Sikkim, Darjeeling and Kolkata - April 2011

This trip was one of the most memorable ones as it was our first encounter with Himalayas. We were all waiting to see the snow peaked mountains, loud gushing rivers, green mountains etc. My kids were hoping to play in snow (this would be their first encounter with snow). We could see the excitement in their eyes, when they heard that there is snow fall at Yumtang Valley. They were overjoyed.

All our flight, train, accommodation, permit to North Sikkim and Nathu La was booked in advance. Only means of transport within Sikkim is by road, which is mostly in the hilly terrain. This can get a little strenuous, especially for kids. On an average one would be sitting in the car for atleast 6 hours. Hence would recommend one to stay in a place for atleast 2 nights, so that you don’t get car sick.  Also note the day here starts early and ends early. For most of the trips you would be starting by 7:30am and dinner will be closed by 9PM. Most common and popular food is Vegetarian food. You can easily get Veg Momos, Chowmein, noodles, rice and dal. Don’t expect any fancy restaurants, especially in North Sikkim. Gangtok though is pretty cosmopolitan and has good eating joints.

In many parts of Sikkim, the roads are under construction/renovation. Because of this and also due to landslide, and steep, curvy roads the time taken to reach from one point to another is more. You may get stuck in a jam anytime for 45 min to 2 hours. Plan your day accordingly.
Sikkim is really a paradise on earth. With plenty of water falls, long rivers, green valleys and hills, snow capped mountains, cold deserts. Plastic is banned in whole of Sikkim. The whole state is very clean, less noisy. People here are simple, sweet, very soft spoken and neat & clean. They are disciplined and never lose their cool. You hardly see poverty here. Very contrast to what we saw in Kolkata.

Day 1 – Kolkata

We reached Kolkata around Noon. We had booked our taxi in advance. Since our train to New Jalpiguri (NJP) was in the late evening, we had 6-7 hours to do some sight seeing in Kolkata. There are plenty of trains to NJP. We had booked our journey on Darjeeling Mail which leaves Kolkata at 10PM and reaches NJP around 8:30. One can also take a flight to Bagdogra from Kolkata.

Park Street and Chowrangiee  street have plenty of eateries. We stopped for a quick lunch at Halidrams and left to Victoria Memorial Hall. http://www.indfy.com/kolkata/places-to-see-in-kolkata/ site has all the details of the places to see in Kolkata, timings and other details. Visit to Victoria memorial hall and the museum would take around 1- 1 ½ hours. They also have a light and sound show in the evening. It was not running when we visited Kolkata. From here we went to Belur Math. This complex is really beautiful. Must see places here are the Ramakrishna Museum, the main temple and Swami Vivekanand  temple. Photography is not allowed in this complex . From here we took a ferry to Dakshineshwar and asked our taxi driver to meet us as Dakshineshwar temple. It was around 6PM when we got into the ferry, the sun was setting and Belur Math looked beautiful from the ferry. 30 min ferry ride in the evening on river Hoogli was really refreshing.

Since the kids were tired, did not want to explore any new place for dinner. We had our dinner at Haldiram’s (as it was tried and tested in the morning). The misti dohi, lassi, dhoklas were awesome. We left to Sealdha station to catch our train to NJP.

Bridge over river Hoogli

Victoria Memorial Hall

Belur Math

Day 2 – Darjeeling

We reached NJP around 9AM. NJP has nothing to see. It is a stopover for travelers going to North East especially Darjeeling and Sikkim, since there is no direct train/flight to these places. NJP has small hotels/lodges and travel & tours shops. We booked a cab to Darjeeling at Holiday Planner a small tourist shop opposite NJP station. Darjeeling is about 4-5 hours drive from NJP. Hence we checked into a small hotel called Hilltop (opposite railway station) to freshen up. By default, rooms don’t come attached with a bath and hot water. Please specify this before checking into the room. You will not find any good hotels here for breakfast. However you will find plenty of shops selling snacks, cool drinks etc. Our driver suggested he would stop at some place on the way. 

