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Pages from the Gangtok trip diary

We boarded the Darjeeling Mail from Sealdah at 10.30 pm. As the train began its journey to the foothills, we pored over whatever information we had about Gangtok and chalked out a plan for the next three days.

Day 1

We reached Siliguri next day around 9.30 am. Fresh after a good night’s sleep and raring to go,

we booked two tickets in a Gangtok-bound Mahindra Max, which started off around 11.30 am. The four-hour drive was scenic. The river Teesta, emerald in colour, kept us company almost till the end. The driver, a sprightly man in his 30s, started playing Nepali numbers. We did not mind because it gelled so well with the region we were traveling through.

The first stop was Rangpo, the Bengal-Sikkim border. A huge, ornate gate welcomed us to Sikkim. “Dus minat,” the driver yelled at us as we got out the jeep. Rangpo is a busy little stopover. We checked out the shops and found nothing interesting.

We reached Gangtok around 4 pm. We checked into Hotel Delamare. After a quick wash and tea, we decided to explore the town. We checked out the shops and walked till Raj Bhavan, which is located at one end of the town. The estate is huge and beautiful and we cajoled the guard to let us in. He called his superior, checked our ID cards and then impressed on us the importance of official procedure. By that time it was already pitch-dark and we decided to head back to the main town. The main thoroughfare, M.G. Road, is dotted with souvenir shops and eating joints. We booked a car for the next day’s sightseeing.

A friend had told me a lot about the local fare served Hotel Tibet. So, Hotel Tibet was the destination for dinner. After walking so much (almost two hours), we were famished. The cocktails were good (though the alcohol content was very low) but the ‘momos’ and ‘thupka’ pretty bad. They serve better ‘momos’ in Chanakyapuri or Delhi Haat.

Day 2

We knew Day 2 would be hectic because we had to cover Tsongmo Lake, Baba Mandir and Rumtek. We started around 8 am. We could not go to Nathula because it was closed for tourists on that particular day.

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Driving to the remote part of Arunachal Pradesh in the north east corner of India was an exhilarating experience . Colours change with every curve in the mountains and so does the scenery. bright yellow mustard fields merge ith some brilliant orchids that suddenly morph into dense forests with rivers gliding past them to snow clad mountains and conifers kissed by snow flakes to frozen lakes to a valley of clouds that wrapped mountains…

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There is something about us and wild life sanctuaries ..We chase and then we always get chased . We had gone to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and on return, decided to pay a visit to the single horned Indian Rhino at Kaziranga Wild life Sanctuary. And the highlight of the trip is the early morning safari on an elephant back.

Now that , I call is an experience . Its dark and misty . If you are sleepy, you can easily mistake a tree for an elephant or a rhino . We are a motley crowd of wild life enthusiasts across the country who dont know each other and make polite conversation in the early hours , waiting for the elephants . A herd soon gathers including a couple of calves who totter beside their mothers and insist on meeting the rhinos.

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This is my yet another post on Sikkim. This one is about second day of trekking in Yuksom which is our fifth day in Sikkim.

As earlier told in my previous post there is only one thing to be done in Yuksom – Trekking. Between Yuksom and Dzongri, there is a well-beaten trek, which passes in the shadow of Kanchendjonga range through dense forest. Dzongri itself is a junction of several trails. Yuksom serves as a base for all these treks. Guides, porters, pack yaks, tents, sleeping bags and other trekking equipments are readily available. However, we saw a group of six boys trying hard to get all these on rent (They had no arrangements with hotels) from market, which on that day were all booked.

We decided to trek for the first half (or less) stretch of day one of Yuksom-Dzongri trail. Day one of this trail covers a climb of 16 Km from Yuksom (1780 Mts) to Tsokha (3480 Mts). One can also stay at Bakhim that is some 2 Kms before Tsokha, at a height of 2684 Mts. It takes four days to reach Dzongri from Yuksom.

We decided to climb upon this path up to 12:30 pm and then return as we had to reach Bliss resort in Biksthang (last destination of our itinerary) by that evening. We started early morning and just at a distance of 10 Minutes walk we saw how disastrous and horrible a landslide could be. In 2004 there was a huge landslide right there.

Very big rocks were lying everywhere blocking the route of a previously existing stream. Suman told us that on that day he was at hotel Tashigang and suddenly they heard loud sound of explosion. Initially they could not comprehend what was happening – A war with China or what. But in no time they realized what it was. They were all trembling with fear and could not dare to come out as rocks were flying towards the hotel. Luckily they were spared by less than ½ Km of distance between death and them. Not many people were there on that day and casualties were restricted to four persons - an angry face of otherwise loving and beautiful Mother Nature.

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