Sikkim Tour plan

Radjesh

Hi
Me and some frenz (6 guys in total) have planned for Sikkim in mid April. i made a plan, see if its OK and pls make some recommendations.

Day 01: Reach Siliguri @ 8 AM. Drive to Gangtok & reach @ 2 PM. Remaining day @ Gangtok (Lake Tsomgo & Nathula pass)

Day 02: Spend morning in Gangtok(Rumtek Monastery), leave Gangtok @ 4.00 PM & reach Lachung @ 9.00 PM

Day 03: Places in & around Lachung(Yumthang & Chungthang)

Day 04: Places in & around Lachung(Chopta valley, Lachen, Gurudongmar & Tsho-lamu lake)

Day 05: Spend morning in Lachung. Leave Lachung @ 2.00 PM & reach Gangtok @ 7.00 PM. Spend night @ Gangtok

Day 06: Leave Gangtok for Pelling early morning & reach there @ around 12 PM, Spend rest of the day @ Pelling(Pemayangtse Monastery & Khechepalri Lake)

Day 07: Sightseeing in & around Pelling(Yuksom, Bakhim, Tashiding & Versay)

Day 08: Leave Pelling for Siliguri

Once this is all finalized will book the hotels. Hope taxis can be arranged on reaching there.


Radjesh

tacita

hi radjesh,
i've just returned from sikkim. for what it may be worth, i'll be posting a full trip report in the coming days. for now, a few preliminary thoughts on your proposed itinerary.

first, congratulations on having chosen sikkim, a special and surreal destination still relatively unspoiled by tourism.

second, your day one plan is not possible. tsomgo lake and natha-lu pass are a full-day excursion. if you reach gangtok around 2 (and it could even be later), you'll have time only for some local sightseeing.

i didn't visit lachung, so will leave that part to others.

as for the drive to pelling on day 6, it's long and arduous. the way i organized my itinerary, i sort of "meandered" through west sikkim by private jeep hire. with a group of your size, this would be eminently affordable. for example, after leaving gangtok early (7 a.m.), you can (and should!) visited the temi tea garden and other sights en route. no need to drive directly there, especially since there's really nothing to see in pelling itself, with the exception of a hike up to sangha choeling from the path behind norbu gang resort. (highly recommended accommodation, btw!)

that afternoon time you've allocated for pelling would be better spent visiting some sights in which you are interested along the way. order a GOOD, DETAILED map of sikkim on the internet if you can - this will help your planning and is fun to follow as you are driving. a topo map is best - you will nopt believe the up-and-down-and-around of these routes until you've been over them!

reading guidebooks and threads in this forum, i developed a "wish list" of places i wanted to see. my general plan was gangtok (3 nights), yuksom (1 night), pelling (2 nights), darjeeling (3 nights), then on to siliguri via the toy train and the darjeeling mail train overnight to kolkata.

i made general arrangements with a local tour operator in gantok (potala) for a jeep hire. upon my arrival there, i sat down with them and went over my "wish list" for gangtok-yuksom-pelling-DJ. with the driver's participation and knowledge of the routes, we mapped out a four-day plan. it was brilliant! some days were quite long, and the drive is tiring, but i saw everything at my own pace and wouldn't have traded a single moment or sight.

include a visit to yuksom if you can. i found the 45-minute hike up to dubdi monastery at dawn for magnificent views, the coronation throne, and another adjacent monastery well worth the trip, with a 12-foot-high prayer wheel of which i took quite emotionally moving video. the guidebooks don't do these sites justice, and they can be covered in a few hours total, all within walking distance from the tashiding hotel or other, cheaper hotels "in town." (in fact, the village is TINY!)


bear in mind that it is next to impossible for someone unfamiliar with the terrain to predict how long it takes to get from place to place. the guidebooks are very rough estimates at best, suggesting too often, IMHO, that one just hops from place to place. in fact, the driving is incredibly difficult and slow in places. four wheel drive is the minimum requirement. a highly skilled river is an absolute neccessity.

