Thursday 26 May 2011

North Sikkim Tour - May 2011

12th May, 2011
(Towards Gangtok)

It always amazes me how my inner alarm starts working whenever I am on nature’s quest. Perhaps, the same occurs to Debarati, my beloved wife. At home, we always compete who will leave bed last. And see, it was 5:30 in morning, we were inside a cozy 2AC compartment of Assam Abadh Express, after having a prolonged journey from Shillong to Guwahati day before, Debarati called me to get up, but I was already wide awake!

Cloudy morning - near NJP Station

By the time we freshen up, we had nearly reached New Jalpaiguri, our destination. The weather was moody outside, infact I could not resist myself to take few snaps of the sky which was threatening us to pour rain heavily anytime soon.
Clouds that thunder seldom rain. We reached NJP when it was only drizzling.  We had to wait for our relatives who would accompany us from Kolkata for our second phase of the tour. In the mean time I got time to smoke outside the Railway campus and roam around the car stand looking for a SK-04 car which should have a (E) mark outside. Yes we would be going to Gangtok, which is in East district of Sikkim, so, a sikkimese car with a (E) means that car belongs to that place. There was a Red Sumo which matched my criteria. Jeevan Koirala, the driver asked for 1800 bucks to take us to Gangtok. We settled for 1600, which was ok for me as we were saving around 200 bucks and all the hassles to go to Siliguri SNT, where we would have taken a bus costing 1200 for 10 persons of us. Also, that car would wait for 2 more hours until Uttarbanga Express would reach carrying my in-laws.
At around 9 o’clock all gathered and we started our journey to Gangtok. There were few people in our team for whom Hill was a new area. They were excited, but the turns on the roads and the Sumo were not doing justice. Megha, my seven year old Sister-in-law, was affected most and vomited three times until we reached Gangtok at around 1 pm.
GANGTOK – the Capital of my favourite state after WB, where we had visited so many times attracted by the beauty of the nature, may be more by the warmth of the local people, their simplicity and caring attitude. We have always enjoyed, but never exploited, their non-fraudulent behavior to the tourist.  But things have changed, a lot to me, after we visited with my parents in February, 2010. Like a true cosmopolitan City, Gangtok has lost its character. The local Taxis are being operated mostly by the people of neighboring states. Now you have to bargain if you want to book a cab to go to one place to another around Gangtok. I feel the same fate of the great neighboring hill station is around the corner. Darjeeling is all over on Gangtok! (This is what I feel; you see it is my travelogue, dear.)
Thank god we have some good old contacts here. We booked Hotel Orchid near Lall Market after bargaining a bit. We stayed here before, though shortage of manpower is a problem, but the food here is great for a budget hotel. We always had to bargain for a Hotel as most of those are ran by Bengalee but never ever thought to ask a taxi how much to pay before the journey. As it went, we had to pay Rs. 100 for each cab from Deorali (Siliguri Cab Stand) to the Hotel. While returning back we paid Rs. 60 for each cab.

"Don't act like a Human" - M.G. Marg, Gangtok

See, I am so depressed with the Town I love, I finished two paragraphs to bash it and mentioned about the last day of our tour which will come after one week. But good things were about to come. The people with me were so happy when I took them to M.G. Marg through a narrow, slippery stair from our hotel. And I was ecstatic seeing our old friend, guide and driver of our North Sikkim Tour for last few times, Gyaltsen Sherpa. As we arranged before, he would take us to North Sikkim for 4 days 3 nights. With him, I knew the next few days would be great. After dinner, we, the male adults of our family were chatting about the election results next day. We were on high after drinking cheap Signature, which tasted bad, but kept us chatting, gossiping and debating till 2 a.m.

