Kalimpong
Kalimpong is a market town about 50 km east of Darjeeling.
It has at various times been a part of independent Sikkim,
then Bhutan and now is part of India. It was never a tea or
resort town and has always been a trading town on the route
to Tibet. In the mid-1960s it wasn't possible for tourists
to visit Kalimpong and that is still reflected in the large
military presence in the town and in the area.
Kalimpong is perched along a ridge with a hilltop Tibetan
Monastery at the southern end and Deolo hill at the
northern. We stayed at Hilltop house and toured the town
for an afternoon and a day, visiting the Tibetan monastery,
a beautiful wooden church, a cactus nursery, a handmade
paper factory, a Ghurka veterans reunion, Deolo hill and
gardens and finally the bazaar.
Click this link for a slide show of 48
photos from this section of our trip