Solo Trip to North Sikkim (May'18)

Backpacking in Sikkim

Gurudongmar Lake

Sikkim, the home of Mount. Kanchenjunga. One of the smallest state of India, yet talked plenty about because of its beauty. And the very first organic state in India. The word of mouth about Sikkim has always been great and millions of tourist visit every year. So I was pretty excited and looking forward to the experience to the third and final leg of my trip of North East. One where I was heading towards completely unprepared. Hoping for a solo travelling experience, keeping all window of possibility open except that I had a confirmed stay at Tagalong Backpackers for a couple of night in Gangtok. Fantastic, if that is the word I should say about the place, since it sorted out all my travel related woes.

Day 1 (Guwahati-Bagdogra-Gangtok)

I had a flight at 2 pm, and since I didn’t have much to do back in Guwahati, took the Airport Bus service from Paltan Bazaar (Around 100 rs) and reached the Airport. Waiting in the lounge, received a  message from Manisha, the owner of Taglong. During out brief chat, knowing I had no plans whatsoever, she stepped in to plan one for me. On her suggestion, for Gangtok, I booked a cab via Wizzride.com, which picked me up from the Airport at 4 pm. Reaching the hostel late at 9:45 pm, courtesy of the traffic in Siliguri, tired and lazy, I dozed off straight away skipping my dinner. 

Day 2 (Tripping in Gangtok)

So, in my brief discussion the day before, Manisha had vouched in to get my trip in Sikkim planned out. And so she did, quite well. There was also one more solo traveller from Kolkata, with no fixed plans and had the same scheduled date of returning. Hence we shared the same itinerary. Since Manisha was quite familiar with the travel organizers, she got us the travel package at a reasonable rate. Otherwise the travels charge a lot during the tourist season. 

The trip schedule kind of like was as follows:

·11^th: Sightseeing in Gangtok
·12^th-14^th: A 3 day 2 night tour of Lachung, Yumthang Valley, Lachen and Gurudongmar Lake. 
·14^th-15^th: Dzongu Stay, experiencing the lifestyle of Lepcha people, the first inhabitant of Sikkim.
·16^th: Rest Day in Gangtok
·17^th: Departure to Ahmedabad

Sightseeing in Gangtok

Manisha got a cab for us (charge 1800 rs) which would take us to various places around Gangtok. It’s called a 10 point tour, taking to 10 different places, but since we weren’t interested in rushing from one place to another, it was decided to go with the flow. That day we covered Lingdum Monastery, Banjhakri Falls, Tibetology Museum, Chorten Gonpa Monastery, Hanuman Tok, Tashi View Point and Ganesh Tok. The visit to Monastery and the Tibetology Museum is a must. Hanuman Tok is is a peaceful place on the outskirts away from the hustle and bustle of the city, and the view from here of the tall mountains, is wonderful and if one is lucky enough Mt. Kanchenjunga can be seen from here. Apart from this, I also did Paragliding (Fly Sikkim Adventure, charges being 2500 rs plus 500 rs for the video) The flight was of approx 5 mins, and was good fun, not too scary and can be done by all. And try to keeps your hands open,  kinda for the feel in the air as if your flying.

Paragliding in Gangtok

Lingdum Monastery 

Day 3 (Towards Lachung)

The basic 3 day 2 night tour fare was 2800 rs which also include the meal. That is actually pretty good, considering it being in the tourist season and also my friends paid a lot more than this.

The cab left from Gangtok at 11pm. Our being one of the last to depart. As has been my luck with shared cabs, I had to occupy the last row, AGAIN!! It isn’t comfortable, but then I had been used to it, since I travelled the same way throughout Meghalaya and now Sikkim. The cab was occupied by people from different places of the country. Initially I had hesitation, if I could get along with them, but in the end I had a great time with all those guys. 

The journey to Lachung doesn’t have much to do. You’ll come across a couple of halts at waterfall. Since I had been to better and more secluded falls in Meghalaya, I wasn’t fascinated much since it had plenty of tourist flocking around it. After reaching there, the group had a small walk around the town, after which we had our dinner and went to sleep. The places where we stayed was Rinkor Residency. They stay was okeyish. Had our dinner which consisted of  Rice, Dal, Aloo Subji and  Chicken Curry. This is the kind of meal (Thaali) you can find in Sikkim all over if one visits small food joints. A wholesome meal at a reasonable price.

Day 4 (Yumthang Valley-Zero Point-Lachen)

We departed from Lachung to Yumthang Valley early morning at 5:30 am. By breakfast time, we had reached Yumthang Valley. It is also called as the Valley of Flowers, but since the season was not yet for the flowers to bloom, the valley was not yet at its peak charm. We all had decided to go further to Zero Point that day and also to Kala Patthar the next day. The cab charges 3000rs in total extra for an additional spot to visit. Since we were going to two, he charged us 5500rs. That was equivalent to 610rs for all. Thus this trip costing 3410rs in total. We reached Zero Point at 10:20 am. At Zero point, which is located at a height of 14500 ft, you come across the beautiful valley with plenty of snow on the mountain sides. It was quiet windy and cold that day. We had a good fun for an hour over there, clicking photos, making snowman, sliding down in snow, etc. From there we moved to Lachen, reaching by 6 pm. Lachen for me was more beautiful than Lachung. Quiet and charming. We stayed at a place called Hansika Residency. The host here were quite warm and food here was great as well.