13th May, 2011
(Towards Lachung)
‘D’ day of the West Bengal politics history did not only bring about changes in West Bengal Government, but it also certainly changed Megha’s father, Debarati’s maternal aunt’s husband (baromesho), oldest member of our team. After aunt (baromashi) passed away last year due to Cancer, he alone has to take care of his little daughter. And the problem Megha faced last day made him very edgy. But as we started for North Sikkim, we were also getting news coming over phone about Election results, and it certainly charged up baromesho. The only ardent fan of Trinamool Congress in our team (Debarati’s elder brother, Ranada and their maternal uncle, chhotomama are communist and I always wonder whom to vote even on the queue for voting) was so changed that he was ready to travel on the roof of the car, if required.
But it was not required, we, seven adults (Me, Debarati, Ranada and his wife Polidi, Baromeso, Chhotomama and his wife Chhotomami), two 13 year old (Ranadas’ son Baban and Chhotomamas’ daughter Dona) and seven year old, always slim Megha were perfectly seated in Gyaltsen’s black Bolero. We advised Gyaltsen to stop at several places so that Megha and Baromesho get time to recover from the journey.
Now, you must allow me to tell something about Gyaltsen. We (me and Debarati) met him four years back when we went to north Sikkim on share basis. He was the owner-cum-driver of a brand new Black Bolero. Our travel agent gave us another car to be shared with some other people. But a family had some problems with seating arrangements and we were placed in Bolero at the last minute. As I can remember, it was a fuss regarding middle seats and we sort of compromised those seats for travelling in a new car. And it paid off. We travelled and all the people in the car became friends. There were three final year students of Kolkata Medical college, a honeymoon couple from Salt Lake and a Rajasthani couple with a 2 year old kid. It was January and we could not go to even Yumthang due to snowfalls, but it was one of the best tour of my life due to those people. And from next time I always engage Gyaltsen for North Sikkim Tour. By directly interacting with the driver himself, I save few bucks too. Now he is forty years old, driving for 23 years in this region.

Seven sisters falls

The worse roads of North Sikkim were not able to affect us this time due to expert driving and the natural beauty. We stopped to see Seven Sisters’ falls. But except the pakora in the nearby restaurant, it was not good. The falls is losing its edge and the water line is getting thinner. I did not mind to go to the top.  The unnamed jhoras (falls) at every end of a hill of the northern Sikkim seemed to carry much more water than this. Anyway we carried on our journey and had lunch at Phodong after one hour. We reached Chungthang at around 4:30 p.m. This is the hometown for Gyaltsen. We stopped in a Restaurant for a tea break.
The tea break did cost us more than one hour as we found the road got block by a military truck and a water tank carrying truck as they could not pass each other and created jam. After an hour at last the jam got cleared and we were the first one heading for Lachung. We asked Gyaltsen to put us at Bitchu village. There is only one hotel in Bitchu and we stayed there before and were overwhelmed by the hospitality of the hosts. So we stopped 2 km before Lachung.

beauty of the house at Bitchu

The lady of the house (I will not call it a hotel, though it has good basic accommodation, it feels so homely to call a hotel) immediately recognized Debarati and we all were welcomed by Cardamom tea. I took photos of few flowers around the house. After dinner we all went to a deep sleep.

14th May, 2011
(Towards Yumthang, and then Lachen)

View from Bitchu

Did I said Gangtok has changed the mentality towards Tourists? Oh yes! But I said only Gangtok, right! Thankfully, the rest of the Sikkim is as divine as I came here first time eight years back! Last February we went to west Sikkim and were lucky to stay at Sawdens at Uttaray. We still rejoice the hospitality of Purno and Abinash’s family. North Sikkim is also the same. The people here at Lachung and Lachen Valley are the main reasons I come here so many times. They have a strong Panchayat type of system which keeps its law and order. There is no thief because if somebody found stealing means he has to leave the village. The rules are so strict for that. These simple people have very high moral values that we only can dream of.
But the day was a tensed day at Lachung because the Annual General meeting for the villages was to be held. And  they were going to decide on a big issue. NHPC wants to make a Dam on Lachung River which the villagers are opposing heavily. Being an Engineer myself, I understand the requirement of power but I also understand Hydroelectricity changes water quality. The oxygen level reduces drastically and sulpher and Nitrogen level increases. Also, I am not sure NHPC will take care of the aquatic lives. So being a nature lover a dam at Lachung is a big NO NO for me. But I do not have guts of Anna Hazare and The Himalaya will continue to be tortured by the hands of men until nature fights back…….I can only hope that day will not come soon.

Roadside Rhododendron

Again two paragraphs of blah blah. The fact is we were then moving towards Yumthang. There was wow factor working in all ten faces of us. Out of 36 varieties of rhododendron, we could see about 5-6 colours. After seeing the landscape made by those flowers, snow laden sun lit mountains, green pine trees and Small River passing through the roads, we reached Yumthang.
At the first glance I felt sorry for Yumthang, full of restaurants just like a typical tourist spot. But thank god people have used their right mind here. The restaurants are far off from the valley and the river and the valley remains untouched. I will not dare to explain the beauty as I do not have words for it. You have to use all your six (yes six!) senses to sense it. It is overcast so the sky was bit dull. Still I took few snaps which may be called photographs.

