Compiled by my kids Manochitra and Karthik.
Day 1: 09th May 2011 - Monday
We
started from home to Bangalore airport at 4.30am and reached the
airport at 5.30am. Boarded SpiceJet flight to Kolkatta Via Chennai.
Reached Kolkatta at 10.35am. We Took prepaid taxi from Kolkatta Airport
to Park Street, and stopped at Hotel Shiraj Golden,famous for its
Biriyani,for lunch.
After
lunch, we took another taxi and proceed to Victoria Memorial. The
climate was horrible as it was very hot and humid. We visited the garden
and took photos. We also took some photos in a grand Chariot outside
the Victoria memorial.
We then took a taxi to Botanical Garden. On the way, we have crossed
famous Howrah bridge and Vidyasagar Sethu Bridge. We took a
battery-operated vehicle to move around the Botanical garden as the
garden is very vast and would have been difficult to cover on foot. We
saw 250 years old Banyan tree and other rare species of trees (like
multi trunked palm), 25 KG water leaves etc.
Then
we started from Botanical garden around 5pm and proceeded to whole sale
market area. We reached Brabourne street, Esplande, Canning street. We
had shopping and had hot gulab jamun, chat, sarbat. We shopped for
things like bindi, chappel, clips etc.
We
had Idli and sambar as a dinner in a Gujarati Hotel and then reached
Sealdha railway station. It is a big station and crowded. We lost our
mobile in the crowd. Train started at 10pm.
Day 2: 10th May - Tuesday
We
reached NJP - New Jalpaiguri at 8am. We had our breakfast and spent our
time unnecessarily with travel agents on tour packages. Nothing worked
out. So,finally we decided to go to Gangtok and decide further. We
reached Gangtok-Deorli taxi stand at 3pm.
On the way we saw Teesta river and
Sikkim Manipal University. We took another taxi to reach M.G.Marg and
found a hotel near STNM hospital.( Hotel Yhang La ). When we reached
Gangtok, it was raining. We took rest in our hotel room. We had good
view of the Mt Kanchenjunga and a nearby football ground from our room.
Later we took passport size photo for Nathula and Yumthang permit. We
walked down to MG Marg, it is very similar to the UK city centres. There
were lot of shops and no vehicles allowed in this street. Its a good
place to spend time. We tasted Sikkim's traditional food called Momos
(steamed stuffed food item like Kolkattai) and had dinner in Hotel
Masala.
Day 3: 11th May - Wednesday
Hotel
Yhanga La's manager arranged us a private taxi for local sight seeing.
The driver picked us up from the hotel. We planned to visit 10 points
but could not cover Ropeway, which is near MG Marg, due to time
constraint.
POINTS WE COVERED:
1. Flower Exhibition near White
Memorial hall - This was the first point. The lush garden has rich and
different variety of colourful flowers which included the Himalayan
flower and Orchids.
2. Enchy Monastery - This is
buddhist temple. We had learned how to pray inside monastery. The
entrance of the monastery was lined with prayer wheels. People rotate
the prayer wheels clockwise direction on there way into the monastery
and the same while coming back.
3. Hanuman Tok - Hanuman Mandir. It is placed on top of mountain and on the way full of beautiful scenes.
4. Ganesh Tok - Its a Ganesh Mandir. After which we all got dressed in Sikkim's traditional dress (like a kimono)and took photos.
5. Bakthang Water fall - It was natural water fall where the water is very pure and drinkable.
6. Tashi View Point - From here
we were shown various places through a telescope like Monastery, brila
planetarium, Kanchenjunga peek etc. We had lunch here. We tasted local
food like Wai Wai, Thupka, Steamed Momo and Fried Momo etc which were
delicious and a bit different from our normal noodles. I purchased a
woolen cap
7. Directorate of Handicrafts & Handlooms Centre
- Here we purchased silk pouch from the handloom shop. We visited craft
museum where we saw people spinning the yarn, weaving the clothes,
thanga (gold) painting, wood carving, carpet making. It is informative
and we got to see how much hard work, patience and effort goes into
Handmade items.
8. Do Drul Chorten Stupa - It is famous for the golden mandir tower, surrounded with prayer wheels.
9. Research Institute of Tibetology - We saw various type of buddist statue, 12 steps of life, ancient coins and literature.
