Kurseong to Turuk (Sikkim)
We left Kurseong at about 8:00 AM to make the four to five
hour journey to Turuk Kothi, a family farm (estate really),
in Sikkim. The first part of the trip involved heading back
up the bumpy, bouncy road to Darjeeling but at Ghoom (the
high point on the Darjeeling-Himalayan steam railway and
about 7 km from Darjeeling), we turned off to head off back
down the other side of the ridge (on a much better road)
for a great drive through forests and farms and towns down,
down until we reached and crossed the Teesta River into
Sikkim. A special permit is required for entry into Sikkim
(which is an Indian state but which is so politically
sensitive that that Indian military presence is very
large). China, Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal are each about 30 km
from anywhere in Sikkim. Then the road climbed again
After about a five hour drive we arrived at a beautiful
family Kothi or farming estate with its 160 year-old main
house and about 5 guest cottages. (We were the first guests
of the new post-monsoon tourist season). On the afternoon
that we arrived we walked up to visit with a Brahmin Hindu
priest and his family. The next day we did an aggressive
hike with three young men (a guide, a lunch carrier and
their friend who came along just to practice his english).
The all-day hike took us up, up, up through terraced rice
and millet plots to Belling and Gompi villages were we were
invited into the homes of various families whose properties
we crossed. We descended more rapidly by using some of the
roads (new and old).
Click this link for a slide show of 60
photos from this section of our
trip.