[1987]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Welcome to the Family and congrats for the Endeavour. It's one of the most capable SUV available in the market. I too am planning a Road trip to Sikkim next month and have been advised to use Taxi from Gangtok as they donot give permits for private cars unless we know someone in Army. Was it because of the low season you got the permit from Rongli or is it normal to get the permits from there and are these permits valid for trip to Lachen/ Gurudongmar/ Zero pint as well?

Can you share details of the agent that you used to check the present day situation?

Thank you!

Sikkim tourism doesn't like people driving up in their own vehicles, as it means the local drivers lose their business. If you call up a Sikkim tourism office, most likely they would discourage you or say that you are not allowed.

But that is not true, you can legally drive your car anywhere within Sikkim.

If you want to go to North Sikkim (Lachen, Lachung, Gurudongmar etc.), you have to get your permits from Gangtok. Rongli police station only provides permits for the Silk Route circuit. I haven't heard of anyone who was refused a permit in Gangtok for N Sikkim. But it might take some time though, so you might end up spending an extra day in Gangtok just for that.
In fact my journalist friend, who accompanied me in this trip, drove up to Gurudongmar in his Thar with his girlfriend last April.

I would suggest you call up hotels in Gangtok and ask them for assistance. They generally have contacts with the police and tourism department and they should be happy to help and provide guidance if it means getting more business for them!

Originally Posted by Samba

What a terrific way to start your journey in TeamBhp!
Welcome on-board. Will look forward to meet you and your steed on a Kolkata TeamBhp meet.

Thank you! I look forward to meeting all of you as well! Hopefully I will be around for whenever the next meet is planned.

Originally Posted by sbanerjee

Welcome on board. I totally understand the Jalpaiguri and Teesta part. I too have my roots at Jalpaiguri, though somehow my favourite river of that part is Karala, which meanders through the town. I am sure we will have the pleasure of more such travelogue of the region from you. And as an added bonus, the way of life in your exploration ship, the experiences. Really interested to learn that. Do enlighten us.

Thanks!

We conduct marine seismic surveys in offshore blocks. What that means is, we have thousands of receivers or "hyrdrophones" trailing from the back of our ship up to 10 kms behind us, and we fire very strong air-guns at them. The acoustic signal bounces off the sub-surface and is received by the hydrophones. From that we can demarcate sub-surface structures.

We work 6 weeks on the vessel, followed by 6 weeks break at home. While at work, we have to do 12 hour shifts. On board, my primary job is to QC and process the data - so basically sitting in front of a computer. But I also have to help out in equipment maintenance which includes going out in the sea in small speed-boats to repair or replace equipment.

We have a multi-national crew (I am the only Indian on board), varying in age and sex. We try to have a good time on board, the food is generally good, plus we have a proper gym, sauna, loads of video games and a home theatre system connected to proper media servers with terabytes of movies! The internet on board is decent too, although all media streaming websites are blocked to preserve bandwidth. In fact, I am on board right now, berthed in the beautiful Cape Town port!

[hemanth.anand]

Beautiful Vehicle, Beautiful Pictures, Beautiful travelogue.
The silk route reminds me of those hairpin bends and as soon as I saw in the title I scrolled to see that and then after satisfying myself, read through the travelogue. Thanks for sharing.

Welcome aboard sailor!

[Maddy3008]

Welcome to the forum 1987 ! Your first travelogue has already made front page on Team-BHP, Congrats !!
Wonderfully written account of your travel. It has created a want in me to go the himalayas in winter. I haven't had the courage so far to venture into distant places in the non-tourist season. But your travelogue is just the trigger I needed. And to top it all, I am already jealous of you as you have 5 months of holiday and a car to do justice to the time at hand. Do make good use of the time, the vehicle and the forum. Keep travelling and keep sharing

[toppor]

Originally Posted by 1987

Finally after years of lurking around, I decided to become a member of this esteemed forum! Thank you to the moderators for accepting my membership request.

Lovely travelogue, I plan to drive down to Mandarmani from Bagdogra next weekend, how much time do you reckon its gonna take to reach Kolkata straight?

[gearhead_mait]

Loved your narration and superb pictures. The Endy looks good on the snow.
Good that you were able to complete the entire circuit. When my wife and myself travelled in Oct 2015, we got permit only till Kupup, but on request we were allowed till Memencho lake.

We stayed at Gnathang valley for 2 nights. At 13500 feet asl and temperatures dipping to -7 degrees at night, it was an experience on its own.

Oh and I almost forgot, welcome to Team-BHP Kolkata Chapter!

[1987]

Originally Posted by Maddy3008

Welcome to the forum 1987 ! Your first travelogue has already made front page on Team-BHP, Congrats !!
Wonderfully written account of your travel. It has created a want in me to go the himalayas in winter. I haven't had the courage so far to venture into distant places in the non-tourist season. But your travelogue is just the trigger I needed. And to top it all, I am already jealous of you as you have 5 months of holiday and a car to do justice to the time at hand. Do make good use of the time, the vehicle and the forum. Keep travelling and keep sharing

Thanks! You should definitely take the proverbial plunge and head out to the mountains in winter. I can assure you, you won't regret it!

Originally Posted by toppor

Lovely travelogue, I plan to drive down to Mandarmani from Bagdogra next weekend, how much time do you reckon its gonna take to reach Kolkata straight?

Thanks!

Taking into account the Farakka traffic, and a couple of stops, you should be able to make it in around 14 hours.

