Sikkim in october

ravim7

I'm planning to visit Sikkim in october. I can budget 6 days for sikkim including travel from kolkata.

Here is the itenary

Spt 29th Kolkota
Sep 30th Move towrds sikkim

no idea abt how i should spend the week at sikkim....thats why i',m posting this message

Oct 7th

Back to kolkota and to bangalore by oct 8th evening

kindly point me to sources of information. any tips will be of great help too
especially on places to vist, birding, adventure, trekking etc


thanks,
Ravi

somnath

Hi Ravi,
October is the great time to visit Sikkim. But plz be prepared for the crowd. It is touristy season so you need to book your train tickets (I think it is done?) ASAP. If it is not done probably you need to wait till the Puja Special trains are announced. You can get some idea from the following itinerary:

30th September:
Start for NJP (overnight journey).

1st October
Shiliguri (Bus) / NJP (Train) to Gantok.
Arrange for a travel agent to visit “Nathu la”, “Baba Mandir” and “Tsomgo Lake”.

2nd October:
Gantok Local tour :

Must see -
Institute of Tibetology,
Orchid Exhibition,
Rumtek Monastery,
Tashi view Point,
Enchey Monastery,
Ganesh Top,
Hanuman Top

3rd October:
“Nathu la”, “Baba Mandir” and “Tsomgo Lake”.


4th October:
Gantok – Peling.
After lunch go for a 20-30 min walk up to Sangakcholing Monastry.

5th October:
Pelling local tour :

Pemyangsy Monastery,
Kanchendongha Falls,
Rimbi falls, Chhange Falls,
Khechiperi Lake,
Sinsore Bridge

6th October:
Peling to Shiliguri (via Jorthang) – Train for Kolkata

Please talk to any tour operator for Nathu la trip on arrival because some weekly schedule is there and you need to swap (2nd / 3rd October) accordingly.

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cmsach

If you need any help to get a travel agent in sikkim please contactme. chander_moni@yahoo.de
chander

ravim7

Somnath,

Thanks for the intricate plan you have made for me. We tried booking for october 1st week and found that it is either full or way too expensive.

My friends and I have decided to start the tour in second week of october instead:

oct 6th - friday- Leave bangalore by air deccan at 1510 and arrive in kolkata

oct 6th- 2205 - darjeeling mail to NJP

oct 7th 0900 - darjeeling toy train to darjeeling

oct 7th-8th -9th - darjeeling and surrounding areas

oct 10th-11th-12th-13th - gangtok and surrounding areas

oct 14- kolkota via bhagdhora

oct 15th - kolkata - bgl by air deccan

I would appreciate if you can help me plan for the above itinerary

Also, I need info about hotels, guides and trekking equipment, birding sports, permissions etc

thanks in advance,
ravi

somnath

Hi Ravi,
There is overnight bus service from Kolkata to Shiliguri. Or the 2nd week is also not a bad idea. Now what I can see you are planning for a Darjeeling & Sikkim combo trip.

There are so many threads regarding this area that will give you some really good information regarding hotels / cars / restaurants and others plz visit West Bengal and Sikkim Section. But I’ll recommend these threads first

1. seeking Darjeeling info and advice
(Itinerary help)
2. ¿Eating places for Darjeeling? Where?
3. No one told us what a dump Darjeeling town is!
4. Any hassle in Darjeeling?

If you need some more info please do not hesitate to ask here.
Happy traveling.

- Somnath

ravim7

Thanks somnath.

I will write to this forum after I have finalized the plan

cvasa

I should warn you about 2 things.

1) Never depend on Air Deccan. Their flights are delayed most of the time. If you have a tight connecting flight/train in Kolkota, then never depend on Air Deccan.

2) Kolkota to NJP by train is supposed to be a overnight journey, but as of now it takes about 15 hours. The reason behind this is a collapsed bridge somewhere in between and as a result the train takes a detour and it now takes 15 hours. I just travelled on that route 3 days ago and it took us 16 hours from NJP to Kolkota.

Chris

Sensi

If you flying calcutta why not take another flight Bagdora? This will save all the train time.
As mentioned, it is very crowded with Calcutta tourists at this time year, particularly Darjeeling , Pelling and most places. I went last year and would not go again at this time, roughly Oct2-22.
From bagdora you can take taxi all the way to Yuksom, which was my fav place.

ravim7

Sikkim trip finally in place

Friends thanks for the information and tips

I will be leaving on 27th from Bangalore and returning to Bangalore on November 2nd morning

I dropped the idea of darjeeling due to time constraints

I wil be in sikkim from 28th to 31st - 4 days

and calcutta on 1st - 1 day


any tips on must see

My have to visit places

Gangtok
Pelling
Yuksom