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Published: February 8th 2014
It was a sunny day in the month of April 2013, and I was sitting on my couch and watching some regular travel programs on TV at my home. It has been few days since I was thinking of planning a trip to some place in India during this summer. Many of us who are aware about the weather in India, will certainly know that the most parts of India remains very hot during these summer months with temperature ranging from 40 to 50*C. With exceptions like the mighty Himalayas of north and few other hills spread across India. Hence going to some place cold was the top line of the idea.
Finalizing the place of visit:-
Once decided that I will be going to some hill station, I was showered with the ideas of many places like Kashmir, Himachal, Uttarakhand, laddakh and Leh and yes like many other travel and adventure enthusiast first choice of course was laddakh. But then (I watch a lot of TV, mostly travel programs) I realized that more and more people visit this beautiful northern extreme of India. Though I wanted to go to this place, may be not this
time. What next then, the other places mentioned above are all crowded and highly commercialized, which leaves very little to be explored. Then I also thought of an idea to visit some place in south of India, also these places will also be nearer to my home (I stay at pune, Maharashtra), but can hills of south be relieved by the mighty mountains of north. No at all. Then the golden idea of looking east came to my mind. Yes the east, the mostly untouched and beautiful north eastern sates of India. And when we think of east and mighty mountains there are two places which come to our mind, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. And after gauging both the options I finally choose Sikkim.
Planning the trip to Sikkim:-
It is always advisable to spend as much time as you can in researching about the place , the mode of travel , the DOs and Don’ts , average tariff of hotels ,local transport expenses and the places to visit. Sikkim is a very small state, in fact second smallest after Goa, and least populated state in India. It shares its border in west to Nepal, in north
to china, in east to Bhutan and south to the Indian state of west Bengal. In fact this state became the part of Indian union as late as 1975. This place a beautiful part of the lower Himalayas and home to the India's highest mountain peak "Kanchenjunga" (world'3rd highest peak, 8586 meters). So that was it, the location was final the time chosen was in the first week of June 2013. So after doing a lot of research on the internet and reading many blogs, I started making the list of places to visit in Sikkim. The only problem was that that there are a lot of places which can be visited but I had only one week of holidays with me (a tale of every office going person in India).
The mode of travel (air of train) :-
Gangtok (capital of sikkim) is about 2300 hundred KMs from Pune, (a big distance). Gangtok is not directly connected through air or rail from any other places in India (it does not have any railway station or airport). The nearest railway station is New Jalpaigudi (NJP, West Bengal) and the nearest airport is Bagdogra. From NJP or Bagdogra it
takes about 4hrs to reach Gangtok depending upon the season and on condition of the roads. From Pune if I board a flight to Bagdogra it will take about 6 hrs (no direct flight from pune, it goes via Kolkata, or Delhi) and if I board a train from Mumbai it takes a whopping 35 hrs to reach NJP. Now one theory... it is a saying that the journey is what you should live, not the destination... and hence I normally like to travel by train to a new place in order to get a feel of the complete journey. So despite the big number of hours involved in the train journey I finally booked a train ticket to NJP. I booked a ticket to NJP from Mumbai (train no-12519, departure- 7.50am on 2nd June, arrival 20.55pm on 3rd June, INR 2500). And from NJP to Gangtok I booked a taxi.
The Hotel (place of stay):-
There are many stay options available at gangtok . So I searched the hotel on internet keeping the budget and the location in my mind (it’s always better to stay near the MG road, so that you can utilize your evenings by
roaming around, eating and shopping). Now this is one of the difficult part, as the hotels show beautiful picture of the rooms and views on their website but it’s not the same always. Any ways I took a risk and booked a decent hotel in gantok named "chnaglo chen "(someone told me that in local language it means neat and clean). Good part was this hotel was located very near to the MG road and the hotel also has its own tours and travel agency which also provided me a taxi from NJP to Gangtok (room rent was about INR3000 per night, and taxi fare from NJP to gangtok was INR 2500). Along with this I have also booked a hotel at NJP for a night stay as I was reaching NJP on the night of 3rd June and it’s always advisable to travel to the hill roads in daylight. The hotel came very cheap (about INR 1200, AC room). Finally after all these bookings I was all set to roll. (Note that these booking were done about 2 months in advance).
Day 1 :-The start of journey- (2
nd june 13)
As my train was from Mumbai which
is about 4 hrs drive from pune , i have booked a taxi in the morning to reach Mumbai by 7 am , so as to catch my train from LTT junction (lokmanya tilak junction). The taxi arrived in time at my home and as soon as we reached the outskirts of Mumbai we had a flat tire, with just about an hour and a half for the train to depart it was an anxious moment, but the driver was very quick to replace the tire and we reached station in time (taxi fare INR 2400). LTT station has been renovated few years ago and now has a very wide entrance and a huge waiting area with some good sculpture carved on the walls. So that was it, I have boarded the train and the journey started. For next 2 days the train will travel through 5 Indian states to finally reach NJP.
