It didn’t take too much of thinking for us to finalize Sikkim as our honeymoon destination. “Don’t go there, it would be too cold in December”, “Why not Kerala instead?” everyone opined to no vain.
Returning back to Gangtok by late afternoon, we spent our evening on MG Road- Gangtok. MG Road (just like in Pune :-)) is a beautiful walking plaza with lot of shops; a perfect place for the window shoppers to hang around.
Our itinerary included travel to Pelling, a town in West Sikkim. We travelled all the way from Gangtok (East Sikkim) via South Sikkim to reach Pelling. Sikkim being a very small state, a 150 km drive can take you from one end to another. This is however, a very time consuming drive as the spiral roads cutting the mountains are in very bad shape and condition.
Pelling is a mediocre town with not much to offer to the tourists, just a couple of waterfalls and the grand Himalayas, which you love anyway :-)
We drove to Darjeeling the next day, bidding farewell to Sikkim, continued following the Himalayas though. Enter Bengal and the roads get worse, small downtrodden villages seem neglected. It was around 3:30 pm when we reached Darjeeling, cutting through the dense traffic and congested lanes, we reached our Hotel- Anand Palace; first sight of this “Queen of Hill Stations” didn’t impress us. We had about a day and a half to spend there, visiting places and shopping for the kin. To our surprise though, the congested streets at 4 pm got absolutely deserted by 6 pm- it was dark when we started shopping- teas and sweaters were too good to resist.
Our lazy bones were not to allow us to wake up at 3:30 am to witness the sunrise from Tiger Hill, we decided to visit it at brighter hours during our city tour the following day. Tiger Hill is supposedly known after a group of Army Police- called “Tiger cubs” which the British had deployed to check army indiscipline. The current state of the viewing balcony remains neglected owing to a non-cooperation movement to support an ongoing agitation in Darjeeling- Darjeeling wants a separate state- Gorkhaland for the Nepali speaking population of North Bengal.
City tour also covers a visit to Japanese temple, Mountaineering Institute and the local zoo. Visit to the rock garden was the best of all the places we visited in Darjeeling so far. En-route the tea estate we stopped at St. Joseph’s- a school with a magnificent structure and campus. “Film Star Danny Dengzongpa, all crown princes of Nepal, current King of Bhutan, all are St. Joseph's pass outs, it’s an institute meant for the elite”- our 73 year old guide was well informed. We had an out of itinerary visit to a rehabilitation centre meant for the Tibetans. Chinese invasion in Tibet has left thousands of Tibetans homeless, this is one of the places they can rebuild their lives.
Our great day so far was to end at a beautiful tea estate- “Maybe it was here somewhere that Pehla Nasha was shot”- my Aamir fan wife commented.
Our tour was to end the next day, we checked out of our hotel the next morning- on our way back to the Bagdogra airport, cherishing the great hospitality we experienced, and gathering all the good moments we had shared with each other over the past 7 days. Sikkim and Darjeeling had offered us enough to start a great new life ahead.
An early morning check in from Pune airport landed us at 1:30 pm at Bagdogra after a 2 hour halt and flight change in Delhi. Bagdogra serves as the nearest airport for Gangtok and Darjeeling. We followed the itinerary to reach Gangtok first; It was dark (although 5:15 pm :-)) when we entered Sikkim , must be a small border town where we halted for tea. Small Mongolian style multistoried homes like empty match boxes appeared glued to each other. “Doesn’t seem we are in India, all Red Dragon architecture around…” I said to my wife.
120 kms is a tiring 4 hour journey from Bagdogra to Gangtok. Gangtok seems a beautiful city with neat and clean roads and lot of hotels, interestingly, a lot of wine shops too ;). Next morning we were set on a drive to Tsomgo lake- a beautiful natural miracle formed at 12000 ft above sea level! It takes 2 hours to cover 40 kms to reach the lake (hard to believe for the Deccan Plateau’ers :-)), however the natural wealth one finds there makes it worth the efforts. Also the serene water and surroundings offer a lot of fodder to satisfy your photographic hunger! A must visit to anyone travelling to Sikkim. The day also covered a visit to the Harbhajan Baba Mandir- a temple built in memory of a 1962 war martyr named Harbhajan Singh, who supposedly invaded a fellow soldier’s dreams and pleaded for a temple to be built for him.