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| Rumtek Monastery |
10. Rumtek Monastery -
We had to walk up to Rumtek monastery,which is around half a Kilometer
Steep climb. It is one of the biggest Monastery and is an excellent
example of traditional Tibetan monastic architecture.We prayed to god,
saw lot of Monks. Monks were preparing for the "Monks festival" the
following day. Then we had monastery prasadam.
When we visited inside monastery, prayer
was happening and all monks were reciting slogans along with music
instruments. A flight of stairs outside lead us to the Nalanda Institute
of Higher Buddhist studies,near Golden stupa where all monks are
studying.
The
road to Rumtek was bad. We tasted Tibetan tea which contains butter and
salt added. We didn't like it. We purchased the traditional stoned neck
lace, phone pouch, hand mirror etc.We reached Gangtok back around 7pm
and went out for MG Marg to have dinner. We did shopping for jackets for
all of us and Shawl for next day's Nathula trip.
Nathula will be closed on Mondays / Tuesdays.
Day 4: 12th May - Thursday
Nathula is 56 km from
Gangtok at an
altitude of 14450 ft. Its a one day trip Rs 700 per head.
The previous night there
was a heavy rainfall. We doubted our trip to Nathula may be closed. It
was closed two day back also due to landslide. But morning the rain
stopped and the climated was nice and sky was clear. We started around 8
am from our room for the nathula trip which was arranged by our hotel
manger.
We went to the Taxi stand for the trip,
which was outside the city in a private taxi. There the driver told he
us to come to 2nd floor of the stand. We went up two floors got
confused. Here the 2nd floor means down 2 floors. The building in
Gangtok are built in the cliffs of mountain. One of the floor of
the building starts from one side of the road along the cliff and
pillars go downwards and the other floors are built down opposite to our
style of building growing upwards.
But
searching for the Taxi itself consumed lot of our time. After some time
we sported our taxi and the drive told he was late to get the permit for
the Nathula pass, which is India-China boarder.
We finally left to Nathula around 12
noon. After getting our permit checked at the check post we proceeded to
Nathula. The suppose to be roads were just being cleared and lot of
ladies were doing the task of clearing the heavy rocks even in that
terrible rainy and cold climate. We salute those workers. First we
stopped was at Kyongnosla Water Falls. Next we stopped to hire jackets,
gloves and boots which are needed for Nathula snow mountains. We
proceeded to Nathula and on the way we crossed Changu lake were we
didn't stop then. We will come back after finishing Nathula. The drive
was full of scenic landscape including snow-covered mountains, glaciers
and yorks.
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| Indo-China border |
We reached Nathula, the whole place was
covered in snow, pure white and it was beautiful. We play in the snow
for sometime like sliding and making snow man etc. Then we had to climb
up like 30 steps to reach the Indo-China border where mummy was having
breathing problem for some time. She took rest and continued. For us and
daddy no problem. The border was just a fence separating India and
China in that particular place. But we saw wall going around. We could
see the Indian and Chinese border buildings on both sides of the fence.
We even saw few chinese soldiers on the other side of the fence.We took
pictures with our indian soldiers and Chinese soldiers. We had hot momos
and hot coffee which was very apt for the cold climate there.
Then we proceeded to Baba Mandir
which has a very interesting story associated to it.The locals believed
that this soldier-Harbajan singh is still guarding the place and the
people. Its also believed that the holy water from the temple has the
power to heal illness. Opposite the Baba mandir is the gift shop where
we collected our certificate of scaling 14200ft. And we brought some
memorable souvieners.
Later we left for Changu Lake. It
was a lake formed from the glaciers of the Himalayan mountain. The
other attraction there is the Yak ride. We return the rented jackets and
had Maggi there. Then we reached Gangtok at about 5pm. Later that day
we spent the evening at M G Marg shopping and bought gift items, had
dinner and went back to the room.
Day 5: 13th May - Friday
Yumthang valley-zero point trip was a 2 night and 1 day package, Rs 900 per head.We packed our bag for the two days trip, vacated our room and handed over the other bags to the hotel manager to keep it in their baggage room until we return. We left
for the taxi stand at 10 am. It took us around two hours again to spot
our taxi and leave the stand. Our 1st stop was the Umpteem waterfalls.
Then we stopped for lunch at Phodong which was included in the package
with the option for veg or non-veg. The food was okay. We were informed
that the journey would take around 5 hours but we only reached Lachung only by 7:30 pm.
