Thoughts of a Trip 2

When the idea of an ideal vacation comes up it gets really confusing while deciding where to go.. As i mentioned in my previous post the options were Goa(for the beaches),Shimla(for the hills).... I also considered places like Kullu-Manali, e.t.c. but they were not meeting my criteria of being a place which was beautiful but different, and being overcrowded.
Then another roadblock which needed to considering while looking for a nice place to go vacationing in June was the temperature and weather. Monsoon clouds cover three-fourths of India by the time June comes and going to a place when it is raining is not the best choice especially when enjoying the rain is not the only thing one intends to do. It was at this moment that Ms. Bonnie  mentioned the place Gangtok (one of her colleagues was planning a trip to the same place).
Now Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim was an interesting choice but a quick glance at the Weather Channel again indicated that June is the time when it rains in Gangtok. But given the fact Ms. Bonnie decided upon something(at last) was enough an incentive for me to probe the places to visit in Gangtok and the weather patterns of the city, in detail.
The first thing when Gangtok came to my mind was that June being the start of 'off-season'  their would relatively be less people as compared to the peak tourist season from Oct - May. Then came the turn of checking the weather, and one thing which was clear was that it could rain in the first half of June(that is when i am planning to go) and because the hills around Gangtok are prone to landslides i needed to keep atleast 1 buffer day to compensate any delay in the schedule.
Then, the next question was where to visit ? According to me the view of Mt. Kanchenjunga (3rd highest mountain in the world) was the biggest spectacle to be seen.

(Mt Kanchenjunga as seen from Gangtok. Courtesy Mr. S Stiehler)

But apart from that the other places to visit are:-
1. Tashi View Point
2. Institute of Tibetology
3. Do Drul Chorten
4. Permanent Flower Show
5. Hanuman Tok
6. Ganesh Tok 
7. Himalayan Zoological Park
and many more

(MG Marg as seen from Hotel Window. Courtesy Mr. Amit)

But one thing which i noticed was that we could cover these places in a day or two. So what do we do for the rest 5 days ? To get that answer We got in touch with a local but govt. recognised tour operator and they suggested a trip to Yumthang Valley(Valley of Flowers). Upon a few enquiries i found out that apart from
Yumthang Valley an excellent oppurtunity presented itself for us to visit one of the highest lake in the world:- The Gurudongmar Lake.

(Gurudongmar Lake. Courtesy Mr. A Mitra)

Situated at a height of 17100 ft or 5212 metres on the Tibetan Plateau it was the perfect place for me to sense that 'high' which i wanted from this trip. So it was settled. We were to go to Sikkim.




Note:- The pictures in this post have been clicked by photographers who hold their(pictures) rights and
permit conditional free use. They do not endorse the author or the blog.

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Thoughts about a Trip

Hello Everyone ! Been a long time since i posted anything.. But that was because i never travelled anywhere and i could not see the point in copying and pasting stuff from other sites. So now i come back to blog because i have started to plan about a trip to somewhere where i could be far from the 'maddening crowds' and unwind.

I am most likely to take that trip in the month of June. Although on a personal note i do not like to reveal my plans in advance but let me face it.. I dont have a group of followers so i can be frank on what i post and not care about what people think..

So starting from now i would start sharing my experiences while planning for this trip of mine, tell you about how it proceeds  and what was the aftertaste after going to those places.

So, to start with a bit of honesty I have not had a vacation in the last 5 years 6 months and 20 days (being precise). So when this idea  was mooted by 'Ms. Bonnie' it got me thinking. Where could i go to, which place in india has got that capability to quench a travellers five and a half year old thirst.

Goa ? Might be.. Beaches, Churches, Green Hills, Great atmosphere.. Great i said to myself !! This is it.. This is the place.. But one look at the weather channel site poured cold water on the idea as in the month of June it would be having its yearly tryst with the monsoons. Goa out....

Shimla ? Ummm.. Cool hills, nice ambience, a proven tourist spot.. But the world goes over there does it not ?

The problem with reading a lot of Lonely Planets, National Geographics e.t.c. is that you get too many ideas and it gets really difficult to get them organised. Trust me, I have faced it.. and I literally got swept away in that wave(of ideas).

The vacation had to have a balance of warm and cold, some place where i had never been to(but then i have hardly been anywhere to be frank.. just the Terai himalayas, the Thar desert and Gangetic West Bengal.. thats it), some place which would not be crowded, some place where not everyone can go to..

It is then that Ms. Bonnie uttered a word and i clamped down all my thoughts and said to myself this was the place i would head to,  and it suited almost all my conditions.. It is not frequented by many a travellers, its cool, it could be made adventurous and it can be economical. Ahh.. thats what the doctor ordered i remarked.. 

The Place ?

Wait for my next blog :-)

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