We started to Darjeeling around 10:30AM. Around 11:30AM, we stopped for breakfast. This was small joint. Only options available were Chowmein, Maggie and Rice & Dal. Kids were thrilled as they got to eat Maggie for Breakfast (which they would usually not get at home for breakfast). But little did they know that for the next 1 week they would be eating Maggie more often they thought - for Breakfast, lunch and snacks...
Road from NJP to Darjeeling is quite winding and steep. You will not find many shops. Though shops selling chips and soft drinks are plenty, recommend you to carry eatables if travelling with kids. We always had some fruits, bread, Nutella and some dry chutney powder. These came very handy during our long drives in Sikkim too.

We reached Darjeeling around 3PM. We had booked our stay at Dekeling Hotel http://www.dekeling.com/ . This is at very good location – center of the town and the room we stayed has very good views of the Khangchendzonga mountain ranges (especially in the late morning).  Most of the tourist spots close by 5PM. So you need to plan your day in advance.

We went to the Observatory Hills, Chourasta and did some warm clothes shopping. Had our dinner at hotel called Shangri La. We booked our trip for “Sunrise at Tiger Hills” for the next day.

Chourasta - Darjeeling

View from Observatory Hill

View from Observatory Hill

Day 3 – Darjeeling

Trip to Tiger Hills starts at 4:30AM. We were all up and ready to leave by 4:15AM. The sunrise is around 5:30AM. At this point, one gets to Khangchendzonga mountain ranges being painted with the colors of rising sun. The view is breath taking. This is was our first encounter with the Himalayas and we were spell bound. It is freezing cold up their on the Tiger Hills. Don’t forget to carry enough warm clothes. You will see hundreds of people at the view point. Complimentary tea is served as part of the entry ticket to the view point.

After the sunrise, we visited the Ghoom Monastery and from there we went to Batasia Loop. Here there is a war memorial and also a view point to get a closer look at the Himalayas. View of the mountains is clear only during the mornings. Post noon, it is all covered in fog and clouds. We had our breakfast at Glenery’s Café. This place serves good continental breakfast and also has some awesome bakery stuff.

Post breakfast we visited the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute’s Museum and Himalayan Zoological Park. The Mountaineering Museum is a must see and has very good information and collection. The Zoo too has very good collection of Himalayan animals like Red Pandas, Snow Leopard, Snow wolfs etc.

We wanted to take a ride on the Darjeeling Toy train, but were not able to get tickets. Please do advance bookings, preferably do it while booking your accommodation. It has 3 rides – one at 10:40 AM which is the best, another at 1:30PM and one more 4PM. The 4PM one is waste as it is slightly dark by then and one does not get to see much. Some how we managed to get tickets for the next day 10AM trip. We ended up paying almost double the actual cost. Most of these trips are booked in advance.

One more tip – cab charges/booking is based on the points covered and not on whole day/KMs basis. Please clarify this before booking the cab.

Batasia Loop and War Memorial

Sunrise at Tiger Hills

Sunrise at Tiger Hills

Ghoom Monastry

Red Panda - Himalayan Zoological Park

Day 4 – Darjeeling, Pelling

Other places we visited in Darjeeling were Japanese Temple and peace Pagoda, rock garden. Since we had to leave to Pelling, we decided to take only a one way trip on toy train i.e. from Darjeeling station to Ghoom Station. The ride in itself is nothing great, but because the train is running with a 200 year old engine, the whole experience is great. The railway museum at Ghoom is quite informative. Our cab picked us up from Ghoom, and we were all set to go to Pelling.

It’s a 5 hour drive from Darjeeling to Pelling. The road condition is not very great. Also you will not find any eatery shops. So plan accordingly. We reached Pelling around 5PM.  This is a very small town. Except for the hotel/resorts you will not find much here. We had booked Norbu Ghang Resort http://www.norbughangresort.com/main/norbughangresort.html. I think this is the best place to stay. All the rooms have very good views of the Khangchendzonga ranges. Unfortunately the day we went, it was very cloudy. We could not get good views. There is nice view points (helipad point), which gives very good views.  The evening was spent at the helipad. Since it was a full moon day, the view was great. The resort also has a very good restaurant.

