[ac 427]

Day 10 Lachung – Hotsprings – Gangtok

It was day 10 of our trip, we had not taken a bath since the last 3 days because of non availability of hot water  and then mother nature came to our rescue. We figured that there are natural hot spring in and around lachung. We decided to take a bath in the hot springs and then head back to gangtok.

We were a bit disappointed with lachung, we expected that lachung would be more than what it was, it was just another village, pretty avoidable. I mean its beautifull but nothing great. And specially after gurudongmar lake we were even more disappointed

We heard that it is a pretty big place during the winters, but during this time there s nothing great. Anyways hence we decided to make a move on to gangtok from where we could go to nathu la

Surprisingly the drive up to the hot springs was a eventfull one. We reach point zero, apparently the last point where any civilian can go, beyond which only the army has the permission to go. Then we took baths in hot springs.
Guys if you are in Sikkim, you CANNOT miss the hot springs, bathing in them is a completely different experience, the water is HOT genuinely hot. Infact there are 2 hot springs near Lachung, one near the point zero, but one would need a V Serious off roader to reach there, we opted against it and we went to the one which is in Yumthang.

After our skinny dipping in the Hot springs, we reached back to our hotel / lodge to prepare for the drive back to gangtok.

The drive back to gangtok was beautiful none the less. We came back, checked in to a hotel. And went shopping


public convinience @ yumthang There is no long and short of it.


The hot spring are actually located in this home. (Even we did not believe it)






err that is the "road" to yumthang from Lachung.
























Apparently this is called point zero. Civilians are not allowed beyond this point.




The 'road' that leads to china
















aaaon twist karen




The Kilometer killer.




Cheers,
Ac

[ac 427]

Day 11

This day we just chilled and shopped and shopped and shopped in Gangtok. Did nothing at all.

Actually we did, we got our permits for nathu la

Day 11 was a v successful day. We shopped for some killer sneakers, also got our car cleaned / vaccumed / serviced and also got the permit for Nathu la.

We went ahead to a local place which played live music, had a few drinks and called it a early night as we were going to go to nathu la the next day.

Cheers,
ac

[mayukh]

Awsome travelogue!!

However, I am not seeing any pictures of Yumthang or Katao. Or am I missing something?

[ac 427]

Day 12 – Gangtok – nathula – Gangtok

With our nathula permits in our pockets, and the other route via zuluk opened there was no ways we were going to miss nathula, we even got permints for Chango lake. But the locals informed that via zuluk the route will take more than 4 hours to go and and will take almost the same or more time to come back and hence chango lake was out :(

But on the bright side we were going to nathula. The first time ever I would be actually going to India BORDER. I was feeling proud, a sense of achievement was in the air, there was lot of positive energy between us friends too. We all were in upbeat mood.

The day started early. We planned to leave by 5, but we over slept, had a good breakfast and eventually left by 7 Now if anyone is planning to visit nathu la, please be adviced that this is a v deceptive place. You WILL NEED thermals + 2 sweaters. If you go without it you will positively get frozen.
Anyways the route via zuluk was the best drive of the whole trip. Infact I Rate it as one of the best roads I have EVER driven, and I would like to believe that I have driven a LOT. Anyways, keep a lot of dry fruits plus a lot of eatables with you if you are planning to go via zuluk as that route is not the route taken by the tourists, and hence you will not find any hotels / shops. Tank up (food and fuel) in Gangtok and then only leave.

Nathu – la, an off shoot of the ‘Old sik route’ is also called as the pass of the listening ears. Reaching here gave us 4 a sense of achievement, a uncanny sense of patriotism crept in without anyone trying to feed that feeling into us. We all got a bit quite, I guess the importance and how difficult a life our Army jawans live, came before us. We got a glimpse of how inhumane the
conditions are where even for staying for 45 mins was becoming a struggle, and here our Army jawans live, and protect our borders. I was brimming with pride and patriotism, and so were all of us. My respect for our armed forces has gone up notches after this trip.

Another interesting thing about this day was about ‘baba harbajhan singh’. He was a Indian army soldier who died at the tender age of 21 in a glacier slide in the year 1968. A man hunt for his body was activated by they did not find the body. After that apparently he appeared in the dreams of one of his fellow soldiers and led his team to his body. After that a shrine was made as per his wish near nathula. Visiting his shrine was a mesmerizing experience.

We reached nathu – la @ 12.30 and the experience we had over there cannot be put in words. To see our nations boundary and another nations boundary side by side is a experience on has to go through. Tibet / China was just 1 feet away from us at that point of time. We made friends with the Senior most army captain over there. He spoke to us in length about the importance of nathu – la, infact every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday traders from India visit china and come back in the same time. Also there is a café @ nathu la. A café @ 14000 Feet. We had hot hot soup over there.

Also this was our last day in Sikkim, as the next day early morning we had to leave for Mumbai. So this was a mixed emotion of pride, happiness, a bit of sadness too.

When we started our descent, it started raining, and the already beautiful place just became impossibly beautiful. I have tried to capture some viz pictures. Hope you enjoy the pics.

Cheers,
Ac

[ac 427]

More pics of nathu - la







































enjoy

ac

[sami316]

Wow Ac, Just awesome man. Just finished going through this amazing TL of yours. Really cool pics, loved the last set of pics of the most curvaceous roads. Thanks for sharing.

