Sikkim

Sikkim , Darjeeling

It was a long time wish to travel to the north east but never found time to do so.
The fifteen years in Calcutta gave enough opportunities to travel to Orissa and Bihar but not to the north east.
This time around , fortunately there are three others for company and its an added pleasure.
New Jalpaiguri railway station looked as if it is maintained by the security forces because you find everywhere people in military uniform !
The vast railway station has a dismal tourism office supposedly to help visitors.
The experience is but the opposite.
The policemen on duty seemed to work hand in hand with the taxi thugs who were out to make the most from the unwary travellers.
NJP to either Darjeeling or to Gangtok is the main bargain and the rate may vary between Rs.3500  to 4500 .

Surprisingly what you find as taxi charges written in bold letters on the kiosk is only half of this for an NJP - Gangtok ride , which you will come to know once the taxis leave the station premises !
Yes.. some of you might have guessed it right .. it's the 'dalals' or 'brokers' who does the trick !
Once the prices are fixed after some bargaining , he (the broker) calls out to the driver ( who invariably will be a person from Sikkim , came all the way from there to drop a passenger/passengers and is looking for someone going up , but is at the mercy of these thugs who are hand in hand with the policemen on duty.
Suppose you approach the  policemen he will only tell you that they do not have any vehicles ready with themto spare for you !
At long last, once you end up with a deal and the moment you get in , the agent takes from you  3/4th of the amount and advises you to give the poor Sikkimese driver the rate displayed on the kiosk !!!
Wow. That makes the difference between Bengal and Sikkim !

Anyway , you feel relieved once you get away from NJP to get in to  Sikkim.

The driver was exceptionally nice and gave us good company all through.

The itinerary we prepared after meticulous calculations based on data available on the net was simply thrown into the dustbin once this fellow came into the picture.

He gave us good company upto the hotel where we had our booking for the night and on the way (in fact it took us about 5 hours for Gangtok that day thanks to a lot of traffic blocks and bits of sight seeing.

He was asked to prepare an itinerary for our 3 days' program including homestay at some place where we get Sikkimese cooking.

At the end of the program , we found that the amount came to a fraction of what our friends who visited earlier had spent thanks to some fraud travel agency !

M G Marg : The heart of Gangtok where one could walk without the fear of being run over by a vehicle because it is a vehicle free area.

Though the total city (I would rather call it a town and not a city!) of Gangtok is hilly terrain with one slope rubbing on to the other and a motorable road in itself is a luxury and think about a footpath on either side !!

But , surprisingly no one steps on to the road because every road does have footpath (though narrow at places) and none of the drivers honk the airhorns to trouble you and none breaks the traffic rules !

This can't be my India ! 

A big big salute to the citizens of Gangtok !

We have a lot to learn from you guys.

Centuries of Buddhism could transform the minds of everyone there and we in the valleys down below wiped out Buddhist ways of ahimsa and think only about ourselves ! We just can't accommodate any other creatures ! Wow!

Botanical Garden : Do not expect too much from there because the area is small .

The plants and flowers peculiar to the Himalayan region is what makes it interesting.

The Zurmang Monastry  : We queued up to rotate the wheels and entered. Nice place with tranquility enough for meditation.

Next in the list was The Cable Car ride to get a bird's-eye view of Gangtok.

Cable Car : Though the ride is the same almost everywhere , here in what makes the difference is the terrain underneath which is The Himalayas.

Awesome sight all around.

The Tibetan Museum:

The range of exhibits include that of the present Dalai Lama in his prime and of Tibetan culture.

At a time when the Tibetans in exile almost gave theirup hape of getting back their mother land from China their national pride , rituals and culture too got weakened over time as the present generation who only heard about the motherland but have never seen it , got used to Indian ways.

M G Marg : The pick of the journey to Gangtok.

A clean and neat place to do shopping. The only hindrance is the access to the place as traffic on the narrow roads consume much of the time.

Most of the good hotels are around this place.

Baba Mandir and NathulaPass .