WAY UP IN A FAR CORNER OF INDIA, squeezed in tight between Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan, is the state of Sikkim. catches the eastern rise of the Himalaya and is full of some of the most extravagant natural beauty you’ll ever witness. in 1992, it changed my life forever.
Sikkim was closed to tourists and travellers at the time, but a contact in the Army worked his magic and granted a friend and me unprecedented access. Our only guide was a battered old Lonely Planet book, and we spent many weeks having the best offbeat adventure that any 19-year-old could wish for. We rode on train roofs, swam in glacial lakes, and stood and stared in silence outside hilltop Buddhist monasteries.