Day 06 - 17000 ft.

Day six we woke up in the hotel and Laching and drew the curtains and OH MY GOD! The view was breathtaking! Snow capped mountains and the early morning sunlight glinting off it making it look golden! And it was still 4.00 am. The sunrise is early in the east in Sikkim. Its so far up north too. Its the top of a mountain. Looking north!

And then we left.. To go see the snow and the place where the road goes into the mountains and stops. This is called Zero Point. At an altitude of 17,000 Feet above sea level. On the way we stopped at a place called Yama-sam-dong (did I get that right?) This is the place where there are a lot of wooden huts during the tourist season and serves as a base of trekking expeditions. We hired boots, had breakfast of stramed bread with butter and jam and moved on. It was still 7 in the morning and bitterly cold. But already the place was teeming with cars and people on their way to zero point.

 

This was the place where we saw the himalayan mountain yak. And we passed through a advanced army base camp. We were not allowed to photograph as we passed through the army camp but here are the pics of the yak and zero point where we played in the snow and had tea. the small stream had ice cold water and i didnt dip my hand in. so i took pictures. My father and brother put their hand in and were unable to move their fingers for 20 minutes..

The road was steep winding and desolate

This is where the road ends and you have to turn back - Zero Point. 17,000 Ft

And then we started back. We came back to Lachung, packed our bags and made our way back to Gangtok. the journey was again for the whole day and tiring. My brother tried to drive the Scorpio for some time and he almost went off the road! The driver was fast and rash as usual and were thankful he brought us back to Gangtok safely!

But These two days in North Sikkim were the best we had yet. We were sad that we didnt get permission to visit Changu Lake and Nathu-La, but this was fun too.. Tomorrow we will visit teagardens and markets, have visitors and visit a few temples. Then we will see camp in a farmhouse out-building and finally make our way back to West Bengal to catch the flight home three days later...

Day 05 - North Sikkim

Northern Sikkim is closer to China. And when we started that day, we had a Mahinda Scorpio with a young driver. And by god, he was fast and rash. I got a feeling I was in the Army and was on a army jeep on my way into China. It was a wonderful day and we headed north.

As we left the city, we stared to go into smaller roads that led higher up into the mauntains. The river Teesta is a river that flows into sikkim from china. We followed the river up the valley and saw landslides and boulders and small camps and army trucks. We passed through an army base and at one point left the normal road and took a road that is maintained by the army. It is built by the BRO - Border Roads Organisation.

The roads are so tough and used so much by the army that thay have to be maintained round the clock. And if there is a landslide they have to move in and clear it and repair it. We saw bulldozers, tractors, lorries and roadrollers that were there all the time, keeping the roads open and the army trucks moving all the time.

We got stuck in a landslide and had to wait two hours for the bulldozer to come and clear the boulders from the road. but we had some amazing sights and the views all round the valley was breathtaking. Here are some pictures..

The last two pictures are of the most amazing refuelling stop I have ever seen in my life! you see a cottage, stop. honk. out comes a man with a jerrycan of diesel for the vehicle. he has a funnel and a old piece of dirty cloth. he filters the diesel using the cloth and the funnel and fills your tank. pay him for the can of diesel and move on. Fun!

We finally reached a place called Lachung at about 7 in the evening. and just as we reached the hotel we saw the snow on the mountains in front of us. But we were tired and we had dinner in the room and went to bed early. It was a full day drive and a tiring one.