18-19 Oct(Gangtok, Rumtek and Rangka Monasteries)

Day 4 of the trip


Kanchanjungha Peaks

We started for Gangtok in the morning from La-Chung, where we had to pick Gyatso's aunt who had to go to with us. She was seated at the back of the jeep. We kept talking about several thing along our route, Gyatso noted for the umpteenth time how pleased he was to have tourists like us who were very nice to him. I was a little rushed as I thught we would not be able to see all the monasteries and so was Akshat. Before we reached Gangtok we were to halt at a dhaba where we did have lunch the first day of the trip. So bad was our experience that we decided to skip the meal, despite having paid for it. We stoppped at a point where we got a good view of Kanchanjungha and clicked a few pictures. My interest in taking picture was on a low as we were leaving north Sikkim. However a landslide had occurred in mid way and it forced me to take out my camera.



A landslide occurred on our return

It was almost noon when Gyatso dropped us at the North Sikim taxi stand, he was trying to call the lodge owner who had become interested in sharing pictures with us. We were pressed for time so we decided to ditch him and stopped a taxi and looked for a place to eat. We went to a north indian resturant called "Khana Khazana" where we gorged on food. The owner of the place was from Lucknow and food was spicy and much suited our taste buds. The place needs a mention as we went there at least three times to eat. After lunch we asked our driver whom we called Sharmajii to show us the Rumtek and Rangka monasteries.


The Rumtek Monastery

We left Gangtok again for Rumtek monastery which was on the outskirts of the city, from the outer gate it is 10 minutes walk to the Rumtek. A must visit for any tourist the monastery is a four storey structure with a golden sculpture, the ghanzira, adorning the rooftop. I took a close of the roof for everyone's benefit. Photography was prohibited inside the shrine so I took a picture from the gate which is as close as I could get.

The rooftop of Rumtek Monastery
We spent a few minutes inside the monastery, the intricate art-work and painting inside were simply amazing. This is the seat of the Karmapa of the Hinayana Sect. There is an institute for studying buddhism. There were many tourists at monastery and we decided to move on to the RAngka or Lingdum Monastery which was some 14-15 kms ahead.

Sharma ji our driver was driving so slowly that i almost fell asleep in the van twice. We reached the monastery and were worried that it would be closed which it was but the monks opened the gates once we requested them.
In the central verandah of the monastery there were many monks who were practising for their annual festval which was nearing. We spent quite a lot of time here. Inside the shrine the work was definitely better than any I have ever seen contary to the popular belief which favors Rumtek as the better one. Deepak was deeeply engrossed watching the monks dance, while me and Akshat went inside the monastery.

After the monastery we went back to M.G. Road in Gangtok where we booked a hotel for ourselves and we went back to our favorite easting joint. Out trip had almost come to its conclusion by now and I was more upset as I had to leave and be back in Delhi. We made a deal with Sharmiji to drop us to the Airport the next day, after which there is not much that must attract anyone's fancy so I will avoid writing it.

Day 3 (Zero Point, La-Chung and Yamthang Valley )

We were now to leave Rabum for our next halt which was to be at La-Chung. Our driver Gyatso was from this town and his family owned a guest house. However we stayed at another one. After a brief halt in La-Chung we went towards Zero Point . The place was called "Zero Point" because beyond this point there was not further roads. This was the closest to Chinese border. We had to make entries at Army check posts on our way to the point.
On our way to La-Chung we came a across a waterfall which was truly the highest I saw on this trip(see attached). If you look carefully in the picture you will see me and Akshat standing near the foot of the waterfall. We spent quite some time at the waterfall. I was in a mood for some sher-o-shayari and Deepak and Akshat proved be very good listeners. Then ahead we went.

Point zero was so far the coldest place I have been to. Since we reached a litte late the snow had started to melt. The weather did not make any allowance though. We crossed the army check posts to reach. Before this I forgot to say that Zero Point was not the part of our "packaged tour" we had to pay our driver separately for the same. Our driver had developed some greed and quoted us a higher rate that what we had expected but we decided to pay him anyways. Nonetheless we reached Zero Point. There was a narrow stream of water and I made the mistake of washing my hands. It is needless to comment on the temperature of the water.


