Sillery Gaon,Makhim,Zuluk in December

Just returned after completing quite an adventurous family tour from sillery gaon, makhim,juluk and gangtok. By now there are plenty of details and passionate description of this route and its scenic beauty available in India Mike. This tourist circuit is flourishing and I think more and more people will start visiting this route in future. So I have decided to focus on the facilities available and problems travelers may face in this route. I will also focus on the people of these places in general and two prominent personalities Mr.Gopal Pradhan and Mr.Dilip Tamang in particular. I started my tour on 19th December morning from New Jalpaiguri and returned there on 23rd December night.

Initially I had some hesitations choosing this route in winter because of my five years old daughter. But after going through details of every thread in IM on this route and using my experience of trekking around 15000 ft I felt that I could manage this tour with my family.
I contacted Mr.Gopal Pradhan in first week of November for booking the tour. My plan was staying 1st day in Sillery Gaon,2nd &3rd day in Juluk, and 4th day in Makhim. Since gopalji had arrangement with hotel Aditya which was on the main Aritar road and I wanted to stay at Kanchendonga Mirror resort at Makhim top, I took package of 3 days food &lodging (2 days Juluk and one day Sillery Gaon) and 5 days car( New Jalpaiguri to New Jalpaiguri) from him. The cost was Rs.2500/day for a big car(sumo/bolero) and food and lodging Rs 600/day for an adult and Rs.300/day for a child. So, my cost was (2500+600.2+300)=Rs 4000/day.I had been informed that this package cover visit up to Menmecho lake. I need to pay Rs 1000 extra if I want to go up to Tshangu/Changu Lake and Rs 1000 more if I want to go to sunrise trip. I deposites Rs.5000 to Gopalji’s SBI account as booking cost.

Our journey began with a bitter note. We boarded Uttar Banga express on 18th December night from Burdwan. Suraj messaged me the number of the Bolero car and the name of the driver who would pick us from New jalpaiguri(NJP) station. The number of the car was SK-04/4397 and driver’s name Dawa Tamang. Later after reaching Juluk I came to know that this Dawa Tamang was the brother of Gopalji’s wife. The schedule time of the train at NJP was 7 a.m,but due to foggy weather it delayed and reached around 8.30 a.m. I had mobile no. of Dawa, so I rang his no. He replied….”sir you gave me the time of 7 a.m and I reached there accordingly… but your train was late…so I went to market for some work. I am coming soon…refresh yourselves in the mean time”. So, we entered in the railway canteen for breakfast. We were out of NJP station by 9.15 am but Dawa was not there. After two phone calls he ultimately reached there at 10 a.m. We felt relieved that though we were late but probably reach Sillery by 1 p.m. But within 10 minutes Dawa entered his car in a garage and started to change tires of the car. Though my daughter was getting impatient we waited quietly. We left the garage at 11 a.m. After a few minutes Dawa asked me…”have you finished your breakfast”? I answered positively. He replied “you finished your breakfast bur I didn’t get time to eat anything….I was busy in work since morning”. I was a bit surprised hearing his reply. His only work for that morning should be pick us from NJP station and drop at Sillery Gaon and the person was saying that he was busy in work After 10-15 minutes he stopped the car beside a road side eatery…get down from car without telling me anything and entered there. It was around 2.30 pm just before entering the road to Sillery he stopped his car beside a road side shop, opened the backdoor of the car, pulled out our luggage from there and dump them on the roof of the car and started to load goods from the shop in the back seat (later I came to know that the goods were for Dilip Tamang…our host at Sillery Gaon). Inside the soft luggage were my camera, Nikon binocular and medicine bottles for my daughter. I could not resist myself this time and protested. He reacted sharply and started shouting at me. I told him that we came here after whole night train journey and because he was delaying so much my daughter was feeling unwell. Prompt came the reply…”what I would do if your child has problem”? Then he threatened me to left at Sillery Gaon and asked me to call Gopalji for another driver. For a moment the thought of canceling the tour came in my mind. After a few moments deliberation I decided to carry on. I tried to reconcile but the person was extremely agitated at that moment.

We reached Sillery Gaon at around 3 pm and immediately all the bitterness was out from my mind. It was really a wonderful place. Dilipji was waiting in front of his beautiful resort to receive us. A few moments later Dawa also came to me and reconciled. For the rest of the journey he was polite with us but problem with him persisted till the end of the journey.
After lunch we came out of the resort to stroll around. I noticed a few more resorts were under construction. Peoples were smiling whenever we were coming face to face. I felt that we were welcome in this picturesque village. People of Sillery Gaon are happy that tourists are coming there.

Sillery Gaon

Dilip Tamang's resort in Sillery Gaon

Dilipji in front of his resort

Wow.. Isn't it amazing ... I loved the way you describe these places ... and nice photographs...

Great to know that you had a spent a quality time there- and nice snaps ...glued on to this thread ... Will be waiting for more snaps...

Thanks Mithun!...definitely I will post more photos here but unfortunately I am neither a good photographer like you nor can I write like you. I was pretty sure no one will take interest in this thread after your thread if I try to describe the scenic beauty of that place. So I decided to focus on different things.

waiting for the next part...

In the evening when darkness surrounded the area my daughter started crying. Most probably it was partly due to strain of the whole day’s journey, partly due to the cold weather and partly due to an environment she was not familiar with. She was too young to enjoy the beauty of the nature. But Dilipji’s wife was so caring a lady, she called my wife and daughter in the kitchen and asked them to sit beside the tawa(oven). She took my daughter in her lap and consoled her.
Since there is no power supply in Sillery Gaon, Dilipji has arranged a generator for his resort which he runs for 2/3 hrs in the night.

Kanchendzonga from Sillery Gaon

Both food and the service of them were excellent. When I told Dilipji’s wife that my daughter was very tired and hungry she within half an hour prepared dinner for her and even served it in our room. Both Dilipji and his wife were so caring that we didn’t feel the absence of amenities we are used to in our daily life. The memory of Sillery Gaon will remain in my mind for long.

In the middle of the night my daughter woke up and started crying again. After an hour or so she again fell asleep. But it diluted my confidence and I was worried whether she could tolerate the altitude and weather of Juluk.
In the morning daughter was fit but I was in no mood to take risk. I decided to go at Makhim that day and watch how she was doing there. My plan was if she remains ok then we would spend one night at Juluk. Otherwise we would go straight to Gangtok via Juluk. I called Suraj in the morning and informed him about the situation. He didn’t object but reminded me that because I reserved a room he didn’t give it to other people. What he told was true and I had nothing to object. We decided to settle the matter after reaching Juluk.
In the morning our program was to visit Ramitey view point from where very wide view of Teesta along with Kanchendzonga range can be seen. Since Dawa was not there and his phone was switched off we decided to trek there with Dilipji (most part of the road was accessible by car). With our daughter we took around 45 minutes to reach there.
Though we wanted to visit Damsang fort too but after returning from Ramitey there was not enough time to visit there. Also my daughter was tired after walking so much. Dawa told me that we had to walk around 20 minutes to reach Damsang fort because the place was not accessible by car.
After returning from view point when I told Dawa about my new program he replied “you could go wherever you wish to go…my only intention is money….I have been told that you will avail my car for 5 days”. I was worried thinking if I had to settle separately with this person.

View of Teesta from Ramitey.could not capture better view with my canon S3IS camera.