Pelling

Pelling is a two-kilometre string of hotels on a west Sikkim spur at about 2,150 metres, and its reason for existing is the wall of Kanchenjunga that appears at first light, close enough to pick out its separate summits from a balcony before breakfast. The history is much older than the hotels. Pemayangtse, founded in 1705 and the head monastery of the Nyingma order in Sikkim, still admits only monks of pure Bhutia lineage; on its top floor stands Zangdok Palri, a wooden model of Guru Rinpoche's celestial palace that Dungzin Rinpoche carved single-handed over five years.

Twenty minutes downhill through chestnut forest are the ruins of Rabdentse, Sikkim's capital from 1670 to 1814, where a stone throne and three chortens look over the valley the Chogyals ruled until Gurkha raids forced the court north. Sanga Choeling, from 1697, is a forty-minute climb the other way, and the glass Skywalk beside its 137-foot Chenrezig statue now lets you stand out over the drop. Days here are short drives: Khecheopalri, the wish-fulfilling lake that Lepchas and Buddhists both revere and where birds are said to lift every fallen leaf off the water; the Rimbi and Kanchenjunga falls; the Singshore bridge near Uttarey.

Yuksom, where three lamas consecrated Sikkim's first Chogyal in 1642, lies 33 kilometres on and begins the Goecha La trek.