As well as wet, wetter, Sikkim.
Last few days I was experiencing Sikkim, really tiny part of India's Himalayas squeezed between Nepal and Bhutan. Almost 80% of population here are Nepalis that were brought by British in 19th century, the minority of the population are the Bhutias (come from Tibet in 14th century) and Lepchas (come first, probably from Far East). According to my local guidebook, official languages of the province are: Nepali, English, Bhutia, Lepcha, Limboo, Magar, Rai, Gurung, Sherpa, Tamang, Newari, Sunuwar. I wonder if there is any one that knows all official languages of this small province... Unfortunately only part of the Sikkim is open for tourist, it is very difficult or even impossible to explore North of Sikkim.
For the first four day trek I joined Wiet and Koen. We wanted to explore 'tourist' restricted areas, so we needed to organize a local guide. The day before we started I decided to buy my first ever umbrella. My first choice was not very good... umbrella got completely ruined after first opening. So I went for my second possibility - rainbow umbrella. And this time it was an excellent choice. The first day of our trek we experienced rain for most of the time. For 6-7h we were hiking almost constantly in rain. Initially I wanted to wear my rain jacket, but it was so warm, and so humid that I was getting wetter more from the sweat than from the rain.... so for whole day I was hiking with rainbow umbrella trying to convince sun to come out. The biggest problem I had with my hiking shoes that got leaking and were "drinking water" like crazy. At the end of the day my shoes triple their weight!!! Despite of the rain, for the whole time of our trek the dog Rodos, which was very similar to my parents dogs, was accompany us. We hiked through a jungle, crossed four big rivers and many small and big waterfalls.
Finally completely soaked we reached Choka - home stay. There was a small chimney in our dining room so we could dry some things and put my shoes on a "slim" diet. Except the dinner we also received the local, home made, Sikkim beer - Thumba. It is served in a bamboo glass full of fermented millet seeds, which need to be filled with hot water. After few minutes one can enjoy sweet, surprisingly strong beer-like taste that warms you up. When you finish your first portion.... you can simply re-feel your beer glass with the next portion of hot water!!! And you can do it 5-8 times!!! Amazing.
Next day, partially in rain we reached our final trekking hut at Dzongri. The aim of our hike was a viewing point were we could appreciate the third highest mountain in the world - Kangchenjunga 8,586 meters.
This is the peak where Polish climber Wanda Rutkiewicz, the first woman to ascend and descend K2, stayed forever during her descend.
So the most important was a weather on the third day, when we climbed the viewing point. We were extremely lucky, that particular morning was very nice weather. We woke up 4 o'clock in the morning and waked up to the viewing point for sunrise. Kangchenjunga is a very massive and beautiful peak. In this neighborhood apparently Yeti was seen one of the first time in history. Unfortunately or fortunately we did not come across Yeti.
For the next two days we waked down to Yoksum with the night stop in Choka, where we again could enjoy Thombas.
And one more thing if you ever manage to get to Yoksum try Cheese Yak Soup in the Yak restaurant. Delicious.
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