Web Stories

The Eastern Himalaya, one story at a time

Tea, monasteries, the toy train, festivals and trails: short stories for planning Darjeeling, Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal from the United States or Spain.

All stories

A street vendor in a gray sweater tossing noodles on a hot griddle at his stall in Darjeeling, a steamer pot beside him USA · EN Where Darjeeling eats breakfast: Glenary's, Keventer's or sel roti Darjeeling's three breakfasts, what to order at each, when they open, and the day of the week the bazaar shuts. Cloud drifting across green tea rows and a scatter of tin roofed houses on a Darjeeling hillside USA · EN Where to stay in Darjeeling: town, ridge or tea estate Why many Darjeeling town rooms look onto rooftops, the houses we use instead, and the questions we ask before booking one. A Sikkim hill village on terraced slopes with cloud pouring over the ridge above and a track winding through USA · EN Which car, where, and the road rules behind a Himalaya journey Why the car changes in Sikkim and Bhutan, the six-hour driving rule, and how each mountain road day is kept safe. A line of tiny trekkers crossing the golden high meadows around Dzongri in West Sikkim, snow peaks of the Kanchenjunga range behind USA · EN Why Sikkim is called a hidden valley: the beyul and its four caves What a beyul is, why Bhutias call Sikkim Demazong, and the four sacred caves set around Tashiding like the petals of a lotus. Houses on the hillsides of southern Thimphu above the river and its road bridge in Bhutan USA · EN Your driver, your guide, your chef: who does what on the road The people around a private journey in the Eastern Himalaya, from the Bagdogra driver to the licensed guide in Bhutan. A whitewashed chorten beside the moss-covered stone coronation throne at Norbugang in Yuksom, yellow prayer flags in front USA · EN Yuksom and the stone throne where Sikkim crowned its first king The 1642 coronation at Norbugang, a chorten made of the whole kingdom, Kathok Lake and the monastery that anointed kings.

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  2. A day-by-day draftEvery house, drive, guide and permit on its own line, with the date each rate was checked.
  3. Change anythingAs often as you like, before anything is booked.
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Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Gangtok, Pelling, Bhutan, Nepal

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