[saket77]

Prologue: My wife is afraid of traveling to hills. Let alone driving there in a car! Probably the reason I had to go riding Sikkim alone last year and probably why we collectively never went to back to the hills after our Bhutan trip, which was some 5 years back! Since she might end up reading this travelogue so I must disclose that yes, we did go to Ooty last year, but that was more of an unanticipated trip, planned within minutes when we were visiting Bangalore and had my sister’s car at our disposal – She didn’t have the time to say no! But then yes, her extreme fright even at the thought of traveling to the hills made sure that we couldn’t travel to Sikkim together before.

“Let us go to the Mahananda Wild life Sanctuary!” I said to my wife.
“No…I’m not in because this means that I will have to travel through the hill roads, which obviously I won’t at any cost” – She responds shattering all my plans in one line.
“Not at all… it is well before the hill roads start. Let’s go there for a change” – I tried to collect the fragmented pieces of my plan.

After convincing her much by showing Google Maps and all, she finally believed that the place was before the hill roads start and hence we had a plan in place of visiting Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary in Sevoke near Siliguri; though she was little suspicious about my recently developed love for the fauna. For the unknown, Sevoke is the place where the plains end and beyond which climb to Himalayas begin.

So, you guys also believed that?? Hmmm, same mistake that my wife made! How can a petrol head travel right up to foothills and not delve further? This was the question that I had planned to ask my wife right at the entrance of Mahananda Wild Life Sanctuary! <Consequences to be faced later>

I had an evil grin pasted on my face until the last day when my fib was actually caught while we were packing for the trip. I asked her to pack in enough thermals for herself and our 2-year-old daughter, which was probably a giveaway that I was secretly planning for a colder region than what she expected. But now it was too late to back off, so even after a half-an-hour hoopla, she had to reluctantly agree for the trip to Sikkim! I had also roped in good friend, my riding partner, BHPian Swapnil for the trip in advance.

Choice of vehicle:

Zen looked like a more practical car for the hills due to its compact dimensions, great low-end torque and somewhat better ground clearance than the Civic. Zen was also completing 15 full years on 23rd of December, so it would have been a great tribute to the car to take her out for such a spin at this exact occasion.

Though, many would have raised eyebrows for taking a 15+ year old car for such a long journey, but I had absolutely no qualms on the capability and reliability aspects of my Zen. In fact, clicking the picture of the Zen on the banks of River Teesta was another long time secret wish of mine; so it was decided that the bigger brother Civic takes some rest while the Zen lets those horses loose for the marathon.

BHPian Shashi took charge of checking and sorting any issues with the Zen through MASS and I knew that my car was in perfect hands for the job. Thanks Shashi for the heads up and for your time. You took all the car related worries away and made sure that we did not have to open the bonnet during the entire tour.

So the itinerary was laid down between dates 24th to 30th of December. The travel plan included only Gangtok and Pelling initially. But since we were running before time, we included Kalimpong & Pedong valley on the second last day of our tour.

The travelers:

1) My wife Sonali in the role of ‘The Panic Expert‘

0.5) Our 2-year-old daughter Aashu: Someone for whom we were worried initially but later turned out to be the one who enjoyed the most.

2.5) Good friend Swapnil who played the official navigator/ photographer/ gadget expert: One who can be blamed for every bad road/ wrong by-lane we take.

3.5) And yours truly taking up the responsibility of the designated driver and itinerary planner: One who was charged with the offence everytime the car jumped speed brakers/ potholes, emergency maneuvers, and when anything in the overall trip went wrong for even a minute...including the traffic jams and land slide delays.

[saket77]

Day 1: 24th December 2017

Ranchi-Deoghar-Bhagalpur-Purnea- Silliguri- ~650 Kms.

