The Travel Connection

Lachung natives i was told were hostile towards tourists about 10 years ago. I can totally understand their sentiments. For every sensitive nature respecting tourist, you will find one whose idea of holiday is to make merry with food/ drink, litter around, play music, talk loudly in the serene surroundings and leave their mark around by vandalizing. Maybe such tourists would be more comfortable in the city environment rather than out in wilderness. But if they do want to be one with nature, i request them to respect  and treat it with TLC. Maybe then the indigenous people will not be against tourism. Over the years, North Sikkimese have realized the potential of tourism and have welcomed us to their home. Lachung now has about 120 hotels averaging 20-25 rooms each. But it is still unspoilt and not touched by commercialism like the popular hill stations.There are no view points or  lakes that you can go boating. There is no manicured  garden where you can take a l...

A grey morning greeted us on the third day. I was looking forward to this day as i wanted to see the kanchenjunga ranges. But the chances of that happening was minimal. Hey, the glass is always half full as the day turned out to be a blessing in disguise. By the third day, it was certain that our driver Prem's daily chant was rock star songs. Even though i had given him a bunch of Cds on the first day, he continued to play songs from rock star morning in and evening out. Initially i didn't think the songs were hummable but it grew on me. Believe it or not , i am so tempted to go pick a CD now so that i can follow in Prem's footsteps. Prem who had kept to himself the first two days turned stones when we started our journey towards North Sikkim. We were passing through isolated stretches of North Sikkim highway and he started on his fascinating story. It was difficult to understand his Hindi with a nepali/ pahadi accent. The first round , I assumed that I...