Hi Travellers,
Wish you a very Happy New year 2021.
Before we start with our Trip details , We are sharing the below link of our trip video. Please watch and share your feedback.
https://youtu.be/CIMWMwRTjQM
In the second last week of December 2020 , We Travelled through North East India . We always heard about the Beauty of North East India and saw the beautiful pics at various platforms so North East India was always in our bucket list. However it is not possible to visit entire North East India in a week's visit so we decided to visit Gangtok , Pelling and Darjeeling in this trip . If you want to enjoy the beauty of this mother nature and want to feel relax than North East India is one of the best options to visit.
We took a Spice Jet flight from New Delhi airport to Bagdogra Airport ( Nearby airport from Gangtok (125 km ) and Darjeeling (Around 65 km) ) and reached at Bagdogra airport around 1 PM.
Nema Ji, Our Cab driver for this trip , was already waiting for us at the airport . After settling down in the Cab , We headed towards the Gangtok . Gangtok is around 125 Km from Bagdogra airport and because of hilly area , it takes around 6 Hours to reach Gangtok from the airport .
We had our lunch at Santa Banta Restaurant ( Near Siliguri ).
Around 7 PM we reach at Our Hotel in Gangtok . We already booked our stay in Gangtok in Summit Golden Crescent Hotel . Summit hotels are very nice stay options in North East India side.
Good Morning Gangtok .
We had our Breakfast in Hotel itself and after breakfast we started to get ready for our local Gangtok Site Seeing .
Our Cab driver Nema Ji was already at Hotel at sharp 9 AM . We visited Flower Garden , Ganesh Tok , Hanuman Tok, Tashi View Point , Gangtok Ropeway , Monastery . You can see the best view of Kanchanjanga Mountain range and Gangtok city from Tashi View point .
In the evening , We visited MG Road ( Mahatma Gandhi Marg ) . M. G Road is the town centre of this hill town . This road is lined up with Cafes, Shops, Bar , Restaurants on both side. Its pedestrian only zone , no vehicles are allowed here. You can enjoy coffee while freely siting on the bench . You can also try baked stuff at Baker's Cafe and delicious sweets and samosas at Agrawal sweets .
We spent around 3 hours at MG Road. Gangtok is very peaceful and people are very deciplined here. You will not find single person smoking on MG road . Also you will rarely find any drivers buzzing horns unnecessarily.
After a sound sleep , Today morning we planned to visit Nathula Pass , Tsogmo Lake and Baba Harbhajan Temple. After Breakfast , We started to get ready for our today's site seeing activity. As usual , Our Cab driver Nema Ji was at hotel at sharp 9 AM.
For these locations , Tourists need permit from Sikkim Police and tourist department . Our trip planner was already completed these formalities . This thing make our life pleasent and without any issues, We have started our journey toward Nathula Pass. Nathula Pass is around 60 Km. It is the last point of India and from their our border meets with China occupied Tibbat . Nathu means "listening ears" and La means "pass" in Tibetan.
Nathu La is one of the three open trading border posts between China and India; the others are Shipkila in Himachal Pradesh and Lipulekh (or Lipulech) at the trisection point of Uttarakhand–India, Nepal and China.
After visiting Nathula Pass , We headed towards the Baba Harbhajan Temple. Captain "Baba" Harbhajan Singh was an Indian army soldier. Many of his faithful - chiefly Indian army personnel posted in and around the Nathu La and the Sino-Indian border between the state of Sikkim and Tibet Autonomous Region - have come to believe his spirit protects every soldier in the inhospitable high-altitude terrain of the Eastern Himalayas. Many Indian soldiers have revealed that in the event of a war between India and China, Baba would warn the Indian soldiers of an impending attack at least three days in advance. During flag meetings between the two nations at Nathu La, the Indians as well as the Chinese set a chair aside to honor him.
There is Shiva temple , Near Baba Harbhajan Temple. You can also visit this temple. However there is no proper roads till shiva temple from Baba Temple.
After spending around 1 hour at Baba Temple , We headed towards our last site , Tsomgo Lake. This is a beautiful lake surrounded by the snowy Himalayas .