Swapnil had come over the last night only so that we can start in time. Packed in all luggage in the miniscule boot and some in the rear passenger foot-well. We left our parking lot exactly at 05:00 AM. Plan was to reach Siliguri on the same day as halting in Purnea (~500 Kms) for the night might have forced us to delay our start on next morning due to fog in the region; thereby killing precious time. Thankful to BHPian Sheel who kept me updated with the fog conditions until I crossed Purnea.

We reached Purnea before 5PM and tanked up fuel. FE calculated through tankful method came to 20.5 KMPL which was excellent for a 15 year old car with almost full load. The route taken to reach Purnea was Ranchi- Ormanjhi – Gola- Giridih- Deoghar- Hasdiha- Bhagalpur-Purnea. We decided to continue to Silliguri since we had ample time in hand.

However, we were stuck in a massive jam amidst trucks at Dalkhola crossing, some 40 kms from Purnea resulting in a loss of about a couple of hours of travel time. Finally we were able to veer out of the jam with the help of the locals mostly because we had a small car else it was those kinds of jam where it threatens you to get stuck forever! Okay – exaggeration alert.

We had delicious chicken-roti dinner just before Islampur and reached Siliguri finally at 10:30 PM. We checked into a budget hotel with a parking space, as the plan was to leave for Sevoke at 5:00 AM to witness the sunrise next morning.

Day 2: 25th December 2017

Siliguri-Sevoke- Gangtok ~125 kms

As planned, we left for Sevoke to watch the sunrise, some 30 kms away from Siliguri exactly at 5:15 AM. It was a calming drive through the Sevoke forest in the early morning. Since it was my birthday too, I said to myself that it couldn’t have gotten any better. In the meanwhile, I couldn’t control my laughter when we saw the entryway of ‘Mahananda WildLife Sanctuary’ to our left!

We reached the foothill at Sevoke little before 6 AM. The plan was to walk to the banks of Teesta River near Sevoke Rail Bridge and watch the beautiful sunrise. However, when we stepped out of the comforts of four wheels, chilling morning wind was waiting to say hello to us. We had to immediately pull out mufflers, woolen caps and windcheaters to shield us from the blowing chilly air.

Soon we found a way to get down to the riverside and watched the beautiful sunrise till almost 7 AM. It was a beautiful, calm but extremely chilling morning, which we enjoyed to the fullest.

The beautiful sunrise @ Sevoke.






The 'chilled out' travelers!

Soon after, we checked into a small eatery beside the road where our car was parked and thankfully they agreed to made hot noodles & some tea for us, helping us fight the cold and hunger.

The Staple Food in Hills!

After the breakfast, we tanked up fuel at the IOC pump nearby and started our journey to Gangtok. A journey to Gangtok from Sevoke is never a point A to B commute, especially if you have your own vehicle. The beautiful view of the green Teesta waters, the mighty Himalayas, the lush green forests and umpteen beautiful bridges en-route make sure that you take ample stops.

The Beautiful & Evergreen Teesta!

We stopped numerous times on the way to click beautiful pictures and to enjoy the beautiful views. For Swapnil and me, it was like a beautiful recap of the motorcycle trip to Sikkim, which we did last year, almost exactly same time.




The winding roads climbing up the Himalayas finally lead us to the small town of Rangpo, into the State of Sikkim. We were stopped by the local police at border, as expected, and asked where were we coming from. After confirming that we all were Indians, they let us go but they didn’t take our details in the entry register, which is a norm at the other border of Sikkim at Reshi. I clearly remember that during our last trip while entering Sikkim through Reshi border, all documents including our vehicle papers were checked, photocopy submitted and then an entry was made into their register. Our exit was also marked during our return journey from the same border. Probably, this isn’t a norm at Rangpo. I also remember that another biker group was denied entry at Reshi because their vehicle papers were not in order.

Welcome to Sikkim! @Rangpo!