Toy Train - Darjeeling

Rock Garden

Japanese Peace Pagoda

Giri Dham Mandir

Day 5 – Pelling and drive to Gangtok

We got up at 5am, hoping to see a good sunrise. But unfortunately it was raining. Pelling is known for good views of the Khangchendzonga mountain ranges. Must see places in and around pelling – Oldest Monastery – Pemayangtse Gompa, ruins of royal capital of Sikkim- Rabdentse – This requires a 1KM walk from the main gate. The walk and the ruins are worth the visit. The place is maintained by ASI (Archeological Survey of India) and is very clean and green. We visited these two places before the breakfast and started to Gangtok.
Our plan was to visit the remaining places around Pelling on the way to Gangtok. Please note, this will mean longer drive time. Also there are multiple routes to Gangtok. The one enroute Ravangal is the most scenic one. We took this route, though it is a little longer. Around Pelling (on the way to Gangtok), we visited few waterfalls – Phamrong, Khangchendzonga, Rimbi and a lake called Khecheopalri and a rock garden. This lake is surrounded by green mountains, which makes it very scenic.

The only way to go from West Sikkim (Pelling) to East Sikkim (Gangtok) is through South Sikkim. The drive enroute Ravangal was very beautiful. This is only place in Sikkim where you have tea estates. All through the drive from Pelling to South Sikkim you will see the Khangchendzonga mountain ranges on your left. The roads too are in very good condition. We also saw snow fall here.

We reached Gangtok around 7:30PM. We had booked our stay at Hidden Forest Retreat http://www.hiddenforestretreat.org/. This is THE best place to stay in Gangtok. This is about 2KM from Gangtok city, an extremely beautiful family run resort. Taxi’s may charge 50 to 150Rs from MG Road. Since we were supposed to leave to North Sikkim the next day, we could not spend much time in the resort. However we had booked one more night at this place on our return from North Sikkim. We promised ourselves, to spend more time then.

View from Norbu Ghang Resort

Pemayangtse Gompa

Rabdentse - Ancient Capital of Sikkim

Khecheopalri Lake

Day 6 – Lachen

We were all set for our must awaited trip to North Sikkim. Since trip to North Sikkim require special permits, it is advisable to go through some tourist agents. We booked our north Sikkim trip through Brother’s http://www.brothers.org.in/contact_us.html . Since there are limited permits and places to stay in North Sikkim (Lachen and Lachung), it is advisable to plan for the trip atleast a month in advance. Also the trip to North Sikkim is expensive. 2N/3D trip for our family with independent jeep cost us 23,000 Rs. This did not include visit to Gurudongmar Lake, Zero point, Katuo point.

We started from Gangtok around 9:30AM and reached Lachen around 4PM. On our way from Gangtok, we stopped at Tashi View point, Seven sister water falls, Singhik view point and Phensang monastery. All through our journey, we saw hundreds of water falls on our way and the flowing Teesta river. It was freezing when we reached Lachen. All of us were tried. The kids were tired of sitting in the car. Lachen is a small place in North Sikkim. You may find a max of 100-200 houses. There are few shops which stock everything a pampered city man needs. Another surprising thing was, even at this remote place all shops sold the goods at MRP. I was really impressed by this. Because of tax exemption, alcohol is very cheap here. For Rs 30, you get a peg of scotch 

We were staying in a small place called SINOLCHU,CHOLHAMU. The place had clean rooms with attached bath with geyser. Do not expect any luxuries. There was no TV or room heater. However enough warm blankets were given to keep us warm. The food available is also healthy Vegetarian food – Rice, Dal, Salad and Sabjji. Our evening was spent trekking to the Gompa. Lachen has a huge Gompa (some how all the monasteries/gompas are on hill tops).  There is nothing much to do in Lachen. This is just a stop over place for tourists going further north (Gurudongmar Lake, Chopta Valley etc).

We had our dinner early and went to bed as next day we were required to start at 4AM, as we were planning to visit Gurudongmar Lake and Chopta Valley.  I did not have very good sleep, as I was worried whether we could make it to Gurudongmar Lake, as I had read a lot of stuff on how the terrain was and people getting nausea and breathless. Since we were going there with kids, I was a little worried.

Teesta River

Lachen Monastery

View from our Hotel

View from our hotel

Day 7 – Gurudongmar Lake, Chopta and Thangu Valley

The much awaited day had arrived. We were given wakeup call with tea at 3:30AM. All of us were ready to leave by 4AM. Since it was freezing cold and we were going further north (17000ft above sea level), kids wore two layers of dresses and jackets. This was going to be a minimum of 4 hour drive- one way to the lake. We started at around 4:30Am and reached Thangu Village by 7AM. This is at 14000 ft above sea level and last place were you would find civilians. Beyond this point you will only find Military personnel. Here we were given Noodles for breakfast and hot tea. This was a great relief in freezing cold.