By the way, is there a specific reason you are coming all the way down to go to Mandarmoni? It is not as good as it used to be, especially when it gets super crowded on weekends and holidays. Plus, you are not allowed to go on the beach during high tide. Even in low tide, the police will advise you not to bathe in the sea, but you are okay to dip your feet in the water.

Originally Posted by gearhead_mait

Loved your narration and superb pictures. The Endy looks good on the snow.
Good that you were able to complete the entire circuit. When my wife and myself travelled in Oct 2015, we got permit only till Kupup, but on request we were allowed till Memencho lake.

We stayed at Gnathang valley for 2 nights. At 13500 feet asl and temperatures dipping to -7 degrees at night, it was an experience on its own.

Oh and I almost forgot, welcome to Team-BHP Kolkata Chapter!

Thanks! Looking forward to meeting all of you on the next meet!

[toppor]

Originally Posted by 1987

By the way, is there a specific reason you are coming all the way down to go to Mandarmoni? It is not as good as it used to be, especially when it gets super crowded on weekends and holidays. Plus, you are not allowed to go on the beach during high tide. Even in low tide, the police will advise you not to bathe in the sea, but you are okay to dip your feet in the water.

It's just a small family getaway, away from hills to the beach, we plan to stay there for a night. So it's just going to be a walk down the beach if I get you correctly?

[1987]

Originally Posted by toppor

It's just a small family getaway, away from hills to the beach, we plan to stay there for a night. So it's just going to be a walk down the beach if I get you correctly?

Yes, that would not be a problem. You can even go in to knee deep water at low-tide if you want, just don't try to swim! If you ask at your hotel reception, they will be able to guide you better.
Most new hotels in Mandarmoni have come up with their own swimming pools now that people are not allowed to swim in the sea.

[toppor]

Originally Posted by 1987

Yes, that would not be a problem. You can even go in to knee deep water at low-tide if you want, just don't try to swim! If you ask at your hotel reception, they will be able to guide you better.
Most new hotels in Mandarmoni have come up with their own swimming pools now that people are not allowed to swim in the sea.

Thank you for the information, any recommendations for the beach side hotel, we are 5 adults and 3 kids age ranging from 1 year to 66 years.

[majumon]

Awesome travelogue, beautiful writeup , great pictures , took me two days to read up the entire story. Thank you so much for sharing so much of information, for us from South it's a totally different terrain, you have given us so much insight.

Your job too is enviable with so much time to yourself even though the work life is that much tougher though.
Will look forward to more such write ups at regular intervals.

[coolmind]

Welcome to the TBHP and congrats on the great travelogue of 5-Star to start with.
Great pics by the way.

[lovecars21]

Welcome onboard

Perfect time to drive through Silk Route. A well narrated travelogue complimented with nice photos. Endy looks good in snow.

Well Done

[ridewithpride]

What an excellent way to start journey of Team BHP. Me and my wife also did Silk Route journey this year at the January end. While I was preparing to visit Silk Route, did lots of research on internet. While browsing through Team BHP for travelogue in this particular reason, I felt that compared to the Travelogues posted for Himachal, Uttarakhand or J&K this region has very less nos available. After the completion of trip I felt that this region deserved more and more travelogue. Keeping this in mind, I applied for Team BHP membership and thanks to moderators, granted with the same.
Going through this travelogue I felt that my complete experience have been put on paper by you. I must admit it, you have done it in an excellent way & far better than I could have done. The only difference was that I started my journey from Jamshedpur and You did it from Kolkata.
I followed the route - Jamshedpur - Purulia - Bhagalpur - Siliguri - Gorubathan - Lava - Aritar - Rongli - Zuluk - Nathang Valley.
I chose to cross Coronation bridge at Sevok and reach Rongli via Gorubathan. This was just to see the tea plantation in that area and to travel on a lonely and less traveled route. It was worthy choice barring few bad patches the route was OK.
I found Sikkim region so magnificent & beautiful & the fact that it's many part are still so less traveled makes its worth visiting again and again. I could not resist myself from posting few pics from the my Silk Route trip this January -

[1987]

Originally Posted by ridewithpride

What an excellent way to start journey of Team BHP. Me and my wife also did Silk Route journey this year at the January end. -

Welcome on board ridewithpride! Awesome pics from your trip. Were you able to do the whole route, i.e. from Rongli to Nathu La/Gangtok?

Thanks everyone for your words of encouragement!

I have put together a collage video with some of the footage from my dashcam. Hope you will enjoy this!

https://youtu.be/5U0YKqrhQ-0

[ridewithpride]

Originally Posted by 1987

Welcome on board ridewithpride! Awesome pics from your trip. Were you able to do the whole route, i.e. from Rongli to Nathu La/Gangtok?

Thanks everyone for your words of encouragement!

I have put together a collage video with some of the footage from my dashcam. Hope you will enjoy this!

https://Youtu.be/5U0YKqrhQ-0

I had originally planned to return back via Gangtok but I did not go beyond Nathang Valley and returned through same route via Klimpong. I had a talk with few local drivers & Army personals at Pema Gift shop and they advised me to not go beyond Nathang Valley due to presence of heavy snow. On the onward journey I was the only car with two souls, myself and wife. I could not gather enough courage to continue beyond with my XUV AWD. Though my XUV did not had any problem till Nathang Valley. I had done Nathula and Baba Mandir in 2016 while returning back from Gurudongmar Lake hence we decided to return back.