This is a beautiful village at an altitude of 8000ft where we had our
hotel rooms booked for the night and popular for the picturesque of the
Yumthang valley and the mountains surrounding. The long travel was quite
hectic. We reached our rooms and settled in and later went for dinner
which was a lot like home food.
Day 6: 14th May - Saturday
Next day our trip is to Yumthang valley which is 140km north of Gangtok.
The package also covers all transport,
accommodation, sight seeing and food. The package
tours are for one or two nights from Gangtok to Gangtok basis.
We
were supposed to leave at 5am. So we got up at 4am, had a bath and were
ready by 5am. Since our driver was late, we had time to enjoy the
beautiful scenery around the guest house. When mummy opened the windows
of our room we were surprised to see the fabulous
scene outside. Full of snow caped mountains, valleys, waterfalls etc.
Near our window we saw two ponies grazing. We were enjoying the site
with our morning cup of hot coffee.
We started our journey to Zero point
around 6am. This trip was optional and we had to pay extra Rs 200 per
head. On the way, we rented boots and gloves. We had our breakfast of
bread and jam .We reached Zero point at 8am. Zero point is a Point to
quench all your desire of playing in the snow. There we saw a beautiful
little mountain blue bird and ran behind it to get a perfect snap of it.
There was snowfall and it was terribly cold. After playing and sliding
for sometime we had coffee prepared from Yak milk.
On our way down from the zero point to Yumthang valley the roads were filled with beautiful flowers on both sides.This is the Rhododendron flowers,of
all varied colors. It is a spectacular scene and is a paradise of flora
and fauna. Its was an unimaginable place without any human disturbance,
full of peace. We can feel the beauty of human less nature and the
greatness of god here. The flowers and trees are the main attraction in
this journey.
On
reaching the Yumthang valley we walked across the valley to get closer
to the purple flowers which covered the floor of the valley. The
Yumthang valley is known as the “Valley of Flowers”. We enjoyed horse riding across
the valley and also went to the river which is formed from the
glaciers of the mountains and is the origin of the Teesta river. The
water was crystal clear and we drank it. We reached our hotel rooms by
12 noon and had our lunch. We started our journey back to Gangtok around
1 and on our way stopped at the seven sisters waterfall. We reached
Gangtok at 7:30pm and went back to our hotel room and slept.
Day 7: 15th May - Sunday
We
started from Gangtok to Kalimpong around 12:30 and reached Kalimpong
Motor Stand at 2:30 pm. We checked into the British wooden
cottage-Morgan House at 3pm. The cottage was located at a higher
altitude,so the weather is very pleasant. The cottage had wooden
flooring and the outside made of stone and the whole cottage was
surrounded by a beautiful garden full of flowers. We left for local
sightseeing at 4pm. We went to Deolo hill. It was a steep climb to reach
there. The whole place was covered in the fog as it was evening. But
the place was beautiful with lots of trees, flowers and there was a play
area and also a nice lodge.
We
spent about an hour there and left to Dr. Graham’s home nearby,a school
but by the British. The location of the school and its infrastructure
are the evidence of the British style. We then left to the Tharpa
Choeling Gompa (‘Gompa’ means Monastery). The tiny hall is decorated
with painitings of flayed animals and humans. The monastery had a garden
opposite to the entrance filled with flowers and a small naughty black
dog within the fenced garden which was following us around.
We also visited Mangal Dham, a temple of Lord Krishna. The local people were singing the bajans. There we saw a tree bearing big white flower like lotus. We enjoyed the scene in the moon light. Soothing environment.
Night we had dinner at the cottage dinning hall prepared especially for us by the cottage cooks. the food was nice. Then we had nice rest for the day.
Day 8: 16th May - Monday
Morning we got up by 7.30 and opened the window. Outside the cottage we saw nice garden around the Banglow. we all had bath got ready and went out the banglow. Next opposite to the bunglow is the golf course. A very very beautiful and scenic sight. We went inside the golf couse and walk from top to bottom and right to left and enjoyed the beauty of the golf course. This is the first time we had a chance to enter inside a golf court and spent more than an hour there.
