Sikkim - Part Two

Will I ever be a traveler like him? Jacket, bike, shades, food and my country's flag for company traversing through a foreign landscape, absorbing the sights and smells. 

Found this bike parked near the Hot Spring. Imagine travelling like this through the rocky mountains! We, of course, traveled in a Tavera. Five of us - we three girls plus the elderly couple from Delhi with us. Thank God, they were a friendly couple and quite accommodating too. Otherwise, imagine the deadly combination of bad roads and bad company on a week long journey!

This was how bad the roads were! Horrible! Drive on these not-there-roads five hours at a stretch just to be able to see one sight-seeing point and you will wish the viewpoints could come to you. 

Broken bridges and roads in disarray at many places. The Chief Minister, Pawan Chamling, of the SDF (Sikkim Democratic Front) has been in power since 1994!!! The party has won 1999, 2004,2009 and 2014 elections. Or rather, the people have voted him to power. Wonder what they saw in him or maybe they didn't have a choice at all. Such an important state for tourism and yet so badly neglected. When I asked this to our driver, he said that yes, they had made a mistake by re-electing him every single time and that it was time to let him "rest" the next time around. 

Sikkim is India's smallest state by population and second only to Goa by area. On the map, it is just a small speck of red! But as they say, small is beautiful. The landscape of Sikkim is breathtaking. 

The S shaped roads and the flowing water at twelve thousand feet, Yumthung Valley, famous for the flowers that bloom in April.

The roads that look like someone drew the curves on paper.  

The  glistening snow

I love these Buddhist prayer flags. They are so thin and light that they flutter constantly. Even the slightest movement of the wind is enough to set them in motion. The belief is that the mantras written on them are carried by the wind, spreading compassion and goodness into the world and purifying the air. 

The people continuously mount new flags as old ones fade. It is a reminder that life changes and we are all part of this eternal cycle of change, as new replaces the old.

These tiny shops, along the road to the Hot Spring, a tourist spot, sell tea, liquor and other knick-knacks. I sat in one of them and chatted with the lady of the shop while my friends explored the hot spring. She told me they have to pay a rent of Rs 70,000 a year. They travel more than an hour from their homes in Lachung to the hot spring. Since there is no government transport, they hitch rides on tourist cabs that ply on these roads. 

Sikkim has 11 official languages and interestingly, Hindi is not one of them. But most people speak Hindi as that is the only language that connects the tourists with the locals. I couldn't have conversed with the tea-shop lady if it weren't for Hindi. 

That's me all wobbly from that glass of brandy. Damn! I wish I had been sober and had played in the snow and stayed back till i carved out my own personal snowman. 

This was not my first time in snow. In Manali, Tanvi and I had played in the snow. But it was only for a few hours. And there were so many people and a handful of snow. The snow was brown and hard. We had been there end of August, the last of the snow on the mountains. But this, here in Zero Point, half an hour from Yumthung Valley, it was real snow, snow as I had dreamed all my life. It was soft and cold and pure white, glistening in the afternoon sun. 

In Manali, we had been to Rohtang Pass and had been covered in the appropriate snow gear, top to bottom, all rented - boots, suit, gloves, all hired locally. At one point, it was so hot inside that Tan and I took off our overcoats. But in Lachung and near Zero Point, it was sub-zero temperatures, freezing cold and I was in my Jockey thermals - not at all enough to ward off the biting cold. The brandy saved my life or this poor not-used-to-snow-South Indian would have died.  

That's the sparkling, freshly melted ice. There was soft snow even on the water. The water could chill a South Indian like me, who is new to snow-capped mountains, to death.  The locals themselves, for that matter, were tightly covered in the warmest sweaters and caps.

Please note that Zero Point (ZP) is not in the tour itinerary of most operators. The package trips include the drive up to Yumthung valley only. So you have to pay the driver extra to take you to ZP. No vehicles are allowed beyond ZP. Only army jeeps go beyond this point. You can see the Indo-Chinese border from around here but only if there are no clouds. Foreign nationals are not allowed as it is a border area. Security reasons, I believe.

We were in Sikkim when this landmark celestial event happened and the moon looked magnificent from between the mountains. 

You can't help but leave Sikkim with a persistent thought ki kaash inn Wadiyon mei apna bhi ek ghar ho (I wish I had a house in the valley)