In our last trip in India we explored Rajasthan completely. Now its time to pick a new state. Searched for best summer destinations and best option we saw everywhere was Shimla, Manali or Srinagar. But one of my cousin hinted on Gangtok or north east. At the first glance we thought NO, but after going through few blogs and pics fixed to Sikkim. Not sure why many people don't prefer north east as first option of their travel like me. After going there, We wonder how some one can skip it. Heaven is a small word to describe the place. We always think some where other part of world is so beautiful and we cannot afford to see it. But we miss the beauty of our own Country. Am i sounding too much hype? Then more details below...
Quick Summary
- Gang: Wife Vandana and my son Srujan (9 years old).
- Travel: Bangalore to Bagdogra airport (West Bengal) and road travel 5 hours to reach Gangtok our first destination.
- Duration: 8Day/7Nights
- Date: 28th April to 5th May 2017
- Places: Gangtok, Lachung, Yumtang, Namchi, Pelling, Darjeeling
My Travel journey starts ...
Day-1: Bangalore to Gangtok
It was an early morning flight at 6am, Need to reach airport by 4am, so woke up at 2am...So early but holiday excitement woke us on right time. Our first stop was at Guwhati and reached Bagdogra airport by 3pm. Actually to reach Sikkim, Bagdogra airport is the only option. Our cab was supposed to pick us on time but driver got stuck on middle of the way as tree fell on road. Finally he picked us at 5pm and reached Gangtok around 9:30pm. Had a quick dinner and slept. Whole day was only Journey and little rest. So slipped to sleep very fast.Quick tips:
- In Sikkim, roads can be blocked for any reason. It may be fallen tree or land slide or big jam. So Plan to reach Bagdogra airport as early as possible so that you reach Gangtok before dark.
- Never Calculate the travel time by distance. Some times we took 1 hour to cover just 10KM also.
Day-2: Gangtok Side-seeing (Hotel: Central Shangrilla)
Our main places to cover for the day was Nathula pass and Tsong lake (also called Changu lake). Both the places are around 40KM away from Gangtok. A permit is issued everyday morning for these places based on the climate conditions. If its too much snow fall or if any road blockages then the permit will not be given.
Quick Note: Make sure you carry atleast 4 passport sized photos and an address proof which is needed any places for getting permit.
Changu lake: 12300ft above sea level
Little bad luck as we didn't get permit for Nathula pass but at least got permit for Changu lake. Our cab picked us at 10am and reached Changu lake at 11am. Journey is less but we spent almost 20min in check post where they were checking for permit...It was an awesome place to play with snow. Hired jackets, gumboots in the local shops.
Its an oval shaped lake surrounded by snow covered mountains. . In Winters lake gets frozen also. We hired YAK to go around the lake. Ride on Yak in snow is a different experience. Reached a nice location where there was no crowd and started playing with snow. Took few pics, played with snow. This was the first time in my life I am seeing snow. With in 20min, We started feeling very cold as Snow fall happened for few mins. Climate here changes so badly every min. First it was sunny, then snow falls, then chilling wind and again back to normal. We saw these many variations in just 1 hour. We couldn't spend more than 1 hour here. Back to Cab and returned.
On the way, we stopped at the place where we hired jackets and had Maggi. Its feels so good to eat momos and hot hot Maggi in that climate. Then started heavy rain with ice pellets.
Quick tips
- You can hire all items like jackets, gloves, gumboots in local shops here. They charge Rs.50 for each item.
- Plan to reach this place as early as possible. to avoid huge queue in check-post and also after 1pm, you cannot stay there.
- Nathula is closed for Monday and Tuesday. Also permit issues on each day and your travel agent will get those. Plan accordingly.
Hanuman Tok
On the way back to Gangtok with small deviation reached Hanuman tok. This is small Hanuman temple. It was still raining and we quickly dropped for a quick look. This is nice place with chilling wind. It is also a view point to watch Beautiful mountain ranges. It was too foggy and we couldn't get any views. But still it was nice place to spend some time. Rain started very badly and we even couldn't take any pics. Also was too cold and left the place.
Ganesh Tok
Reached Gangtok by 4pm and dropped to hotel.
MG Road
Took some rest in hotel and went to MG road for free roaming. There are many shared taxi running on road and for Rs.10 per head we reached MG road. Nothing to buy but its a decent place to spend time in the evening. Roamed around and back to hotel and done for the day.
