Late risers. No rush and cool outside, nice change. Guys next door did the Darjeeling tourist pilgrimage across to Tiger Hill 11km to the South East. At a height of 2590mtr versus Dar at 2134mtrs it apparently gives an awesome sunrise vista across the himalaya including Kanchenjunga sitting on the border between Nepal and India. So many people get up at 4.30 - 5.30am take a share jeep and join the crowd over on the hill top. There are even heated rooms available for the more comfort conscious variety. Apparently it can be a bit frantic, so we are not busting to add it to our to do list.
Down Tenzing Norgay Rd to Sonams kitchen. Excellent breakfast and filter coffee. Share the table with an american guy and girl who were both feeling the downside of partying from last night. The guy was quite cool having cycled through some of America with his surfboard on a trailer. The downside of the place was it was packed with only western tourists, which is quite a shock when you have been on cultural diversity rations for a while. Find wifi next door at an adventure tour / cyber cafe place.
Lots of places in town closed this morning and public offices closed all day as Sai Baba a very well known religious figure was being buried having died two days ago. The guy was very well respected and had many followers. His funeral was supposed to attract over 500,000 people having laid instate for the past two days. You would know if you had seen him as he had this big frizz of hair and wore like many Hindi religious identities orange.
Walk along past Observatory Hill with morning view back across to the snow capped Kanchenjunga before heading down Jawahar Road to the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park. The park self proclaims itself as the highest altitude zoo in the world. The zoo was great and with more extensive animal enclosures than those at Nainital. The highlights being the Snow Leopard, Golden Pheasant and Red Pandas.
Signage everywhere both in writing and depiction requested a certain atmosphere of calm, which was great as versus the leopard we saw at the last zoo these ones were pretty chilled out not prowling the fence line backwards and forwards non stop. There was still a couple of loud mouth kids and parents growling or clicking at generally the larger animals in an attempt to attain action. The brochure is a classic including " do not attempt to prod them (the nocturnal animals) awake, just to see them better " and " to protect themselves animals, can bite or claw you ". Outside one exhibit I was hoping that this may occur to a particularly painful young zoo visitor. Fortunately, for the kid, this did not occur.
From the zoo onto the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute museum established in 1954 it contains exhibits covering the various Everest ascents and some relief models of the whole himalayan range. Not bad, possibly a little too static. There is also a climbing wall out back and the institute run climbing and adventure courses, but were not viewable. The kids here pumped I guess by the zoo were very talkative ( a term used by a Nepali student for visiting indian tourists in Pokhara) and the cavernous museum just amplified the hype. It was great to get back outside.
Walk back up the ridge back towards town before heading down to Hot Pizza for Carbonara and a Panini. Not bad. Wandered the lower bazaar, Chauk Bazaar looking for tea. Directed to a place called Naya syang. Very popular with the locals however the tea like most chia around was very sweet.
Wander around trying to find topo map for Sikkim if not also Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. No success, closest value an Eiger Road Atlas of India which will provide starting detail but to which we will need to add some altitudes for the routes that we are proposing.
Dinner at Frank Ross Cafe which was decidedly disappointing. All veg and went with the Mexican options which was not good. Wandered back up to the main Mall, Chowrasta and the Arts, Crafts and Curios store. Some skillfully carved conch shells with Buddhist motives. Surprisingly heavy so not good for the bikes.
Retire for the night to catch up on some typing. Don't even stop on the way for coffee at Cafe Coffee Day. Slow leak evident in rear tire, will need to practice my patching.
Down Tenzing Norgay Rd to Sonams kitchen. Excellent breakfast and filter coffee. Share the table with an american guy and girl who were both feeling the downside of partying from last night. The guy was quite cool having cycled through some of America with his surfboard on a trailer. The downside of the place was it was packed with only western tourists, which is quite a shock when you have been on cultural diversity rations for a while. Find wifi next door at an adventure tour / cyber cafe place.
Lots of places in town closed this morning and public offices closed all day as Sai Baba a very well known religious figure was being buried having died two days ago. The guy was very well respected and had many followers. His funeral was supposed to attract over 500,000 people having laid instate for the past two days. You would know if you had seen him as he had this big frizz of hair and wore like many Hindi religious identities orange.
Walk along past Observatory Hill with morning view back across to the snow capped Kanchenjunga before heading down Jawahar Road to the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park. The park self proclaims itself as the highest altitude zoo in the world. The zoo was great and with more extensive animal enclosures than those at Nainital. The highlights being the Snow Leopard, Golden Pheasant and Red Pandas.
Signage everywhere both in writing and depiction requested a certain atmosphere of calm, which was great as versus the leopard we saw at the last zoo these ones were pretty chilled out not prowling the fence line backwards and forwards non stop. There was still a couple of loud mouth kids and parents growling or clicking at generally the larger animals in an attempt to attain action. The brochure is a classic including " do not attempt to prod them (the nocturnal animals) awake, just to see them better " and " to protect themselves animals, can bite or claw you ". Outside one exhibit I was hoping that this may occur to a particularly painful young zoo visitor. Fortunately, for the kid, this did not occur.
From the zoo onto the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute museum established in 1954 it contains exhibits covering the various Everest ascents and some relief models of the whole himalayan range. Not bad, possibly a little too static. There is also a climbing wall out back and the institute run climbing and adventure courses, but were not viewable. The kids here pumped I guess by the zoo were very talkative ( a term used by a Nepali student for visiting indian tourists in Pokhara) and the cavernous museum just amplified the hype. It was great to get back outside.
Walk back up the ridge back towards town before heading down to Hot Pizza for Carbonara and a Panini. Not bad. Wandered the lower bazaar, Chauk Bazaar looking for tea. Directed to a place called Naya syang. Very popular with the locals however the tea like most chia around was very sweet.
Wander around trying to find topo map for Sikkim if not also Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. No success, closest value an Eiger Road Atlas of India which will provide starting detail but to which we will need to add some altitudes for the routes that we are proposing.
Dinner at Frank Ross Cafe which was decidedly disappointing. All veg and went with the Mexican options which was not good. Wandered back up to the main Mall, Chowrasta and the Arts, Crafts and Curios store. Some skillfully carved conch shells with Buddhist motives. Surprisingly heavy so not good for the bikes.
Retire for the night to catch up on some typing. Don't even stop on the way for coffee at Cafe Coffee Day. Slow leak evident in rear tire, will need to practice my patching.
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