Coming to our journey, we were happy to finally see the “Welcome to Sikkim” signboard. We reached Gangtok by 1:30 PM and drove straight to Hotel Tibet Gallery near MG Road. Not because we had a prior online reservation but because I remembered from the last trip that this was a nice hotel with a private parking space. The 1 or 1.5km uphill from Deorali was very steep and I had to pull the same in first gear entirely. Whenever I tried slotting to second gear, the momentum would be broken as soon as I pressed the clutch & lifted-off from A pedal for gear change. I tried revving the engine a little and trying to change to second in a flash but that gave me a burning clutch smell. Last thing you want in hills would be a burnt clutch. Decided to back off and climb the entire stretch in first gear.

We found a great room at the hotel for Rs. 2700/- We checked in and made ourselves comfortable. Soon after, we went out for a stroll in MG Road and had delicious mutton rice for lunch. My birthday treat!

Self-explanatory: MG Road, Gangtok!

We bought some cake & sweets and returned to hotel room to catch a nap. We roamed around the city later in the evening till late night and returned by 11 PM after some shopping and dinner. Since we had planned not to go to Tsomgo Lake/ Nathula, there wasn’t much to do in Gangtok, hence we decided to move to Pelling next day only.

@Hotel Tibet Gallery in Gangtok.

Pelling, a small town in western Sikkim situated at about 7500 feet, gives you the opportunity to watch the highest peak in India, Mt. Kanchejunga from close quarters. The view of Kanchenjunga is supposed to be among the most clearest, closest & unobstructed.

After having hot sandwiches for breakfast next day, we left for Pelling, some 132 kms away from Gangtok.

[saket77]

Day 3 – 26th December 2017

Gangtok- Singtam – Ravangla – Legship- Geyzing- Pelling ~ 132 Kms.

The road to Pelling via Jorethang is still in a mess; the best route to take from Gangtok was via Singtam – Ravangala – Tarku- Legship- Geyzing- Pelling anyway. We left Gangtok by 11:30 AM and made our gradual way to Singtam since the beautiful valleys forced us to stop frequently to admire them and click awesome pictures. We took a right turn after reaching Singtam.

Teesta After crossing Singtam.

Thereafter, the road condition deteriorated sharply; however, the Zen kept marching along, albeit at a slower pace. The roads were turning narrow and non-existent with every kilometer. Massive landslides, broken roads, water crossings, mud trails became the norm. It was becoming a torture for the Zen but still it kept going despite those adverse conditions.







We stopped some 18 kms before Ravangla to have lunch at a small and the only eatery in that remote road which served us chapatti and potato-sage. Swapnil decided to have some noodles. After taking lunch, we marched forward to reach Ravangla in a hope that roads will get better.




And thankfully, we were right. The road conditions improved after crossing Ravangla as new tarmac is being laid out in this section. We had to take a diversion through Kewzing as the main road was closed due to construction work. Thankfully the other road which was a stretch of almost 15-20 kms, though took us downhill and uphill again, but the surface was good and very scenic.




We reached Legship soon and continued to Gyalshing/ Geyzing. The road from Geyzing to Pelling was again in poor condition. Some parts were under construction & the diversions made were not for small cars like ours. Still, we managed to cross them but couldn’t help some rocks hitting the underbody of the car a couple of times.

These roads were in sharp contrast to the roads in the East Sikkim. The roads in East Sikkim are mostly in good shape as they are border roads maintained by BRO and a matter of National security.

It was dark by the time we reached Pelling and we stopped right in the middle of the tiny town, near the SBI branch, upper Pelling. We booked a couple of suites at the Yangthang Dzimkha Resort at Rs. 1700/- each after much negotiation. The regular price is around 4-5k per night, but we got a nice off-season discount after some haggling. The rooms at the resort are reasonably luxurious, come with good facilities and the staff is very courteous. The views from the huge windows of breathtaking mountains meant one could spend hours watching them from the room itself.

Swapnil & I at the Reception area of the Hotel.

View from our room through the huge window.

The hotel had a good veg. restaurant as well. But since nobody was in the favor of having vegetarian food, we went out for dinner at a nearby restaurant where my daughter made some good friends, including a few children and the family who owned the restaurant. She enjoyed so much with them that we ended up eating every time possible in the same restaurant.


