The Annual Vacation: to the top of the world

2009 saw an extensive 20-day tour of Rajasthan; 2010 was Orissa; 2012 saw two trips: Kerala and now Sikkim. And Sikkim has to happen via Kolkata.
These days we no longer do things as we did when younger; viz getting up early in the morning and rush to catch (pre-booked tickets on) the state bus to visit the designated local sight seeing.
Things are planned much more elaborately. We do a lot of research on the best accommodations; best tour packages;  even customize the tour packages; cabs to book; the most recommended places to visit; places where we get the best local cuisine;  places where we get to explore the local markets for the best shopping and so on....and thus it is a good 3-4 weeks of planning to optimize the tour experience.
Trips have now  become much more personalized, more comfortable and customized to meet our personal comfort levels resulting in now sitting back to enjoy the trip rather than a breathless frenzy of a series of sight seeing places as marked in the government agenda.
Sikkkim has been an out of world experience. I will be writing more on the trip in the next few posts. Yet, to sum it up in a few lines:
Sikkim: a land of hills, slopes, waterfalls, steps going up and down all the time, hazardous roads and routes.
Kolkata: a land of huge huge traffic jams. Most of the time all that we did was sitting in the environs of our AC cab waiting to reach our destination.