Magnificent Desolation of the Tibetan Plateau - Sikkim Sojourn Part 10

The Khangchenyao Ranges

When you are sitting in the SUV and move towards the heart of the Himalayas, you see the greenery gradually melt away, giving way to barren lands, barren hills where the air is cold, the air is thin. Gradually, you begin to realize yourself, you begin to realize your existence, and you realize that you are in the domain.. in the territory of Mother Nature. You understand that this is a place where you do not toy with the nature but the nature toys with you. While making every movement, while taking every breath you understand (to your delight) that this is a place which you cannot master, just respect.

 This vast expanse of nothingness stretches through the entire Tibet region

 Army outposts monitoring the border (Beyond these ridges you can see the international border with China)

 

When I moved through the valley where unpaved roads ran parallel to the heavily mined border with China you realize you are at the outermost edge of India. People have come and gone. Lines have been drawn and re drawn, but the image remains the same, it is immortal unlike us. The land keeps challenging us just as it challenged all of our ancestors.

 Snow capped crags(mountains) overlooked us on the other side of the valley

 

This land has seen many a people walk across its chest to visit the turquoise speck of water(Guru Dongmar Lake) across its brown horizon and it will continue to see people walk across it. It will continue to challenge everyone. If you win you can get a glimpse of serenity, harmony, and through it a glimpse into your inner soul.

These features obstructed our view of China and China's view of us, but we did not take the risk of climbing this hill (an easy task) because of the fear of landmines

 The ancient road which we took to our destination has existed since ages (Picture taken from inside the SUV)

The way to Cholamu Lake (Highest Lake in India)

  

Next stop Guru Dongmar Lake (Taken from inside the SUV)

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Sikkim Sojourn Part 7 - To Thangu and Beyond.....

After a gap of a month and a half I am returning to my series 'Sikkim Sojourn'. The unfortunate earthquake in Sikkim was a prominent factor for the gap but now I have decided to bring the series to a culmination. I clicked quite a few pictures which I feel you and the world might want to take a look at. I am sure some of them will leave you pleasantly surprised. The places I found on my journey to Thangu and beyond is something you will rarely find on a map or anywhere else. This was the inspiration for me to name my blog as the 'Path Rarely Taken' because very few people know about these places and even fewer visit them. 

During my journey to Guru Dongmar Lake we had a stopover in Lachen (2750mts/9022 ft). We had to start early morning around 7 am in order to get to the Guru Dongmar Lake. We needed to do so because after 1 pm the Tibetan Plateau ( a part of North Sikkim) witnesses extreme windy conditions and also because it is a condition imposed by the Army. According to my guide the gales of wind are strong enough to make dust and fist sized rocks fly in the air and therefore it is not safe to move at that point of time. The pictures follow - 

Prayer flags dot the landscape of Sikkim (Notice the settlement on the side of the hill)

Green Green Green everywhere....

Observe another settlement between the rolling hills

 From Lachen to Thangu(4267mts/14000ft) on our way to Guru Dongmat Lake lie 2 Army Posts where our permits are checked before allowing us to travel further. One check point is before Thangu and one after it. The check point after Thangu is also an Army run cafe. 

Perched at approximately 4572 meters or 15000 ft it has been certified as the highest cafe in the world. The army men re check your permit, ask you to sit for 10 minutes in the cafe(it is compulsory) while you are served coffee and chocolates (you pay for them of course ! ) and observe you for any symptoms of altitude sickness in which case they ask you to turn back. 

And yes, please do not expect hospitality over here. Naam kya hain tera ?(Your name ?) and Idhar khadaa ho ja ! (Stand at a side) are the common verbiages used gruffly in the cafe... Refer to them as 'Sirji'(Hindi for Respected Sir) as I did and chances are that they will ignore you. Photography is glared upon and as I did not want to take a chance I did not take any pictures. But that said the Army men do a good job and they have tremendous goodwill amongst locals in Sikkim. Some more pictures -

 

One of the first snow-capped crags I set my eyes upon

 Sneak peak of the first army check post (Our guide is in the picture)

Clouds settle on the peaks which overlook the Army Post

Thangu

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(to be continued..... Glimpses from Thangu)

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Sikkim Sojourn Part 5 - Glimpses of Sikkim (The Land of Guru Dongmar)

Glimpses of the Sikkim Panorama while passing by Kabi on our way to Lachen in North Sikkim -

Road to GuruDongmar Lake via Lachen

In local language these trees are known as 'Uttis'

 Staring down a ravine

The road ahead..

