North Sikkim -A Formidable Paradise.

It is difficult to put the entire experience of our trip to North Sikkim in words; however I have tried my best to substantiate it with pictures, that will speak a lot about the beauty of this place and the austere road conditions that we had to travel thru, to witness some of the most enthralling landscapes ever!

It's imperative at this point that I mention about our Tour operator 'Nature Beyond' from Silliguri (WB), who were phenomenal. They know their job too well and I would strongly recommend them to any prospective traveller to Sikkim, North Bengal, Tibet etc. 
I'd also like to really thank Trip Advisor and Mr. Ashis Roy, whose recommendation it was, to go with Nature Beyond and I am so glad I did! Trip Advisor undoubtedly is a great guide and a must check before planning for any tour.

  Everything was made perfect for us, the hotel rooms, the permits, the cars and such wonderful drivers!! A special thanks to Mr. Pallab Bhattacharya from Nature beyond for this! It is due to them that we, inspite of a gruelling journey on such formidable paths, loved every moment of this trip!!

1.    Here's a brief road map.....

• Bagdogra-Gangtok
• Gangtok-Lachung-Yumthang -Yumesamdong (Zero Point)
• Lachung- Lachen-Gurudongmar lake-Gangtok
• Gangtok-Darjeeling-Bagdogra.

     2.  A few more highlights.....

• Duration-6 nights &7 Days
• Travellers- 2
• Cars Used- Toyota Innova to & Fro Gangtok and Mahindra Xylo in entire N. Sikkim
• Month- November 1st and 2nd week- 2012
• Telephone- Only BSNL sim works after Mangan. No other service provider works.
• Only cell phones work (certain hrs of the day), there's no land line after chungthang
• No ATM after Mangan- and the one there is always out of order ;)
• Try to get a Tour operator from Silliguri, because they know the places in North sikkim, the process of getting the Permits etc, so you don't land into unnecessary hassles later. 

Our Journey began on 6th of November 2012 from Chennai. We reached Bagdogra in 3hrs 55 minutes. Our Road trip started at 4.30pm to Gangtok. We were a bit unlucky to find a heavy traffic jam as we were at the foot of the hills in after crossing Shivmandir in Silliguri. This took us about an hour and a half and finally by 6pm we began ascent. The tall coniferous trees dotting alongside the road, and the chill in the air......Oh what a pleasant feeling! We finally got into our respective woollens. The ascent was becoming steeper, but we had started feeling absolutely ecstatic and more so in anticipation to the days that would follow especially in North Sikkim. Our driver Ravi, was a well-informed guy and a great driver and superb guide too!

We reached Gangtok by 10pm and our Hotel was a great one, and the hot momos and some great noodles were just the perfect dinner we wanted! We had to leave by 8.30am for Lachung  the next day, and hence it was a good night soon after dinner!

We were all set to start by 8.30am, however a bit of delay due to the N.Sikkim permit, since the guy who was getting it to us got a flat tyre on the way and had to take a lift and reach our hotel soon so we were not delayed. A very nice service indeed. 

The beauty of nature continued for miles and miles, and neither our eyes nor the cam lens were tired one bit! The much awaited roads gave us its welcome within 30 mins of leaving Mangan! They were utterly, and disgustingly bad and only becoming worse, there are practically NO ROADS in North Sikkim, all man less machines standing at a couple of places in over 7-10 kms that are all an eyewash!! the damage done by the 2011 earthquake is massive and we did not get to know even 50% of the devastation, it will take another 20 yrs (maybe) for the govt. to build proper roads after what nature's wrath has done to that beautiful place!

"Welcome to North Sikkim" The next stop was Chungthang, another tiny village and the point from where Lachen and Lachung run like a V on two sides. We made another quick stopover for a hot cuppa tea that was more of a necessity at this point, as the weather was becoming harsher and so were the roads! At around 4.30pm we left Chungthang and headed for Lachung that was our first place of stay in N. Sikkim, from where we would visit Yumesamdong (Zero Point) via the Yumthang valley the following morning.

Out Hotel Yarlam

As we moved up the last ascent towards Lachung at 9600ft! - Holy me!! guess what... it was dead dark and we could only see a couple of very-very dim flicker of lanterns even that was sparse!! We knew we had it!! Lakhba immediately chuckled-and said " Madam, Yarlam me kabhi light nahi jata hai- Poore Lachung me bhi agar power na ho, Yarlam hamesha full lights ke saath hota hai" Even if the entire Lachung village has a power cut, Hotel Yarlam will still stand tall completely lit! And lo! at the turn towards the end of the town stood tall and gigantic- ' TheYarlam' brightly lit all over, bringing an instant grin on our faces and immense joy to our hearts! 
 

