[vprao]

Hi all, planning to do a road trip on my Thar from Mangaluru to Sikkim and back on April. We have planned a diversion to Meghalaya to see the Umgnot river before going to Gangtok. Here's our itinerary:

Day 1: Mangaluru - Bengaluru
Day 2: Bengaluru - Ongole
Day 3: Ongole - Vishakapatnam
Day 4: Vishakapatnam - Cuttack
Day 5: Cuttack - Shantiniketan
Day 6: Shantiniketan
Day 7: Shantiniketan - Siliguri
Day 8: Siliguri - Manas
Day 9: Manas - Shillong
Day 10: Shillong
Day 11: Shillong - Jaldapara
Day 12: Jaldapara - Gangtok
Day 13: Gangtok
Day 14: Gangtok
Day 15: Gangtok - Lachen
Day 16: Lachen - Gurudongmar Lake - Lachung
Day 17: Lachung
Day 18: Lachung - Kewzing
Day 19: Kewzing
Day 20: Kewzing - Siliguri
Day 21: Siliguri - Shantiniketan
Day 22: Shantiniketan - Cuttack
Day 23: Cuttack - Vishakapatnam
Day 24: Vishakapatnam - Ongole
Day 25: Ongole - Bengaluru
Day 26: Bengaluru - Mangaluru

Total distance according to Google maps: 7416 km

Any suggestions would be welcome. I'm a laid back kind of traveler and hence not doing more than 500 km/day unless it's totally unavoidable.

Also, the whole permit scene for non-Sikkim vehicles is driving me nuts. I have read some encouraging travelogues of fellow members who took their own non-Sikkim vehicles without any issues, but our homestay owners in Sikkim are totally discouraging us about taking our vehicle to restricted areas. They say the rules have changed recently and they have stopped issuing permits to non-Sikkim vehicles.

The whole point of this trip is to explore Sikkim in my Thar, especially Gurdongmar lake and Yumthang/Zero Point. I would rather not do the trip itself if I have to go to these locations in a Taxi.

Any help regarding this would be greatly appreciated.

Road trip to Ladakh last year