To write a blog on the first day of a new year, there is some joy to it. 2019 will known as my year of window to North East. Three nights in Kolkatta-Sunderbans in Jan, one week during the Sandakphu trek, three nights again at Darjeeling-TinChulhey and finally a nine day trip to Sikkim. It seems too much in hindsight but each trip was remarkably different than the other one.
For Sikkim, planning started three months ago, in early Oct. We knew it had to be North Sikkim but exact locations were not clear. But, as in darjeeling, the transport charges are not based on a per day basis but based on sightseeing points. A Nathula pass trip from Gangtok is 4K, basically every point comes with a charge and you have to think is the point justified for that cost. We reached out again to Mr. Rabi from Trans-Himalayan tours to plan this. Lachen, Lachung are famous tourist places in order to go to Gurudongmar lake and Zero point respectively. Dzongu became a surprise en-route stop location but it is a great place.
The idea to choose Sikkim was to see snow - maybe even witness snowfall. It had snowed there last year, I got to know because roads were blocked and few tourists stranded. Three months before the trip, during planning, I had no idea how this will all unfold. In general, my idea was to go and see it. Basic outline was this -
Bhagdogra - Gangtok - Lachung - Yumthang - Lachung - Lachen - Thongu - Dzongu - Gangtok - Bhagdogra.
Day 1 -
Our flight from Bangalore was there at 6:30 am. A 2hr 45 mins flight eventually took 4 hrs as the visibility at Bagdogra airport was very low. From airport to Gangtok, our journey was okay-ish. There is a spot to do Kayaking but we skipped it. Our first night halt was at Hidden Forest - a homestay kind of hotel. They had a very nice library downstairs with good seating. Our dinner included a delicious preparation of Brocolli and onions, along with Matar paneer. A good meal before we were on the road. Hidden Forest has a great collection of orchids and plants all around. The service was okay-ish but stay was peaceful.
Day 2 -
We decided to start the day with a long walk to Ban Jhakri waterfalls. While Mr. Rabi went and got us permit to visit Lachen/Lachung/Dzongu, Ban Jhakri waterfalls was 4km from our stay, a leisurely downhill walk which was made even easier by various shortcut staircases. The waterfalls is within a decently well maintained park which was also almost empty this early in the morning. On the way we stopped at the Gangtok hospital to use its very dirty restrooms, a not so good state to be in for a hospital.
Our breakfast included Poha and omlette. The journey from Gangtok to Lachung had many stops in between. Our first stop was at this historic place where a treaty was signed in past between rival tribes to make peace. Before the treaty was signed, the leaders of tribe dipped their feet in animal blood - a tidbit which I found incredibly fascinating. Next stop was at seven sister waterfalls. we climbed some 100+ stairs to get a better view, saw 4 jumps of the fall.
We then stopped at the Phodong monastery. Preparations were on for their annual festival welcoming the new year and other celebrations. They were hoisting a new prayer flag on top of a 20 feet pole. Monastery was all decorated inside, monks were chatting outside. It was getting cooler as we were gaining altitude. We crossed Chunghang, saw the dam but continued driving. The Teesta river never left our side till we reached Lachung. We stopped briefly at Amitabh Bachhan waterfalls, renamed from Bhewma falls, perhaps because of its height.
Lachung was getting dark by the time we reached there. Its dark by 5:10 pm. We were given a traditional welcome at Norling Zhimkaung hotel. The room had this luxury of having electrically heated blanket bed, a perk which was really useful. On top of this, we even had a heater in our room. We used it sparingly for the fist night.
Day 3 -
Our plan was to stay at Yumthang today, but local knowledge told that it won't be possible. It had snowed on Dec 13-14, even though we were 10 days late, it was still snowy up there. We could see snow covered peaks from Lachung all around us. So, we decided to cut our Yumthang stay and made Norling a 2-night stay. Our morning was again a long walk to Lachung monastery, this one took about 90 mins or so, with a fair bit of uphill climb and included crossing a bridge which had big holes on the floor. Lachung monastery was good, again preparations were on for the festival.
We had our breakfast at Katao road house - poha and omlettes again. By the time we got to the checkpoint, it was 10:30 am and the checkpost guy attempted to deny entry to us for apparatenly no reason. He was using local language and perhaps wanted some money for us to be let in. We had the manager of Zhimkang as our guide for the day and he convinced him to give us permit.
Our first point was entry to the Shingba Rhodendron sanctuary. By this time, we were in the middle of snow. A short walk took us deeper into snow. We made our first snowman and played a lot in the snow. We then drove up to Yumthang valley, a beautiful drive, all white around us. Yumthang valley was pretty desolate, like Fargo :) We were almost all alone, soon joined by couple of more cars. Folks from Yumthang had left the place to a warmer one, in this case Lachung.
Once back, we had our fill of Thukpa and local soup. After resting, I started on my book - Kafka on the shore by Haruki Murakami. In evening, I ordered Chilli panner. Kanishka and I went for some local warm clothes shopping. We slept early to wake up early
Day 4 -
Our plan was to drive straight to Thangu from Lachung. The road goes back to Chungthang where it take another arm of a Y to go to Lachen en route to Thongu via an army area. An officer scratched our permit for Gurudongmar lake. At Lachen, we got the permit to go to Thangu. Lahen is at 9000 feet and it already had traces of snow. Thangu is at 13000 feet, 1.5 hrs from Lachen and the entire road had snow to its left and right.