Yumthang River

We purposely would not go to Zero point or Katao as I wanted everybody to save their energy for Gurudongmar the day after. That gave us more time to spend at the valley itself. At around 11 a.m. we ciao-ed Yumthang and headed back to Lachung. On the way we saw the local people are still gathered at a ground – the meeting was still on.
The house we stayed at Bitchu
After lunch we bade goodbye to Bitchu and start for Lachen. In between we stopped at a water falls. After Chungthang, we again started following river Lachen. We were heading towards the source of Teesta. Infact, Lachen Chu and Lachung Chu get joined at Chungthang and become Teesta River.
It is raining at Lachen when we reach, and there was no power at the Hotel. Yes, this was a hotel. I am simply astonished seeing Lachen, it is so changed! There are 3-4 storied building all over the town (Yes! I cannot call it a village anymore). We met some local people including Police Officers and chatted about tomorrow’s Gurudongmar Tour. Those people are still so caring. They assured us we could go Gurudongmar easily despite of the rain. We had a plain dinner at around 8:30 p.m.  And as it always happens on tour, I was fast asleep soon.

15th May, 2011
(Towards Gurudongmar Lake)
We woke up at 3:00 a.m. We had a plan to start by 3:30 a.m. This was required because after 9 o’clock staying near Gurudongmar is very difficult due to freezing storm. After freshen up, I ran to see the weather outside.
And it was magic! The two-days-before-full moon and the stars were twinkling gorgeously and there was no sign of clouds. The day would be great! Ranada and Chhotomami called themselves off for the journey. But my concern remained as Megha was going and I was not sure whether we could make it. Megha did climb Vaishnodevi on her foot when she was five and that was only my hope.
Despite everybody woke up early, we could not start before 4:30. Main reason being the electricity was still not there and we had to manage everything by candle light. Gyaltsen was ready before 3:00 o’clock. He wanted to go before everybody so that we would not inhale the dust and black gas emission by the car in front of us.
Clear weather while going to Gurudongmar

Roads at 16000 ft - if exists!
As it happened, 7-8 cars were already started before us. But they were far off. We passed Zema valley where Zemu and Thangu Rivers meet to create Lachen River. We kept aside Zemu River and the trek route to Green Lake on left side and took the road parallel to Thangu River. It was nearly 5:30 when we stopped for Breakfast 2 km before Thangu. We passed Thangu (13000 ft.) and going up. After being verified at the last army post we were heading towards Gurudongmar Lake. The sky was brilliant blue and suddenly the place was so similar to Ladakh that I cannot stop comparing. The roads do nearly not exist there. We were seeing the Indo-Tibet (China) borders and the Military forces, the bunkers and even the mine fields. I did not took snaps of those places as I never take any army area photographs. But the opposite side of that border is just like paradise and I had no ethical problem photographing those as it is allowed. Gyaltsen, being an experienced driver, knows all the short cuts and we find ourselves on the first place of the queue just after the army camp. I could not stop snapping the cars behind us. And at last we reached Gurudongmar Lake at 17100 ft.

Gurudongmar Lake

Mirror!

It is awesome! Do I need to say more? Well probably Pangong Lake is better and much bigger than this, but leave aside Ladakh; I find this place is probably of the best which can be reached by a Car. I took out my Camera and tripod and started taking photographs from all angle. This was the reason why I had come Sikkim this time and this was the first time that I could able to make it. And as a bonus Sun was shining brilliantly! The weather was great; the people with me were OK, what more was needed in life! Remember, I had come to Sikkim this time because our Tawang (Arunachal) tour was cancelled and now I have no regrets!

Panoramic view - Gurudongmar Lake

We reached Gurudongmar Lake at around 8:15 a.m. We stayed there till 9:00 a.m. Gyaltsen warned us not to go far else coming back would be a problem due to height. Soon, the chilly wind speed increased and we saw a lady got fainted and she was taken to the army camp immediately. We thought it was enough and started coming down towards Lachen again.
We reached Lachen at around 1 p.m. All of us are having severe headaches due to sudden up and down. I bathe and took lunch and went to sleep immediately. Staying another day at Lachen proved very much rewarding. By evening we all were fresh and happy. We roamed around the Lachen town, drank local liquor called Marua. The dinner was special with thick Daal, Rice, boiled potato and omelet.  It may look like a simple food, but it tasted excellent.

