In Namchi, taxis are parked in two places. One is for local journeys, the other for longer journeys. A few days ago, I met a driver and took his details just in case.
Having extended my Sikkim permit yesterday, I decided to go further south — to Kalimpong. I arranged the trip with the taxi driver I’d met.
Yesterday, I told Kevin (from the Gangtok post office) that I was going to Kalimpong. He told me he was there! Sophie would be arriving the same day as me. What’s more, Kevin told me, Kalimpong is in West Bengal not Sikkim! I needn’t have extended my permit!
Since I was leaving Sikkim, I would need to go through a checkpoint to get my passport stamped and return my permit. Kevin told me that the nearest checkpoint to Kalimpong was in Melli. As it happens, Kevin had left Sikkim without going through a checkpoint. We arranged to meet at Melli.
The taxi journey to Kalimpong took about two hours. The driver had an old car and drove carefully. The winding road went past his former home. He paused a few times to say hello to various people. Everything went smoothly at the checkpoint and we picked up Kevin, who’d already gone through the formalities.
In Kalimpong, we dropped off Kevin and I went to Mission Valley homestay.
After checking in, I walked around the town centre. It was about a 15 minutes’ walk down hill from the homestay.
I then went to Art Cafe, which ChatGPT had recommended. Kevin and Sophie were there!
We chatted for the afternoon. It was the longest time we’d spent together and we really clicked.
For dinner, we went to King Thai restaurant. It was decorated with Hollywood stars. After some discussion, the waiter arranged a vegan chop suey for me. I’d never had it before and liked the mixture of vegetables and crispy noodles in a sauce.
By the time we’d finished dinner, it was pitch-black. I walked back to my homestay in the dark since the side streets weren’t lit. The town centre had cleared. I had to use my phone’s torch. At one point, Google Maps told me to go up some stairs to get to the next level in this hilly town. The stairs seemed to come to an end and there was nowhere to go. I then saw some indistinct and uneven steps that got me back to a good path to the homestay.