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.