[amrisharm]

Originally Posted by sree70

hi, ac 427
Wish you tonnes of Good Luck & cheer up Guys already the good things have begin. U have ur Permit & the spares are coming @ 10-00am.
To Gurdongmar Lake if not today u guys will make it definitely tomorrow.
As per my Knowledge the Military will ask the Tourists @ Gurdongmar Lake to move out by 12-00 noon to 1-00pm after that the weather is going to be freak. Please donot Keep High Hopes. In sikkim our appointments are with Mother Nature & she has to Bless us.
regards
sree

Yes AC 427, i too have heard that after mid day the winds get very very ferocious up there and the weather turns sour quite rapidly at Gurdongmar lake. My cousin sister was telling me after her return from there that their guide told them the winds are so strong that grown people have a hard time standing straight, dont know how much truth there is to that. She is just 14 so i guess the guide might have been exaggerating a little to pull her leg .Even tour operators start their tours early and by 11:30am-12pm they make their return trip back.

Do check with the locals there and see what they say. And hope your clutch plate arrives on time.

[SS-Traveller]

Sad to hear about your clutch burnout and experience with the Gangtok Traffic cops, but it's great to hear you managed to secure the permit so easily. I hope your permit is not date-restricted, and you manage repair the car well in time for you to use the permit within the dates specified.

[ramkya1]

Hai AC,

Great to see you managed the permit... I am pretty excited myself to see your account !!!!! Sad about the clutch plate, hope you'd repair it and make it to the lake.

I am attaching a map I made of Sikkim (wanted to go this November, but cancelled) I'd be grateful if you can validate the distances, direction & places since you're there.

Thanks,

--Ramky
========

[quote=ac 427;2085986]We ...................

hey ramky, i got the permit but my car is not doing well :( the clutch plate and the pressure plates gone...can't risk going to gurudongmar with a sick clutch plate and pressure plate, have given it for repairs, will wait and see

..........................

[amrisharm]

Originally Posted by ramkya1

Hai AC,

Great to see you managed the permit... I am pretty excited myself to see your account !!!!! Sad about the clutch plate, hope you'd repair it and make it to the lake.

I am attaching a map I made of Sikkim (wanted to go this November, but cancelled) I'd be grateful if you can validate the distances, direction & places since you're there.

Thanks,

--Ramky
========

Hi Ramky i have this small booklet on sikkim, published by "Metroprints, Gantok" and they have a pretty good map done in a very user friendly style. I found the part from Gantok to Chungthang on your map not corresponding to the map i have. if you give me your email address i will email a scanned copy to it as i am really worried about copyright infringements (i am a newbie). If you feel it will be ok for me to upload it on this forum itself then i will happily do so

[ramkya1]

Hai,

Thanks. Suggest not to scan & upload any map on a public forum, will PM you my mail address. I would love to go through yours and compare.

The problem with Sikkim is, I have so many maps and all are different beyond Gangtok, the spellings are also different in different maps!!!!

Originally Posted by amrisharm

Hi Ramky i have this small booklet on sikkim, published by "Metroprints, Gantok" and they have a pretty good map done in a very user friendly style. I found the part from Gantok to Chungthang on your map not corresponding to the map i have. if you give me your email address i will email a scanned copy to it as i am really worried about copyright infringements (i am a newbie). If you feel it will be ok for me to upload it on this forum itself then i will happily do so

[ac 427]

Hey Guys,

Its good to be back in areas where there is 'connectivity. I did gurudongmar lake, I did 'point zero' and also took baths in Hot springs.

Detailed accounts of the same as soon as i reach mumbai. I am currently in Gangtok, we were planning to do West sikkim but we are dumping it, we might go 'hunting' in bhopal.

Read here for more updates.

Also my mhawk is doing great, the altitude did not really effect her at all, infact she cleared most of the rough terrain with aplomb.

cheers,
ac

[hvkumar]

Great to hear you are back to the "uncivilised" world!
I think West Sikkhim is a lovely idea - at least Tashiding and Pemayangtse.
What is the drive plan for return journey?

[ac 427]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Sad to hear about your clutch burnout and experience with the Gangtok Traffic cops, but it's great to hear you managed to secure the permit so easily. I hope your permit is not date-restricted, and you manage repair the car well in time for you to use the permit within the dates specified.

Hi SS,
Any road / route permit in Sikim is time / date bound, and one has to complete the journey withing the given time, if one sees that he might overshoot the date, he / she should immediately go to the nearest police thana and get the permits updated with the new date.