As we got closer to Thangu, the snow depth had increased. Other houses seemed deserted, later we learnt that people had gone down. Our homestay had an entrance with 6-8 inches of snow. Thangu was at -1 during day which will later drop to -11 at night. Our homestay did not had any electricity but a generator that will later run from 5 pm to 9 pm. It was very cold as we entered our room. We were the only ones there. We quickly had egg maggi and realized that we were in for a very cold night. The bedroom had a bucket of frozen ice. No water on tap as it was all frozen over. Our room had a wooden heater, called Bukhari locally, to provide heat during the night.
Post lunch, we went up for a walk to Alexandra caves. The trail was covered in snow, atleast 6 inch. We walked up for about 40 mins and then came down. The walk gave us warmth. We spent the entire evening spent in the common dining hall sitting next to a bukhari. Our dinner had ishkush (chow chow) along with spinach and some alu-egg curry.
After dinner, we had them start on bukhari with wood. We setup alarms after every hr so that we can wake up and add more wood to it. I slept in the exact same clothes as I came. We had three layers of blankets on top of us, one blanket under us. Somehow, we got through the night.
Day 5 -
With the night over, we wanted to just get out of there. We were in for more surprises. We were ready by 7 to get to Gurudongmar lake at 8. We had got special permission with a person from police to accompany us for the trip ahead; he said that he will check with the road condition as well.
The other vehicle was a Gypsy and there is no road to Gurudongmar lake. It was a very bumpy ride and sitting on the back seat, it was just very bad. At 15,000 feet there was a nice cafe, run by servicemen, serving bonde and jalebis. I had more than I should have, coupled with very cold weather and a bumpy ride made me pukish. At the top of the lake, it was very beautiful but very windy, cold and windy. We stayed for 5 mins before happily getting back in the car. On the way back, we stopped at Chopta valley which was also very beautiful but by this time, I was severely pukish.
Back at the inn, our car had not recovered. I took some avomin and asked the inn owner to arrange for another car, not a Gypsy, to take us back to Lachen. Back at Lachen, we found our airbnb. I slept after taking Crocin, woke up for dinner and slept again.
Day 6 & 7 -
This was Christmas. I woke up after a 10 hr sleep very fresh. Sun was up too. We got a good surprising by hearing that Mr. Rabi has also come down to Lachen with our car. Our car can start but only after pushing it. Once started, he will drop us to Dzongu and then drive down to Siliguri. This was a relief as there was no network in Lachen and we were not sure how to proceed.
Post breakfast, which included ladies finger, we walked up to Lachen monastery. It was closed. We walked back and hooped in our car and drove to Dzongu. We stopped at Chungtang dam and then at Mangan for lunch. At Dzongu, mr. Rabi left us. We extended our stay at the Mallaylang homestay to two nights (to make up for the missed Yumthang stay).
At Dzongu, we walked down to the Teesta river. We were reprieved to get away from the cold weather. It was cold at Dzongu but similar to BLR cold. During evening, we sat next to woodfire drinking Chi. Later, we attended Gyatso's presentation on his challenged to save the indigenous lifestyle of Dzongu. He is an activist and has a major contribution in stopping unnecessary dams in the region. He is also very well respected in the community. Homestay is very good.
Next day, we went up to a nearby monastery and then took a guide, Suresh, to give us a local tour of the Lingdem village. We went to Lingdem monastery as well and there a local family was sponsoring a prayer. We got treated to tea and shell roti. VIllage walk was very refreshing. We met a school team celebrating the last day of school before winter break and they offered us rasgullas. We came back for a hot lunch to head to a nice hot spring bath.
The path to this hot spring was very sandy and our car could not climb it up. We came back and our guide got us another ride. The hot spring was really relaxing. Nicely maintained as well, much better than the other hot spring that I had seen at Gaya, still no where close to NZ/US levels.
Day 8 -
Bookman is very well situated with good many things at walking distance. Gangtok also has very good footpath. We started at the local handloom shop, similar to a govt. emporium. Post that, we walked up to the flower show near the white hall. Flower show is a downer but Kanishka was able to buy Orchid and Lilly bulbs.
We walked to MG road, it started to rain making it very cold. We walked all levels of Lal bazaar which is a downtown wholesale market. We packed rolls from the Roll house for dinner. Bookman's also has electric blanket, a perk that is very deeply appreciated.
Day 9 -
Day 9 was a Saturday and our plan was to start with Rumtek monastery. Rumtek is one of the oldest monasteries in Asia. It was an hr drive. It is a decent one. Our next stop was the Tibetology museum but it was closed as it was Saturday. Recently, the govt made even the Saturday as a holiday and hence all govt. places were closed today.
We then went back to MG road, had good Nepalese lunch at Humro Bhansa ghar near MG road. Post that, I read my awesome book at Bakers while Kasnishka did some more shopping. Bakers is a good cafe with decent coffee.
At night, we went up to the Deltin casino and gambled away 11K throughout the night. It was full but not excessively crowded. We were able to get drinks and snacks at the table unlike the Goa one. It was a good experience to end the trip.
Day 10 was just drive and back to Bangalore.
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