Day 4 – 27th December 2017

Sunrise@Pelling – Singshore – Pelling and the Helicopter!!

The plan for next morning was not any brainer- Watching sunrise @ Kanchenjunga. We woke up at 5:30 AM and walked to the Helipad area in Pelling, which is probably the highest point in the town. My advice for the ones reading – avoid walking and take a vehicle to reach helipad if possible, due to the tough gradient. We reached the helipad on time to witness the breathtaking view of sunrise with the sun’s rays falling on Kanchenjunga. We reached while it was still dark. We utilized this time to set up time-lapse video on our phones and acclimatize ourselves with the cold.

Finally we witnessed one of the most magical moments of nature when the first rays of morning fell on the snow-capped peak of the Kanchenjunga while it was still almost dark at the ground. The red-golden hue of light is something to witness. No amount of writing, prose, or even photographs can do justice to the magic that we witnessed that morning. It was simply majestic.






Feeling lucky to witness the glory, we returned to the hotel after sunrise and prepared for the day. On our way back, we saw this car with TBHP sticker and clicked a picture of the same – which later I came to know belonged to Sayak, through his travelogue! Unfortunately, we couldn't meet.



The plan for today was to go to Singshore Bridge which is supposed to be the highest suspension bridge in Sikkim, and the second highest in Asia. Singshore Bridge is about 30 kms from Pelling and the roads are quite okay except for a few bad patches. We reached there in around an hour and witnessed what it was all about. Clicked a lot of photographs and enjoyed traditional Nepali lunch at Singshore. Honestly, there is not much to do there except talking a walk on the bridge and taking photographs. We started back for Pelling after spending some time at Singshore and reached Pelling by 3:30 PM.







The One 'JH' among SKs!




The Singshore Bridge.

The Nepali Traditional Food Joint.

How the helicopter happened:

During the entire day, one thing that was running in my mind was a notice that I had read in front of the tourism department in the morning near the Helipad area. It was inviting people for a helicopter ride to the Kanchejunga. I mean the view from Pelling itself is breathtaking; imagine what it would be like to fly over the snow-capped peaks in a helicopter!! This isn’t an opportunity that every day presents you; hence while returning from Singshore, I drove straight to the tourism office!

We enquired about the whole plan and found that at least 25 people are required for the trip to happen. The helicopter would connect next morning from Gangtok on request only if there are at least 5 batches of 5 persons each: each batch fetching about Rs. 10K as collective fee. We had nothing to lose, hence we all 4 registered for the same by paying the prescribed fee. In case, there are not sufficient participants, the ride would be cancelled next morning.

After registering for the flight, we drove to the helipad by car to have a view of the glorifying peak once again. This way I also had the opportunity to click my car’s picture with Mt. Kanchenjunga in the backdrop which I missed in the morning. That picture is the first picture of this thread.

We soon returned to the hotel and parked the car. Swapnil decided to take some rest at the hotel while I & Sonali favored talking a walk around the town with our daughter. We explored the entire upper, middle and lower Pelling on foot and also bought souvenirs for friends and relatives from the small shops that we came across.

Since the sun had set, it had become extremely chilly and we had to return to the luxury of our rooms after having dinner.

[saket77]

Day 5 – 28th December 2017

The Helicopter Ride & the Change in Plan to the Old Silk Route.

Next morning, I sent a whatsapp message to the tourism official whom I had befriended last evening. He confirmed that the helicopter is coming from Gangtok & asked us to be present by 08:45 AM. Our excitement had no bounds by then. We drove to the helipad on time and there were other participants waiting for the arrival of the helicopter. Soon around 9 AM, we could spot the flying machine coming towards Pelling amidst the high mountains. The helicopter slowly came down on the helipad blowing away lots of ground dust through its powerful rotors. By this time, we were assigned the 4th batch to fly, so we utilized this time to sink in the feeling. We watched the helicopter ferry the first 3 batches to the mighty mountains and Kanchenjunga. Each trip was for around 10 minutes. We took a number of photographs and videos of take-offs & landings of the helicopter.








