Though I did not want to travel with parents without bro for company, I gave my nod for this trip since I relished the fact that I was gonna be taken from temperatures of 40 degrees straight to 4 degrees! :D At the start , it was disappointment - No hot girls on the flight . None traveling with the same tour operators and none amongst the flight crew (as always is the case with our national carrier).
To add to that, Darjeeling disappointed at the start. The Darjeeling mountain railway , which is one of UNESCO's world heritage sites wasn't functioning and by the look of it, the state of the railways was pitiable. There is a lot of water scarcity at the place, so much that there are cart services that transport water from available resources to households. There was a lot of hungama in the hotel to get water( Of course, they are not used to Keralites who need to take bath every other hour!) .
But then, Darjeeling , one of the prime Indian hill stations , didn't disappoint when it came to it's beauty. I was taken to a Sunrise point early in the morning at 5 . The chilly wind was blowing hard against me . It was jam packed at the view point and I managed to capture a few clicks here and there by standing on top of cars :) . You can also see Mt. Kanchenjunga rising from the clouds . In totality, it's a sight that will definitely leave you mesmerized .
Darjeeling is so cold that you can't even dream of wearing a shorts and walking through the streets at any point of time post 3 in the afternoon. The town closes down by 7 and rises by 5!! Even the school timings are totally weird, they start around 6. 6??? GOODNESS ME! True, It's a part of West Bengal. But, the people are so disappointed with the government of WB and it's complete ignorance of Darjeeling, they have declared its own state of GORKHALAND . Some shops have gone to the extent of putting their address as " XY Stores, GOVT. OF GORKHALAND" . The roads are so very narrow and could collapse at any moment and trust me, am glad that am still alive. The government needs to something about it ASAP!
From Darjeeling, We went to Gangtok , the capital of Sikkim. In contrast, Gangtok is a much more organized, well planned and beautiful city. It isn't as cool as Darjeeling, but will still do to be going on with . There isn't much to see , except for M.G Market which is a mini Singapore in itself! But, about 50 kms from Gangtok is the NATHU LA PASS and at 30 kms, Tsomgo lake. Now, this is something you'll just relinquish so very much .
The roads upto Tsomgo lake are reminiscent of the Road of Death . Landslides could happen any moment and you could well get blocked on the road for days! It's so risky that you are actually required to take permission and produce your photographs before treading through this route .( For body identification, just in case ;)..lol! ) I was truly bewildered by the serenity of the place as much as I was by the driving skills of Sikkimese! You don't want to doze off even for a second because you might just miss out on some resplendent views . I'm sure the pictures attached here speaks for itself.
Tsomgo lake is a sacred lake of the Sikkimese surrounded on all of its sides by snow clad mountains . You can see yaks grazing through the snow . The view left me short of words . It was so enchanting all I could do was lie down on the snow and see heaven recreated there. I would recommend each and every Indian to visit Gangtok atleast once in life because it is a place whose beauty can't be given justice in a few words . It's to be seen,admired and enjoyed .
In all , the trip was not the best but then the bewitching and dazzling views will leave you with a picture of joy!
-VIK