16th May, 2011
(Back to Gangtok)
Gyaltsen requested us if we could start early then he would be able to take another party to North Sikkim same day! We had no problem granting his request. So we bade adieu to North Sikkim and started from Lachen at 7:30 a.m. We had just one stop at Mangan where we took our breakfast. By 11:00 A.M. calls from the travel agent started coming to Gyaltsen. That agent asked him to come fast. But as a veteran driver he is, Gyaltsen did not budge. He did his normal driving and we reached Gangtok Bajra Stand by 12:30 p.m.
 We thanked and bid adieu to our guide for the last 3 days with a heavy heart and again check in to Hotel Orchid. After lunch most of my relatives took rest. Ladies and kids went for shopping at evening and we gents utilized the time taking local beer, which we bought a crate on that day. And it was well past the scheduled dinner time before we finished.

17th May, 2011 (Buddha Purnima)
(Visit to Rumtek)
Hindu by birth and an agnostic by believe, my wife and I like the calmness of Buddhism. So we planned such a way that we could witness Buddha Purnima festival at Rumtek Monastery. So I asked few Taxi Drivers about the charges to go there. I was surprised they said why we wanted to visit Rumtek, there were better, newly built Monasteries are there in Gangtok (I forgot the names, but not Ranka). Stunned, I came back to Hotel and asked Gopal, the Hotel person who conducts operating tours, to book two cars exclusively for Rumtek. Once we had visited North Sikkim, the local sightseeing around Gangtok should be boring. Well we had already seen better Science City, better Parks and better waterfalls.
Megha was not willing to go to Rumtek, so his father was also could not go. We got a Maruti Omni and a Chevrolet Spark. The road to Rumtek was bad, and after reaching Rumtek both the drivers asked us to return by 20 minutes!!!
Rumtek - Main hall
I asked their names and I thought right, they were not sikkimese. I coolly said, we have booked the car only for Rumtek and we may need 2 hours here. Unlike Darjeeling, Gangtok seems has not become arrogant enough to create fuss on this.

Prayer wheels

 But Rumtek was a disappointment for us. We visited Lamayuru Monastery near Leh last year during the Mask festival and thought celebrating Budhdha Purnima here would be something like that. But nothing was there. I do not know why but there was nothing more in Rumtek than an ordinary day. We roamed and visited the Hostel, the Golden Stupa and returned back after one and half hour.

After reaching Hotel, we took Lunch. We do not have many things to do after that. The shopping was still seemed to be a great attraction for Polidi and Chhotomami. So they went for another swing. And we were very keen not to take back Beer bottles with us, so started finishing those before dinner.

18th May, 2011
(Back to Siliguri)
Debarati & I went to Tsomgo many times before but never able to make it to Nathula as everytime it was closed. This time we did not plan to go to Tsomgo Lake or Nathula pass as we heard the road conditions were too bad.  Also people with us seemed to be exhausted and wanted to rest one day and we were keen to visit Rumtek on Goutam Buddha’s birthday.
The fever of shopping still did not wear off so we had to plan to keep some time for shopping at Bidhan Market (previously, Hongkong Market) when we would be at Siliguri. So we started by 9 a.m. Gopal arranged for a Travera for Rs. 1700 for Siliguri and three local taxis which would take us to the Siliguri stand (Deorali), where the Travera would be waiting, for Rs. 60 each.
We took Brunch at Melli and reached Siliguri at around 3 p.m. We took two rooms at Delhi hotel, opposite to Tenzing Norgey Bus stand. Debarati, Megha, Mesho and I stayed and rested at the hotel and others went for shopping (again!!). By the time they came back, it was nearly time for the Train. We had bookings in Kanchankanya express from Siliguri station, which is a walking distance from our Hotel. We packed our dinner from a roadside hotel (Roti and Tarka, what else!) and reached the Station. The train was on right time and took us away.

19th May, 2011
(Back to Kolkata)
It was nearly 12 days we were travelling. We went to Meghalaya and then again good old Sikkim and now back on earth, where we destined to live, the City life. Sometimes I think it would be better to stay there forever but then think no! Good things should come less then only we can cherish them. So I am happy with the prospect of travelling, may be next year, again. Till then, welcome abode in Bongaon Local, Metro, Park Street, Computers, Servers, Routers, training, etc., etc., etc.


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Contacts may be useful for the trip:

Orchid Hotel
National Highway, NH 31 A
Gangtok, Sikkim 737101
Phone - 03592 203151

Mr. Gyaltsen Sherpa - +91 94343 51369
(North Sikkim hire Taxi owner cum driver)

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