By the time we were ready to board, a lady crew member, who was on ground gave us instructions as to what to do and what not to. Asking us not to open the windows and taking hands outside to click photographs was one of them. I mean seriously there must be people who will do so!

We were asked to board the flight finally and I grabbed the window seat. My little daughter was somehow uninterested in all this and she preferred to remain in our laps all this while. Soon the ground ATC gave pilot the clearance and the helicopter took off. The helicopter took a left turn once it was air-borne and it made its way straight towards the Kanchenjunga. The mountains and ghat roads of Western Sikkim were all visible once we attained some height. The serpentine roads, small houses, greenery, mountains, lakes – all looked unreal.









Soon we were flying near the snow-capped peaks and it was a sight to behold, a flight to remember and an experience to archive. We took videos and pictures of the thrilling experience. We also had the spectacular aerial view of the Khecheopalri Lake and Pemayangtse Monastery.












The 8-10 minutes of ride came to an end soon and by now we had made memories for lifetime. Once we got our feet back on ground, we returned to the hotel and checked out. The initial plan was to start the return leg and move to Silliguri. There we would meet my childhood friend, and then continue our return journey.

[saket77]

The "chota-babu" of my Aashu- He was wrapped in woollens at her request in the chilling Pelling night!

We took breakfast at the same restaurant where my daughter had her friends. Before moving finally, we distributed chocolates to all her friends and the staff in the restaurant as they had given lots of care and love to our daughter. They were hesitant to accept them initially but they finally relented. The lady owner of the place gave packs of Maggi noodles to my daughter. They came to see us off to the car.





We started our return journey with a heavy heart by 11:30 AM and reached Ravangala and topped up fuel at a BP pump. The FE calculated in the hills came out to be around 15KMPL which was fairly good considering we were driving in lower gears and bad roads most of the time.









We got into this tricky situation:





Once we started from Ravangla, one thing that was going in my mind was that we are running one day ahead of our planned schedule mainly because we reached Gangtok before our planned time and left before the plan. This is when a thought brewed in my mind that why not cover one more destination – since we have ample time in hand.

“Let’s go to Kalimpong! And we shall cover Pedong valley too!” I tossed up the plan to others.

Swapnil was in immediately and surprisingly this time, my wife also said yes! She was probably feeling more confident in the hills by now. So, Kalimpong it was!

This was nostalgia for Swapnil and me as we had rode to the old silk route last year through Kalimpong. I vividly remember the narrow stone mastic road with steep climb cut through mountains to reach Kalimpong. How every steep turn made the houses look smaller and smaller. And the Pedong valley – some 30 kms ahead of Kalimpong. I remember Pedong as a beautiful valley with colorful flora. I always wanted to return to Pedong and this was my opportunity.

So, thankfully we were in the hills for one more day. For some reason, the thought of returning from hills had made me depressing but at least we were there for one more day. Sigh.

I was driving to Singtam engulfed in these thoughts negotiating the bad roads and like most other occasions, I gave pass to a bigger vehicle following me, which looked like an orange Ecosport in my rear view mirror. As soon as it overtook me, my eyes were caught by the TBHP LTD sticker on the Ecosport. We honked and the Ecosport also obliged by stopping on the road shoulder; probably they also saw the small TBHP URL sticker on my rear windshield – confirmed later.

Since Swapnil had been living in Kolkata, he immediately confirmed that it is BHPian Samrat’s Ford (forum ID – SamfromIndia). It was a very nice feeling to meet someone with a connection in such remote roads. Samrat and his brother were on a trip to Sikkim. We gelled up well and spent a good 10-15 minutes chit chatting and taking photographs of an unanticipated mini-TBHP meet before saying goodbye.




