My Recent Sikkim Visit: Everything you want to know about it

Gurudongmar Lake (@ height of 17100 feet above sea level), Zero Point (@ height of 15000 Feet) and Yumthang flower valley are some of the dream places to be at. The trip idea came to my mind at around one month back. In spite of having so much time to plan, I deliberately avoided too much planning for the trip as I wanted to enjoy each bit of the trip and to save some money!!!.

Day 0: From Kolkata to Gangtok

We (me and my wife) started our journey to Sikkim at 4 PM, 14th April 2010. It was hot and humid day at Kolkata. The traffic was its peak as usual. Our train was at 5:35PM from Howrah (around 1.5h drive from my house by road) and we were in no mood to spend our time in traffic. So we decided to take Hoogly River route in a public boat transportation and converted our boring journey to an excited one. The train journey upto New Jalpaiguri (NJP) station was comfortable. We reached NJP at around 7AM in the morning next day. After negotiating with a few taxi drivers, we got a shared and ready to go taxi (just outside the station) to Gangtok.

The way to Gangtok is extremely pleasant (atleast for first timers). The most part of the road is good (thanks to Border Road Organization BRO) and although the journey was 4 hour long, it was exciting with pleasant mountain views and various curves of the Teesta river. We reached Gangtok (taxi stand) at around 11:30 AM. We got one taxi and moved to a place near to MG Road, a busy market of Gangtok and you can find a lot hotels there. Luckily we got a decent hotel (Hotel Mandala) in an economical rate with around 50% discount. (as I knew the guys there in this hotel and the tourist season was still booming up).

Day 1: Stay at Gangtok

I have been to Gangtok quite a few time in the past. But everytime I visit Gangtok, it feels a bit different from the other times. It was sunny day this time. We got freshed and had tried a new restaurant for lunch (was a bad try although). As my wife was new to the city, so we decided to explore Gangtok. We walked uphill a long way to get glimpse of the city. We did some shopping at MG Road. We also booked the tour for next 2 nights and 3 days (including Gurudongmar and Yumthang Flower Valley). We had our dinner at "Alien's Kitchen" restaurant, a good find (just opposite to taxi stand and near to Mandala hotel). I tried one Tibetan dish, momos and chicken tanduri for a change.

Pictures top to bottom:
A busy MG Road, A must visit shop at MG road, Paljor Football Stadium, Alien's Kitchen Restaurant, A Tibetan Dish

Day 2: From Gangtok to Lachen

Second day started with amazing (golden) view of Kanchenjunga at 5:15 AM from my room window. It was bit cold in the morning. We had breakfast and got prepared for the trip. We started for adventure at 10:30 AM. We were sharing our trip with a couple (probably was going for second honey moon) and 5 other boys (also from Kolkata). It generally takes around 8 hours by road to Lachen from Gangtok.

For people who are new to Himalayas, the initial part of the journey is always exciting. They click a lot pictures in the starting part of the journey and exhaust their camera batteries, too bad if you do not have backup. The same was true for us, although I had sufficient backup. After 2 hours we passed by a waterfall called "Seven Sisters Waterfall". We stopped, we clicked some pictures and we moved on.

Our next halting destination was for Lunch at around 2:30 PM. We were hungry from ages (ok agreed few hours) and enjoyed home style food. Our next halt was bit unexpected. It was because of regular blast performed by BRO to cleanup landslides and clear the roads. It gave us some time to click some photos so that's what I did. After 1 more hour we left Mangan and started heading towards Chungthang (our next halt). The journey was going on perfectly well until we suddenly found a landslide at a place just few kilometers away from Chungthang. After waiting for half n hour we found out that road was not going to be cleared until next day morning. I could see a lot tension on everybody face. I was worried too. Luckily our driver knew another but more difficult route via another mountain. We had no chance but to take this alternative. We spent final part of the journey in darkness and at around 8:30 PM we reached to our hotel at Lachen. The hotel was not luxurious but decent to stay for one night. We were tired, so finished our dinner quickly went to sleep.

Day 3: Morning: Lachen to Gurudonmar
Bad news I am not going to write about this part of the trip. The good news is that you can follow my earlier blog to read about it: click here

Day 3: Evening: Lachen to Lachung
When we returned back to hotel, it was started drizzling. We were bit tired and hungry at the same time. We had lunch and started heading towards Lachung (around 50 KM) from Lachen via Chungthang. As it was downhill, the journey was comfortable and we reached Lachung at around 6:30pm in the evening.

Day 4: Lachung to Zero Point and Yumthang Valley
Well this part of the journey is another pearl in the gems. So you need to wait for my next post to know more about it. Anyway you can visit my album to view pics.

Zero Point and Yumthang Flower Valley Sikkim

Day 4 and 5: Rest of the Journey
After having lunch at Lachung, we headed towards Gangtok at around 2PM. It was already late to start and the weather was not that good. It was raining all along the way. Last part of the journey was totally foggy and dark giving us a lot of scares now and then. Finally we reached Gangtok safely at around 7PM. The next morning we did some more shopping and returned back to NJP to catch the train.

Some Tips and Useful Information:

1. To make a visit to Gurudonmar / Yumthang, you need to have one night stay at Gangtok. Gangtok can be reached from NJP (new Jalpaiguri) via shared taxi or by taxi booked by your hotel in Gangtok.
2. Please note that foreign tourists are not allowed to visit Gurudongmar Lake as per best of my knowledge (so please confirm with sikkim tourism department).
3. Have two passport photos and xerox of your photo ID card ready for each member.
4. Shared Taxi (10 people per taxi) from NJP to Gangtok take around 4.5 hours and cost around 150 RS INR / head.
5. You can get decent hotel double bed room at price 15oo Rs /day.
6. We booked the whole trip from Gangtok to Lachen, Gurudongmar, Lachung, Zero point and Yumthang Valley and back to Gangtok at 2100 Rs/head. The trip includes fooding and lodging.
7. Have atleast 5 hours in hand for the journey from Gangtok to NJP Railway Station.