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...