Sikkim: A Dream Destination " A traveller’s report "

Day 6 (December 30)

Although we packed up early in the morning to start for our next destination, both I and my husband were wishing if we had a few more days to stay at Uttarey. In the mean time, Subba ji offered us to visit Kagyu Gumpha monastery, situated on the top of the near hill (at an altitude of 7200 ft). He not only arranged a car for the visit, he didn’t even ask for a single penny for it. We consider this humble offer of his as a token of friendship.


It took 10-15 minutes to reach the monastery. The Gumpha is just beside the Nagebelly Resort, a calm and quiet place. This is one of the oldest monasteries in Sikkim. We enjoyed another magnificent view of the wide range of mountains and a top view of the Uttare village. As that was Friday, we saw many people were preparing for the ‘haat’.














Now it was time to bid adieu to Uttarey. Before leaving, Subba ji tied white silk scarves around our necks and wish us a safe journey and happiness in life. We truly felt honored.

With Mr.Purna Subba (centre)



With a bunch of good memories, we headed to our final destination, Gangtok.

We reached Gangtok via Ravangla-Singtam-Ranipool. It was quite a long journey, took around five hours, but we hardly felt exhausted as we were lost in the amazing landscape throughout our journey.

After some refreshment in the hotel, we came out for a walk. No surprise that the city was crowded with hotels, cars and a large number of tourists. We visited the local market (Lalbazaar) and the ‘mal’, which is an uptown market, filled with various branded shops. After visiting places like Pelling and Uttare, Gangtok might arouse irritation in one’s mind simply because it lacks that calm atmosphere.

The evening sight of the city was nice—hundreds and thousands of lights, scattered all over, were looking like fireflies of different colours.

Gangtok at night










In the meantime, with the help of our hotel manager, we booked three seats in one of the many shared cars for next day’s Changu Lake-Baba Mandir-Nathula Pass trip for Rs 700 each.

It was quite a long day for us, so went to bed early after dinner.

ohh theyyam... that will be wonderful thanks a lot
I will send you those links as soon as possible.

Sure, no hurry.

The fire in black and white, the night shot of Gangtok and few others are mind blowing Beas. I must say you were lucky to get such a brilliant weather but kudos for presenting such a nice narration and these amazing shots!! It was indeed a fabulous trip!!

Please restore the photo links with the help of Theyyam as soon as possible, somehow I missed that post

Thank you
But it's not as great as yours. Every trip report of yours are fab
I am just a learner

Thanks for all good words Beas and we all are learners here but few like you are really fast learners

Cheers and keep pouring in!!

Bipasha,

I have restored the photograph of Christmas lights that was missing. The photo of the hotel does not allow me to upload. The pics of Sikkimese kids in your "Innocence" post are restored, albeit in thumbnails.

I will stop here because there is some problem with my attempt to take photos from your picasa via my computer and restore them here in your thread. Maybe it is because I am using Safari for Mac? Maybe your settings on picasa? Maybe I just don't know what I am doing...

My best advice, at this point, is that YOU re-post the missing photos yourself. They will be out of sequence, but never mind, because the beauty of Katchendzonga is timeless.


edited later on:

Success! I think we have cracked it!

I am really grateful to you Theyyam
You have done it

I have to give thanks Mithun too because he advice me to send you the links in this way

Day 7 (December 31)

Gangtok at Morning







We were told by the hotel manager to get ready by 8 in the morning. After having some light breakfast, we reached the Changu taxi stand.


The place was crowded with tourists who desire to visit Nathula and the surroundings. Our first job was to trace the taxi in which we had booked our tickets. Among hundreds of similar looking cars (thankfully we had the car number), it was not so easy to spot our vehicle. When we found the car, we discovered that only four (including we three) out of total ten passengers of the car were present (driver was also not there). We had no option but to wait. After around half an hour (or may be more), we finally started off.


Condition of most part of the roads was very bad. Particularly after the recent earth quake, that area has been devastated. We saw in many places people were working to repair the road.


On the way, our driver collected the permit necessary to visit Nathula from a check post. Our first stop was at Dantak for refreshment. It was at an altitude of 10400 ft. We had 8 more kilometers to reach Changu Lake (or Tsongmo Lake) and 25 kilometers to Nathula.

I realized how difficult the task of driving was on this spiral and thin road (in some places, it was too narrow for a car to pass through particularly with one side open which is thousands of feet deep!).
















We didn’t stop at Changu and went straight to Nathula. While moving towards Nathula, we witnessed an extraordinary ‘ocean’ of clouds on the horizon, stuck amid the hills. The magnificent sight of rippling clouds made us spellbound. (I don’t dare to describe that awful beauty!)


Nathula deprived us of snow. Though nearby hills had some snow on them but it was not enough at all, especially considering the time of the year. And guess what, that snow too was melting! What we actually had is hard blowing wind. I guess the wind speed was something between 45 to 50 kmph or even higher perhaps! The wind was literarily pushing us pretty hard. Due to that fierce wind, we felt a biting cold; we had to wrap ourselves with whatever warm clothes we had at hand that moment.