I took many photographs and the best ones are here. But there are way too many. The weather was extremely cold there especially due to very cold winds. There was another group of foreigners whom we met there. After a few niceties exchanged we decided to move on as it was becoming extremly difficult to stay. The place was simply amazing and view was un-paralleled. I could not be happier. After that we needed to move for Yumthang Valley. We halted for some tea and snacks.



Also I must mention that whilst coming from Zero Point to Yumthang Valley I happened to see brief snow fall which was pretty cool for an urban dweller like me. We went forward to La-Chung. On our way we made a brief halt at a hot water spring where our driver took a shower. There were two attractions at La-Chung, The La-Chung Monastery and the Handicrafts Factory. However we could see only visit the monastery as the factory was closed by the time we reached. The monastery was a small and quiet one but the art work was simply amazing.

At the footsteps of a stupa at Yumthang Valley

After the visit to the monsatery we went to see Gyatso's guest house where we had tea. He introduced us to his family and one of Gyatso sisters had shown keen interest in our dear friend Akshat. We returned after visiting the monastery to our guest house where me and Akshat slept and Deepak went out again for a walk and game of cards with the guest house keeper. Me and Akshat snored and slept like anything only to wake up in the evening for dinner. We took out Deepak's laptop and took a back up all the picture from our cameras. Deepak had taken three copies of each picture and it was more important for him. I charged my camera batteries here. Another thing I would like to mention that after La-Chen all the places we travelled to did not have any way of communication save for the ones with the Army personnel.

The three pilgrims at the monastery. A very religious Akshat had his hands folded. Note the two dragons above the gate.

The weather has been chilly and biting winds greeted us every where however it did not rain again. Another interesting incident happened with us. One of Gyatso sisters who I mentioned before came to us while we were leaving his guest house and begged (truly) Akshat to give her mother a drop while we return for Gangtok. Obviously she was able to soften our friend who agreed and none of us objected either. RAJA BHAIYYA KI JAI!!!! (hail the king.)

Day 1 in Sikkim

Our ride
08:00 Somehow I have managed to wake up and I do not know how will I convince myself to take a bath on this cold morning. By the way I forgot to mention it was already cold in gangtok at night. But the brave me did take a bath and brushed his teeth. Without a morsel we left to board our jeep which was a Mahindra Maxx. An indian made jeep known for difficult terrains. I have a also put a picture of the vehicle in case any of you get curious and start googling for the vehicle. Here I would like to introduce you to our driver who was called Gyatso. He was 24 and had been driving for seven years in the hills. A cool chap, he also acted as our guide at some places. At this point we were leaving Gangtok.




The Seven Sisters
We set out for La-Chen and and the first halt was at the seven sisters waterfall. It was a good watefall where a lot of tourists were around and we clicked a few pictures as well. All along our route there were several water falls some small some big. We took pictures of many waterfalls. On our way our jeep again developed some wheel alignment problem and it took some hours to get a mechanic from the nearest town and get the it repaired, by this time it had grown dark and we were getting late as it is very dangerous to drive in hilly regions at night.

Another waterfall, deepak with his camera in front, me at back.

However we rode ahead towards our guest house, it had started raining and we had gotten wet before we reached the guest house. After reaching the guest house we were tired as hell and hungry too. We requested the kitchen to pepare food for us. The place La-Chen was not a tourist attraction in itself and was only a point of halt. We played a game of cards before dinner and came back to our room to continue our game. By this time I had challenged deepak that I will beat him hands down. So far Akshat had not shown any interest in the game.



Next morning we were to see the Guru Dongmar Lake which is at a height of 17100 ft above sea level. We set out in the morning around 07:30 and kept riding towards out destination. There were some people in a Jeep ahead of us who headed for the same place. We crossed a number of cantonment areas where photography was prohibited.


Many of the hills had these buddhist prayer flags. Buddhism is mainly divided in two different practices: Hinayana and Mahayana. In Sikkim most people follow Mahayana. There were these flags(on which prayers are written) which could be seen almost evrywhere and they kept fluttering in the winds. It is believed that prayers will be carried away by the winds. The white flags in a single row were special. They were meant for one's deceased ancestors and always 108 flags were put together. I bought a few prayer flags myself.



