Annoyed today.

Everything started out just fine... woke up early (5:00) to see Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world, which is stunning... wandered around for a couple of miles at leisure, drank tea, ate momos, purchased a cheap Jeep ride to Gangtok (where I am now), packed up my crap at the charming little hotel... and then came the Jeep stand and it all went to shit.

Please understand that my mood has nothing to do with Gangtok itself, it's a perfectly decent hill town if not quite as picturesque or user-friendly as Darjeeling (so far as I can tell after arriving an hour ago anyway). No, my frustration lies with a few other things.

First of all, the Jeep stand at Darjeeling-- or anywhere in the NE hill states, I suppose-- is an adrenline and diesel-fume potentially confusing rush. I was allotted a seat in a jeep in the middle row of three rows, next to the door. There were about 7 other people in the jeep which was fine. Then came another, and I had to get out to let them in the back. And another. Again, get out. And another. And another. I was getting pissed not just because I had to keep jumping in and out of the friggin' jeep which was parked entirely too close to the jeep next to it, but because there were now 12 people in it and it was crowded as fuck. We finally left to begin what would be an arduous 4.5-hour, 90-kilometer journey. But first, about 5km out of town, we stopped to let one of the guys in my row off... yay! Oh wait. A very large man, a very large woman and a baby took his place. The polite young man in the middle practically had carnal knowledge of me. There were now 14 people in the jeep including the driver and two small children. And I think I've inhaled more diesel fumes in the duration of this trip than I have in my entire life. That's really not much of an exaggeration, I'm afraid.

The drive itself was pretty enough, winding along the pretty milky-jade Teesta river, but the first two hours were steep as all hell and probably would have scared the shit out of me if I hadn't already been completely immune to careening, potentially lethal jeep rides at that point. I now see why all the guidebooks unilaterally advised NOT taking bus or jeep journeys after dark. Oh, and no one puked. Sweet.

I did feel a bit bad when, at the border to Sikkim, being the lone foreigner I had to hold up everyone to go in to the office to fill out paperwork and get my passport stamped and permit and visa inspected. No one seemed to mind though, which maybe isn't too surprising given the no-hurry nature of India. Three passport stamps for this trip so far and by my count I could have anywhere between one and three more...

Gangtok itself isn't really helping my mood as it turns out that if I want to spend enough time at the one thing I want to see-- Rumtek Monastery, about 24km southwest of here-- I'll have to pay about Rs.450 or approx. $10 for a private taxi to get there. If I take the public bus it's Rs.35, or just under $1, but the problem with that is that it arrives around 11am and departs at 12pm, which to me is entirely NOT enough time. Sure, $10 isn't so bad and I'm certainly going to do it, but still. My jeep ride from Darjeeling to Gangtok was only Rs.125, dammit. The third reason for the pissy mood is that the OTHER thing I really, really wanted to do is unavailable: I wanted to take the helicopter from Gangtok back to Siliguri, where I catch my night train to Kolkata (to catch my flight back to London). Unfortunately the flights are full for the next four days. It would be about Rs.2000 or approx. $45, which to me is entirely worth it for a couple of reasons: 1. It would only take about 45 minutes instead of 6 hours in what we now know would be an entirely overcrowded jeep and B. IT'S A FREAKING HELICOPTER RIDE OVER THE HIMALAYAS. *sob* The gentleman helping me at the tourist office was very sweet but rather overly inquisitive. I tried to be as nice as possible but the irritating jeep ride and having my hopes somewhat dashed made me a bit cranky.

One small bright spot is that there are some rather humorous moments on the way up here in the form of road signs warning of danger. These are the ones I remember:

"Donate blood in blood bank, not on this road"

"If married divorce speed"

"Hurry burry spoils the curry" (I'm not sure but I think this is referring to stomach evacuations)

"Be gentle on curves"

You gotta take humor where you find it, I guess.

My hotel room is crap, but at least it's cheap (Rs.100) and I don't plan on staying in there much anyway. So far I've taken approx. 1000 pictures (ha!) and a couple of short video clips. I won't have a chance to upload them until after I get home because these computers are very slow. It would take forever.

Tomorrow I will write out, in its entirety, my Kashmir experience. Until then, I'm off to forage. By the way, if any of you are expecting postcards (that's ONLY if you know I know your address by heart-- very few of you-- or if you've emailed it to me) they'll likely arrive after I get back! They told me two-week minimum at the post office today. Ah, India...