Travelogue on our trip to Gangtok (30th Nov - 5th Dec): Part I
10:29 AM on Thursday, December 23, 2004
Thank you for choosing Jet Airways : 30th Nov
Our (mine and Vrushali's) journey started on 30th November in Mumbai as we boarded the early morning Jet Airways flight for Kolkata. It was a nice feeling to be done with all the rituals of decking up and meeting tons of people and embark on a really real vacation :) The flight from Mumbai to Kolkata is a reasonably long one (approx 2 hours) and we slept for the most part 'cos we had hardly slept for 4 hours on the previous day.... (before the reader's imagination runs astray: we were packing bags for the return journey!).
'Warm' welcome to Kolkata
We were greeted in Kolkata by a weather of equal warmth that we had left behind in Mumbai. So much so for the hill-station feeling.... Guess we would have to wait for the car ride to Gangtok on the next day for anything better. We reached Kolkata at around 10:30 AM and were due to catch the train from there to New Jalpaiguri in the evening around 05:40 PM so we had a lot of time on our hands. We decided to pay one final family visit to my grand-parents (dad's uncle-aunt) at Kolkata and spent a lovely time there with Vrushali doing some cooking (new bahu, you see) and me watching the cricket match (useless beta which is already known to all family).
Howrah and the supermarket train
For the first time visitors to Kolkata (like me), Kolkata has several railway stations: one at Sealdah and two at Howrah (the old and the new stations: fortunately these are in the same premises and not separate places!). The train we were going to take (Kamrup Express to New Jalpaiguri) leaves from the Howrah old station which is around 15 km from my grandparents home at Kaikhali. So we decided to take a taxi somewhat early (at 3:30 PM) itself. It was a nice decision.... We had our lovely first encounter with the streets of Kolkata on the way to the station. Especially the last stretch near the Howrah bridge was the most cramped part of the whole journey. I was wondering if we'd make better time if we were walking on that road.... but there was no space to walk either, so it was more of a fantasy. Sigh, what a place. Just when it seemed that a 2 hour margin to the train would fall short, the traffic eased and lo and behold we were on the Howrah bridge (or so we thought). Again, I guess it must be only first time vistors like us who would beam and smile from ear to ear to be on the bridge. Our taxi driver's looks certainly seemed to suggest so.... But whatever, we wanted to see the bridge and we saw it, so there.
Fast forward a half an hour wait for the train and we boarded Kamrup express AC III Tier coach, which to our definite surprise was not like other AC coaches in the country. If we missed the in-flight entertainment in the flight, we more than compensated for it en-route to New Jalpaiguri. There were hawkers of all kinds of things: bengali sweets, popcorn, sarees, 'magic' slates, magazines (bengali and hindi.... sorry no english available), plastic toys, locks and travel chains to name a few. And it seemed certain they would travel with us all the way and try to sell things all night. My doubts were confirmed when the ticket checker came and patiently waited for these hawkers to give him some space to walk. It seems getting ticket-less hawkers off the train was not something that was defined in his job role :) Ah well.... never mind, what's coming next?
New Jalpaiguri : 1st Dec
The train did reach punctually (like most of Indian Railways these days) at 07:30 AM to the sleepy little town of New Jalpaiguri. I was reminded of my hometown Hapur in several ways.... Awaiting our arrival at the station was our company for the next 4 days: Dinesh, our taxi driver. He dutifully put a silk robe on our shoulders (this we were to find out is the local way of greeting special guests) and went about explaining our itinerary for the day. I remembered Mangu (my college mate) a lot as we crossed on Sevoke Road.... I vaguely remember his house was somewhere there. Sadly, I forgot to get the phone number he had given me in the US to talk to his parents as we crossed.
Onward to Gangtok
The journey from New Jalpaiguri to Gangtok is positively memorable to say the least. The road is in excellent condition with BRO (Border Roads Organization) responsible for its maintenance. It is also wonderfully scenic with the Teesta river visible from the road from the most part as we climb up the hills. (Most of the memories for this trip are in videos so I cannot post too many photographs here, but maybe I can try to get a few stills from that later). It takes a good 4 hour drive from New Jalpaiguri to reach Gangtok, but we diverged on the way to go to the famous Rumtek monastery (official site, wikipedia) so that we would save time later on.
This was our first experience of buddhist monasteries in the region and it was refreshingly different.... after so many days of noisy crowds around us, Rumtek is very calm and laid back. The temple walls are painted with intricate paintings too. This place is also known as the dharma chakra centre (for more on the monastery use the links above).
Welcome to Nor-Khill: our home for the next 4 days
After the visit to Rumtek, we arrived in the Gangtok city within half an hour's drive. The main reason we had chosen Sikkim for our vacation was that we were informed that most places of interest were within a few hours drive at most.... and we found that was quite true. The Gangtok city is in Sikkim's east disrict and is extremely hilly to say the least. The road to the hotel is almost at a 45 degree inclination... but to our surprise people seemed to walk a lot instead of taking taxis.
The hotel Nor-Khill is next to the city's Pal-Jor stadium and overlooks the valley. It also gives a decent view of the Mount Kanchenjunga, but there are other places which give better access to the Himalayan peaks. The rooms are quite heavily decorated and the hotel garden would delight most (if not all) people. However, this hotel does not fall under the budget category. But it definitely lives upto its price tag with a wonderful room and extremely polite service. Also tariffs are inclusive of all meals (usually). As soon as we landed at Nor-Khill we were greeted (again) by the customary silk cloth and a small glass of red-wine (which Vrushali could not finish ;) Once at the hotel, we began to unwind and decided to take it easy the rest of the day. As it was the winter season, sunset in the valley would be as early as 5:00 PM after which there was little to do anyways.