Day-3: Gangtok to Lachung (Hotel Lachung Continental)
On Day 2, we got sumo for roaming around and it was very uncomfortable to travel. All the sumo's are modified with bigger seats to include more people. We finally paid extra and got Xylo as our next 2 days trip is long way.
Started journey at 9am to Lachung. On the way we hit Tashi View Point. As we were late to Lachung, we skipped it. Thought of covering this during Gangtok Side seeing. One way, we saw 3 beautiful waterfalls Naga waterfalls, Twin waterfall, BhimNala waterfalls
Quick Tips
- Travel to lachung is very hectic. Make sure you book SUVs only.
- If possible, stay 2 nights in Lachung so that you don't get tired of long journey
Lachung (8600ft above sea level):
Finally reached Lachung by 4pm. It's a small town almost near to Tibet border. Its a nice village environment with magnificent view of huge green mountains and snow capped mountains and small water falls faraway. I feel like a place that comes in dreams...In Winter this place will be full of snow. In summer it was pitch green. It was an eye feasting beauty where you can stare at the mountains, rivers, falls any number of hours.
Lovely River flows in middle of village which gives a extra beauty this place. We can easily stay forever in such a beautiful peaceful place. Its very calm, very very less crowded, hardly you see people around. But you should expect less luxury in these places. Decent hotel with basic amenities. at night power went off but we got few candle as safe lighting.
Spent a nice evening. Actually we should have planned one more day here.
Day-4: Yamtang (11800ft), zero point and back to Gangtok
Started journey 6:30am and reached Yamtang around 8am with packed breakfast. In all these places breakfast will be half boiled Poha with no spice in it. But we have no option other than eating what hotel people give.
Now this journey itself a different experience altogether. There are no roads at many places due to land slides. Our car just followed the track prints. Also due to heavy snow and rains roads are gone bad. This is the main issue in entire Sikkim. Road maintenance is the least priority even with such a huge number of tourists traveling everyday.
On entire way we saw our brave soldiers guarding our boarders. Every time we see them, one thing that hits my heart is...."How brave they are standing in these chilling places to protect us. I cannot even come out of my car in that weather, but they are living there... Hats Off to them"
Want to share a small incident here... At a beautiful location, our National flag was hosted and i was excited to take pic of it...Came out of car, checked around to make sure no body is watching as this is little restricted area.. Took a pic, and was about to enter the car...Suddenly from no where 2 soldiers came out of a small hide out area and with a smile asked where we are from. I was in a shock ...That is how they work...
We never felt tired even traveling on such a bad roads just because of beauty around you. You know, this entire place can be easily compared with valleys of Switzerland. I never visited Swiz but read that at many blogs.
Singba Rhododendron Sanctuary
One way the to Yamtang you hit this. We traveling almost 2KM between beautiful Rhododendron flower plants. We visited this place at a right time of year where all the flowers bloom. It was full deep red colored flowers on both sides of the road. It was awesome journey of ~2km in between these plants.
Tips: Don't stop for pics here. You can cover them on way back. Reaching zero point is top priority.
Yumthang (11,800ft above sea level)
There is nothing great about this place. Its just a small place with shops where you can have some snacks (again Maggi and Momos only).
The important thing we did was hired glows, gum boots, jackets and other items and got prepared for long awaited place, Zero-point.
Zero-Point:
Again after 1 hour journey we reach this place. I should say that this journey and the place is the best part of entire trip.
This is the place where rivers starts from snow mountains. As soon as you are near to this place, greenery ends and snow all the way. People say snow can be found here throughout the year. Now you got why we hired winter wear in Yumthang.
We spotted a nice place where we can play with snow. And started playing in snow for almost 1 hour. Anyway you cannot spend more that that. Started feeling too cold and my son also was not able to bare it. Started journey back to hotel.
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| One the way to Zero Point |
Tip: Reach here as soon as possible as climate becomes too chilled and can badly hit with snow fall. So finish this place as early as possible.
Back to hotel, Had maggi and started journey back to Gangtok at 2pm. Reached Gangtok around 5am. Our Driver quickly dropped us and ran away to watch Bahubali-2 with his friends. It feel happy to see Bahubali posters everywhere..
On the way to Gangtok, Suddenly it was clear weather with no clouds and we spotted Natula mountains faraway. It was so clean and sunny that they looked very beautiful. One of the best views of snow capped mountains we experienced in this trip.