A settlement next to the road

Distant road ! Where durst thou lead to ?

A portion of road washed away due to the flow of water from uphill

Locals at some distance going somewhere (Where ?)

Entrance to the border district of Northern Sikkim (A vintage wooden bridge)(Notice the prayer flags which are commonly found in regions like Sikkim, Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh e.t.c. in India) 

Welcome !

'Happiness' in Sikkim

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(to be continued)

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Sikkim Sojourn Part 4 - The real journey begins.....

When the year began if someone would have told me that I would be going on a journey to places so beautiful and serene that it would take your breath away.. that I would drive through terrain so inhospitable yet so charming and magnificent.. that I would tread through ice-cold mountain streams in order to touch the snow with my bare hands.. I would have smiled and asked why are you making fun of me?

But I did embark on such a journey and enjoyed every bit of it, so much that I am still enamored with the experience today. We started our trip to GuruDongmar Lake, Yumthang Valley and Zero Point around noon. Now, in order to get to GuruDongmar Lake we needed to head for the base town of Lachen. So that’s where we headed to..
Starting from here our black-out zone started, because from Gangtok onwards there are no mobile signals up to the China border. So, the next few days of mine were to be spent completely cut-off from the world.  The way was like a usual road through the mountains…. Narrow, with lots of blind turns, mountains on one side and ravines on the other, lots of tiny waterfalls (with ice cold water)….  Many a times we drove on the edge of the road but our driver and guide ‘Mr. Sonam’ knew the way pretty well(so thankfully we did not drove off it !). We were lucky because our driver was not only well-versed about the route but was also young and full of beans.   

One thing which I observed was that the routes were punctuated with prayer flags which also included some for drivers who had died along the way. The roads were extremely winding but beautiful and we encountered the Seven Sisters Falls, Bakthang falls on our way. Our trip to Lachen was long and it was nighttime when we reached there. It was raining cats and dogs but the rain swept itself away the next morning. Here are some pictures I took on my way to Lachen – the base town for going to GuruDongmar Lake –

Road amongst the hills(Near Kabi)(we had to pass from there for Lachen)

An army outpost

Border Roads Organization broadening the road (probably for defence purposes) 

Hills on one side and ravines on the other(that's how you describe roads in hilly region)

(Spotted) A road down below

(to be continued)

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Sikkim Sojourn Part 3 - The First Segment Ends

Our ride to the town of Gangtok from New Delhi took us around 45 hours (delayed by almost 17 hours). We checked into our Hotel for a couple of hours (the original booking was meant for a day) just to freshen up for the long trip ahead to GuruDongmar Lake.

Despite being very tired the anticipation of having the trip of my lifetime kept me in high spirits. In this expectation Sikkim did not disappoint and gave me memories which I would cherish throughout my life. Here are some snapshots from my hotel room – 

 A sneak peak of the Palzor Football Stadium(The only sports stadium in North and East Sikkim)

 Gangtok

The hills around Gangtok

MG Marg at Night (Mobile)

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Sikkim Sojourn Part 1

My trip to Sikkim(located in the Himalayas) started with a hope to see glimpses of Mother Earth which I had never seen before. Not only that, I wanted to see 'sights' of mother earth few had actually seen ! And in this attempt I truly succeeded. As my galleries of pictures would reveal to  you I really had the privilege of feasting my eyes on beautiful sights which included crossing the mighty Ganges at Bihar, the road trip to Gangtok from New Jalpaiguri/Siliguri in which we crossed the Mahananda Wildlife sanctuary and also drove by to the River Teesta, the trip to GuruDongmar Lake e.t.c.

I will divide my trip to phases and accordingly show it to you. Hope you enjoy viewing panoramic Sikkim.
The first phase of my trip was the train journey to New Jalpaiguri. I will share with you the experiences of the first part of my trip in which I crossed the mighty Ganges in my next post.
See you till then !

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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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