We
started from Kalimpong at 10am. The route to Darjeeling was lined with
Tea plantation which is one of the chief attractions of Darjeeling. We
reached at 1pm and checked into Hotel Bellevue on The Mall which was
located at the centre of the city. It was the main shopping area and lots
of cultural events takes place there. We went to one of the famous
restaurants named Glenary’s. The food was really nice. We then left for
local sightseeing around 3pm to cover 7 points. We visited the
Zoological Park who’s main attraction is the Red Panda. The zoo
inhabited Sambhar deer,blue sheep,Himalayan wolf, varieties of cheetahs
and birds and the Red Panda. All the animals were adoarable but most
adorable were the Red Panda which are very rare.
The Himalayan
mountaineering Institute is situated within the zoo. It showcases things
related to mountaineering like the equipments used by some of the
remarkable people and the evolution of these equipment with time. Then
we went to the Tea Gardens and tasted the famous Darjeeling tea. Here we
purchased tea packets and Handmade Kajal. We have the opportunity to
get dressed in the traditional dress here. We proceeded to Lebong Race
Course which was once a army race course. Later we reached Tenzing
Rock,were people whoever want to get trained in mountaineering would
have to train here first. Its is a vertical rock on which we had to
climb using ropes. It can be quiet task if we don’t place our foot at
the right place. But the experience is really worth all the hardwork. We
finished up for the day and returned to our room. We freshened up and
went down to The Mall for some shopping. We shopped for
blankets,bedsheets,watches ,handbags and many more. We had our dinner
and came back to the room.
Day 9: 17th May - Tuesday
We
got up at 3 am and got ready at 4 am for Tiger hills for the sunrise.
It is a point from were one can see Mt. Kanchunjanga clearly. But we
weren’t that lucky as that day it was completely foggy and after
sometime also started to rain, but the hill was so crowed that we hardly
got any parking. We drank coffee which was apt for the climate.
We had
to walk up all the way due to the traffic jam but all our efforts were
in vain due to the bad climate. So we left to Ghum Monastery next. There
was a huge metallic prayer wheel inside the monastery. The monastery
was filled with paintings.
We then reached Batasia Loop. It is a war
memorial to the soldiers. From the Batasia Loop we can get a spectacular
view of Darjeeling town, Mt. Kanchenjunga and other snowy mountains in
the back-drop. We saw the points through a telescope with guidance who
showed us the mountains of the Indo-China border, hills in Nepal,
Mt.kanchunjanga, Origin of Teesta river and many other points in
Darjeeling. We then went back to our room at 9 and had our breakfast.
The
day we were here it was Buddha Jayanthi, the day of birth of Buddha, a
very important festival among the Buddhists.The Mall was crowded and the
festivities were going on. People wearing their traditional dresses,
and few of them were carrying the religious books and others were
seeking there blessings. People were cladding the Buddha statue with
white cloth, a tradition. On the streets there were parade with monks
playing the traditional instrument and representing different
monasteries,monks from different monasteries wore different type of
hats.
After
celebrating the festive we started again around 10:30am and reached
Rock Garden which is situated at lower altitude. There is a waterfall
there and apart form that it consists of a wide stretch of garden filled
with varity of flowers. It is a scenic place and is peaceful. We got
dressed in the traditional dress of the Darjeeling region which was very
enjoyable. We came back to our room and took rest. Later we left again,
had our lunch and then continued to the Ava art gallery. It is a small
gallery with painting by Mrs.Ava and her husband, both of whom passed
away recently and whose painting a up for sale in the gallery. The
painting were really amusing and showed lot of artistic work in them.
We
then left for the Japanese Temple. As it was Buddha Jayanthi the place
was all colourful and crowded. All young people dressed beautifully and
taking part in the festive. The Japanese Temple and Peace Pagoda were
located close. The Japanese Temple was beautiful and a bit different
than the usual monasteries. There was a pillar in front of the temple
with engravings on it.We then went to the Peace Pagoda which was very
beautiful.It was surrounded on all sides with the story of Buddha’s
birth and his different stages like in meditation,birth etc.
Our
last stop was the Museum of Natural History. It was a real learning
experience of the different butterflies,bugs,bird and various stuffed
animals were up for display. It was vey similar to a zoo,except the
animals were dead. The was bear skin, heads of deers and various animals
on the wall. They had also portrayed the various type of ecosystem and
the animals in those ecosystem in the museum. We then went back to our
room at 5:30 and spent our evening shopping for gift items,table cloths
and more goodies.
