Hugging the Himalayas, Clinging to the Car

A ride out to Tsomgo (Changu) Lake, East Sikkim, pretty close to the India/China border at Nathu La. This lake is as far as foreigners can go and even then only after an ample dose of good old Indian bureaucracy. It’s a 6+ hour round trip from Gangtok, at 12,400 feet. The lake’s partly frozen and totally cold, smallish and pretty, but the ride’s the thing. The first photo is the road out of Gangtok.

That’s Kangchenjunga, third highest mountain in the world at 8,586 meters/28,169 ft in the one photo. And yes, they’re busting rocks for the road in that other photo.