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.