Day 2:- In train and nervous night at NJP (Siliguri). (3
rd june 2013)
My second day was also in train and what made it a bit tough was that the train was running about 3-4 hrs late than the scheduled time. It meant that
I will be reaching NJP in midnight and it would be very difficult to locate the hotel. Any ways with some anxiety I reached NJP on 3
rd June at about 12am and got out of the train and then from the station. The next part was to take an auto rickshaw and to leave for the hotel but right then I saw the best example of communism in Bengal. There were many taxi and auto rickshaw available but they took about 30 minutes to decide which one will carry me and at what fare. Finally I took a rickshaw and we started towards the hotel in midnight. The driver left me at the hotel and quickly drove away, before I realized that the shutter of the hotel was down and there was no one on the street except me on the raining black night. The hotel signboard was barely lit and I could not find any entrance. I knocked at the shutter gate as hard I could only to find no answer from inside. Now more than the adventure it turned out to be nightmare. I stood out at the rainy road for almost 30 min, before I realized that
I have the phone number of the hotel’s manger. I called him up and fortunately he picked up the phone at night and guided me to the back door entrance of the hotel where there was a door bell. I finally made inside the hotel and after the formalities I went to my room…. Oh what a relief.
Day 3:- Road journey from NJP to Gangtok and evening at MG road Gangtok. (4
th june 2013)
Next day was pretty relaxed one after the horrible previous night. As written earlier I had booked a taxi through my hotel in Gangtok which will pick me up from NJP/siliguri (siliguri is the largest city of north Bengal) and drop me at the hotel in Gangtok. As it happens with most of the taxi drivers he came late. The taxi driver was a very nice person so I absolved him for coming late. We started our journey from NJP uphill towards gangtok and the river Teesta followed us though out the journey blessing our ways with its beauty, the springs and tremendous flow. As we came out of siliguri Mother Nature flowered our way with beautiful hills, forest, streams and what not.
This was the moment I realized what a beautiful place it was. As we were travelling uphill the geography and demography both started to change. The forest was alpine now and people bear more Mongolian looks. We passed through by the Sikkim Maipal University along the river teesta. Once we reached inside the Sikkim state we can see a change in the way people stay there. The roads were very nice and the streets were clean (Sikkim is regarded as the cleanest state in India, a plastic free zone). One thing which cannot get unnoticed are many hydro power plant projects which are going on the teesta river. Hydro power projects are always a topic of debate as a tradeoff between nature and the development. Any ways, going ahead there were many places where the roads were difficult and were prone to landslides. In fact we were held up in massive traffic jam for an hour because of a small landslide. But I took this moment as an opportunity to click some beautiful pictures of the mountains and river. The road is maintained by the BRO (Border road organization) unit under the Indian Army. Thanks to these daredevils that these
roads are motorable for most parts of the year.
So finally after a drive of nearly 5 hrs we reached gangtok. And soon as you reach gangtok you will find a beautiful, small, but modern city with all facilities and clean and clear surroundings. We were dropped at the hotel by the taxi driver and were greeted by the manager of the hotel. The Hotel “chnaglochen “was small but neat hotel. But when it comes to my room I was disappointed to know that the room was very good but with no view from the windows (lesson.. never believe the photographs of the hotel on website)
Any ways keeping my disappointment aside (as I was not going to spend much time in the room), I quickly changed and went to the MG road, just few minutes’ walk form the hotel. Let me tell you I have never seen a street so beautiful and neat in India. The complete street is decorated with beautiful flowers with restaurants and shops on the either side of the road and beautiful background music played from the speaker mounted on the lamp tops. I went in bakery and had banana cake along with the
famous Darjeeling tea. I spent my complete evening on MG road and finally went to the hotel. An evening to cherish
Day 4:- local sight-seeing (Rumtek Monastery, Namgyal institute of Tibetology, ) (5
th June)
This day we hired a taxi for full day to go around for local sightseeing. First on the card was the Rumtek monastery which is the largest monastery in Sikkim and is the seat of 17
th Gyalwa Karmapa. It’s about 24 kilometers from the gangtok city and a place of divine and peace. This is also a study center for many tibetian monks, which stays and learn about the dharma chakra. The karma shri Nalanda institute for Higher Buddhist studies is a home for many international students doing research on Buddhism. The main temple sits about 5500 ft above sea level and golden stupa at the center of new shrine. We sat in the library come coffee parlor run by the monastery and had cup of tea along with a bowl of maggi ( maggi and hills in India cannot be separated
After spending few hours at the monastery we went to the museum run by Namgayal institute of Tibetology. It was
established in 1958 and dedicated to the research on religion, history , language art and culture of the people of Tibet. The NIT library and museum carry old manuscripts and statuette. The institute foundation stone was laid by the 14
th Dalai lama in 1957. This place took us to the rich history of Tibetans, which they still hold and cherish. We also visited many stupas alongside the university while spinning the beautiful prayer wheels. What a majestic way of leaving in peace.
