making sure that not every Joe-shmo is allowed up there without having a good reason to do so*. This is where our permits come in. The agency assured us before we left that even though they couldn't get our permits in advance anymore (more fallout from the David Headly affair), that it should not be a problem once we got here.
HA!
The reality is that it doesn't seem clear that anyone has any idea what is require for these permits. Our driver (as we were coming in from West Bengal) just dropped us off at the border in order to get our Inner Line permit; he didn't know where the office was, he figured it was near the building where the border police were hanging out. Luckily, deserted tourist must wander around there often because someone kindly pointed us up the hill to the Tourist Office and then to the local police station to register at the Foreign Resident Registration Office. We then wasted two days in Kalimpong in West Bengal (seriously, it is pretty town, but we didn't need to spend two nights there), only to get to Gangtok -- the capital of Sikkim, where you get your permits for the rest of Sikkim -- ON THE WEEKEND! None of the permit offices were open! How did the tour agency, that ostensibly planned our itinerary fail to recognize this flaw in their plan? So we're in Gangtok now, for an extra day because of their poor planning, but to add insult to injury they keep asking us for more documents ... first they need passport photos, then they need copies of our passports, then they need a copy of our Inner Line permit, no wait, on second thought they need the actual permit, oh, and actually, we need your actual passports to show them... Just one thing after another. Do these guys have any idea what is required to submit these permit applications? Or are they literally doing it for the first time?
So we've basically wasted the better part of four days waiting around in hotels -- with our time broken up by drivers dropping us off (literally) at local monasteries** ... but it isn't like I could make use of that time by writing you all blog posts about how beautiful the scenery is or how amazing momos are because ... (wait for it) our netbook is broken again!!!
I know!
It is the same "disease" that it had in Mussoorie, where it will make a clicking noise, freeze, and then blue screen of death. So no picture uploading, not after my last experience in an internet cafe up here, at least until we get back to Delhi. (sigh). For anyone that cares about these types of things, I'm pretty convinced now that this is a hardware issue for a number of reasons:
(a) the clicking popping sound, (b) that it seems as if the computer forgets where the operating system is on the C: drive, (c) that it only seems to happen at altitudes higher than 1200 m. That's why I think it worked just fine when I got to Bangalore (920m) and not Mussoorie (2000m) ... and why it seemed to be working fine in Kalimpong (1250m) and not Gangtok (1400m - 1700m). Has anyone heard before of hardware getting elevation sickness?
(sigh)
So needless to say ... although we are really digging on the mountain views, the fabulous momos, and hanging around Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries watching young monks play ... we're feeling a little stressed about our adventure. LOL ... we were really looking forward to our last weeks in India being on auto-pilot ... just to have an India-lite experience*** ... so much for that.
Best laid plans, right?
But who knows? Why not be optimistic about all the good karma we must be building up? Bodes well for the end of the trip, when we'll be doing a trek in Darjeeling ... or maybe for all the crazy adventures we'll have this summer visiting friends and family all over Europe and the US****
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* Although, you gotta question how effective this system of permits is when everything is done by hand in ledgers that are just kept at their various offices, not say, shared with the police ... for example.
** Which to be fair, are pretty awesome
*** To be fair, Sikkim totally is India-lite in the sense that, the streets are clean, there are no open sewers, private businesses personally choose to limit smoking in their establishments, there are NO BEGGARS, no one hassles us for tips or for "just looking" in their stores, and generally it is just more pleasant.
**** Which we are TOTALLY pumped about!!!
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