Day:5: Gangtok Sideseeing, Namchi(Char Dham) , Pelling(Hotel: Touristo)
Its going to be a hectic day today as we want to cover many places. Actually Namchi was not in our original plan but few taxi drivers suggested that not to miss. We paid extra and asked to cover Namchi also.
Started Gangtok side seeing 9am itself. and covered below places..
Do Drul Chorten Stupa
This is regular Tibetan Buddhism related Stupa which was build around 1945. Around the Stupa, there are 108 prayer wheels (mani lhakor). It's way of praying in Buddhism where devotees turn each and every wheel clockwise and move around that temple. This nothing special about this place but a good visit if you have never seen any Stupas.
Tashi view point
You get a nice beautiful view of entire mountain ranges. On clear sunny day all snow capped mountains gives great view. For us it was completely foggy and didn't spend time here much.
Ropeway
It opens around 10:30am and we were little early to this place. Spent some time in near by park and came to this place.
This is very small rope way which completes in just 10min max. They charge around Rs.150 per head. Even though its a small journey it covers a great view of Gangtok city from top.
Flower Exhibition Center
Very very small nursery kind of place where they grow flowers. It looks more artificial and nothing great to see here. After watching our Bangalore flower shows, this place feels like very very small. Quickly finish this in 5 min max
Then we went to near to taxi stand where our car parked. There are series of small restaurants. Ate momos and back to car.
Small but eligent Monastery. It was very peaceful inside the main temple building. Took few quick snaps and done.
With this, we are done with Gangtok side seeing.
Quick tips: pick and plan the places based on your time. Many are just for name sake and not that worth to visit. Best Side-seeing in Gangtok is nathula pass, tsong lake, hanuman and ganesh tok. Rest all regular places.
Back to hotel around 12:30am. Quickly packed our languages, checked out and started our journey to Namchi.
Tendong Hill
Reached around 3pm. This is one of the must visit to see huge magnificent status of Guru Padmasambava, 9th century Saint. This is on tip of hill and offered a great views of the place. Car reached almost to the tip of the hill and from car parking we walk uphill which is around 200mts. Very clam, cool breeze and felt not leaving so fast. Spent aprox 30 min. There are few canteens in car park area. We were in hurry and just took few soft drinks.
Hey we are able to see the Shiva Statue in tip of opposite mountain from here. It was our next stop.
Reached around 4pm. This is the main attraction for the day. Just to see this only we made last min plan change to include Namchi.
Huge Shiva statue took center stage surrounded by many many temples. Surrounding Shiva status, we saw 12 JyothirLingas, Kedarnath, Badrinath, Rameshwaram, Dwaraka, Puri Jaganath. Don't be surprised with the list as they built exact replica of all these temples. Made sure all minute details are captured like how idol looks like, how main temple looks like. May be one place to see all main temples of India at one shot.
Main problem was, we didn't feel divine. Excitement was more to see all them as show pieces rather feeling them as temple. That shows Divine feel of god will not come to good looking templates rather comes with their place. Anyway place is very peaceful and huge complex. Spent around 1 hour as we have limited time to reach Pelling. We can easily spend more than 2 hours here.
By 9pm reached Pelling. Checked in in to Hotel and had quick dinner and slept. It was too hectic journey. Now we realized that we made a mistake of including Gangtok side seeing with namchi and also accepting small car(waganor) for this journey.
Day6: Pelling, Darjeeling (Hotel: Central Nirvana)
Woke up early in the morning. My Son had severe stomach upset and no doctors in Pelling. We have to go near by town which is 2 hours away comes on the way to Darjeeling.
Hotel people gave Poha as breakfast. It was very bad. luckily we filled our stomach with MTR ready to eat packs.
The main reason to cover Pelling is to get a view of Kanchenjunga mountain range. Closest view Kanchenjunga is visible from Pelling only. Around 7am we went to terrace and saw this awesome view snow capped mountain ranges so close that you feel like it's just next to this place.
We though of getting ready and take pics of it. But just in mins, the whole view is gone and masked by clouds. After talking to locals we found that its matter of luck to see them. We were lucky to see at least for few mins. People stay even few more days to Catch this view.
Started journey to Darjeeling by 9am. As soon as you are near to Darjeeling tea estates welcomes you. Reached Darjeeling by 5pm. Now our hotel is in such a place where a car cannot reach. So Car dropped us at some place and from there we have to walk far-long. Of course hotel people sent coolie to lift our bags.
Checked in to hotel and rested for the day.
Day7: Darjeeling Side seeing.
