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.