The sight of ‘cloud ocean’ was even more beautifully visible from Nathula.


Witnessing an international border so close, especially that of China, was a thrilling experience. One more vision that really thrilled us was the men from our own Indian Army-- standing high and firm, guarding the Indian border, sacrificing their everyday smiles and tears to protect us. Hats off to them!









The Indian



The Chinese




The Ocean of Clouds









After spending sometime at Nathula, we left for Baba Mandir and then headed for Tukla in search of snow. Tukla didn’t dishearten us fortunately; added gain was the unbelievable view of the mountain range (at a single stretch). We were literarily drinking every single thing with the eyes that was visible in our surrounding!


At Tukla















Starting from there, we also stopped at the Old Baba Mandir. On our way back to Gangtok, our car stopped for few minutes at Changu Lake. One side of the lake was frozen though the ice cover was not hard enough, I guess. Somehow, I and my husband was not that impressed with the so called beauty/sight of Changu Lake, particularly when we had heard about its beauty earlier from other visitors. (One may not agree with me though on this issue as ‘beauty lies in the eye of the beholder’! )

At Old Baba Mandir



Changu Lake



The Yak




Starting from Changu, our driver stopped at a nearby place for having food. He advised all his passengers also to have food if anyone wanted to. Evening was spreading fast and we had a long way to go on that ‘life taking’ road. Coming down fast and safe from there was our main concern then particularly with only one tourist car behind ours.

So, we three did not get out of the car thinking we might save some time. Alas! All our co-passengers went for a ‘long feast’! All of them except one were from same family. With time passing away, dark became darker and we started getting scared because we were aware of the recent accidents held on such roads in Sikkim. Our surprise rose to maximum when we told our co-passengers (who belonged to that family) about the worst thing that could happen in the dark if we delay our journey, they said they had paid for this tour and they think that they should at least get something in return (like taking as much time as they want for having fried rice there!!) for what they had paid! We kept mum throughout the rest of the journey after this conversation.

Finally when we begun our journey, it was almost dark all over, except a faint light that too was busy hiding itself behind the prevailing darkness.

It was a journey of a lifetime for us. The driver was putting all his concentration and skill behind the wheels. In one or two places, we found the road was covered with dense fog and nothing was visible (it was completely dark by then!). Our driver was actually driving depending on his perception! Those moments were really scary for us. Luckily, the fog didn’t haunt our car for long.

Reaching Gangtok, we started walking towards our hotel. As it was December 31, the whole city was wonderfully decorated with lights. Walking down the almost deserted streets (unlike Kolkata, Delhi or other big cities of the country, the streets of the capital city of Sikkim were quite deserted particularly on the last day of the year), we finally reached our hotel.



Though our friend had planned earlier to celebrate New Year in some good restaurant in Gangtok, the exhaustion of long journey (mixed with mental strain, to some extent) compelled us all to take food in the hotel itself cancelling the plan. We soon took the path of dreamland!

Day 8 (January 01, 2012)

We woke up a little late on the first day of the New Year. It was our returning day.
The day was a bit cloudy and dull. We packed up our belongings and got almost ready. We didn’t go out for any sight-seeing on the last day. Around 11.30 a.m., we went to the Woodlands hotel for lunch. We found the food quite cheap and of good quality.

With so many good memories to cherish and an intense desire to re-visit Sikkim, we finally headed to NJP in a hired car.

Left behind the land of the lamas though, the humming of their prayer still lingers in my heart —Om Mani Padme Hum! Om Mani Padme Hum!!


Some Information:

Hotel Sikkim Aurora (Pelling, West Sikkim)
Contact Person: Raja da
Phone: 97322 58987, 94345 91378, 96096 71839
E-mail: sikkim.aurora@gmail.com
Web: www.hotelsikkimaurora.com


Hotel Sawdens (Uttarey, West Sikkim)
Contact Person: Mr. Purna Subba / Mr. Abinash Subba
Phone: 97330 95527 (Mr. Purna), 97331 46690 (Mr. Abinash)
E-mail: hotelsawdens@yahoo.com


Car Rates
Reserved:

NJP to Pelling- Rs 2500

Pelling Sight Seeing[with Yuksum] - Rs 1600

Peling to Uttarey- Rs 1200

Uttarey to Gangtok- Rs 3500

Gangtok to NJP- Rs 2000

Gangtok to Nathula-[Rs 700 per person in a share zeep; Rs 100 extra for Tukla and Old Baba Mandir]

Bipasha ,

I loved the way described the beauty of your journey till Tulka- Wonderful , it reminded me Sagar's TL - a unique way to describe the pristine Sikkim. I think you never need a camera if you can describe the 'darkness', 'faint light', the road in such beautiful words. And the beautiful pictures added one more tower over the mighty writing. Hats-off.

Thank you

Womderful write-up and super photos. I guess that summarises my feedback about your TR.

These photos are great Beas! A trying to convince my parents to go their trekking and they may have swung it !