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I wanted to make our reservations for the Sikkim and Darjeeling part of the trip first. All of the places we are staying are small, so (as we learned from our Glenburn experience) fill up fast – even far in advance. A friend told us Glenburn could make all of our Darjeeling and Sikkim reservations for us, which would mean that all of our transport would be coordinated. So I asked the woman who replied to me from Glenburn if she could also reserve us rooms at Norkhill and Mt. Padim. Indeed, she could, and she quickly had those reservations confirmed.
Next to reserve is transport. The Glenburn package includes transport from your last accommodations to Glenburn and from Glenburn to your next accommodations or, in our case, the airport at Bagdogra. So we need transport from the airport to Gangtok and from Gangtok to Mt. Padim at Pelling.
After hearing about the helicopter transport, that’s what we wanted to do. We asked her to make those reservations. Apparently, this is not an easy process. I guess it’s hard to get a response back from the Sikkim Tourism Authority that offers this service. Eventually she did get a response, but the response was that they wouldn’t open reservations for our date until October or so. The other thing we learned is that the luggage limit on the helicopter is 15 kg. per person. Given that we need to carry clothing for a range of weather, we decided we didn’t want to be stressed about a luggage limit.
Also, there is the issue of the Sikkim permit. If we go by ground, we can have the permit issued at Rangpo as we enter Sikkim. By helicopter, we need the permit in advance. Usually, people get the permit in Kolkata, but we won’t be in Kolkata before we go to Sikkim. Another thing to consider is that the helicopter can be grounded by bad weather, so you need a back-up plan. So going by ground seemed most practical even though the drive is 4 – 5 hours.
One more decision to make – did we want an Innova or a Sumo for our transport? I quickly Googled those vehicles. One of the things I’ve learned in my travels is that if we are traveling distances or over bad roads, we want the most comfortable vehicle we can get. The Innova, while a few dollars more, clearly looks to be the more comfortable vehicle.
With that decision, we asked for a final invoice; Glenburn requires a 50% deposit to hold reservations and we would need to do a wire transfer to their bank account in Kolkata.