It was about 7.15pm, we parked right inside Yarlam-tired and cold like hell! We were greeted by a very pleasant group of staff in the reception and were quickly escorted to our beautiful room. It was biting cold, may be around 4 or 5 degree Celsius at that time! 

Next morning, we decided to have an early breakfast. We headed out for Yumesamdong (Zero Point) at 15,400ft via the Yumthang valley.

O what a joy of finally being able to make it there!! The picturesque North Sikkim, it’s without a doubt a place to visit once at least, to see and behold the beauty in the eyes for real.  

A land untouched, by Pollution, Population and Government of India ;)

As we travelled, the scary roads continued for about 45 mins to an hour after which we breathed a sigh of a little relief! We stopped briefly at 12,000ft to have a few quick clicks and also decided that we will first visit Zero point and will stop over at Yumthang Valley that was a beauty untouched, on our way back. Lakhba informed that its best to visit Zero point in the early part of the day, because then during the course of the day, in fact after noon the weather changes and it becomes very windy and is covered with mist and it isn't a safe bet then, especially for drivers, considering the 'beautiful roads!!' that leads to this place!!! We did exactly that. We reached Zero Point at 9.50 am! Sam was absolutely ecstatic. The night before, it had snowed a little above Lachung and therefore we saw most of the streams falling from the mountains and crossing over the roads; frozen and each time our car was over it, it crackled and splashed a few drops of chilled water on our face!! Oh what a joy :)

Zero Point 15,400ft , is a valley covered with snow that had turned into ice the morning we were there, and it’s surrounded by the mighty Himalayan ranges, that makes it look so hypnotic indeed! We were extremely overjoyed and could evade the freezing cold just so easily; coz, our attention was completely into soaking more and more of Yumesamdong (Zero Point) in our hearts and minds and eyes........and for the next 15 to 20 minutes we were lost! Finally we could see the clouds slowly starting to float downwards and the breeze turning slightly windy and hence it was a signal for us to bid adieu to Yumesamdong and drive down back to Lachung via the Yumthang Valley again!

Once again, we captured as many pictures as we could along the way and breathed every minute of joy and contentment. Unparalleled and Rustic beauty is what Yumesamdong and Yumthang is all about! Though none of us had any major altitude sickness, I did experience a few bouts of nausea on the way up. So it was just 10 mins in Yumthang and had as many clicks as we could.

A few tips for travellers- 

• There's a pay and use washroom at the start of Yumthang valley.
• It is not good to eat too much and immediately begin ascent, if you are late, then let go of a heavy breakfast, just have fruits, tea/coffee-biscuits and carry fruit juice and chocolates, to be popped in along the way to keep your energy levels fine. You can then have a heavy lunch later or carry some breakfast and have it on your way down from Zero point.

• Try to be there early between 8 and 10.30am, the sun's bright and the sky is clear and the sun rays feel great and you can enjoy for a longer time!
• April/Early may is great, since you can see rhododendrons along the way- alas!! we could only see the shrubs, devoid of flowers in November! But the weather was fantastic all thru and we thank God for this perfect weather almost every single day throughout our trip. So Early November is undoubtedly a great time to visit North Sikkim!

We reached back to the hotel at about 12.45pm and did keep our promise to ourselves and had a good bath and felt very fresh and ready for another gruelling journey of 3-4 hrs to Lachen, at about 9,400ft. We had a two night stay in Lachen and visit the mystic Gurudongmar lake from there !

Finished a light lunch. At 4pm we were packed and were ready to leave. Yarlam was a great host and bid us a warm farewell!

View from our room at Yarlam lachung

Lovely cup of hot coffee, on a super cold morning!

The sun was shining bright still and with a bagful of beautiful reminiscence of the enchanting Yumthang and Zero point we headed happily to Lachen, but for sure a corner of my mind was dreading the roads that would lay in front of us, and they were even worse (I don't know which other adjective would best suit the condition actually, so I am sticking to the basic word bad and its degrees!!)

It was almost dark by 4.45pm, so this drive was devoid of clicks as the roads were disastrous. However that really couldn't happen thou and our concentration was on roads rather than pictures ;)The drive wasn't too long, but the jerks and jolts that only grew intense and bothersome, due to which we were extremely exhausted and almost dead tired when we reached Lachen

Our Hotel Apple orchard is again the best one there, and they are worth every penny!! To reach the hotel, we had to take one ascent on foot as the car park was down, at that point that ascent felt mortifying indeed! 

