Our first stop was the hill station Darjeeling in West Bengal. We took the 8 am flight from Mumbai and reached Bagdogra airport at around 2 pm with a two hour stopover at Delhi. From Bagdogra to Darjeeling was a 5 hour drive. We stayed at the Anand Palace Hotel which is not very great but okay, no views and food and service is decent. At Darjeeling, we got our first experience of the cold. Darjeeling temperatures dropped to 2 degree celcius in the night and with no heaters in the hotel room (we for some reason did not even ask for heater, perhaps we forgot the existence of heaters!), my friend and me were shivering. When we entered Darjeeling there was fog all around. The next morning we had to go to Tiger Hill which is a sunrise point. Looking at the fog, the driver said there would be no point going to Tiger Hill as we may not be able to witness the sunrise. So we were about to drop the plan of getting up at 4 am but one of the hotel staff advised us, since we had come all the way there why not take the chance. And we did take the chance, reaching sunrise point at 5 am, a one hour drive from our hotel. I bought the more expensive deluxe tickets thinking that it would be an exclusive view point. But deluxe meant sitting in a glass cabin and it is stupid to see sunrise from a glass cabin, when there were abundant open places. So we got a nice point in the open and from 5 am to 6.20 am, the exact time when the sun rises, a huge group of humanity stood waiting in the cold where the hands became frozen and was difficult to operate the camera. But the wait was worth it. A beautiful sun rising from the Kanchenjunga mountain range. As daylight came in, we could get a glimpse of the snow-capped mountain range.
After breakfast, we visited the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute and the zoological park, both are located within the same premises. The Institute honours Tenzing Norgay, who along with Edmund Hillary was the first to reach the top of Mt Everest way back in 1953. The institute thus showed us all about climbing Mt Everest and the various climbers and the equipment they used over the years. The zoological park completely surprised me. I generally am not interested in visiting zoos in India as they hardly offer you anything to see. But what a zoo this was. In a completely natural environment, you name it and all the animals are there to see. From fox to tiger to leopard to yaks to bear and what a range of beautiful and colourful birds. For me this was any day better than Singapore's night safari which I visited 5 years ago.
And then of course a visit to the Darjeeling tea gardens and we bought a lot of black and green tea. To note: While the tea quality is good, do note that 500 gms will be 400gms!, even then it is value for money.
From Darjeeling we drove to Gangtok, the capital city of Sikkim which is a 5 hour drive. We left Darjeeling at around 9 am and reached Gangtok at around 4 pm with a one hour break for lunch in between. To note that Sikkim shares its borders with three countries and that is what makes this place and its people diverse and interesting. It has Tibet to the North and North East, Bhutan on the east and Nepal on the west. West Bengal lies at the South. Many a times I forgot I was in India as most of them don't look like Indians and speak a mix of languages of the bordering nations.
We were quite tired when we reached Gangtok and decided to relax at Ttakshang Residency where we were put up. The hotel is good and what is interesting is that from their back entrance, MG Road is just a 5 minute walk, where one can stroll around with no traffic allowed in that part and with a lot of small eateries and shopping.
The next morning we left for Tsomgo lake or Changu lake which is at a height of 12, 400 ft. Oh the lake is so calm and beautiful. You see a lot of Yaks and you can sit on one and go close to the lake and mountains but we chose not to.
What we did not expect was a drive filled with snow capped trees and mountains all over. That was beautiful and I realised after that drive, I really don’t need to go to Switzerland. It was snow and snow and snow all over. We first went further up to what is known as Baba Mandir which is at a height of 13,200 ft but that is really not a tourist spot but has been made a place of visit to pay homage to major "Baba" Harbhajan Singh, an Indian army soldier who died near the Nathula Pass and there are host of beliefs that are spoken of in that place, like if you keep a bottle of water there for sometime and take it home, it heals the sick. But for us it was more taking pictures in the snow. if we had come few days earlier, we would not have been able to visit Baba Mandir as it was snowing and the road was closed. Nathula pass, which connects Sikkim to Tibet, is closed to visitors for now. The driver tells me it is soon to be opened up and then a drive to Tibet is 4 hours from Sikkim! Nathu La is one of the three open trading border posts between China and India.
There also came our first experience of what roads in mountainous regions can be. The roads are all cracked up and broken. It does get repaired and the BRO - that is the Border Road Officers who are a part of the army that secures our borders does a great job of supervising the roads but nature will do what it wants and well one will have to live with extremely bumpy and risky rides all over Sikkim. So one has to acclimatise oneself to many things - bumps, long rides and high altitudes and then the cold. Both me and my friend were getting mild headaches and uneasiness as we drove higher. And one really must be careful of thin ice that looks harmless but can be very slippery. So one has to look down and be very, very careful. I did fall on the thin ice but it was a small fall.
