The Travel Connection

Gangtok  at a height of 4700 ft is on lower Himalayan ranges. It's a dense town with small roads and 5 storey concrete boxes packed next to each other. The hub of the town for tourism is the M G road. It is traffic free in the evenings and has its souvenir shops, cafes and the other tourist nick nacks. It is an eco friendly city as plastic is banned.The city is doing its best to promote local tourism by having a flower show and handicrafts museum and view points in and around the town.                                                                                   ...

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...

Day two started with us looking forward to a mighty climb from 4700 ft to 12400 ft. The drive though just 40kms was going to take us a good 2.5 hours. The destination that day was Lake Tshangu or also called Lake Tsomgo. Enroute we came across many army settlements where photography is strictly prohibited. In between the settlements, our car was filled with the sound of the camera clicking away without a break. Though a picture cannot replace the experience of being there, the few below yearns me to go back there again.   Though i have been on the Himalayas as a kid, the shear size was unimaginable. The narrow roads, the deep valley and the high peak just added to the feeling of might .The green cover slowly started to metamorphize  into dry brown and then at a distance we could see white capped mountains. Interestingly as we started approaching the snow capped mountains, on the left of the road she was brown and on the right side all white. Now i cann...