We then went to see few white water streams on the mountain and some rope way activities. Actually every corner of this state is a beautiful spot in itself. So after witnessing religious splendors of Tibetans culture we finally came back to the hotel and called it a day.
Day 4:- Visit to Tsomgo lake and Baba Harbhajan Singh Mandir (5
th June) :-
Actually we had planned to visit these places on 4
th of June but because of heavy rains the road to Tsomgoo lake and Nathula pass were closed. We were praying to god that it stops raining as we do not want to leave sikking without witnessing these gems of nature. God
did listen to it and on 5
th June the roads were made clear for travel. One important this to note here is that a permit is required to visit these places which your travel agent can arrange in a day advance, it requires your national identity card and photographs. You can also get it from the tourist center on the MG road. Only 500 vehicles are allowed every day so it’s better to arrange the permits first. We had an option of sharing a taxi but we opted for personal taxi so as to have freedom of stopping on the way to take some good pictures.
This day was my favorite as I have waited so long to see the Tsomgo Lake and to visualize the mysterious story of Baba Harbhajn sigh Madir, a one of its kind shrine of a dead soldier, who is said to be still alive and is protecting the Indian defense forces in that area.
We stated early in the morning and waited for our permits to arrive at the check post . Once the formalities were done we began our journey to Tsomgo Lake. I must say that these are one the highest motorable
roads in the world and the only one which connects India to china via Tibet (old silk route, new lahasa trade route). You will find thousand meter deep falls and small landslides coming down every few minutes on the small stretches of the road. What is awesome is the fact that the roads are maintained in good condition by BRO throughout the year, they are the real daredevils. The temperature here was freezing cold even when the rest of India was boiling under tremendous summer heat. As we went ahead we could find white water streams flowing down, drawing water from the melting glaciers. After few hours of drive we reached Tsomgo Lake, and it was like we have reached some part of the heaven. This small lake with a perimeter of abort 3 kms is nestled between mountain peaks and freezes completely during the winters. But we thought of coming back to it after visiting Baba Harbhajan Singh Mandir which was few kilometers ahead.
After a few kilometers drive on the lahasa tragde route road, we have reached baba Harbhajan Sigh Madir. I must tell you the story behind it, Harbhajn Singh was a solider in Indian army and
was washed away during a flash flood while he was escorting a convoy of mules .His body couldn’t be recovered after an extensive search. One night he come into the dream of a solider and provided him the direction of the exact spot where his body was lying and asked him to build a shrine at that place. Next day a search was conducted and his body was found exactly at the same spot where it was dreamt of. The Army recovered his body and a shrine was made. Till today his cloths and bed are kept at the shrine and it is said that he will always guard India from any aggression by china, there are stories of him patrolling the border on a mule even today. There are lot more to be told about this fabulous story which you can read from many websites on internet.
So on the way down we stopped at Tsomgo Lake, which is located at about 3700 mtrs. It is a complete postcard view which you will remember throughout your life. I had a stroll around the lake and took many pictures from all possible angles. There are many local shops near
the lake where we had some food and were ready for our return journey to Gantok. It is important to leave the place in day light as the roads are very dangerous and the climate very unpredictable .What an end to another adventurous and beautiful day
Day 4:- Tashi viewpoint and few other monasteries. (6th
th June)
Sikking and "kangchenjunga” are kind of synonym to each other. The queen of peaks, the 3
rd highest in the world can be seen from the Tashi view point. This spectacular view is an unforgettable experience as you are witnessing a snow capped peak which is more than 8500 meters high. But our luck did not favor us that day as rainy conditions brought heavy clouds around the peak. We waited few hours at the point without any fluke. Later we went to few more monasteries in the area and visited few Hindu temples. The day was a mixed bag of excitement and despair, but not every day is your lucky day.
Day 4:- The day of return (7th
th June)I had booked my return tickets from Howrah (duronto-12222, INR 3000) on 8
th morning which is one night journey from
NJP. So I had booked one train ticket from NJP to Howrah in the afternoon of 7
th. Morning I took a taxi from Hotel in gangtok and reached NJP by after noon. From NJP ,I had reached Howrah next day morning around 2 hrs before the departure of my train from howrah.
So finally the trip was over and while sitting in the train to pune I went in flashback remembered what a wonderful time I had there. The state was so neat and clean, the hill and rever were majestic, the people were friendly, and over the entire adventurous ride to the roof of word from gangtok to nathula pass was unbelievable.
I have still not covered many other areas of northern and western Sikkim. But as it is said the journey has just begun....
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