.... story for the next few days continues in Part II ....
Our (mine and Vrushali's) journey started on 30th November in Mumbai as we boarded the early morning Jet Airways flight for Kolkata. It was a nice feeling to be done with all the rituals of decking up and meeting tons of people and embark on a really real vacation :) The flight from Mumbai to Kolkata is a reasonably long one (approx 2 hours) and we slept for the most part 'cos we had hardly slept for 4 hours on the previous day.... (before the reader's imagination runs astray: we were packing bags for the return journey!).
'Warm' welcome to Kolkata
We were greeted in Kolkata by a weather of equal warmth that we had left behind in Mumbai. So much so for the hill-station feeling.... Guess we would have to wait for the car ride to Gangtok on the next day for anything better. We reached Kolkata at around 10:30 AM and were due to catch the train from there to New Jalpaiguri in the evening around 05:40 PM so we had a lot of time on our hands. We decided to pay one final family visit to my grand-parents (dad's uncle-aunt) at Kolkata and spent a lovely time there with Vrushali doing some cooking (new bahu, you see) and me watching the cricket match (useless beta which is already known to all family).
Howrah and the supermarket train
For the first time visitors to Kolkata (like me), Kolkata has several railway stations: one at Sealdah and two at Howrah (the old and the new stations: fortunately these are in the same premises and not separate places!). The train we were going to take (Kamrup Express to New Jalpaiguri) leaves from the Howrah old station which is around 15 km from my grandparents home at Kaikhali. So we decided to take a taxi somewhat early (at 3:30 PM) itself. It was a nice decision.... We had our lovely first encounter with the streets of Kolkata on the way to the station. Especially the last stretch near the Howrah bridge was the most cramped part of the whole journey. I was wondering if we'd make better time if we were walking on that road.... but there was no space to walk either, so it was more of a fantasy. Sigh, what a place. Just when it seemed that a 2 hour margin to the train would fall short, the traffic eased and lo and behold we were on the Howrah bridge (or so we thought). Again, I guess it must be only first time vistors like us who would beam and smile from ear to ear to be on the bridge. Our taxi driver's looks certainly seemed to suggest so.... But whatever, we wanted to see the bridge and we saw it, so there.
Fast forward a half an hour wait for the train and we boarded Kamrup express AC III Tier coach, which to our definite surprise was not like other AC coaches in the country. If we missed the in-flight entertainment in the flight, we more than compensated for it en-route to New Jalpaiguri. There were hawkers of all kinds of things: bengali sweets, popcorn, sarees, 'magic' slates, magazines (bengali and hindi.... sorry no english available), plastic toys, locks and travel chains to name a few. And it seemed certain they would travel with us all the way and try to sell things all night. My doubts were confirmed when the ticket checker came and patiently waited for these hawkers to give him some space to walk. It seems getting ticket-less hawkers off the train was not something that was defined in his job role :) Ah well.... never mind, what's coming next?
New Jalpaiguri : 1st Dec
The train did reach punctually (like most of Indian Railways these days) at 07:30 AM to the sleepy little town of New Jalpaiguri. I was reminded of my hometown Hapur in several ways.... Awaiting our arrival at the station was our company for the next 4 days: Dinesh, our taxi driver. He dutifully put a silk robe on our shoulders (this we were to find out is the local way of greeting special guests) and went about explaining our itinerary for the day. I remembered Mangu (my college mate) a lot as we crossed on Sevoke Road.... I vaguely remember his house was somewhere there. Sadly, I forgot to get the phone number he had given me in the US to talk to his parents as we crossed.
Onward to Gangtok
The journey from New Jalpaiguri to Gangtok is positively memorable to say the least. The road is in excellent condition with BRO (Border Roads Organization) responsible for its maintenance. It is also wonderfully scenic with the Teesta river visible from the road from the most part as we climb up the hills. (Most of the memories for this trip are in videos so I cannot post too many photographs here, but maybe I can try to get a few stills from that later). It takes a good 4 hour drive from New Jalpaiguri to reach Gangtok, but we diverged on the way to go to the famous Rumtek monastery (official site, wikipedia) so that we would save time later on.
This was our first experience of buddhist monasteries in the region and it was refreshingly different.... after so many days of noisy crowds around us, Rumtek is very calm and laid back. The temple walls are painted with intricate paintings too. This place is also known as the dharma chakra centre (for more on the monastery use the links above).
Welcome to Nor-Khill: our home for the next 4 days
After the visit to Rumtek, we arrived in the Gangtok city within half an hour's drive. The main reason we had chosen Sikkim for our vacation was that we were informed that most places of interest were within a few hours drive at most.... and we found that was quite true. The Gangtok city is in Sikkim's east disrict and is extremely hilly to say the least. The road to the hotel is almost at a 45 degree inclination... but to our surprise people seemed to walk a lot instead of taking taxis.
The hotel Nor-Khill is next to the city's Pal-Jor stadium and overlooks the valley. It also gives a decent view of the Mount Kanchenjunga, but there are other places which give better access to the Himalayan peaks. The rooms are quite heavily decorated and the hotel garden would delight most (if not all) people. However, this hotel does not fall under the budget category. But it definitely lives upto its price tag with a wonderful room and extremely polite service. Also tariffs are inclusive of all meals (usually). As soon as we landed at Nor-Khill we were greeted (again) by the customary silk cloth and a small glass of red-wine (which Vrushali could not finish ;) Once at the hotel, we began to unwind and decided to take it easy the rest of the day. As it was the winter season, sunset in the valley would be as early as 5:00 PM after which there was little to do anyways.
.... story for the next few days continues in Part II ....
1:40 PM
hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii how nicely u hv writen i really like it n want to go