Day 10: 18th May - Wednesday
The
next morning we started from Darjeeling at 9.30am and reached Nepal
boarder at 11.15am Throughout the journey the roads were lined with tea
plantation.We then went to Pashupati Nagar,which is Nepal. It is a place
for shopping. Best to shop for cosmetics and electronics as the prices
are very cheap. As far as electronics goes it’s a risk but cosmetics
like Body lotion,make up kits etc are really cheap.Even footwear and
handbag and jackets are pretty cheap and nice.
We
spent time till 1.30pm here and then proceeded to Mirik lake which is a
half an hour travel. In Mirik Lake the main attraction was boating and
Horse riding. We enjoyed our horse ride around the lake and the park
surrounding the lake is really huge. There was a big monastery nearby
which is visible from the lake. We then had our lunch-really tasty
biriyani from Hotel Viraj and shopped for silk pillow covers, umbrellas
and other gift items.
We
proceeded from here at 4pm to NJP railway station via siliguri. On our
way from Mirik Lake the roads were filled with pine tress line on both
sides and later by Orange trees and also black cinnamon trees. We saw
lot of orange trees on the way but no oranges as it was the season for
it.We reached NJP railway station by 6 pm and had our dinner and boarded
our train at 8pm to kolkata.
Day 11: 19th May - Thursday
We
reached Kolkata at 7am,late by an hour as our train was scheduled to
reach at 6am . We took a taxi from the station to Dum Dum, which is near
the airpot as we had our flight to Banglore that evening at 8pm. We
checked into Hotel Airport palace,freshened up and left for local
sightseeing in kolkata after our breakfast. We had a different breakfast
of kachori, which were like stuffed puri, along with some dal and a
malai sweet which tasted awesome. We then took a taxi directly to Kali
temple and reached ther by 11:30. The place seemed crowed with lot of
commercial activities. We entred the temple and waited in a long queue
and finally got in and prayed the powerful Goddess. The idol was big and
decorated nicely with red cloth. We were little bit disturbed by the commercial activities by the poojaries of the temple.
We
wanted to experience a ride in the Tram which till now is only running
in Kolkata. So we took a tram from outside the temple to Toligate.The
tram experience was nice and it was as fast as any normal vehicle. We
enjoyed our ride. From toligate we took the Metro to Dum Dum from were
we took a bus to the Dhakshineswar temple.
We
reached the Dhakshineswar temple area around 3 and had a nice lunch
nearby. We entered the temple at 3:30pm when the temple would open
again. The whole day was cloudy and there was no sun or heat that day, by
3:30 when we lined up outside the temple the climate got worse and it
started to rain heavily. We waited on the heavy rainfall outside the
temple,all of us under the same umberalla and half wet. After half an
hour we got in and prayed to the Goddess Kali peacefully and then went
around the temple praying the 12 Shivalings surrounding the temple. The
temple is situated on the banks of river Ganga. As the rain stopped by
the time we were out of the temple.
It was possible for us to take the
boat across the Ganga river to reach the Bellur Math of Sri
Ramakrishna, guru of Swami Vivekananda.It was in this math that Swami
Vivekananda lived the last years of his brief life. The serene campus of
Belur Math on the Ganga includes temples dedicated to Sri Ramakrishna,
Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda, in which their relics are
enshrined, and the main monastery of the Ramakrishna. The place is
peaceful and soothing for our mind.
We
rushed from here as we were already behind schedule as we planned to
reach our room by 4 and collect the luggage and head down to the airport
as we had to be at the airport by 6pm and the traffic in kolkata is
hectic as it was also evening time. We somehow manage to reach the
airport on time due to our taxi driver. We started to check in and again
had few last minute confusion as we had fragile gift items in one of
our check-in baggage, we had to repack again and finally got our
boarding passes on time and boarded our flight. It was our luck that day
that it was cloudy and the temperature was less but then when our
flight took of it seemed problematic. The flight experienced lot of
turbulence and my brother and I,sitting next to the window were wide
awake all through the turbulence. It was quiet an experience even on the
flight and so was this whole trip.
It
was a really nice and a wonderfull experience from snow covered
mountains to valleys filled with flowers,from hot scroaching heat to
snowfall, all in this one trip. This trip was filled with the Beauty of
Nature which we sometime staying in city tend to ignore and miss.
