Holiday Diary Day 11: Gangtok - day of rest

Holiday Diary Day 11: Gangtok - day of rest

Yes! This is a day of rest. Have been junketing on some really bad roads and we had to give our backs a break from all this torture that we were subjecting it to in the last few days. So today we decided to stay put in the hotel.

So after a late start we took the kids for a walk to explore Gangtok. We were staying in Central Hotel which is located very close to the city center. It's opp SuperMarket on the NH that enters Gangtok.
This city is the cleanest city I've ever been in India and with the most orderly traffic. People follow road rules and are mostly polite to each other. There is no rubbish on the roads and this could be one of the reasons for the same.

Such signs abound in Sikkim and especially in Gangtok.

As I've already discussed with you before, the people here are also much more conscious of how they dress and groom themselves. So overall impression is of affluence, cleanliness, aesthetic appeal and a joie-de-vivre  that we don't often see in many other Indian states.
Right outside our hotel (in fact opposite it) is the Govt SuperMarket that houses four stories of shops selling clothes, clothes and more clothes with some footwear and accessories added for good measure. We visited it just once briefly.
Today we wanted our kids to see MG Marg. This is like the Mall in Shimla, Darjeeling and other Colonial Hill stations. It has a central promenade with shops lined on either side. The key difference is, this is the best maintained shopping road I've seen among all these hill stations. Traffic is not allowed in and there is ample seating for tired shoppers and gawkers to park themselves, catch their breath, have an ice cream or generally pass time.
Okay, I'm running ahead of myself. This the route to MG Marg from my hotel.

Over head pedestrian crossings abound in Gangtok

As you can see, these pedestrian crossings are so well maintained and user friendly that it considerably cuts down jay walking and indiscriminate crossing on busy roads

MG Mall, the Central Business District of Gangtok.

Our favourite restaurant in Gangtok, good dosas (for the north east)

Agarwals is a chain of Veg restaurants that have good chat, South indian dishes like dosas and idlis, Chole Bhatura and more. It's clean and reaonably priced and is a big relief for those who have had to make do with maggi noodles and momos for some days.

Favourite hangout and activity.

Befriending the guardians of our borders.

Sikkim Day - Band playing on MG Marg

Old and new co exist harmoniously in Gangtok. Old customs, new fads and tastes, and more. There was a whole contingent of people sitting around and enjoying this band - armed forces personnel, retired gentlemen, youngsters, tourists, Gorkhas and more.

Band in action - Sikkkim Day

The dragon is ever present in Gangtok and welcomes you at most entrances. This cafe has gone a little overboard with their dragon.

Gangtalk - a cafe and hangout joint

As you can see we went for a 2 hour walk that became a 4 hour hangout with some shopping and eating thrown in.

So as dusk settled in, we drifted back to our hotel to retire early for we had an early start to Pelling tomorrow.

Holiday Diary Day 8: Pottering in Gangtok

Today is Day 8 and we had not scheduled anything for today. Just laze about and enjoy the day. So I allowed the kids to sleep till 10.

5:00 am at Gangtok.

Radhika got up around 7 and we decided to go out for a walk. So we took off after the regulation morning tea and walked up towards MG Marg which is the main shopping area of this city. it's a lovely street with shops on either side. Both ends of the road is closed and no vehicles are allowed in. There are fountains and seating all around the place. These benches are so inviting and urges you to sit and take in the scenery around you.

The Sikkimese people dress so smartly and take great pride in their grooming. The guys have designer hairstyles, manicured nails and dress very well in the latest fashion. The girls look lovely with their red apple cheeks, bright round black eyes, styled hair amd smart dress sense. Even those who work as building workers and cleaners are well dressed and we can easily mistake them for students or office goers. This place looks prosperous and well tended with happy well heeled people.

The school kids are so smart too with their stockings and smart uniforms. Everyone is up and about by 7 am and many shops are opening and business has already started for many shops. We wished that we could stay here longer and didn't have to rush back. The place is so idyllic.

I understand that there are only around 700,000 people in this whole state. That's less than the population of one section of Chennai (population 7 million plus).

We headed back to the hotel to reach there around 9 am and got our breakfast before heading back to the room. The kids were still asleep and we didn't bother them till it was time to have breakfast.

