Small but beautiful Sikkim (North East India)

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From Nepal we walked across the bridge that is the border into West Bengal, India. Already in the eastern part of Nepal we could see a lot of tea plantations, but now travelling to tea capital Darjeeling there is tea everywhere. With two shared jeeps we end up in Darjeeling, positioned on a high ridge and therefore again quite cold. We were surprised how lively the town is and especially Indian domestic tourists know how to find this place and spend some time during their holidays. We walked around the town, visited the Happy Valley Tea Estate and drank a lot of cups of nice tea, because obviously this is what you do in a place called Darjeeling. We got to experience a somewhat nostalgic government bureaucracy, when we applied for a local permit; first at the Foreigners Registration Office and then at the Magistrate Office, conveniently located 20 minutes walking distance apart. Our application went through very quickly, but it was interesting to see how many steps, people and stamps are involved.

With another shared Jeep we travelled from Darjeeling to Gangtok, the capital of the small North Eastern state of Sikkim. The winding road was beautiful and the traffic at points hectic yet arriving in Sikkim and Gangtok was much easier than we had anticipated. Gangtok is also located on a ridge so there are a lot of stairs, steps, small alleys and backstreets but the main centre and the main streets are much more modern, clean and lively than we had expected. The whole state seems to be greener and cleaner and environmentally aware than other states. Also Sikkim and Gangtok, although off the beaten track for most foreigners, are much frequented by Indian tourists from all over the country, most of them on pilgrim tours but also a lot of weekenders. We instantly got a good feeling.

We have been to India quite some times now but never were we able to attend Holi. Now finally In Gangtok we got to experience Holi for the first time. This was a lot of fun and a good example why we love India and the Indian people so much. Holi is an ancient Hindu festival of colours, festival of spring and festival of love for the first time in India. Holi signifies the arrival of spring, the end of winter, the blossoming of love, and for many a festive day to meet, play and laugh, forget and forgive, and repair broken relationships. It's celebrated mostly on the streets and we feel it's a festival for all, young and old, and from all parts of society. We were embraced by the people of Gangtok and the Indians visiting from other places, and of course we were easy targets for their coloured powders smearing ;-) We were quite touched by the way so many people sincerely wished us happy Holi and by the gentleness and the meaningfulness of them colouring our faces.

After we spent a few days in Gangtok and decided not to travel to the northern part of the state, mainly because some parts are closed to foreigners and some roads were still closed because of snow. We decided to rent a classic Indian motorcycle ‘The Royal Enfield Bullet 500 Classic’ and tour around West Sikkim on our own, without a tour company or guide. Sikkim is just the perfect place for a motorcycle trip like this. Our three day self designed trip took us through valleys, over suspension bridges, across ridges and passes, off road where the road sometimes just ended, close to waterfalls, crossing rivers, riding through tea plantations, visiting temples and monasteries, seeing hundreds of Tibetan prayer flags and handling hundreds of hairpin curves.

It was a great trip, we stayed the first night in Ravangla, where we visited Buddha Park with a huge statue of the Buddha and a museum with a somewhat special interpretation of the life of Buddha. Next day we rode via Yuksom to Pelling, where we visited a beautiful, old and important Tibetan Buddhist Monastery. Day three we rode back, straight through the tea plantations and more hairpins to Gangtok.

We had read that there exists a helicopter service between Gangtok and Bagdogra, where we needed to go to fly to Bangladesh. Instead of a whole day in a cramped shared Jeep we were lucky and got ourselves seats for the 30 minutes helicopter flight for a very reasonable amount of money. While travelling we have all the time of the world and usually we travel slow and over land but this was a great opportunity for us to fly in a helicopter for the first time in our lives and it was all worth it. The low altitude flight was great and gave us such a beautiful view of the mountains, roads and hairpins we had been riding through.

Our last night of this visit to India we spent in Siliguri a town close to Bagdogra Airport, where we went out of the way to find some good Indian food for lunch and dinner and even found a South Indian restaurant serving beautifully crispy dosas :-). Now we are in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, where we arrived on Bangladesh Independence Day.

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Comments

[Dancing Dave]

Gangtok
Fantastic pic of a fantastic event

[Sreenivas Janyala]

Our experience of visiting West and South Sikkim, Darjeeling
Sikkim was our first trip to the Northeast. We went in December and the weather was fine, not very cold. Sikkim is a scenic place with rolling hills, blue mountains and leafy, misty woods. You come across the turquoise blue waters of River Rangit and Teestha (WB) almost everywhere. The people are simple, warm and friendly and instinctively smile at strangers. The Baiguney Club Mahindra resort where we stayed is also a beautiful place, on the right bank of River Rangit beyond which rises a mountain. Sikkim is all mountains and streams and valleys carpeted with wild flowers. Roads are very good and road-widening is going on at some places. The Sidkeong Tulku Bird Park at Gyalshing in West Sikkim district is another lovely place. Set in the most dense forest I have ever seen, it is a half an hour exhilarating walk through silver oaks and other trees that reach for the sky. Sun light hardly falls through the dense canopy. The walk leads to the ruins of ancient capital of Sikkim, Rabdentse, and the fort offers expansive views of the Kanchanjunga range. We visited the 17th century Sangchen Pemayangtse Monastery where ancient scrolls of Buddha's teachings are kept. Pelling is a quiet holiday station. There is a skywalk which offers beautiful views of mountains. The periphery and outskirts of Darjeeling are very scenic but Darjeeling town is over-rated. The tea gardens are really lovely and refreshing. You can enjoy the views from cable car also. The cable cars are a bit scary but it was safe. Darjeeling hill station is congested and jammed with traffic. There is an army memorial at Darjeeling worth visiting. We took a 30-km drive from Darjeeling to Nepal border town of Pasupathinagar. The route via Ghoom, Sukhia Pokhari, and Simana is very scenic with pine forest slopes on both sides of the road. It is a beautiful and memorable drive. We went into Pasupathinagar inside Nepal which is a tax free zone. Although people claim that the goods are all original but cheap, I found most of the items to be clever duplicates. It is a good place to buy jackets though. There is a little town named Jorthung, 3 kms away from Baiguney. It has a well laid out market centre...good place to buy trinkets and souvenirs. Outside the Biguney Club Mahindra, about 100 metres away on the Nayabazar-Legship-Reshi Road, we discovered a little eating place lovingly named Baiguney’s Rasoi. It is a small joint run by two women, and their home-cooked food was delicious and hygienic. And the food is reasonably priced. You can have sumptuous breakfast of Aloo Parathas, Puri Sabzi or bread omelette there itself on neatly laid out tables with the sun streaming in over the mountain. They prepare vegetarian and non-vegetarian lunch and dinner also if you inform in advance. There are lots of Oyos and other small hotels in Jorthang, Pelling, and Gyalshing. The Geyzing market was interesting with fresh fruits, and the Taatopani hot spring. We spent most of the time in West Sikkim and South Sikkim districts. We will do Gangtok and above next time. If you have a morning flight (between 9 am- 12 noon) from Bagdogra, it would be a good idea to start early from Gangtok, Baiguney or Jorthang as landslides can sometimes block the road. If you have a very early morning flight, better to return to Bagdogra the previous evening.