We asked the driver is there nothing to see at Gangtok city itself but most told us there is really nothing much to see. So after two nights at Gangtok which is at the South-East, we got prepared for the 8 hour drive to Lachung which is in the North-East of Sikkim and at a height of 8,800 ft. We were to go to Lachen first, which is 6 hours from Gangtok and stay over one night so that there is a break in the journey. Lachen is known for the Gurdongmar lake which we hear is very beautiful. Gurdongmar lake was not on our itinerary as it would have become very hectic. Anyways due to snow the roads to the lake were closed and we could not go to Lachen itself, so directly went to Lachung. My friend and me were dreading the long drive on those bumpy roads and besides we were doing a lot of travelling, not only from one destination to another, but also travel a lot at high altitudes to visit the tourist spots. That at times makes Sikkim travel a bit hectic, so it is advisable to keep less places to visit at one time. We had packed in a lot in our 10 nights at Sikkim. But the drive to Lachung is so beautiful and suddenly after snow, you are seeing so much of greenery all over with the beautiful Teesta River that follows you everywhere you go. This picture you see here, is not even a tourist spot, but a village called Dikchu that we passed by where the National Thermal Power Plant dam is being built. This was most picturesque of the entire Sikkim. The drive was long but beautiful and we reached our hotel at around 5 pm or so.
There was a shocker of some sorts when we arrived at Lachung. The hotel our tour operator makemytrip had put us up was at Himalayan Residency, which is under construction!...So we see workers, etc, outside, no reception, this tiny guy comes to show our room and when we check, he says only one other room is yet occupied. We call our makemytrip agent and he says he will call back and does not even bother to call us.Oh how that irks us. This is where India will really go down on service levels and have foreign players beat us in the game. In India, service ends after you have paid up, till then it is service to the minute, that is the guy will call you every day to check how you are doing and be full on in making your itinerary. Anyways fortunately for us, the people were very nice at the hotel, the room was decent, our driver too who was staying with us overnight assured us that he is there and so nothing to worry. Besides the food cooked by the few men there was extremely good. And since it was the 24th of December and very, very cold in Lachung, colder than Darjeeling, where night temperature dropped to minus, we asked them to lit a bonfire (that of course at Rs 300 extra cost). The room heater (which is not in the room and you have to ask for it at another extra cost of Rs 500) worked to its minimum as the power load was weak and besides since we asked for it late, we got a not-so-good heater. So we were literally shivering in our cold beds even after some 5 layers of clothes.
The next morning, me not feeling so good after the cold night, set out for Yumthang valley which is at a height of 11, 800 feet. Fortunately for us the hotel advised us to wear gumboots and they were even renting them to us at a cost of Rs 300. Oh it was true Christmas for us. The entire route was filled with snow-capped mountains and snowy trees. When we set our sight on the valley filled with snow, it was really unbelievable.
We had to walk a long path on snow to reach the valley. There is where gumboots are needed. One could slip if one is not careful. The beauty of the valley cannot be explained in words. And imagine, this place turns to the valley of flowers in spring time. A note here for children: we witnessed this incident of a child of 13 or so playing joyfully in the snow making snowman, etc and suddenly he started howling and crying and his parents just could not understand why he is crying. They kept trying to calm him down. Its only after some minutes they realised his gumboots were filled with snow and his legs had got jammed in the cold snow. So one has to be careful.
From there we went to visit the hot springs. Imagine the wonder of nature. Near to snow is hot water!. Though the hot springs was a bit of dampener for me as it was not in its natural setting, like the one I had visited in Simla where the hot water pools are all over the sand near the beach . Here it was made into a small hot swimming pool within a room where one dipped one’s legs and hands. This water is said to have medicinal properties.
There is not much to eat that one gets around there except Momos and Chowmein and noodles, so one has to make do with that. We reached back to our hotel around at 3 pm or so. I was down with a headache from all that cold and travel and slept all through till next morning. My friend had a good time with some new guests that had arrived and a good bonfire with dance and all. A good end to a lovely Christmas day for her.
From Lachung we had to travel back to Gangtok to go to Pelling which was closer to West Bengal as we were nearing the end of our holiday. From Gangtok to Pelling was a 5 hour drive. Enroute we went to Samdruptse in Namchi which has, painted in shimmering copper, pink and bronze, the 45m-high statue of Guru Padmasambhava. The views around the place are nice.
Enroute we also visited the Temi Tea Gardens which is similar to most tea gardens across India.
We reached our hotel in Pelling towards evening and I must say that the hotel pleasantly surprised us. It was one of the best hotels in our entire Sikkim trip, here Makemytrip gets some brownie points. Hotel De Regency has great views, great food and great service. From our room, the view was awesome. We could see the snow capped Kanchenjunga mountain range.
Pelling is beautiful to just relax and explore it yourself. It is filled with a lot of monastaries and waterfalls. Nice to see orange-laden trees. One must not miss the Khangchendzongha waterfalls where you can actually stand close to the waterfall and feel the water splashing on you. We had no time to visit the Pemayangtse Monastery.
Our last destination was the hill station Kalimpong which is in West Bengal, 3 hours drive from Pelling. We reached close to noon time. There is not much to see here, again a beautiful hill station to relax. So don’t bother checking your tourist list and just relax. The hotel Kalimpong Park was again nice, built in the old British style with all wooden decor. Kalimpong is good for hikers who can do the week-long hike to the Kanchenjunga peak. Well maybe next time for me. As we travel to Bagdogra airport to take the flight to Mumbai, we known that Sikkim’s beauty will remain with us forever.
Also take a lot of snacks and sweets to munch on as you need it while travelling
And of course for those who suffer from road travel sickness, they know what to take.