Upto this point, you will see green mountains and lots of trees. Beyond this point, the whole terrain changes. Suddenly one can only see some small bushes, rocky mountains with snow, river flowing and nobody around except few military personnel at some camps. Around 8:30AM we reached the world’s highest café managed by the Military. This is at 15000ft above sea level. We chat up with the military folks, have tea and start our last lap to the lake. All of us eagerly waiting as we are quite tired. But the view is so spectacular; we don’t feel like closing our eyes even for a minute. The terrain again changes from this point. One side of the road you have huge dunes of sand and on the other side of the road you have snow peaked rocky mountains. Not a single green tree here. One can feel the difference in the air pressure.

We reached Gurudongmar lake around 9:15AM. The view was just breathtaking. It was worth all the tiresome journey. My elder daughter was feeling a little bit of nausea. She saw the lake, went and slept in the car. My younger daughter walked with us down to the lake (there are about 20-25 steps to reach the lake). 3/4th of the lake was frozen. On the right side of the lake you see snow peaked mountains and on the left side you see mountains similar to sand dunes. This lake is at 17100ft above sea level. At this altitude the oxygen in the air is less, hence one may experience breathlessness and nausea. There is a small temple next to the lake. One can at the most spend 30-40 min here. Also it is recommended to leave this place by 11AM. Around noon, the wind gets very strong and all the pebbles start flying because of the strong winds. When we were climbing the steps to reach our car, is when Shrishti (my younger daughter) felt breathless and could not walk. We had to carry her. We gave her some jellies to chew after that she was fine.  From my experience, I recommend one to carry enough jellies to chew, nimbu goli etc. Avoid eating pop corn (though lot of them recommend to eat pop corn to beat the nausea). Stay calm, walk slowly, breath slowly. Don’t forget to carry/wear sunglasses (the sun and wind are very strong), gloves, cap, jacket and shoes. Carry enough eatables (though most of the time on this drive you will not feel hungry) as there are no shops after Thangu Village.

We left the lake around 9:45AM with a most exciting experience of Sikkim. This is one of the must see places of Sikkim and you can go there with kids above 5 years. On our way back to Lachen, we visited the Chopta Valley. This was around noon. I cannot forget the experience here. We got out of the car and just could not walk. It was a great effort to keep the eyes open without the glasses. The wind was very very strong. At one point I felt, the wind could easily swipe us away. The valley surrounded by snow peaked mountains just looks superb. On our way to Lachen we saw herds of Yaks. By the time we reached Lachen it was 2PM and we were dead tired. The kids were feeling nausea due to long drive at different altitudes.

We rested for some time, had our lunch and had to leave for Lathung (base for visiting Yumtang Valley which was planned for the next day).  We took at 2N/3D package for North Sikkim. But it is recommended to do a 3N/4D package if you want to cover Gurudognmar Lake. It can get tiring especially for Kids. Drive to Lathung from Lachen was about 2-2 ½ hours.  We were put up in Modern Residency in Lathung. This is the best and beautiful place to stay. The hotel looks like a monastery and the views from the terrace are beautiful. The evening was spent relaxing in the hotel. At last the kids got to watch TV (it was like somebody getting a glass of water after a safari in desert). The restaurant is decorated in traditional Tibetan style. The dinner was good. We had an early dinner and slept.

Gurudognmar Lake

Gurudognmar Lake

Gurudognmar Lake

Chopta Valley

Herd of Yaks - On the way to Gurudognmar Lake

Thangu Valley

On the way to Gurudognmar Lake

Day 8 – Yumtang and Valley of Flowers

Another must see point in North Sikkim is Yumtang Valley. The drive from Lathung to Yumtang Valley is around 1 ½ hours. The drive is very scenic. All along the road one will see various colours of Rhododendron flowers. These flowers typically bloom from March to May. We had planned our trip mid April assuming the flowers would be in full bloom. But since the winters lasted late this year, we saw fewer flowers than expected. The valley has around 36 colours of thess Rhododendrons. We saw around 10-15 colours. This is itself was very picturesque. 2-3 days prior to our visit there was heavy snow fall in Yumtang. Hence there was lots of snow still on the road side. Kids has fun playing in the snow.