The shared cab group

Zero Point, Yumthang Valley

Day 5 (Lachen-Gurudongmar Lake-Mangan-Dzongu)

This was supposed to be the highlight of the trip. And it sure was. The road to Gurudongmar Lake, barring the last 3 km, is completely off road. So the trip was super bumpy and being at the back seat, one gets to feel the extra jump as well. But one can compensate that with the view of the valley on offer. It was breath taking, and one cannot take eyes off it for a moment. Before reaching the lake, there is a café run by the army called Café 15,000 at the check post. Had momos over there, and they were mind blowing. If you are one of those who love momos, than you’d surely enjoy the feeling of having lip smacking momos at the high altitudes. The joy is out worldly. It takes about 15-20 min to reach the lake from the check post. The road from here is well laid down. The view of the lake is alluring, and one would just like to sit there and adore as much as possible. Since the lake being at an altitude of 17,100 ft, one might feel uncomfortable as the oxygen level is low. Advisable to acclimatize before and drink plenty of water.

The Dzongu Chapter

So, the final destination in my entire trip was Dzongu. Dzongu is a village one hour’s drive from Mangan, the district capital of North Sikkim. It is approx. 50km north of Gangtok. I had a booking over at Rumlyang Homestay, Tingvong Village, Upper Dzongu. They charge 1000rs per night which includes the meal and drinks. It is one hour drive from Mangan. There is no shared cab available from Mangan apart from one or two in the morning. Since we were reaching late after noon, the host had made arrangement for the car. The accommodation at his place were of 5 people that day. So he had arrived by noon that day and was waiting for us. He greeted us when we reached at 6 pm and we were off to Tingvong. A river separates Upper and Lower Dzongu. Since it had rained heavily that day, the water level of the river was high. There is no bridge built over there for the cars to cross, just bamboo poles fixed to mark the way. When we reached there, a pick-up truck was coming from the opposite direction, since water level was high,we waited to see if it was able to cross the river. Unfortunately that truck got stuck barely 3 meters from the river shore. So we had to cross the river barefoot with all our luggage. Quite an adventurous start. The water though wasn’t that cold, and was just above knee height deep. There was another car at the other end of the shore, which dropped us off at the village.

On reaching there, after the allotment of the rooms, we were served a welcome drink called as Chi. It is served in a vessel called Pithyut and the straw is called as Pipsing. Both of them are made from Bamboo. Chi is prepared by cooking and fermenting whole grain millet. The fermentation is done by mixing it with yeast and storing it in a closed tight container for a week or so.  Boiling water is added to it and then it left undisturbed for few minutes. Once the minutes has passed it is ready to drink. You keep on adding boiling water till the alcohol gets exhausted. It was great in taste. And one wouldn’t get high that fast. It is one of those things, which gradually gets you high. A great pre-dinner drink. That day, I had it for a good couple of hours, chatting around with Karma the owner and two of his cousins. In spite of not being a regular drinker, I only felt a mild high that night. Good enough for a good night sleep. The bed and the blanket provided were of good quality which just made the sleep more soothing.

Chi, a millet based alcoholic drink

Day 6 (The Dzongu Chapter)

The Lepcha’s are one of the three inhabitants of Sikkim. There were the first to make Sikkim there home. There aren’t high in number, just around 80,000. So to observe a indigenous community first hand, is quite an experience which one must not miss, if you love to be away from the hustle and bustle of city and the touristy traffic, and to be one with the nature.

As was the habit I had developed during my trip in NE, I woke up quiet early at 5 am and got myself ready by 6 am. It is always a challenge to take a bath with cold water in cold weather. But it feels so good after that. Karma was quiet surprised to see me awake so early, since people come there to chill and often wake up late. He in no time served me tea along with biscuits. Soon all were awake, and all were just chilling out in and around the stay. The breakfast we had was Aloo Puri, a dish common all around India. All the meals they serve are organic. Now, both this thing I would have never eaten before my trip began, and so it happened after all these days that this was the most frequent meal I had during the entire trip, especially Aloo, which had become a daily affair. I kind of have developed a love hate relation with it. And I still have it after returning back home, LOL. There is something magical in the combination of Rice, Dal, Aloo and Chicken Curry. No wonder it’s the most served meal over there.

The plan for the day was visit the local school over there, after which we were supposed to be taken to a waterfall nearby. One would expect the school over there to be not up to the mark. But surprisingly it was very good. The students weren’t in high numbers, but the infrastructure was well done. Proper dress, a football ground, and what not you’d find in a school from a city. The school even had a museum, which had information about the Lepcha community. One would feel awe on seeing that, what the students had made. It had great bit of information about the community. Education level is also good in the village, and most can converse in English.

The water fall is an half an hour drive from the village, where we all had good fun. It was always a thing I wanted to do, standing under a waterfall. We we given a drink there made from Bamboo called Arak. It is mildly alcoholic in nature and the taste was good. After hanging around for a few hours around there, we returned back and had a wonderful local meal. The meal consisted of a salad made from dried spinach, chicken curry, dal and a subji made from rhododendron flowers. At night, we had lit a bon fire, and the rest of that night was spend around it, drinking Chi and listening to the local tales of the Lepcha's.
I had made up my mind by then to come back here for a longer duration, to do a trek to Kisung Lake and also if condition suits, a trek to Goechala from Dzongu side. The Goechala trek from this side has only been done by a guy from the village twice or thrice. So the challenge to do it from this side, makes me want to do it more.

Natural Shower :D

View from my room at Rumlyang Homestay

View from the kitchen at Rumlyand Homestay

Evening View at Tingvong

With the host Karma. A gem of a person.

Day 7 (Returning back to Gangtok)

So I bid adieu to this wonderful experience of Dzongu, with a hope of coming back here again and departed off to Gangtok. Since it was the last day of my entire trip, I just slept all day, sulking at the feeling that I had to return back next day.

In all, words or even photos can’t properly describe the feelings of my entire trip. It is rightly said

“A person truly discover oneself when he is on his own with the nature”.