there were places along the way where i got out and walked across a section of road because i wasn't sure the jeep would make it without plunging into a ravine. at another point, a huge traffic back-up developed, causing a several hour delay because a truck had gone over the cliff. i had great difficulty imagining the actual terrain there before i left. having now seen it, i have enormous respect for the drivers that ply those routes and their skills.

yes, taxis can be aranged once you get there, but with your group, i suggest a private hire in advance, negotiating with diffcerent tour companies. the jeeps are large and the drivers want to pack as many people into them as possible, up to 10 people. you have to wait for the jeep to fill, pack up everyone's baggage, etc. much better to have full control over your timetable and when and where to stop.

the rate i paid per day for my jeep and river was 2600 rupees. that included the driver's accommodations, as i had him for four full days. other IMers will advise you not to pay for lodging for the drivers. i regarded it as a package rate. how it was allocated was unimportant to me. had i negotiated, i could arguably have done better, but i didn't want the hassle and this amount was so cheap by US standards i did what was easiest for me. i was also motivated by the fact that potala's owner spoke excellent english, which a lot of other people with whom i dealt did not.

i'll give you more detail on my along-the-way sights as i sort through my papers and pictures and can reconstruct the exact order. you may be interested in some, all or none of my wish list.

hope this helps for now.

__________________
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. ~Helen Keller

Radjesh

Hi Janice
Thanks for the all the info & suggestions, will definitely take them into consideration before making the final plans. Since i have packed Gangtok, Pelling and Lachung into 7 days, i was wondering if we could skip gangtok. Do you think we would really miss something if we skip it, since we are going to see a lot of lakes & greenery in other places.
And yes we have included Yuksom as a must see in our trip.

tacita

most welcome. hard to answer that question. it depends entirely on your interests. i went to gangtok as a base for the rumtek chaams at losar and tsomgo lake (never made it there, unfortunately), to see a red panda at the wildlife sanctuary/zoo, and some other monasteries and buddhist-related sites, e.g., the tibetology museum, dr-drul chorten, enchey monastery. if you had planned to visit gangtok for lakes, greenery, etc., you can easily cut it out.

i found almost nothing of interest in the town itself. the surrounding areas that look so close on the map really take some time to get to, so it's easy to "waste" time there, i found. alternatively, you might want to rent a taxi for the day and do a four-point, or seven-point tour of some of the surrounding sights, again, based on your interests. one thing i didn't have time for was a ride on the ropeway. if you go to gangtok as a base for other things, that's a fairly easy, fast and interesting thing to fill any brief window you might hav, especially if the weather is clear. it wasn't when i was there.

another option might be to visit rumtek your first day and save time or a day that way. it's on the road to gangtok. if you arrive ahead of schedule, it's feasible, but you'll be tired from the drive. then, the next day, you can head to tsomgo lake. i can't think of anything else that's a "must see" around gangtok, at least to the extent that your original proposed itinerary is reflective of your interests.

rajeev1008

Hi Radjesh,

Have you finalized the plans? I am plnning to visit similar palces in May end with my parents and kids. Please let me know what travel plans did you finally settle on. And also if you have booked with a travel agent - a contact e-mail/tel would be really helpful.

Thanks,
Rajeev

Sradha Sharma

Hi ,

I went through your itinerary for the Sikkim trip I had a few suggestion hope you will find it helpful.

I have to totally agree with Janice your day 1 plan can not be achieved, the reason being a>the army don’t allow the cars to pass through after 2pm. b> A special permit is needed from the Army for Nathula; Tsomgo lake permit the cab drivers can arrange. This is what I suggest that you reach Gangtok and make travel arrangement for Tsomgo lake for the next day also enquire about the Nathula pass permit (though I doubt you’ll get it in such short notice). You can visit Rumtek monastery instead its about one and a half hr from Gtk.

