Travelling after the fag end of the Pandemic(If I may say so), is a welcome break for most of us. Like most of us, we kept planning for holidays and treks but then the fear of the deadly virus kept us stay put at home. With the numbers going down, we finally decided to put into action the plan of travelling. It was an impromptu decision of going to Sikkim and all the girls agreed without batting an eyelid. Immediate planning on the places to go in a busy WhatsApp group led us to the final plan and that was to see offbeat Sikkim. The following blogposts will cover those places where many tourists do not venture. If you are a traveller like us, then these posts will a treasure for your future Sikkim trip.
Sikkim is geographically divided into 4. The east, west, north, and south. East Sikkim is headquartered at Gangtok which is the state capital too. The first leg of the trip was finalized to cover the east of Sikkim and our first destination would be Gangtok. The nearest operational airport from Gangtok is Bagdogra in West Bengal. Few Spicejet flights do fly to Paykong airport near Gangtok. So booked our flights to Bagdogra.
18 the OCTOBER 2021:
On the d day, Padma reached Bagdogra much ahead of us and was ready to receive us at the airport. Yuba- the co-founder of Explore beyond who organized our trip was waiting with Padma to drive us to Gangtok in his black mean machine.
The drive from Bagdogra to Gangtok was nothing less than the Road rash, which we all might have played. Yuba did a wonderful job jostling the peak traffic jam. My attention was constantly divided between what is going to hit us on this highly populated road and the gorgeous Teesta flowing along.
Coronation Bridge:
Our first stop of touristy nature was at Coronation bridge. It is one of India's engineering marvels, This bridge is also known by the name of Sevoke bridge which spans across Teesta in West Bengal. It was named so to commemorate the coronation of King George and Queen Elizabeth. A picturesque spot to spend some time. However, we were running late and had to move. This did not stop the girls from having some fun dancing on the bridge and making some reels for Instagram.
This saga continued until we crossed the border and rode into the Pristine Sikkim.
As we enter the pristine Sikkim, the stark difference was evident. Sikkim is beautiful, clean, green and what strikes you the most is the genuine smile of Sikkimese people. There is so much warmth they extend to every visitor. while we were Listening to some Hindi melodies, looking at the greenery, seeing in awe the beautiful jade green Teesta, Yuba drove us safely to the Beautiful Homestay at Gangtok- The Dorjee Lee homestay.
Though some of the roads leading to the homestay are quite steep, the experienced drivers of Sikkim, manoeuvre it beautifully. This beautiful homestay has a rich heritage attached to it. The first glance of our homestay was enough to make us say, let us come back to Sikkim again.
We were greeted by hospitable staff and two lovely pets Myson and Yuki.
While the staff was unloading our bags, I stood there looking around the beautiful place and listening to the drizzle of the rain oblivious of the fact that rain, greenery, and hill stations are a bad combination. The end result is Leeches. Yes, you guessed it right. I was welcomed to Sikkim by one leech who decided to give me a love bite. Padma was quick to arrest the damage by pulling it away. This was enough for me to rush straight to my room and refuse to come anywhere for the rest of the night.
As we assembled for the dinner in the kitchen, we met Xameer, the co-founder of Explore Beyond. Both of them updated us on the schedule for the forthcoming days. After the exhausting travel and mentally being exhausted from a single leech bite, the warm dinner of Roti, dal, subzi was a welcome change. We then straight hit the bed as it was raining continuously.
19 th October 2021:
The next morning was lazy. Since it was raining continuously, we were snuggled cosily in our beds, while Sasi kept us entertained with her childhood stories at Pondy. After breakfast, our plan to visit a nearby village and explore the village with the locals had been shelved. Thanks to the sudden western disturbance. Instead, Yuba suggested we go to a nearby waterfall, which was a non-tourist spot and a Lepcha worship site. However, our first stop would be at a beautiful unnamed waterfall. There are numerous like these ones across Sikkim.
Without the rains bothering us, after a heavy breakfast of sel roti and aloo dum, with a generous supply of honey lemon tea, we left to watch the mighty falls. It was pouring cats and dogs, and the waterfalls made a thunderous sound. This did not deter Padma and Sasi to pose on the near-empty roads leading to the waterfall.
With the photographs being taken and videos carefully recorded, we continued our journey to the ancient holy Lepcha site, Kabi -Longstok. Lepchas are the indigenous people of Sikkim. These settlements are mostly in the remote valleys and are primarily nature lovers. They rever to mount Kanchenjunga as their guardian.
This prayer site of the Lepchas was truly beautiful. The continuous drizzle, the rhythmic sound of the rain hitting the leaves, the whoosh in the air made it look so cinematic.
