darjeeling&sikkim

I have always wanted to go to Darjeeling and finally I have got the chance to go!!
I’m so lucky to go to such a wonderful place..
Darjeeling is a hill town in eastern Himalayas and we had to go to new jalpaiguri by train from where we took a taxi to Darjeeling. Actually it would have been better if we went in a train from jalpaiguri to Darjeeling, as there is a toy train in this place which is an old steam engine train which goes slowly parallel to the road..
It is very quaint and romantic.. infact the famous “mere sapno ki rani” song has been picturised on this route.. The hills were so beautiful and there was a drizzle. And we were climbing rapidly, weaving inbetween clouds as well as the train tracks….

As we reached the top we could see flowers in so many varied colors, sizes and shapes!!!!

It was so breathtaking!! When we reached ghoom station & we waited there for sometime during which time we saw the railway museum there.. And then took the toy train to Darjeeling.. IT WENT SO SLOW THAT WE COULD GET DOWN AND GET UP INTO THE RUNNING TRAIN!!! We reached Darjeeling, had a nice lunch and started out on our local tour.
First, we went to the Darjeeling zoo where we saw some rare species like the snow leopard, clouded leopard, Tibetan wolf &red panda.. There was also the Himalayan mountaineering institute museum which is very fascinating and I recommend it as a must see..
Next we went to the ropeway but it was closed, then we went to the tenzing rock where we could do a bit of rock climbing!! ..And then we saw the soccer field before retiring for the day..
Next day we started out to SIKKIM, which is very near to Darjeeling, again we took a taxi to Gangtok, which is the capital of Sikkim…
In Gangtok, we went for a local tour.. Here we were lucky to have a tour on the ropeway from where we had had a lovely view of the whole city..as well as a view of the Sikkim legislative assembly!!

Then we went to hanuman tok, which is supposed to be the place where lord hanuman rested with sanjeevni, here not only the temple but also the route is awesome!!! Next we went to Ganesh tok followed by tashi viewpoint where we can see Mt Kanchanjunga on clear days but we could not see anything as it was cloudy but we had nice hot momos, it was yummy!!!!I recommend everyone who goes to Sikkim to have momos, they can be either veg or non veg, plain or fried, I recommend fried momos to people who like spicy food and mind you!! These momos are to be eaten only with the chutney they provide. In the evening, we went to the gangtok bazaar to do a bit of window-shopping.
Next morning we started out early for changu / tsango lake and baba mandir which is near the china border and nathu-la pass and it was around 50 kms from gangtok so we had to take a permit before being allowed to travel in the route.. We rapidly climbed the route and soon we were above the clouds and in between lush mountains and valleys with an occasional glimpse of a narrow stream down below and we were crossing sooooooo many waterfalls too!!!

we were climbing so rapidly that we reached 12000 feet above sea level and changu lake was still 10 kms away!!
The lake itself was at a height of around 13000 feet above sea level and we were told that it would be frozen in winter!!! WOW!!! It was literally freezing there and we had to borrow warm jackets there, we also went for yak rides there!! , Next we went to baba mandir which is not a temple for gods but it is a temple in the a name of an Indian soldier who went missing some 50 years back and it said that his spirit is still present there..

Unfortunately we couldn’t go to nathu-la pass, as it is open only 2 days a week and the day we went was not one of those days. Nevertheless its easier now as the pass has opened for trade from 6th of July. This pass is famous as it is supposed to be the route of the original silk route!!! And is a height of 14000 ft!!! So in essence we went till a height of 14000 ft by road!! That’s almost half the height of Mount Everest!!