Day 2 you’ll be back from your Tsomgo trip by around 2-3pm so I suggest that you spend some time checking the Gtk market and other surrounding places. Its not wise to travel during the night because the road is tricky and really dark, even weather can change anytime. Leave for Lachung early next day.

Day3 leave for lachung early (by 6 am), by lunch time you should be there. You can visit Yumthang and proceed to Lachen for the night. Chunthang falls on the way and anyways its just a small town like Lachen. One more reason to stay at Lachen is because to go to Gurudongmar you have to acclimatize because of the altitude. Hence one night stay at either Lachen or Thangu is recommended.

Day4 leave for Gurudongmar and Tsho-lamu lake early you can also do Chopta valley because it falls on the way. Just recheck about Tsho-Lamu lake maybe you need a permit to visit that place (at least that’s what I heard last). You can spend the night at Lachung.

Day 5 if you want to spend one more day in West Sikkim I would suggest that you leave early morning from Lachung for Rabangla (West Sikkim), yes it will almost be a 10 hr drive but you need not go to Gtk, there is a road that avoids Gtk and moves directly to Singtam. By evening you should be in Rabangla, this town is about 2 hrs from Pelling .

Day 6 you can go to Tashiding monastery early in the morning, it is close to Rabangla. I hope you know that to reach this monastery you’ll have to walk for about 2 hrs. In the afternoon you could leave for Pelling. It will take you around 2 hrs. You could visit Pemayangtse Monastery, Rapdenchy Ruins in Pelling before calling it a night.

Day7 Don’t forget to get up early for the Kanchanjunga view from Pelling and then proceed to Khechepalri Lake you can do Yoksom and try to do Bakhim. Halt at Yuksom.

Day 8 proceed to Siliguri from Yuksom.

Phew!!! Dude its goanna be pretty hectic… To the best of my ability I really can not squeeze in Varsay for you anywhere coz its nowhere near pelling and again it is a hike…. Maybe you should extend your holiday a little longer and enjoy the Sikkim experience… with this schedule you are going to be so exhausted after your holiday

Anyways I hope it helps. Have fun and let me know if I can help you with anything more.

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Nature Bug
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Radjesh

i havent finalised plans as of yet. anyway we postponed our trip by 2 weeks, going there April last week, will let u know most probably by this weekend

rajeev1008

Hi Janice,

One quick question- does this mean that you had the entire jeep to yourself at 2600/ per day? Did they charge anything above this too ? (per KM if you exceed say 100 KM per day ??) I ended up asking much more than a single quick Q.

Radjesh

Hi Rajeev,
After a lot of discussion & brainstorming v came up with this

Day 01: Reach Siliguri @ 8 AM, drive to Gangtok. Remaining day @ Gangtok, nite @ Hotel Nirvana(contact Mr.Prabir Sen 94340 24070)

Day 02: Leave for Lachen, do some sightseing en route & reach in the evening, nite @ Lachen

Day 03: Cover Thangu, Chopta valley & Gurudongmar. Leave for Lachung, nite @ Lachung

Day 04: Cover Yumthang valley & other places around there. Leave Lachung after lunch & reach Gangtok, nite @ Gangtok

Day 02,03,04 is as package(2 nights North Sikkim, Gangtok -Gangtok), 3000/head budget plan(includes food, accomodation & Sumo). Prabir Sen arranged this

Day 05: Leave Gangtok for Pelling early morning. Cover Pemayangtse Monastery & Rabdenstse ruins, Sumo 650 bucks

Day 06: Full day @ Varsey, Sumo + lunch 2500

Day 07: Cover Rimbi falls, Khanchenzonga falls, Khecheoparly lake, Yuksom valley, Phamrong falls, Sumo 1950

Stay for days 05,06,07 is @ Rabdentse residency, Pelling (contact Suman Muhkerjee 98302 92163)

Day 08: Depart for Siliguri

Since u r with ur parents & kids, i think u may skip Varsey as its a 4km trek one way to reach there, instead u can spend a day sightseeing @ Gangtok & then reach Pelling

Hope this helps

Radjesh

Radjesh

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