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Input from other travelers is helpful. And for me, the Fodors forum is especially helpful. I’ve been posting there for years, as have many others. And many of us have met each other at get-togethers all over the world. So I have a cadre of fellow travelers whose opinions I respect.
It was from my request for input that I was referred to the blog post of a fellow Fodorite about her experience on the Darjeeling Toy Train. That, combined with other research convinced me that the Toy Train might be fun, but I shouldn’t count on it as reliable transport. Another Fodorite suggested I consider Darjeeling and Sikkim. Sikkim has been on my list of places I’d like to visit since I was a child. I’d looked at it briefly, but it appeared to be too cold in November-December for what I’m looking for.
Still, it was something to put on the list for future consideration. Another poster noted that Assam is less-touristed than Darjeeling, which is what I’d concluded. So I received a variety of responses to my request. Some of the info provided confirmed my sense of the places, some dis-confirmed, and some raised more possibilities. I did a bit of further research on all of the salient points raised by others.
I had timed all of this data-gathering to be done when we left for our annual trip to Kauai. This was a time to think and talk about the options and come to a conclusion without the tasks and pressures of day-to-day life. I took my Lonely Planet Guide and we had a laptop and free wi-fi, so we were set to work out a plan.
I’m the travel planner, but my partner and I are true travel partners, so we make our travel decisions together. I presented Cheryl with the info I’d gathered and the Lonely Planet and she took some time to digest it. Then we talked together about our thoughts and feelings about the destinations.
Cheryl’s reaction to Assam was that it would be interesting, but not exciting. Darjeeling and Sikkim sounded exciting to Cheryl. Darjeeling, and especially Sikkim sounded exciting to me, but the weather was a concern. The Tibetan Buddhist influence is something we are both interested in. So it was time for more research.
The internet is a wonderful thing, but we can all be deceived by assuming the info is correct. I went back to my favorite weather site, then went on to several other weather sites to check the weather in Gangtok and Pelling. One problem with the data was that some sites only gave an average temperature for each month. At high altitudes, especially, that isn’t very helpful. If the average temp is 50 does that mean it varies between 40 and 60 or 25 and 75? We also discovered at least one weather site that had the centigrade temperatures listed as Fahrenheit – that makes a big difference.
After lots of research on weather and local news sites, and some posts from people who were in Sikkim or had been there in November through January, it began to look like the weather in Sikkim would be pretty good. Yes, it would be cold at night, but day times should be very pleasant, 65 – 70, and rain is scarce at that time of the year.
So now we had a first choice destination. Can we make the logistics work?
