Recalling Sikkim!

Gangtok (which means 'hilltop'), capital city of sikkim, still lingers on my mind. A place abundant of beautiful hills and people.

We met Bheem at the taxi stand. A young (20) taxi driver with tons of enthusiam, we asked to transport us from the stand to our hotel, Golden Pagoda. We got a room with a market view for 600 rupees. Bhima was still waiting for us, he had suggested us a 7 point visit for 500 bucks. With just 1.5 days with us in sikkim we quickly agreed to and got started. Our second was well account with pictures in my other post "Heaven - 12,400ft above sea level!".

For people who wish to travel to sikkim here are some list of places to eat and stay.

Code, Kodai and me

I was digging into some CSS (code) that I wrote few months ago. It's nice to know that you can still write some 'code' and term them something as complex as classes (I hear a lot about it from the next cubicle at work). Well these classes are relatively (absolutely) simple. Usually, I am lot more busy at work. My mobile was already ringing. It's karthik, yet again.

kk: hi da,
me: hey kk, wassup?
kk: nothing da, busy aa? (typical south indian da and aa's)
me: well just thinking about a break, a weekend in Kodai.
kk: really?
me: yes, I should head to kodai road. correct?

Sikkim - forever ours!

I had recently learnt from my friend Preetam that China had never recognized Sikkim as part of India. It treated it as an independent country. He also explained how pragmatic chinese government is when it comes to acquiring back their so called lost terretories. They played smart with HK. They let Britain rule and develop it and finally chucked them out when it seemed most profitable. It puts me to great relief that sikkim is no more a disputed territory. It's one of the most exciting place in India. I hope to get there soon to explore more of it. Truly India's pride.

Heaven - 12,400ft above sea level!

Three days had elapsed since we began our journey to east. We probably had no clue of what Gangtok had in the offing. We cleared the security check point to enter Sikkim. Foreign nationals have to report to all such check-post. Military was all over the place. Roads were well made, traffic was highly disciplined, people would use foot-over to cross road and pavement to walk. Everything looked in place as we slowly got closer to the town.

Darling, darjeeling on my mind

Heading East: Part 2

I remember playing the board game called business. Darjeeling was one of the few hill stations I would always wanted to buy. I rather used to call it darling. I was little then.

There one thing we did enough in darjeeling - eating out!

We stayed at sterling resorts at Ghoom (about 7500ft above sea level) which is 8kms away from Darjeeling and indeed the highest point in Darjeeling.

Yellow Taxi

Heading East: Part 1

"Shalin - look; yellow taxi!" exclaimed karthik (kk).

Heading East

It was a fine saturday evening. I called up karthik.

Me: KK, wassup?
KK: Still at work.
ME: Let's explore the east. Let's head to darjeeling.
KK: Okay. Let's go!

The Mumbai Flavor

It was already 3:30 in the morning and I was working on a project deadline. I was packing my baggage simultaneously. I had a train few hours later. Of course, I couldn't have done anything any earlier. Last minute packing, having an important deadline or two and forgetting plenty of essentials is customary. I finally decided to catch some sleep. I had two hours of precious sleep awaiting me.

Worms in your chocolate? Try this...

Well, if you are worried about consuming worms when you actually intend to consume chocolate. Just try a sip of coke after every bite! If you love both these brands, you now know how well they compliment each other.

Singapore and beyond

I finally made it to the place, which I could have just dreamt of. It was a quick decision and last minute ticketing to get there. I surely did not get the best of the deal for my tickets but that did not bother me much. I just wanted to get there.