We reached Singtam after a while and bought Temi special tea, product of the famous and the only tea garden in Sikkim and considered one of the best in India and in the world. We continued our descend till Teesta Bazar and took a sharp left up for Kalimpong. It was completely dark by then. There was very little traffic at this hour in this road. We soon reached Kalimpong after the steep climb and settled into the beautiful Bird’s View Homestay at about 06:45 PM for Rs 2100/- for the night. Honestly, it was more of a hotel than a homestay with good rooms and a small home run restaurant, located just before the mail town of Kalimpong. I wanted to stay at least one day in a proper home stay with the locals during the trip but probably it was not for this time.





We went outside in the shrilling cold and got some momos and a bottle of coke for evening snack. We made the plan for the next morning, which was to leave early by 6 AM and go to the Delo Park in the outskirts of the city followed by a casual visit to the Pedong valley and then return to Siliguri.

Some pictures which we clicked en-route:

[saket77]

Day 6 – 29the December 2017

Kalimpong – Delo Hill Park – Pedong (The old Silk Route)– Siliguri - Purnea

We left by 06:50 AM for the Delo Park, some 12 Kms from the town. We had missed this place last year but I am glad that we didn't this time. It is a beautiful garden hill park situated at quite an altitude with breathtaking views of the Himalayan ranges including the Kanchenjunga. The park itself was very beautiful with those lovely gardens and being the highest point in Kalimpong, it offered wide angle unobstructed views of the snow clad mountains of West Sikkim and the neighbouring hills. We thoroughly enjoyed our 1.5 hrs of stay.


Some pictures of/ from the park:

We also went to the Hanuman temple near Delo, which is visible from a distance due to the mammoth statue of Lord Hanuman. Though it involved climbing of stairs, still we went up to have the view from the top.




Then we moved on to reach Algarah and finally to the Pedong valley. Finally, we had at least touched the ancient old silk route (again) which connects India and Lhasa in Tibet; now China via Jelep La and Nathu La.


Pic for remembrance!


Although, the ancient Silk route starts from Kalimpong itself technically, but the real essence of this route starts from Algarah. We stopped at the same point where we had noodles last year while riding. We parked the car there and had some tea before walking to the sericulture farm. The walk involved climbing some tough gradient. Swapnil chose not to, while my wife and I along with our daughter visited the farm. Though we could not see the actual sericulture since it was closed during this season, but we liked the beautiful garden, plantations and peculiar shape of the pine trees. The beautiful and colourful flowers added to the charm of this valley.

We spent a good 1 hour at this place and drove a few kms ahead as well till Pedong town through Army installations, which I noticed to have become a little populous than last year due to a taxi stand coming up. There was strong urge to go further till Reshi, hardly 12-15 kms ahead, which is again Sikkim. Thoughts of places like Reshi, Rongli, Zuluk and Kupup resurfaced from the last trip but had to contain that feeling; and with a heavy heart, I had to make the final U-turn marking the start of return leg of our journey. We started for our way back to Siliguri. Swapnil had left his Adhar card in the Hotel we stayed last night in Kalimpong, hence had to collect the same. We were caught in a traffic jam in Kalimpong town where we lost about 45 mins at least.

We soon descended the steep roads through Teesta Bazar and the silence of all occupants in the car conveyed to each other that we all were hit by the depressing feeling of bidding adieu to the hills. Just before reaching Sevoke, we all opened up and accepted that we were feeling low. My wife who was initially sceptical of going to the hills was also having the same feeling. As a mark of keeping the memory, I stopped in front of Mahananda Wild Life Sanctuary and took a photograph of the sign board – it will keep us reminding the story behind this travel!!

The premise to our journey!

