Gangtok Tourism

Gangtok is state located in Sikkim, India, The capital of a tiny state sharing borders with Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan, Gangtok is at 5,047 ft, 125 km from Siliguri.

The drive from Siliguri to Gangtok was uneventful. Half of me traveled in a cramped shared jeep. The other half hung outside for most of the trip. There are quite a few stopovers on the way. Chitrey for its rafting camps, Malli for its beer factory and Rangpo for its busy check post. That aside you can stop for momos and chilled beer at almost every shack along the wild and turbulent Teesta.

Talking about old monks the liquor situation in Sikkim is utopian. Booze is heavily subsidized. As a result you will see little roadside joints with little glasses chained to the cash counter. The deal is you pay at the counter have a shot of whatever you want wipe your mouth with the back of your hand and leave. All this without even entering the restaurant. The benefits of booze subsidy are bounteous.

City Lights

While there are many sightseeing spots like Ganesh Tok, Hanuman Tok and Tashi View Point is truly enjoy gangtok stick to walking. Take long unplanned walks. The scene changes dramatically the moment you head out of the main town. On a good day one can see Kanchenjunga and the rest of the range in all its majestic glory. Spend hours staring at the peaks as they change colour through the day.

Tsomgo Lake

A beautiful 40 km drive out of Gangtok is the magical Tsomgo Lake. But two hours and many waterfalls later, and getting a little tired of all the hype the drive gave me about Tsomgo 12,000 ft what shit is that it.

Surrounded by frozen hillsides, Tsomgo Lake looks like something out of a Japanese calendar. Picture perfect. Over a kilometrelong and around 50ft deep, the water was part frozen even in April. You can’t hang around for more thatn an hour for security reasons. By which time the cold gets to you and you’re dying to get back to town anyway. Tsomgo is surposed to be home to exotic migratory birds in winter. There’s only one road forward and it takes you all the way to Nathu-la Pass, from where you get to see China. This road is not open to civilians, but one can take special permission from the Army.

Rumtek

Trip to Gangtok is complete without the cursory visit to Rumtek Monastery 24 km, close to 300 years old and the largest moastery in Sikkim. It was renovated completedly sometime in the 1960s and houses a school, an aviary and a special section where monks take off to meditate in isolation. Sometimes for years at a stretch. Once again, Rumtek has some truly magnificent thangka paintings and is considered the most important seat for the kagyupa sect of Buddhism.

Around Gangtok

Pelling 145km

It took us a good 5 hours drive west of Gangtok to reach Pelling, in a shared trekker, who left most of me paralysed. It comprises few houses and an abnormally high number of hotels. The mountains look surprisingly near, almost like you can reach out and touch them. The weather was perfect. Koktang, Pandium, Kabru, Dom, Kumbhakarna, Rathong, Kanchenjunga, Zopuno, Shimbho, Narsing and Sinioluchu stood like proud giants against the sky. A challenge for every wide-angle lens in the world.

More magical things were about to happen. This is basically a big field from where you can get a 270 view of the valley. While the view is spectacular, white speck on the top of a hill just behind the helipad. Looked like a small temple.

The first few minutes of the trail were spent in complete silence. Not that the rest of it was full of exiting conversation. But suddenly the trail came to a dead-end.

Pemayangtse 140 km

Pemayangtse is one of the most important a drevered monasteries in Sikkim. In fact, it is the head of all the monasteries in the state, with a stunning view of the range, Pemayangtse houses hundreds of resident monks and scholars pursuing basic, seconday and higher studies in Buddhism. It also has a 50 bed loage a favourite amongst the trekkers who wish to head out to Dzongri or to Yuksom.