After Tsomgo Lake , We have reached at our hotel and enjoyed our evening their only. We also did the packing as next day we need to checkout from this hotel and headed towards our next night stay destination which was Pelling.
After so many beautiful memories , We checked out from our Gangtok Hotel and headed towards Pelling via Namchi.
There are 2 ways to reach pelling from Gangtok , One via Rangala and another one via Namchi. Generally all the tourist selects first route only as people are lesser known about this beautiful hill station Namchi.
We started our journey from Gangtok to Namchi and it is a 3 hour drive . We took a stop to have some tea and breakfast and then again started our journey towards Namchi. We were at Namchi around 1 PM .
Although there are several places to visit in Namchi but we have only visited CharDham . It is also know as siddheshwar dham.
It is situated at Solophok hill which is 5 km away from Namchi town. It is believed that a visit to the place is enough to wash away one’s sins. The 108 feet statue of Lord Shiva is encircled and supported by a girdle of twelve Jyotirlingams Chardam, which is situated in India in four different places like East Jagannath, West as Dwarika, South as Rameshawaram, North as Badrinath Dham.
After our visit to CharDham , we again started our trip towards Pelling and reached their around 5:30 PM. As pelling is a very small town , they don't have any good local market as in Gangtok .
Good Morning Pelling.
It was a very Cold but pleasent morning in Pelling. We had our Breakfast at Hotel only and then start our Pelling Site seeing.
Although there are several waterfalls and some other places to visit but due to time constraint we have visit Pelling Skywalk , Bird sanctuary and Rabdentse ruins.
Rabdentse Ruins is the archeological site that tells Sikkim’s story of glory. Until 1814 A.D, it was the second capital of Sikkim, established by the Chogyal II. Later on, after the Nepalese invasion in the 18th century, the palace and the monastery complex was destructed and turned into ruins.
You can watch beautiful view of Snowy Kanchanjanga from Pelling Skywalk.
After visiting all these places , We headed towards Darjeeling. Darjeeling is about 65 km from Pelling . After reaching Darjeeling we had some rest in the hotel and in the evening we did some shopping on Mall Road.
Good Morning Darjeeling .
Its 3:30 AM and around 2 degree here in Darjeeling. Our cab is already on the way but we are still in our bed due to laziness but Thought to watching beautiful sunrise from Tiger hill is sufficient to wake us up.
It's 4:30 AM and we are in our cab headed towards Tiger Hills to watch this sunrise . Naman is a Sunrise & Sunset lover and he never fails to watch the same from different locations.
Its 5:15 AM and we are at Indira hills , sipping our coffees to warm us . Sunrise time was around 6:23 AM but we witnessed sun rays on Kanchanjanga starting from 5:40 AM only . It was a pleasure to watch this beautiful sunrise. We have already added the pics of this beautiful sunrise. After witnessing this sunrise , We headed towards Batasia Loop. Batasia loop was originally constructed for the Darjeeling Toy train. Due to some technical issues it was not safe for train line to go straight so this engineering marvel was constructed and you can enjoy beautiful valley view while riding in toy train from here. Also Batasia loop has war memorial of Gorkha regiment soldiers . You can enjoy tasty pakodas and chai here.
After watching these 2 places we went to our hotel and had our Breakfast in the hotel and again got ready for Darjeeling site seeing . We have visited Darjeeling Zoo , Himalayan institute of travelling , Mall Road, Tea Garden , Budish Temple etc. Darjeeling is famous for its vast Tea Garden and is the one of the largest producer of Tea. We also enjoy the Darjeeling tea while sitting and relaxing in the Tea Garden.
In the evening , we were at Mall road for shopping and watching different kind of people roaming around there. As it was the last day of our trip we are quite emotional as well. This tour gave us so mant Good memories . We also want to explore some other places of this area but due to time constraint it was not possible this time. This things are in our bucket list and we will come back again in the north east to cover those area and to share with you all those memories.
Till that time enjoy this journey of North East India covering Darjeeling Gangtok Nathula and pelling. You can also watch the video on our youtube channel . Below is the link of this video
https://youtu.be/CIMWMwRTjQM
Good Bye 🙏😇
