Glory of the Eastern Himalayas - A trip to Sikkim


When I told him that I intended to go to Sikkim for my summer holidays my colleague gave me a gem of an advice. He said, "Most of the travel agents would want try and pack your holiday with Gangtok, Darjeeling and Kalimpong. Dont fall for it. Go to Northern Sikkim". I took his advice and oh boy, did that enhance my enjoyment of the whole trip !!!

The travel agent I spoke to in Bangalore gave an itinerary which did include Darjeeling and Kalimpong !!! Deciding to do this on my own, with the help of the favourite travel adviser, the World Wide Web, I searched for hotels in Gangtok and also the agents in Gangtok who can arrange for the North Sikkim tour. I was to realise much later that I had hit pay dirt !!! The hotels were good and the Gangtok agency had arranged an excellent North Sikkim tour. (www.sikkiminfo.net is a good place to get info about Sikkim)

The same colleague same me another advice which led me to do lot of shopping in Gangtok. That is a different story which I shall relate as we go by.

We had gone to Hyderabad to visit my parents during the summer vacation. The summer of 2006. From Hyd we flew into Calcutta. My good friend, Subbu, had arranged for accommodation in Calcutta. He had also invited me to his house. The hospitality of Subbu and his wife Shobana is something that we cannot forget. After having dinner at his house, we went to the Sealdah station from where we boarded the 'Darjeeling Mail'. This goes upto a place called 'New Jalpaiguri'. In case you want to fly in from Calcutta, you need to fly to Bagdogra, which is very close to New Jalpaiguri. The train leaves around 10 o clock in the night and reaches New Jalpaiguri after 8 o clock in the morning.

New Jalpaiguri is the place where you will land when you want to go to Darjeeling or Gangtok or Kalimpong. You will need to take a bus or some sort of road transport from this station to get to any of the places I had mentioned above. We opted for a Tata Sumo type of vehicle (it was called a different name but it was a Tata vehicle and looked very much like the Sumo). The driver turned out to be a very nice chap. The rate varies depending on the season and when we went in April it was the season. So it is a no-brainer to guess that the rates were high !! I think we paid around Rs.1400 for the trip.

The trip to Gangtok takes around 5hrs or so. The land is quite flat for the first 15 to 20 kms. After that the mountain section starts and it is a drive to savor. When you get to the mountain section the Teesta river joins you and comes along with you almost all the way to Gangtok. Imagine a drive where you can constantly see the river flowing in the valley for close to 50kms !!! You cannot take your eyes off the scenery around you. I thought it was probably the best ride on any ghat section that I would get. I would be proved wrong later !! On the way we saw the Sikkim-Manipal Institute of Technology. What a place to have an education institution!! Standing almost on the edge of a cliff and the Tessta flowing way below, it is a location which dreams and postcards are made of. My wife asked me, "How can people here study? It is such a wonderful place". Nature at its distracting best !!

The vehicles which ply from New Jalpaiguri are generally West Bengal registered vehicles. They are not allowed to ply inside Gangtok. So they get to a taxi stand, which is very crowded with all sort of vehicles, and drop you there. You need to take another taxi from here to reach your hotel. It is a bit of pain but you have no choice !!

I had booked myself into a hotel called Sonam Delek. The hotel is in a narrow road. The external facade isnt very attractive but the hotel is a good one. The rooms are neat and the charges are quite attractive. I got a 4 bed room for around Rs.1100/- per day. The added attraction of this hotel is that their restaurant is very good and both the breakfast and dinner were very tasty. (The manager here, called Tam Ling, had stayed in Bangalore. When I had called him from Bangalore for the hotel booking he tried speaking to me in Kannada, with a Nepalese accent. I couldnt make out what he was saying till me told me, "Sir, I am speaking in Kannada". Normalcy was restored) The staff was helpful and so was the manager. They arranged for the trip to Tsongo lake, about which I will talk later.

After lunch and some rest, we decided to go in the evening for a walk along the most famous road in Gangtok. You guessed it, M G Road !! We went there after 6 o clock and it started getting cold. My colleague had told me that late April will be quite warm and I didnt need any warm clothes. Oh boy, was he _wrong_ !! We walked on this road and had chai in one of the shops there. A slow drizzle started and the temperature dropped further !! Now the complaints of 'feeling cold' started coming in from my wife and kids. And here we were without any warm clothing whatsoever !! Added to it someone there told us that the cold will get worser in North Sikkim. So we did the most sensible thing that can be done. We shopped for sweaters. The guy in the shop told us that if were going to North Sikkim, we might as well buy some gloves and monkey caps. It would turn out be a great advice. The rain had intensified by then. So we had no choice but to take an auto to our hotel, which was quite close by. Had a nice hot dinner and went to sleep.

The next day would take us to the amazing Tsongo lake.