We just managed our itinerary within the given permit time.

Originally Posted by amrisharm

Yes AC 427, i too have heard that after mid day the winds get very very ferocious up there and the weather turns sour quite rapidly at Gurdongmar lake. My cousin sister was telling me after her return from there that their guide told them the winds are so strong that grown people have a hard time standing straight, dont know how much truth there is to that. She is just 14 so i guess the guide might have been exaggerating a little to pull her leg .Even tour operators start their tours early and by 11:30am-12pm they make their return trip back.

Do check with the locals there and see what they say. And hope your clutch plate arrives on time.

We started @ 5.00 a.m sharp, but none of what you said actually happened, I think the weather gods were very kind on us, the weather @ gurudongmar was 'pleasant', it wasn't too cold, nor was it extremely windy...what has been said by you or your cousin is true, but winds like those are experienced post 15 october.

Originally Posted by sree70

hi, ac 427
Wish you tonnes of Good Luck & cheer up Guys already the good things have begin. U have ur Permit & the spares are coming @ 10-00am.
To Gurdongmar Lake if not today u guys will make it definitely tomorrow.
As per my Knowledge the Military will ask the Tourists @ Gurdongmar Lake to move out by 12-00 noon to 1-00pm after that the weather is going to be freak. Please donot Keep High Hopes. In sikkim our appointments are with Mother Nature & she has to Bless us.
regards
sree

98 % of tours in sikkim are run by tour operators, and hence you are at the mercy of the tour operator, if he says that you have to vacate the place by a particular time then you have to. THe military does not have any such rule, but they have a entry and exit time which has to be adhered to, viz the visiting hours for tourists @ gurudongmar is between 7 a.m to 2 .p.m, one has to exit the check post by that time.

cheers,
ac

[ac 427]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Great to hear you are back to the "uncivilised" world!
I think West Sikkhim is a lovely idea - at least Tashiding and Pemayangtse.
What is the drive plan for return journey?

Hey,

Wanted to consult you gurus on that one, should i stick to my original route plan, which is attached on page one of this thread or should i explore a new route ?

cheers,
ac

[ac 427]

Originally Posted by ramkya1

Hai,

Thanks. Suggest not to scan & upload any map on a public forum, will PM you my mail address. I would love to go through yours and compare.

The problem with Sikkim is, I have so many maps and all are different beyond Gangtok, the spellings are also different in different maps!!!!

Ramky,

I have done 3 road trips, and i have always stuck to "TTK" map books, they give a decent idea about temperature, famous places to visit and most importantly great maps, with accuracy.

cheers
ac

[ramkya1]

Hai,

Great to have you back with the posts, looking forward to your account and pictures.

Map I made has the maximum details, even trekking routes and I think they are much superior to TTK or any other map available anywhere for Sikkim, I need to validate the routes, distances and places.

Drive Safe,

Ramky

[ac 427]

Hey guys,

I have got great news, Nathula is accessible, though the route that takes one to nathula takes 5 hours as opposed to the normal 1.5 hour, but the road is super scenic.

I have just entered my hotel room, will give a detailed write up on the same later on but just attaching a single pic for all who love to 'drive'.

Never ending winding roads, makes the journey as exciting as the destination.


cheers,
ac

[rrahul_2778]

Woww...AC thats one awesome road to drive. Full on twistees . Been reading your travelogue, great stuff.

[NFS]

Excellent capture of the roads. May be a good nominee for photography award. A good wallpaper as well (can I request you to give me a high res copy for my desktop?). Been reading your travelogue and all excited to conquer this landscape sometime in the next one year. Good to know you managed to overcome hurdles like "the Clutch burn" and "the pass" to this wonderful scenic landscape. Wow, really need to do some homework for me to get prepared.

All the best in your onward journey.

[ac 427]

Originally Posted by NFS

Excellent capture of the roads. May be a good nominee for photography award. A good wallpaper as well (can I request you to give me a high res copy for my desktop?). Been reading your travelogue and all excited to conquer this landscape sometime in the next one year. Good to know you managed to overcome hurdles like "the Clutch burn" and "the pass" to this wonderful scenic landscape. Wow, really need to do some homework for me to get prepared.

All the best in your onward journey.

hi,

thanks a lot! i will certainly give you a higher resolution picture once i get back and have access to high speed internet. yes there is certainly a lot of homework to be done, let me know if you need some inputs,