Pedestrian crossing

Then I spent a few hours trying to get my diary upto date and that's how I've knocked off so many days today. Radhika took a quick 2 hour nap and around 1 we roused ourselves up from what we were doing and decided to go out for some fresh air. I'd planned on taking the cable car ride today and so we walked around 2 kms to the cable station and took a cable car ride over the city

waiting for our turn

coming in.....

This is a 7 mins ride up and another 7 mins down. It took us half an hour to get a slot and took our places in the car happily. Within a few mins of take off, it started raining as you can see from the snaps...

taking off

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This ride takes us over the state assembly building. We were lucky to take a couple of shots at it.

first peek at the state assembly

the stately building that houses the assembly

After the cable car ride, we had our lunch at Porkys a bakery cum restaurant that had some fabulous food to make Anand feel like he was in heaven. Even the veg sizzlers were scrumptious and sumptuous and we were heavily loaded with happiness when we headed back to our room once again.

This evening I had to spend around 2 hours with he tour agent to rearrange our itinerary a bit so we can avoid going to Guandamorg lake which is at 18,000 ft. Akshaye's tryst with frost bite yesterday made us wary of taking this extreme step of going to those heights and stuck with only Lachung, Lachen and Yumtang all between 12,000 and 14,000 feet.

We are told that the roads are worse than what we encountered enroute to Tsongoo Lake yesterday and we don't want to push it too much and limited ourselves to just a 1N 2D trip into North Sikkim.

Holiday Diary Day 7: Trip to Tsangoo Lake

Day 7:

Good morning Gangtok. Great to wake up with the air cool and nippy. It was just around 10 degrees C.

Today is our first full day in Gangtok and we were leaving to Tsangoo lake. We were supposed to visit Nathula Pass, Baba Mandir and Tsangoo lake. but the first two were closed due to snow and bad roads and we were allowed to go only upto Tsangoo. We need a pass made for visit to these areas and we'd given each one's ID proof the previous day along with 2 passport photos of each person. These are border areas and heavily regulated and passes are given only on certain days of the week. And even on that day, depending on the weather and road conditions, the authorities decide by 9 am that morning to issue the passes.

We were told that there wouldn't be any good food available till we return around 4 p,m so we took sandwiches from the hotel to fuel ourselves. From our hotel we took a cab to the Tsangoo Stand where the cabs to Tsangoo are stationed. We took off around 9:30 am and passed through some breathtaking scenery.

Everyone is headed out to tsangoo lake

The roads are just rubble because of frequent landslides that knock away whole sections of the road and the army (BRO  - Border Roads Organisation) is always busy repairing what nature is taking away on a daily basis. This is an inhospitable region and our troops are risking life and limb to protect them and give tourists a chance to see nature's beauty.

Can you see the long snake of vehicles lined up along the road? Yesterday a boulder had rolled down and knocked someone dead. last week this road was closed due to a landslide.

 We were thrilled to finally see our first glimpse of snow and couldn't stop clicking snaps.

Army trucks are a regular sight in this region along with construction equipment of theirs, repairing bridges, patching up the damage to the road done by rain, landslides, snow and more.

We finally reached a spot where we stopped to pick up boots and coats for the snow that was ahead of us.

 Our first sight of the yak, the native cow, mule, horse and donkey all rolled into one.

The kids happily climbed up the slope to play in the snow. People were slipping, falling, sliding on their backsides and generally doing silly things playing in this area. Everyone was reduced to a child. And Akshaye didn't want to come back in the allotted half hour and we spent almost 1.5 hours there. As we returned the pain set in for Akshaye and we found that his hands were almost frozen and close to frost bite. His feet had got wet due to the snow going in and we had to rub them hard to restore the circulation and get him back to near normal. A hot cuppa tea and maggi noodles did help a lot more and we tottered back to the vehicle to return back to our hotel and civilization.

 There was this lovely water falls on the way where we stopped for some foto ops. But only Anand had the energy and took the below snaps of them.

 On the way back the clouds started coming down heavily and we headed back fast back to Gangtok before the rains beat down on the already slippery roads.

We reached Gangtok at 4:30 pm and we were so beat after this adventure that we literally hit the sack on arrival. A few hours of sleep restored us for dinner and we turned in early.

Tomorrow was a day of rest in Gangtok and we were looking forward to a day of lazing about.