. Although I have never been to Switzerland but I have seen references which have compared beauty of Sikkim with it. The place is truely heaven. We left in group of 8 people from Kolkata in Darjeeeling Mail which goes to Newjalpaiguri. Morning view of snow-covered mountains from train was very beautiful. It was an overnight journey and we reached there by 9 am. This is also the last railway station to go to Darjeeling. For Darjeeling people generally prefer Toy train which starts form her only. Just outside station there were many taxi men waiting for passengers and we negotiated with them for journey from Newjalpaiguri to Gangtok. The amount finalised was Rs 1000 for 130 km journey. We started around 10 am, roads were very fine as it is a national highway as well as connecting road to borders. Just when we entered the mountain terrains, we saw beauty of the river Tista which travels along the road during whole journey. Its turns and flow in valley were magnetic and that magnetism increased as we moved upstream. The place is also a famous spot for river rafting. The journey was expected to be finished in 4 hours but in between we were stuck in a jam which took 1.5 hrs extra and we could reach Gangtok Taxi stand only by 3:30 pm. In between we saw Manipal University which is situated on the bank of Tista River; the view was really beautiful due to its unique location. We made advance booking from Kolkata only and from Taxi stand we took local taxis to go there, as outside taxis are not allowed inside city. By 4 pm we were at hotel. Since it was an offseason hotel room was not a problem but during main season especially during Durga pooja vacations in West Bengal the place is flooded with people. After light snacks we refreshed ourselves and got ready for Gangtok exploration. The most famous place in Gangtok is MG road which is a beautiful well lighted road which looks more like a walkway inside a well maintained park. This road is main market of Gangtok and everything can be found here including hotels, restaurants, booking agents etc. There is a ropeway also but we could not explore it. We had our dinner there and searched for tourist agents. Most important thing to remember is to carry your I-cards and photographs for application of permit as most of the tourist places in Sikkim are near China border and one needs one day advance permission to move to those places. This all arrangement is done by tour operators only. There are different packages available for various places and prices vary across season. Since we had limited time we chose a packaged tour to Gurudongmar and Yumthang. The package tour includes travel, hotel stay, breakfast, lunch and dinner. We finalised at Rs 13000 for 8 people. We got ready by 9 am next morning to leave for Lachen. Just few meters away from our hotel viewpoint was there from where beautiful Kanchanjunga peak was visible.
No comments:
Post a Comment