Third day was a visit to North Sikkim- covering Lachung and Yumthang. Drive to the north drops the mercury further down, the natural beauty, however, increases in inverse proportion. The 130 km drive from Gangtok to Lachung takes about 5 hours, as you wait to enjoy the celestial waters of Seven Sisters’ waterfall, and stop at places to click a few snaps of the great Himalayas. We checked-in at Comfort-Inn- a mediocre hotel at Lachung.
Lachung acts as a stop-over for Yumthang excursion. You need to get up early next morning to travel to Yumthang. The valley welcomes you with a harsh wind chill, but it fails to wane (in fact adds to the excitement) of being there- right in the lap of the Himalayas, you thank yourself you didn’t miss it :-)
Returning back to Gangtok by late afternoon, we spent our evening on MG Road- Gangtok. MG Road (just like in Pune :-)) is a beautiful walking plaza with lot of shops; a perfect place for the window shoppers to hang around.
Our itinerary included travel to Pelling, a town in West Sikkim. We travelled all the way from Gangtok (East Sikkim) via South Sikkim to reach Pelling. Sikkim being a very small state, a 150 km drive can take you from one end to another. This is however, a very time consuming drive as the spiral roads cutting the mountains are in very bad shape and condition.
Pelling is a mediocre town with not much to offer to the tourists, just a couple of waterfalls and the grand Himalayas, which you love anyway :-)
We drove to Darjeeling the next day, bidding farewell to Sikkim, continued following the Himalayas though. Enter Bengal and the roads get worse, small downtrodden villages seem neglected. It was around 3:30 pm when we reached Darjeeling, cutting through the dense traffic and congested lanes, we reached our Hotel- Anand Palace; first sight of this “Queen of Hill Stations” didn’t impress us. We had about a day and a half to spend there, visiting places and shopping for the kin. To our surprise though, the congested streets at 4 pm got absolutely deserted by 6 pm- it was dark when we started shopping- teas and sweaters were too good to resist.
Our lazy bones were not to allow us to wake up at 3:30 am to witness the sunrise from Tiger Hill, we decided to visit it at brighter hours during our city tour the following day. Tiger Hill is supposedly known after a group of Army Police- called “Tiger cubs” which the British had deployed to check army indiscipline. The current state of the viewing balcony remains neglected owing to a non-cooperation movement to support an ongoing agitation in Darjeeling- Darjeeling wants a separate state- Gorkhaland for the Nepali speaking population of North Bengal.
City tour also covers a visit to Japanese temple, Mountaineering Institute and the local zoo. Visit to the rock garden was the best of all the places we visited in Darjeeling so far. En-route the tea estate we stopped at St. Joseph’s- a school with a magnificent structure and campus. “Film Star Danny Dengzongpa, all crown princes of Nepal, current King of Bhutan, all are St. Joseph's pass outs, it’s an institute meant for the elite”- our 73 year old guide was well informed. We had an out of itinerary visit to a rehabilitation centre meant for the Tibetans. Chinese invasion in Tibet has left thousands of Tibetans homeless, this is one of the places they can rebuild their lives.
Our great day so far was to end at a beautiful tea estate- “Maybe it was here somewhere that Pehla Nasha was shot”- my Aamir fan wife commented.
Our tour was to end the next day, we checked out of our hotel the next morning- on our way back to the Bagdogra airport, cherishing the great hospitality we experienced, and gathering all the good moments we had shared with each other over the past 7 days. Sikkim and Darjeeling had offered us enough to start a great new life ahead.
