An evening on MG Marg and in Lal Bazaar

MG Marg runs for about a kilometre along the ridge, paved, lined with benches and planters and closed to vehicles. The rules are strict: no smoking, no spitting, no littering, and local police enforce them. In the evening, families, students and office workers stroll its length, and the cafes and bakeries fill. It feels more like a town square than a street.

From the lower end, steps lead down to Lal Bazaar, now housed in the multi-level Kanchenjunga shopping complex. Here farmers from the surrounding hills sell chhurpi, both soft and hard, dried gundruk, fiddlehead ferns in season, local cherry peppers called dalle khursani and heaps of greens. It is one of the best places to see what Sikkim's organic farms actually grow.

For food, look for small canteens serving thukpa, thenthuk, momos and sha phaley, a fried bread stuffed with meat or cabbage. Prices are low and portions generous. Fermented foods are part of everyday cooking in Sikkim; try a little gundruk soup or kinema, fermented soybean, if you see it. Dalle chillies are very hot; taste carefully.