Sikkim's cloud-wrapped capital — momos, monasteries, and Himalayan views
Gangtok sits at 1,650m in the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim, where Tibetan Buddhist monasteries perch on ridge-tops above a cable-car valley and the air smells of cardamom tea. The MG Marg pedestrian strip is lined with Nepali chaat, Sikkimese thukpa, and Tibetan momos from family kitchens that have barely changed in fifty years. On a clear morning, Kanchenjunga — the world's third-highest peak — dominates the entire northern horizon.
Gangtok was a small trading village on the Silk Road's Himalayan arm before the Chogyal dynasty made it Sikkim's capital in 1894. The British built a residency here, using the town as a staging post for expeditions to Tibet. When India annexed Sikkim in 1975 (in a controversial referendum the Chogyal refused to sign), Gangtok became an Indian state capital almost overnight — and the blend of Nepali, Tibetan, Lepcha, and Bengali cultures it had accumulated remains intact in its food, festivals, and monasteries.