 
 Finally we reached our room and that gave me an instant comfort and brought a smirk at the corner of my lips..........Finally I was very happy- very happy!! the road was forgotten quickly after that :)
Again had very light dinner since we had a very early morning start for Gurudongmar lake the next morning!

The alarm was set for 2.30am! We hated to leave our warm beds, but had to coz, 4am was our time to start. Our breakfast was packed and that we picked up on our way down to the car at 4.30am. The breakfast package contained two veg sandwiches, two boiled eggs and a juice , separate packs for both of us! We finally set out for the much awaited Gurudongmar lake!

The wretched roads continued for a long- long time . While you travel on North Sikkim roads, you will see boards with 'BRO' [Border roads organization], mentioned all over with various captions and stuff!  At most places where they PRETEND to be working on roads, you will find more women and children, may be some 10 to 15, if that is how BRO works, then it won't be before 10 or 15 years that those roads will be built!!!

The estimated time to reach Gurudongmar was 5 hrs (one way) the travel was harrowing! we kept crossing army barracks-one after the other and kept entering and exiting  'No Photography' zones off and on. About 5kms beyond Gurudongmar lake lays the India China border, and it is quite astonishing to see the scanty Defence groups operating there, that are so extremely exiguous. To top it up, the roads are so miserable, that it may take them forever to drive their men and machines!!! If our Xylo had to struggle so much, imagine what the trucks and tankers would face in those narrow paths with such deep valleys! and the obnoxious amount of time that they would take...............scary! We kept crossing army lands and army bunkers on our way up.

Eventually after 16000ft the vegetation cover was gone completely and the terrain changed magically! It was dusty for miles that your eyes could see, abound with the mighty Himalayas on all side...afterall-this moment was captivating enough for us to gradually giveaway the bad road conditions for some time! We were gradually heading towards the Gurudongmar lake at 17500ft above sea level!! the stories of sickness had made us slightly dubious about how it would be on us when we reach there and were we actually going to make it right there on top, which is one of the highest! 

With mixed feelings, while we assimilated the nature's beauty as much as we can thru the rolled up windows of our car. You can in no way, keep the windows open ever if you are amply dressed to face the chill, because of the dust. We were hungry by then, so we took a pit stop at Thangu, the last village before you move to Gurudongmar.