The rain did not deter us from exploring the holy site. Here are a few pictures of the prayer site where the Lepchas offer prayers to the nature god.
By now, our attention shifted to a rumbling sound of our stomachs-Hunger pangs. Yuba took us to an eatery where the chef made us some delicious noodles and fried rice. Having had a sumptuous lunch we headed out to our next stop, the seven sisters' waterfalls. Now the intensity of the rain was increasing we decided to see the seven sisters from a distance as the visibility was pretty low by now. Having soaked in natures beauty for a whole day, we headed back to our homestay for a light warm dinner and a cosy sleep, hoping for a better and a clear tomorrow.
20th October 2021:
The day definitely looked better. Not sunny and clear though. Yuba told us that we might experience incessant rains for a day or two. So that means another day of being in Gangtok. Zameer invited us to their other homestay Zemu. Zemu is a lovely place. I could see that they were running the full house and it was more lively than Dorjee Lee. A quick tour of Zemu and then we were served hot delicious lunch. I must say that the service was extremely fast and it was very delicious. The hosts are the best and made sure that our stay was very comfortable.
After lunch, we headed to a lovely non-touristy spot called Love Dhara. This is a place from where you can get the best view of Gangtok. As suggested by the taxi driver, it looks beautiful when the sun goes down and Gangtok lights up. Beautiful place, not spoilt by the tourists as yet. seeing this beauty, we said to ourselves that it was a lovely day and 4 satisfied girls headed back to our home in Gangtok. once we reached there, it was decided that we leave for Zuluk the next day to explore east Sikkim.
The other places of interest in and around Gangtok are the numerous waterfalls, for the devout -the Hanuman Tok, the Tashi viewpoint for the mountain lovers and of course MG market for everyone. If you have missed buying any trekking gear, then head to the sports and adventure shop World Adventure on the Mg Marg. He sources most of the things we need. The water-repellent trousers with fleece lining are my best buy. Many eateries to try out and of course a nice place to chill around. Finally a picture tho banta hai with the father of our nation.
21 OCTOBER 2021:
Everyone up early and enthusiastic, looking forward to exploring east Sikkim. From this day on it was Dawa our charioteer who droves us safely all through the mountain roads of Sikkim and he doubled up as our guide. Not to miss the fact that he is a very patient and a lovely photographer who is ever ready to stop the vehicle at safe points because ladies always wanted pictures. Be it a lake or a lone cherry blossom tree we had pictures to click and memories made.
After breakfast at 8.30, we left for Zuluk. Our first stop was at a viewpoint en route to Zuluk, to catch a glimpse of the mighty Kanchenjunga in all her glory. She rose up above the clouds and no camera could ever do justice to the magnificent mountain.
After a brief stop here, we continued our journey towards Zuluk. The next stop was Changu lake. Our tour organiser had taken the necessary permits. We need Protected area permits to visit Tsongmo lake, Baba Mandir, Nathula pass in East Sikkim
Tsongmo Lake- Changu Lake:
Changu lake is a typical tourist spot. It is situated 38 km from Gangtok. A high altitude lake at 12400 ft, this beautiful blue lake is an ethereal beauty. I wouldn't generally want to spend much time in such spots but this lake was just too beautiful to give it a skip. Changu lake is also known as Tsongmo lake. Tsongmo in Bhutia language translates into a source of water. And this source of water is so beautiful. With the fog caressing the surface of the water, this scenic beauty was out of the world. Tourists were busy taking photographs with the decorated yaks. Many tourists vehicles all along this road were I must say an eyesore. Albeit the commotion by the crowd, we did find some spots where it was just us, the lake and our thoughts. Soaking in such a beautiful vision, we continued our journey in the much-acclaimed winding roads of Sikkim. Having had a delicious lunch at Zero, a roadside Dhaba, our next stop was Baba Mandir briefly stopping at the highest golf course known by the name of Yak Golf course.
Yak Golf Course:
Who would expect a golf course at such an altitude? India does boast of the highest golf course called Yak Golf Course situated at a towering height of 13025 feet above sea level in Kupup and holds the Guinness record for the same. This golf course is part of the Indian army base.
This is situated at Kupup a small village in the old silk route of Sikkim.
Young Husband's Track:
Next, you come across a huge signboard showing us the map of Young Husband's Track. It was from here that Lord Francis Young Husband, a colonel of the British army lead an expedition to conquer Tibet. Fierce battles were fought on these mountains and Tibet lost many monk soldiers. On September 7th 1904, Lhasa surrendered and the Lhasa convention was signed.
Baba Harbhajan Singh Mandir:
We skipped the newly built mandir as it was thronged by tourists. Dawa our driver suggested that the old mandir is where we should be going.