We reached Siliguri by 3 PM and met my childhood friend and his family. We had delicious lunch at his place and left for Purnea, some 180 kms away at about 05:00 PM. An uneventful drive of about 4 hours through the ‘chicken’s neck’ area of India, which is both Nepal & Bangladesh borders close by leaving a narrow corridor for India (learnt the term during the recent Indo-Chinese standoff!) made us reach Purnea by 09:00 PM. The infamous Gaisal railway station is also close by the NH and the platforms are visible from the road itself. There was a sure shot hint of fog on the way.

Sheel had passed on the contact of a good hotel on the highway itself- Hotel Highway King. We called up them and booked 2 rooms after crossing Dalkhola. We had a very comfortable stay in the clean and well organised rooms for a very reasonable cost in this newly constructed hotel with a covered parking space. We Had dinner in the hotel restaurant.

We retired for the night finally for the last time in this trip.

Zen finally shot with Teesta earlier in the day- Much deserved!







Coronation Bridge: In its new avatar:






[Day 7 – 30th December 2017
Purnea –Bhagalpur- Deoghar- Giridih- Ranchi ~ 500 Kms

We had plans to start by 05:00 AM, so that we can reach Ranchi fairly in time, but fog gods had their own plans. I woke up at 04:45 AM and checked the status of fog and I couldn’t see anything else but fog. I decided to catch some more sleep and then again woke up at 07:30 AM and by now, it was probably worse.

Fog @Purnea.

We decided to have breakfast so that we don’t have to stop for it later and we had puri-daal & sandwiches in the hotel restaurant. The fog finally became manageable by 09:30, easing around some 300-350 mtrs of visibility. It was safe to move on; hence we finally started by 09:45 AM. We soon reached Bhagalpur and crossed the Vikramshila Bridge, the third largest water crossing in India, and made our way to Deoghar. We had a simple lunch en-route at a small road side dhaba for Rs. 40/- per plate at about 03:30 PM.

We continued our way and reached Giridih by 06:00 PM. It was completely dark by then and for a while we contemplated to stay in Giridih for the night as the Roads to Ranchi went through dense forests. But then, we all decided to continue our journey to Ranchi, about 200 kms, so that we can relax for the night at home itself.
We drove through the forests ghat roads with little traffic on NH-320 & 23 to reach Ranchi finally by 10:45 PM. We drove straight to Swapnil’s place to drop him first. Also, his parents were waiting eagerly for us and had even prepared a delicious dinner for all. After having dinner and sharing stories of our fantastic travel with them, we drove to home by around 12:00 in the mid-night.

I parked the car and thanked it for being supremely reliable throughout the journey and taking us through all kinds of terrains, temperatures and conditions. It took us over steepest of inclines, roads, no roads, lose gravel, mud trails, river crossings, and even through some springs falling on the road amidst mountains without breaking a sweat.

An 1820 Km journey, burning around 100 litres of petrol, came to an end through 7 days and vivid memories. We brought back lovely memories, great experiences, gigabytes of photographs, and refreshed (& probably better) version of ourselves from this trip. We discovered new respect for our already lovingly Zen, which was essentially reduced as a car for only short city run-abouts since we got the Civic home. The car proved its mettle and I never missed the Civic during the entire trip – save for the luggage space. This also marks a tribute to the car which completed 15 full years on 23rd of December and is now due for re-registration.

And we unanimously summed up our travel in one line- "There may be heavens up above; but there is certainly one up there in the lap of the Himalayas!"

[Rudra Sen]

Mod note: Thread moved to Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing.

[//M]

Wonderful travelogue !

The Zen looks beautiful, it has indeed aged gracefully. Glad to hear that there were no hiccups with the vehicle during the entire trip specially since the trip consisted of fairly bad roads, landslide sections and steep gradients.

That road to Sevoke through the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary is the perfect starter to the gorgeous vistas all across Sikkim.

West Sikkim is really a colourful paradise. I am sure the helicopter ride would have been the best part of the trip. I can only imagine how stunning the aerial views would be of the lofty Himalayan ranges !