The final stretch of scaling began, in a few minutes we could see the Sarv Dharma Temple from a distance and there was no limit to our joy that were finally THERE! I was a little nauseating by then, but quickly brought my attention back to the fact that I am reaching the incredible place that I so longed to see in real! We were up there at 17500 ft finally by 8.15am! We reached there in 3.5 hrs flat, that was next to impossible, even the locals had said it was 5 hrs flat or may be more at times! We quickly got down , it was mortally cold! we wrapped ourselves with all the woollens that we could and walked a few feet....and there it was the breathtakingly beautiful Gurudongmar Lake!! We stood there for a few moments, joy abound in our hearts with the sublime beauty of nature! oh what a feeling! Clicked a few quick pictures.  I was struck with a major bout of nausea, and my body seemed heavy and was unable to walk, and all of a sudden felt a warm rush in my nose-only to find that my nose had started to bleed!! I handed over the cam and struggled my way back to the car-I now repent that I really could not stand there and see the resplendent beauty of Gurudongmar Lake for some more time! Gurudongmar lake is the source for river Teesta that flows thru the entire stretch from  Silliguri to Gangtok and within Sikkim. That is when Lakhba suddenly rang an alarm..our Xylo had hit a stone somewhere and its power steering oil pipe started to leak! I called out Sam who was absolutely unaware of the predicament and was capturing the lake in bliss, and asked him to hop in immediately coz we had to move down quickly.   The weather becomes extremely windy and rough after 12pm, which is why Gurudongmar is opened for visitors only till 12pm. On our way down, we stopped at the first Army base, from where, Lakhba begged for some engine oil, which they gave after much reluctance. As we continued descent, trees started appearing that grew taller and greener, and pretty blossoms on different trees made us exultant, and I started feeling a bit better. We just drove by continuously, thru the arduous path again and hit Lachen exactly by 12pm! Mr Kumar, the manager, was astonished that we came back in exactly 7 hrs! he infact quipped saying did Lakhba actually took us to the lake or just brought us back from midway...lol!! On reaching our resort, we found there was no electricity, which was common through and happened every day for long hours. Now since that is the best place there, they have their generators, however it only supports bulbs. By 1.30pm we were clean and fresh and hungry!! We then had a heavy and scrumptious lunch. Apple orchard offers absolutely home cooked food, so you must not expect a hotel kind of spread and taste there. At 4pm, and we made some nice tea and since it was quite bright and sunny still, we decided to enjoy the beauty of the place and have some clicks again. By 4.45pm it sun began to set and dusk set in, and the chill in the air rose. Just watched dusky sky transforming into dark sky from inside our room! The feeling was exceptionally phenomenal! The troubled journey in the morning was off our heads by then. We retired early, for a 7am start the next morning heading back to Gangtok. Our last day in North Sikkim would end at 7am the next morning. [So we thought!…but fate had different plans for us ;)] I was happy that we would reach Gangtok by 1pm latest and I’d still have a lot of time to stroll around in MG road and shop! We were ready at 7 am, and came down near the reception area, Lakhba greeted “Good morning Madam…thoda time lagega, diesel jum gaya hai “  Now during our drive to and fro Gurudongmar, we had seen a few cars and jeeps that had their bonnets up and were trying to warm us their vehicles as the diesel inside had frozen!!! We pitied them and drove past!   Nope, by 11.30, Sam came up and told that now that the diesel was flowing the wire inside had a short circuit! It wasn’t a time to lose it, coz there is no way that our Tour operator could get us another car that day, even if he had to arrange one and send it, one because it would take that vehicle to get a permit first and then travel for 7-8hrs to reach Lachen! Finally; Lakhba went down to the village and arranged for a sumo from a local guy, however, there was no driver to that and so, Lakhba had to drive it to Mangan, from where we had another car waiting for us to take us to Gangtok! We finally set out in that dilapidated Sumo with almost no brakes at around 12pm........ I was scared. However we got the brakes fixed at Chungthang! We started the descent and as we moved on our paths we started to see two tankers on their drill with a fleet of 3 more vehicles behind them. But thanks to the generous Indian army in those vehicles we were not let to move past them for about 7 to 8 kms, that delayed us by another 1 hr. This enchanted land of North sikkim has been made so formidable due to the extremities of the road conditions. It is so sad to see that such a beautiful place that one would love to come back again and again is so dreaded now! The 'sleeping govt', who is trying to promote tourism otherwise [God knows in which way though...not a single washroom for kilometers at stretch! ] can make millions out of this place if they set up even the basic infrastructure!! We touched our hotel in Gangtok at 8.30pm! As we stepped onto MG road, we saw that half the shops were already closed the a few more were drawing their shutters down- So very disappointing!! The 5 hrs delay in the morning had spoilt it all finally!! We wanted to have dinner out but the last orders in all restaurants are 8.30pm! Back at the restaurant, we made a bit of a change of plan over dinner, for the next morning. We really wanted to cover Gangtok at least the MG Market. Our first driver Ravi, called us and promised to be there by 8.30am. We were happy and went off to sleep by 10.30pm! Next morning we woke up at 5am to catch Kachendzonga at its best from our hotel room. Delisso abode is a nice cozy hotel with a fantastic view of the Kachendzonga!! The road right infront of Hotel Delisso Abode in Gangtok We had a nice breakfast and were ready by 8.30am.We bid good bye and checked out and headed straight to MG Road. Shops had begun to open! We were happy and we were minus our sweater! Lachung-Lachen had made us brave, and we weren't so cold in Gangtok that morning - quite interestingly :) We bought woollens, gift items and liqueur! Liqueur is Tax free in Sikkim! By 10.30am, we were done and with myriads of memories of our enchanting and audacious travel experience, we slowly started the descent and started driving out of Sikkim gradually. It was a worthwhile trip and a heartening experience for us. The only place in India besides Tibet that I was dying to visit was Sikkim and especially North Sikkim, so I was absolutely euphoric and blithe and so was Sam. If you are visiting N Sikkim, you should keep a day extra, in case you want to stay and enjoy in Gangtok as well. We did not do so, rather we did not really know, nevertheless the Zero point and Gurudongmar will be etched on our minds forever! Oh what a stupendous experience we had, visiting those places!! We then entered into West Bengal and headed for Darjeeling, where we had a day's stay. Watched Mt.  Kanchenjunga up close, had hot momos, and hot cup of Darjeeling tea. Bought a few tins of the famous Castleton and Makaibari tea leaves.  We boarded a flight to Chennai from Bagdogra on 12th of Nov 2012.  A much desired and joyous trip ended with exuberant hearts and beaming faces!! REFERENCE-   1. Nature Beyond Travels - Silliguri WB-  91-353- 2500656 / 2500657 Gujarat Office - 91-79-30025778 / 9377305778 Contact- Mr Pallab Bhattacharya Email-pallab@naturebeyond.org 2. TripAdvisor - http://www.tripadvisor.in/

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