Sikkim trip report & Photos

Radjesh

My long overdue report of Sikkim

Sikkim is a really amazing place; thanks to the many people @ IM for their advice in choosing Sikkim & planning the trip. We were totally 6 people frm chennai

Day 01: We took the 4.30 pm flight to Kolkata, landed there @ 6.30 pm. From the airport we reached Sealdah station from where we took the overnight Darjeeling mail to NJP.

Day 02: Reached NJP around 8 AM, took a prepaid taxi to Gangtok that cost around 1400. As we didn’t have any breakfast we directly stopped for lunch around 11.30 at a wayside hotel. Tasted Sikkimese food for the first time, instantly knew that this was not for me. The chicken they served here and in other Sikkimese restaurants were always so skinny, I was left wondering if they raise some kind of special fleshsless chicken in Sikkim. As I was terribly hungry I gobbled up everything without minding the taste. On the way we had some wonderful views of Teesta. We reached Gangtok around 2.30 PM, cleaned ourselves and that day we visited Ganesh Tok, Hanuman Tok and Flower exhibition. Within Gangtok city you can only travel in taxi & not a jeep, took 2 taxis 500 * 2 = 1000 bucks. There were good views of Gangtok from Hanuman and Ganesh Tok

Day 03: The next 3 days we spent in North Sikkim. As usual we started late; left Gangtok around 11 AM did some sightseeing on the way @ Seven sisters’ waterfall & another waterfall whose name I don’t recall and then stopped over for lunch. After lunch we proceeded to Lachen via Mangan, reached Lachen @ 6 PM. Had a steaming cup of tea there & after an early dinner we went to rest before tomorrow’s exhaustive trip to Gurudongmar Lake. I found the tea in Sikkim to be very bland for some reason, not strong at all for such a cold place.

Day 04: As an exception today we started by 6.30 AM, it took around 2.30 hrs to reach Gurudongmar lake, the only thing that was going through my mind was whether on reaching there I would suffer from altitude sickness and have to return asap. But all went fine and not a single person in my group had any such problems. During our return to Lachen, in the middle of nowhere one of the tyres of our jeep went flat but eventually our driver fixed it and we reached Lachen. After having our lunch we started for Lachung, once we crossed Chungthang we stopped at a waterfall en route. We were just admiring the Snowy peaks from there when our driver asked us if we were interested in actually going there. 30kms from Lachung is Katao, an army area where tourists are not permitted. Since our driver is from around that place he knew the army guys there and he took us there, we paid an extra 1K for it totally worth it. Katao was a really amazing place, my first experience with snow and what an experience it was, full of fun. We spent the night @ Hotel Fortuna in Lachung, a brand new hotel; food and service were very good.

Day 05: In the morning we left for Yumthang, about an hours drive from Lachung. Yumthang is a very scenic & photogenic place. We spent some time there, took a couple of snaps and then returned to our hotel. Had an early lunch and then we left for Gangtok.
As we were leaving the hotel the proprietor put a new piece of cloth around each our neck, someone said it is some kind of Sikkimese tradition done in marriages. Some way to honour your guests!!!
We started towards Gangtok & as it was all downhill our driver really stepped on it and we reached there in record time. The total cost for the 3 days in North Sikkim was 3000/head (budget plan) which included food, accommodation and a vehicle with driver.

Day 06: After breakfast we left for Pelling; it took around 5 hrs to reach there. On the way we stopped at Temi tea garden, it was quite picturesque surrounded by hills and all. After a hearty lunch in Pelling we spent the afternoon lazily doing nothing, just sitting & enjoying the rain. Gangtok to Pelling in jeep cost 2200

Day 07: Our penultimate day, we had planned for a trek in Varsey, but as it was raining non stop since yesterday night we cancelled it and did some local sightseeing in and around Pelling. We visited Rock garden (skip it, nothing here it’s just a park), Kanchenjunga falls, Phamrong falls, Khecheoparly lake and Yuksom. The local sightseeing cost 1700.

Day 08: On our last day of the trip we finally did the trek in Varsey, it was very unfortunate that we could hardly spot any rhododendrons in here; anyway it was Ok at least for all the exercise we got. Our guide told us that anytime after April is not a good time to come here as the rhododendrons season would get over. We had lunch @ Sikkim Forest guest house in a place (don’t recall the name) which was an hour from Varsey and returned to our hotel around 8.30 PM. The food here was superb, it was the best we ever had on the trip. Varsey is 4 hours drive from Pelling and today’s cost for jeep was 1500. On the way to Pelling we stopped over at this newly constructed Sai Baba temple.

Day 09: Today afternoon we had to catch the train @ NJP. As usual we started late, on the way we visited Rabdentse ruins and Pemayangtse monastery. Everything that could go wrong went wrong today, first one of my friends left his mobile at the hotel and we had to go back and get it, lost at least 30 minutes there; later en route NJP at two instances 2 different tyres went flat but we fixed it and somehow managed to reach the station just in the nick of time. Only on reaching there we came to know that the train was 30 minutes late and we managed to grab some quick lunch. Hail the Indian railways

Gangtok accommodation: Hotel Nirvana, double rooms cost 700; Prabir Sen 94340 24070. Nice hotel, good service but food here is slightly expensive
Pelling accommodation: Hotel Rabdentse residency, double rooms cost 800; Suman Muhkerjee 98302 92163. Very good hotel, good food & excellent service

Overall it cost each person 16K for the entire trip all expenses included from Chennai – Sikkim – Chennai.

Some glimpses of Sikkim…..

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Bhaswaran

Nice report and pictures

Govindaswamy Mudali

Hi, excellent trip report and thanks for the help.

bijapuri

mnakes me want to visit!

thanx

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bunnypunia

Was there last yr.. nov.. sikkim is one awesome place to be..

we visited pelling,gangtok,chango lake and almost rode to nathu la.. here is a pic

ambar_81

Hi...thnx for nice reports...
u've written "it took around 2.30 hrs" from Lachen to Gurudongmar.Is it 2:30pm or 2hrs and 30min?If the second one is true how it were possible to drive such long distance in so less time?

Radjesh

i dunno the exact distance b/w Lachen & Gurudongmar, but i do remember it taking app. 2hr & 30 mins. With 10 mins spent in the lake & some halts in between(app. 40 mins) & for one flat tyre(20mins) we returned to Lachen @ around 1.15 PM...

uttam

Congrats. Great going,friend!

capt_mahajan

Really nice photos. Thanks. Wish the kanchenjunga one was bigger.

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Radjesh

Here You go

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capt_mahajan

getting better

breathtaking.

Subhrajit_sg

Thanks man... Excellent tour report.
I am also planning to visit Sikkim on Oct-Nov for 6/7 days. Mainly North Sikkim.
Can u just tell me the name of the tour operator for North Sikkim. You have written that - Gangtok Accomodation - Mr. Prabir Sen. Was he the tour operator?

Radjesh

Yes its him

Subhrajit_sg

Thank You....

soledad

Hi Radjesh!
Thanks for posting your trip to Sikkim in such details
The pictures were great too