[BlackPearl]

Superb travelogue and pictures Saket77. I have heard so much about you from my junior in college Swapnil and it was good to see him joining you! I absolutely love this model of the Zen and congratulations for completing 15 years with the vehicle. Speaks a lot about the quality of the car and your commitment. You have covered a lot of places within a short span.

[Samba]

Excellent travelogue dada. Lovely pics. The pristine zen looks fabulous. You must have had some awesome fun driving this beauty on the curves of the Himalayan roads. Rated a well deserved 5*.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Fantastic. Best of all I liked the flight.

I'm wondering how you got past that truck! Probably you told and I missed it.

[gmhossain]

Wah! It's a wonderful travelogue, Saket! I thoroughly enjoyed your free-flow style of writing dotted with beautiful pictures. Of course some paises are also due for your impeccable Zen.

Best,

[saket77]

Originally Posted by //M

The Zen looks beautiful, it has indeed aged gracefully.
That road to Sevoke through the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary is the perfect starter to the gorgeous vistas all across Sikkim.

Thanks Arunabh! Very true that the road to Sevoke is a great start for the Himalayan sojourn. It is like a perfect setting. If you spend some time at Sevoke, especially in the wee hours of the morning, it immensely helps in 'sinking' into the feeling of the travel one is going to undertake.
Hope that the place remains that way- devoid of big hotel properties, etc. else I fear the charm of Sevoke will be entirely lost.

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

Superb travelogue and pictures Saket77. I have heard so much about you from my junior in college Swapnil and it was good to see him joining you! I absolutely love this model of the Zen and congratulations for completing 15 years with the vehicle. Speaks a lot about the quality of the car and your commitment. You have covered a lot of places within a short span.

Thanks Sumitro! Swapnil also mentions you and Rajshri quite often.
We were able to cover a lot of places mainly because of the luxury of having our own vehicle. Plus, since we didn't stay in Gangtok for long saved a day at least. We decided not to, because we didn't plan for Nathula/ Tsomgo lake because of the baby.

Originally Posted by Samba

Excellent travelogue dada. Lovely pics. The pristine zen looks fabulous. You must have had some awesome fun driving this beauty on the curves of the Himalayan roads. Rated a well deserved 5*.

Thank you Samba da for the nice words. Absolutely love the way this Zen handles the curves. Since it is quite a low slung design, it was a delight to take the corners, more so in JH due to wider roads than the Himalayas.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Fantastic. Best of all I liked the flight.

I'm wondering how you got past that truck! Probably you told and I missed it.

Hi Nick! Flying, more so hovering above the snow clad peaks was one good experience.

Regarding that truck, this was a situation bound to happen since there was a blind turn ahead. First there was only that white Alto and it was still okay. But soon I had the MAN truck in view which is really huge. Reversing this thing wasn't a possibility, hence I had to reverse my vehicle for about 50 mtrs to find some space to let them both pass. Having a smart navigator in Swapnil helped a lot.

One thing about these MAN trucks: Since they are quite huge in size (having 3 wiper blades on the windshield!) and they must weigh the world, they seldom go to the open ridge side of the valley roads. At times, we had to make way for them by going to the right side of the valley road shoulders.

Regards,
Saket

[chiranjitp]

Wonderful travelogue saket77, nicely written & some brilliant photos. It is nice to see your Zen doing so well in those conditions, kudos to you for maintaining her in such a good condition. You have inspired me to take my 01 Zen to Sikkim, though convincing my family that this trip can be done on a Zen will be difficult.

In 2015 we did drive to Darjeeling & Gangtok in our Fiat Punto from Guwahati, though we didn't go to the interiors of Sikkim. The road connecting Darjeeling & Gangtok was specially a very scenic road.

Here are some photos of the trip

[AdityaDeane]

A very wonderful travelogue. My In-Laws live in Algarah (Kalimpong), was so nice to hear of the place from a fellow TBHPian. Wishing your family and Zen (as well as Civic) many many more happy miles of safe travels and gigabytes of memories (read Photos) in the times ahead.