Sunday 8 April - the rain over North Eastern India persists although it seems mostly to fall at night and late afternoon so by the time we headed out after a leisurely breakfast it was brighter.
We headed up the slope through town to the Ridgeway and the Flower Exhibition which was a very impressive display of Himalayan orchids. Many colours and hybrids.
Down to the main town again we hit Lal Market which is a lively narrow street selling pretty much everything. At the bottom of the hill is Gangtok's only cinema and the indoor market. Given we have one night back in HK before heading for a 3 day sojourn to Taipei to experience the onsen we bought a selection of veggies for dinner on Tuesday night.
Back up the hill we stopped for lunch at the Hotel Oriental which looks to be the smartest place in town. Needless to say the afternoon rain began as we walked back and we took refuge in a nice souvenir shop - picking up a thangka, a prayer wheel, and incense holder and some hand painted pictures. Unfortunately we could not quite get the price down sufficiently on a very nice - but very heavy Buddha.
We headed up the slope through town to the Ridgeway and the Flower Exhibition which was a very impressive display of Himalayan orchids. Many colours and hybrids.
Down to the main town again we hit Lal Market which is a lively narrow street selling pretty much everything. At the bottom of the hill is Gangtok's only cinema and the indoor market. Given we have one night back in HK before heading for a 3 day sojourn to Taipei to experience the onsen we bought a selection of veggies for dinner on Tuesday night.
Back up the hill we stopped for lunch at the Hotel Oriental which looks to be the smartest place in town. Needless to say the afternoon rain began as we walked back and we took refuge in a nice souvenir shop - picking up a thangka, a prayer wheel, and incense holder and some hand painted pictures. Unfortunately we could not quite get the price down sufficiently on a very nice - but very heavy Buddha.