The old baba mandir is a place where his bunker used to be. A few flights of steps takes you to the mandir. Here we can see his table, his tidy uniform. A leger with a pen is kept open here. Devotees can write down their issues in this and Baba is said to solve them. The next room is the retiring room. There is a clean bed, with a folded blanket and a pair of footwear. On the small window sill, you can see the toiletries that he used. The sepoy who is stationed there said that some morning he has seen the blanket in a position where it suggested it was used and the footwear had also moved. This suggests that Baba continues to live there and guard us. Patriotism to the hilt. Another small room shows us the place where he prayed to his guru.
When we came out of the shrine, we saw that the temperature had dropped considerably and it was bitter cold. Had a hot coffee at the army canteen and continued our journey on the old silk route.
Kupup Lake
Kupup lake is one of the high altitude lakes of Sikkim. It is also called the elephant lake as this resembles an elephant from an ariel view. Locally this lake is called Bitan Cho and is one of the sacred lakes for the locals. The nearest village goes by the name of Kupup. Kupup is one of the villages at this altitude which was a transit point during the silk trade between India and Tibet. We spent some time here and continued our journey towards Zuluk
Hairpin bends Of Old Silk Route:
The road beyond this is spectacular. This is where we saw the beautiful old silk route with its hairpins bends. There are 32 hairpin bends along the way. An engineering marvel by itself. The best view of these bends can be seen from Thambi viewpoint on a clear day. The weather god was not very supportive at this time of the day. Hence the clouds were playing hide and seek with the hairpin bends and we enjoyed as much as the scenery had to offer us.
Thambi View Point:
Thambi viewpoint offers a panoramic view of Mt Kanchenjunga at 11200 ft. This viewpoint is named after a civil engineer who constructed the beautiful road at that altitude. There is a lone tea shop wherein you could order your chai and some snacks and sit down in the sitting area at the edge of the road, well barricaded though. The valley below and the mount make a beautiful sight to immerse into and forget everything else. However, the fog, the clouds just decided to play the spoilt sport and we could not see the mountain at all. This did not deter our spirits though.
We had our chai and snacks in the cold evening, while the clouds caressed us taking us into a different world. But then our driver reminded us that we were yet to reach Zuluk and it had started to become dark. With a little remorse that we had to bid adieu to such a beautiful place, we left for our last stop Zuluk.
ZULUK:
Zuluk is a small hamlet nestled in the old silk route which was used as a transit point. Now Zuluk has gained prominence as an offbeat location in Sikkim as it offers a beautiful view of MT Kanchendonga. As luck was playing a spoilt sport, we could not sight the mountain as it was very foggy.
Zuluk has a strong army base which is used as a transit point for the movement to the borders. It boasts of some homestays too.
Our homestay was just beside an army base. We reached around 6 pm and it was quite dark and damn cold. We quickly had a warm dinner and settled pretty early in bed.
Since it was a foggy morning, there was no point in waking up early for a beautiful sunrise. We had our breakfast around 8 am. We saw few army personnel and gleaming with pride, we decided to take a picture with one braveheart. There was not much we could do on a foggy morning and hence left towards Gangtok. We had to see the famed Nathula pass en route.
NATHULA PASS:
Nathula pass is also called the pass of listening ears. You can see this name painted on the inside of the arch.. Nathula pass is situated nearly 54 km from Gangtok and falls under a restricted area. With our permits being organised, we could easily go towards the pass.
Here our vehicle dropped us and went back to a parking place. We were advised not to stay here for a long time due to the probable drop in oxygen level by the BRO official. There were jawans guarding the gate and it says photography is strictly prohibited.
Padma and Priya decided to not climb the stairs while Sasi decided to go with me. We had to climb around 100 steps and as we gained altitude, we did have difficulty in breathing. A sip of water helped us and we reached the top. What we saw was there was a barbed fence that divided the two nations. There was stoic silence from the other side, with the high gates closed. Our side was jostling with the energy of Hamara Desh Mahan. we enjoyed a few moments on the top and started climbing down. Padma and Priya had done their photoshoot in the pass by then and now it was our turn. One thing which surprised us was that our mobile operator recognised us as roaming. Well, we were so near to the international border and the time jumped 2.5 hrs. However, Sasi phone was very patriotic and showed Indian timing. Look at the picture and see the difference
With this, we completed our east Sikkim tour, with a few hundred pictures clicked by each one, loads of memories . With a great sense of patriotism, we went back to Gangtok. After a sumptuous dinner at Dorjee Lee, before calling it a day, we packed enough warm wear for the cold north sikkim, which would be the next leg of our tour. Do come back to read all about our north sikkim trip and to view tte beautiful snow clad mountains in north sikkim
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