After crossing a few army check posts we reached the cold desert area and got closer to the lake. Attached is the picture, I must say that so far it is the best i have ever taken. We reached around 11:00 am at the lake and were asked by the driver not to run around too much as at that elevation (17,100 ft) air was thin and breathing problem could be experienced. We just could not get enough of the lake and took many pictures, unfortunately I can't post all here. Hope you will like this one. Also near the lake there was a "Sarv Dharm Sthhal" (all religions' temple) for praying which was managed by Jat Regiment of the Indian Army.

We spnt a lot of time at the lake but were asked to leave soon as winds were getting stronger and stay was not advisable. So sadly we left the lake for our guest house which was in La-Chen. We had a wonderful meal and much to our delight our host was same as the previous night's lodge owner. He also gave us visiting cards in case we wished to return. We were to stay at a different guest house which was in Rabum from where we were to head for La-Chung. The guest house in Rabum was owned by our travel agent "Tashi Bhutia" whose father and wife were incharge. She had again prepared a wonderful meal for us. I must note we were quite surprised that in the remote areas of Sikkim, food was much to our delight.

In the evening Deepak had gone for a walk and he took a lot of pics of a cow, her calf and a goat. Pics are not posted on purpose. His fascination with the camera had reached enormous proportions by now. We collapsed in our beds and post dinner sat for game of cards. Thus the second day came to an end.

Sikkim Trip

13 -14 Oct 2006


I reached the railway station exactly two hours before the departure of the train. After much waiting and confusion I met Deepak and we reached the platform. Finally we climbed in the train at 13:30 hrs.

The train left the platform exactly at 14:00 hrs. We enter the train and open our digicam-manuals. Both of us had bought cameras a week before and we needed much help with these.

By the time we reached half way I had read my manual at least 3 times. Now I knew I could not read it more. Deepak was still engrossed with his copy. I decided to move around but did not find any suitable company.

People in our cabin included a very fat gentleman who was listening to some devotional music and sleeping at the same time. He kept swining in his sleep from one side to another. It was pretty funny soome times.

There were a mother and her son travelling with us. The son was in his mid-twenties. I dare not guess the age of the mother. Later on me and Deepak decided on a game of cards. Later on that guy also joined us. We kept playing till early morning and slept around three.

We continued with the game of cards and then around 12 noon our halt came for New JalPaiGuri station. We had hoped to reach Gangtok within 4-5 hours max since the distance between the two towns was around 120 kms. Before we could look for a taxi Deepak happened to spot a tourist agent in front of the railways station. It seemed ver shady I asked Deepak not to go, however Deepak insisted that we at least get a rough idea about the rates, I said ok and I went to call Akshat who was in Calcutta at the time and was to join us at Gangtok. I came back at the travel agent and he quoted us a very high sume of money for entire trip, needless to say the sum was so high that we could not afford it and had to refuse the offer.

Mid way crisis

Meanwhile the main zipper of Deepak's bag gave in and we had a luggage problem at our hands. We found a temporary soultion for that using a few safety pins. Meanwhile I looked for a taxi and found a shared cab. Deepak hesitated but I(my mistake) made him take it.
I asked the driver of the taxi if he had a spare tire. Some other bystanders laughed. I repeated my question and the Vijay our driver said that he did keep one.

Well my questioning did prove to be well found and midway, one of the the tyres developed a puncture and needed to be changed. While changing the tire Vijay ripped his pants. We stopped at a local dhaba to eat and the view was amzing at the place and a small drizzle started which soon stopped.


The view from the place where we had lunch
We had lunch and started for Gangtok. The next stop was a some village near Darjeeling where our driver had to sup. We got down and took a few pics. All in all we reached gangtok in about seven hours, after which we were tired as hell.
In the cab we met two guys from calcutta who had an uncle who owned a motel in gangtok. We decided to stick with them and board the lodgings. They helped us get a room, which was very dingy but it was very late and we decided to stick on.
Akshat at the time was on-board his flight to Baghdogra. He reached around 11:45 in night and after much confusion was able to locate our motel. Meanwhile Deepak had luckily negotiated for a very profitable deal with the hotel owner for our entire trip for North Sikkim.

Plan was to go to La-Chen (day 1) and GuruDongmar(day 2) -> La-Chung (Day 2), Point Zero -> (2nd night and day 3) Rabum (overnight)-> Gangtok (day 4).

However this gave us a very tight schedule in Gangtok and I wished to see all the main monastries around Gangtok. The first day had been hectic and the fellowship needed rest.