At Yumtang Valley you get 360 degree panoramic view of the Himalayas. There is also a hot water spring. One can further drive up for 1-2 hours to go to Yumesdong (zero point). This is a place where you get snow in all seasons. Since we experienced snow in Yumtang, we opted out of going to Yumesdong. Visit to Gurudognmar Lake, Yumesdong and Katuo are typically not covered in the package cost. Please confirm with your travel agent in advance.

It was now time to pack our bags and return to Gangtok. Another long drive… By now all of us had got used to the long drives on these curvy mountains. No place can be reached in 1-2 hours. You need atleast 5 hours to go from one tourist place to another. Here you learn, you should not look at the KMs to be covered, but the hours to travel. The average speed you travel is 20KM/Hr.

We reached Gangtok late evening. It was around 7PM and we were put up at Mintokling Guest House. This is a nice place and close to the CBD of Gangtok. MG Road is about 10-15min walk. We decided to hangout and have dinner at MG Road. Gangtok’s MG Road is an experience in itself. Here you don’t feel you are in India. The road is closed for vehicles. It has fountains, lots of plants, very clean with benches all along. It’s a shopping hub. We loved this place and decided to come over again the next evening.

View from Modern Residency - Lachung

Yumtang Valley

360 degree mountain view - Yumtang Valley

Rhodendrones - Valley of flowers

Modern Residency - Lachung

Day 9 – Nathu La, Baba Mandir, Tsomgo/Changu Lake

Trip to Sikkim is incomplete without the visit to Nathu La. The visit requires permits and hence needs to be planned in advance. Also note Nathu La is closed on Wednesday and Thursday (this was the scheduled when we visited). Please check before planning your visit to Sikkim. At this point you see the wall which divides China and India. You also get to see the Indian army and Chinese army patrolling this border. 2 days prior to our visit, there was heavy snow fall in Nathu La. We had a blast playing with snow and sliding on snow.  It takes about 3 hours from Gangtok to reach Nathu La. All through the drive you will see plenty of military camps as this

On our way back we stopped at Baba Mandir which is a temple constructed in memory of a solider. Then we stopped a Chunga Lake. This is a huge scenic lake. You will also see a lot of Yak’s here. A small ride will cost around Rs150/yak. We took a yak ride. This place also has plenty of food stalls and shops which rent warm clothes before you go to Nathu La. We had our lunch here are headed back to Gangtok.

On your way you can also stop at Hanuman Tok and Ganesh Tok. These are just view points. I find each point in Sikkim is a view point. The whole state is very rich is natural resources and is very very scenic.
Our booking was again at Hidden Forest Retreat. Since we could not spend enough time earlier, we wanted to spend all our remaining time at this beautiful resort.

Nathu La

Changu Lake

Nathu La

Nathu La

MG Road Gangtok

Day 10 – Gangtok, Rumtek

It was time to pack our bags. One more thing left for us was to visit the Rumtek Monastery. We decided to cover this on our way to NJP. Our train to Kolkata from NJP was at 8:30PM. Gangtok to NJP takes about 4 hours.  Hence we started our day around 10AM.

We first visited the Institute of Tibetology. This is good place to understand Buddha and Buddhism. From here we went to Rumtek Monastery. This is the 2nd largest monastery in Asia and worth a visit. Guides are available to explain the details of the monastery.

After completing the Rumtek monastery we were done with our Sikkim trip. On our drive to NJP we were recollecting our last 10 days of vacation. We had seen and experienced many things and thinking about them was touching as we knew we may not be able to visit Sikkim again for some time and by our next visit we knew lot of things would have changed.

Rumtek Monastery

Day 11 - Kolkata

We reached Kolkata in the morning and finding a place to check in to a hotel was a struggle. It is difficult to find a place to stay without prior booking. By now we were all longing to get back to Bangalore. After being in Sikkim for 1 week, Kolkata seemed very unclean, poor and to add to this the weather was hot and humid.
We had our flight at 8PM. Spent the day checking out the Indian Museum, Marble Palace and Jain Temples before we completed our summer vacation.

Rabindranath Tagore Museum - Kolkata

Jain Temple - Kolkata