Tiger hill:
Our Driver picked by 4:30 am!!! Yes true its early in the morning as we have to reach tiger hill before sunrise. As per guide, watching sunrise from tiger hill is a spectacular feeling as we can see sun race falls slowly on Kanchenjunga ranges. But we missed this. We reached on time but it was too foggy and forget about Kanchenjunga , we couldn't;t see each road properly ...
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| This is the View we got from tiger hills |
This place is heavily crowded.Just imagine 500 SUVs hit a small hill at one shot. Can reach till top, but parking can be 1KM away. Luckily we reached almost to the top on time but no view.
After watching Kanchenjunga from Pelling, it will be not much exited from here as it will be very very far away view.
Ghoom Monastery
Reached here by 6am. It comes on the return way from Tiger hills. there was big Statue of Buddha inside temple. there are many small road side shops selling nice winter wears. May be the best place to buy any return gifts also. We didn't do any shopping. Done with this place in just 30min.
Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Padmaja naidu Zoological Park
Both were closed due to some renovation work.
Batasia Loop
Again a small park. There was railway track around the park where the world famous Darjeeling toy train goes. Again from here also one can watch Kanchenjunga mountains on clear day but it was too much cloudy for us.
Here also many shops are selling winter wears. not too great place as such but they said clear sky gives more views.
If you take a toy train, then one can enjoy the ride moving inside this park in circular way.
Back to hotel and had breakfast.
Ropeway
Reached here by 11am. Wow!!!! I have never been in to such a long ropeway where you get 45min ride time (Aprox 22min one way). Spent1 hour in queue but worth the wait. While on ropeway, we got nice top view tea gardens. We have seen many tea gardens at many places but viewing them such heights is a new experience.
Once we reached other end, we got down there. Nothing there to see but just had a quick drink break and back to entry gate.
Tibetan Refugee self help center
A small refugee camp for Tibetans. Only thing we loved here is so many pics and history of Tibetans. few stories of Dalilama like who he is, how he escaped from tibet and much more. Read many docs there to understand more about tibet. Somewhere in our mind, we were planning to have trip to Tibet once.
Tea Garden
This is nothing but a place where lots and lots of tea selling shops are there. Each driver have tie up with one shop and they take you there. You can get pretty much same packs in all shops. Purchased few bags of tea.
Quick Tips: I do not suggest buying from here. You were never get good quality tea. Just a cheating place for tourists. Better ask for bigger shops inside city. They charge more but you get proper quality and varieties. Bargain badly, start from 50%. Just move on to other shop until you get better deal. All sell same stuff.
Japanese Peace Pagoda
Pagoda mean stupa. A Buddhist monk by name Nichidatsa Fujii from Japan build these pagodas many placed as a symbol of peace and unity between all religions. This monk wanted to bring awareness of stopping wars and bring unity in entire world. It is very glad to hear that the inspiration behind this Monk is our Mahatma Gandhi.
Coming to place, as name indicates it's a peaceful and very silent area. Can spend good time here just sitting.
We didn't go for this as lot of planning required for this. We need book tickets in irctc well in advance before come here. Its almost 2 hour of ride covering entire darjeeling. Actually its great to watch that very old steam engine trains rather sitting in it. Train track is just side by road moving through entire darjeeling.
We just took picks of it in the station.
Quick tip: Prefer early morning ride.
Chowrasta
by 2pm, Car dropped us near by hotel. Started walking though lively shopping areas. Ate pizza as we were little fed up with Momos.
Reached this small junction called Chowrasta (mean 4 roads meet). It's most happening place with nice crowd. Can enjoy nice evening eating hot hot corn. My son took a pony ride. Did a small shopping of tea bags.
back to hotel and rest for the day.
Day8: Back to Bangalore
Checked out from hotel by 9am and started journey by Bagdogra airport. We planned to leave little early as there were some party meetings in the city and want to miss all traffic jams.
Just before 1 hour to airport, the path goes though a beautiful tea gardens. Its pitch green all the way and tea plants everywhere.Almost 1 hour journey in between these tea gardens.
Reached airport by 2pm. Had Lunch in airport and started journey at 4pm.Reached Bangalore by 10pm and done with trip.With this our lovely Sikkim, Darjeeling trip is done.
Best of our trip.
- Changu lake in Gangtok - Snow and lake at its best.
- Lachung Village - a next to heaven
- Journey from Gangtok to Lachung - ride with view
- Yumthong zero point - Our love for Snow fulfilled.
