Seek-him or else someone will .....

Sikkim originates from "Sukhim" meaning new house.. New house or old house , we definately felt welcomed!
The journey began at Bengaluru . We boarded the much dreaded and feared Air deccan . We werent too worried as our connecting bus was much later in the evening so we had plenty of time even if our kind pilot decided to taxi for a few hours...
We landed at Dum Dum Airport and coutesy Subbu got a fundo orientation of the city of Joy(s) and Mukherjees.... Took a taxi to Flurry's where we caught up with one of our travel buddies for a what i call a perfect "Breakfast" .
Post breakfast ,we headed to Paligunj which is where we stayed.

We ventured a bit during the day to taste some LO-KOL cuisine (puns are flowing today ).. fish in mustard sauce and poori aalloo. hmmmmmm.. we shall talk about food later....
And late in the evening, went to new sharma hotel to have some yum safron tea served in an earthy kullad..

Fought the Kol traffic to make it to the Bus stand where we boarded the bus to Siliguri and whatta a ride that was. I seemed to be the only one in the bus safar-ing!! Cdnt sleep a wink and to add to my woes, we were stuck in a traffic jam in the middle of nowhere for three hours .. we were mobbed by trucks and buses on all sides and yes i was awake despite the snores and the roars... almost seemed like the bus was in coma !!!!!!aaaahhhhh Finally, it moved... yeah seemed like a baby in a mother's womb... yes it moved... it kicked off and seemed like it was a neverending bus journey...

We were 7 hours late !!! Got off at siliguri and without wasting time fixed ourselves a taxi to Gangtok. Quickly grabbed a bite and and we were ready to burn some serious rubber..

Siesta time for few ..and teesta time for few..... while i was busy fighting for the window seat ..teesta was flowing peacefully on one side .. all i cd catch glimpses of, were heads of my fellow mates .. arrggghhhhh .. the table turned after a few hours and i did manage some breathtaking views. AMy recent Canon S3IS acquision was about to bear fruits .. aahhh life seemed exciting all over again.....

With a few Pee-it stops , we made it to Gangtok by late evening. Got ourselves 2 rooms in the Army mess ..

Gangtok

The capital city of Sikkim, Gangtok in the local language means " the town on a hilltop". This commercialised urban town is an ideal hop stop for most of the travels across the state.

Gangtok is more of a sightseing destination with the typical touristy flavor such as the usual view points, temples, ropeways and gardens.However...... Its a perfect hub to plan adventerous activities around the state.


What did we do ?? We researched .. yeah !

Early morning took off to Nathula : Nathula is 60 kms from Gangtok and is situated at a height of 14450 ft at the border of India and China. The border had a barbed wire saparating us from China...If Amitabh and Tabu were there , they would have screamed Cheeni ( here we) Come ..... hehehe
Also, we found out that the pass is open only on Wed, Thurs, Saturday and Sunday and a special permit is needed.Thanks to one of our friends who had Army liason , we managed a pass without any difficulty.
Nathula was part of the famous silk route ...Hey btw one quick trivia .. did you know Marco Polo, the italian explorer took Pasta from China to Italy ?????? the reason why I mentioned his name is for 2 reasons. He traveled extensively on the silk route and also little did we know that pasta is of chinese origin..




Our next stop was the Baba Mandir : Built by the soldiers, in the memory of a sepoy named Harbhajan Singh. Legend has it that he appeared in someone's dream a few days after he went missing while patrolling and expressed a desire that a monument be built in his memory and the same was built which has over the years acquired the status of a pilgrim center.There is a cafe and an ATM here. The cafe is maintained by the Indian Army . its called cafre 13000. wonder y ??? heheh !!!


Finally , it was Tsongo Lake or Chongo lake.. About 35 kms from Gangtok on the way to nathula, at an altitude of 12400 ft,this is a must do and requires a special permit..What's interesting is that this lake remains completely frozen during the winter months... when else would it freeze ???????????

The place was totally mesmerising. The lake looked placid and very tranquill.Around the lake, there are a few souvinier shops and restaurants which obviously ruin the beauty of the place but since they serve hot tea and momos, i will not complain. Those interested in Yak rides can hop on the yukky yaks too.





By the time we got back it was kind off late ... we crashed as we had to leave for Lachen early morning.


On this note .. lemme crash too .. i gotta hit the gym early morning..... :P .. watch this space to find out .. if we actually woke up early enough ...