[ac 427]

Day 13th, 14th

Return journey:

Out of our 4 friends, 2 had to leave by flight, in my heart I was happy, I would be doing most of the driving of the rest 2800 odd kilometers .
The route that we had charted out as you guys can see was from Gangtok to Bahrampur, then on to Varanasi , moving ahead on the golden quadrilateral to Allahabad, continuing on to NH 2, to Kanpur then on to Jhansi, Bhopal and then Mumbai.

We took this route as we had to do a stop over @ Bhopal, a friend has invited us to his place. Day 13th was completely uneventful where we just drove, stopped @ this place called bahrampur which is on NH 34. Bahrampur we stayed in this place called ‘Modern Hotel’. The motto of this hotel was ‘Your Comfort is our pleasure’ . Anyways Day 14th was a BAG of surprises. As non – eventfull day 13 was, day 14 was totally opposite.

As you can see the route that we had taken, goes through Behrampur going ahead to Debagram, and then on to Bardhaman, where we connect on NH 2 onto the golden quadrilateral. Well we did not know that on this route comes a river. And we have to cross that river. Normally that is not an issue, to cross the river, but when there is NO bridge, then there is a problem. We reached Debagram, from which we had go ahead, but there was the river which was blocking our way. We figured that we will have to put our Mighty Scorpio on a ferry and get it across the river. Mind you these ferries are not the types we are used to seeing in Mumbai, these are old school, broken down, feel like they are about to sink types.

We were genuinely scared. Wondering if there is a way around, and we figured that yes there is, but it will be 124 kilometers, for those interested in knowing the route it is from Behrampur to Siuri and then Siuri bypasses this village called Katwa and connect directly to Bardhaman.

Well I can’t explain or write how tensed we were I will let my pictures do the talking for you. Once we crossed the river, we continued reached Varanasi, where my folks said that do stop at Varanasi and do ganga darshan if possible, but it was only 6.00 p.m and we decided that since the roads were good to continue up ahead to Allahabad.
We ended our day at Allahabad, the birthplace of Amitabh bachan, We stayed in this place called Sun City, one of the best hotel of the trip in Rs 900 we got a super deluxe room Decent food, no car parking issues. Also allahabd as a city is a where the triveni sangam of Ganga, Jamuna and Sarasvati happens. So we were in the holy city.
We had good grub, and crashed. As we had to get up early and had to reach Bhopal the next day.

Enjoy the pics and also for the first time i have uploaded some vidoes too. Have fun.

The Dhaba Doctor: Apparently this is a common concept, A Guy acts like a doctor and gives paracetamol to everyone and for any problem.





















































While boarding the boat :P

YouTube - MOV00033

While deporting the boat

YouTube - MOV00035

Cheers,
ac

[ac 427]

Originally Posted by sami316

Wow Ac, Just awesome man. Just finished going through this amazing TL of yours. Really cool pics, loved the last set of pics of the most curvaceous roads. Thanks for sharing.

Hey sami, Thanks for your kind words

Originally Posted by mayukh

Awsome travelogue!!

However, I am not seeing any pictures of Yumthang or Katao. Or am I missing something?

We did not visit katao, the pics that you see of the locals are shot at yumthang. From Yumthang we went skinny dipping in hot springs

Originally Posted by sierrakamat

nice work awesome pictures neat write up somehow the terrain seems very much like the leh drive the beauty of these places is the silence that greets you and the magnitude of the place really can really make you rethink your life and you wonder whether all that you are doing back home is really worth it.

Leh is somewhat similar, while I did himachal last year and i have done sikkim this year, the basic difference I personally found was Himachal made me more spiritual while sikkim made me more patriotic

cheers,
ac

[Sutripta]

Originally Posted by ac 427

As you can see the route that we had taken, goes through Behrampur going ahead to Debagram, and then on to Bardhaman, where we connect on NH 2 onto the golden quadrilateral. Well we did not know that on this route comes a river. And we have to cross that river. Normally that is not an issue, to cross the river, but when there is NO bridge, then there is a problem. We reached Debagram, from which we had go ahead, but there was the river which was blocking our way. We figured that we will have to put our Mighty Scorpio on a ferry and get it across the river. Mind you these ferries are not the types we are used to seeing in Mumbai, these are old school, broken down, feel like they are about to sink types.


Cheers,
ac

Hi,
Incredible! Was it really accidental, or accidentally, on purpose? For the sake of adventure.

Regards
Sutripta

[ac 427]

Originally Posted by Sutripta

Hi,
Incredible! Was it really accidental, or accidentally, on purpose? For the sake of adventure.

Regards
Sutripta

That was the route we had planned to take, but we had no clue about the same. We had no clue that we would have to put our hawk on the jetty and cross it.

cheers,
ac

[NFS]

In Kerala we used to do this type ferrying of Cars/Jeeps etc in late 80s. We used to visit Shabarimala (Lord Ayyappan Temple) every year and had to go through such ferry till the modern day bridges were built (especially travelling from North Kerala). Now highways have bridges and are connected.

I see in one of the pictures, the ferry has exhaust (black smoke), looks like powered by Kerosene or Diesel engines. Those we used to have in Kerala were "powered by Human" rowing.

[hvkumar]

Although the ferry ride is always a nice experience, I cannot figure out why you took the Behrampur-Siuri route at all, when you should have turned off NH34 at Morgram (much before Behrampur) and gone on the excellent NH60 via Nalhatti, Rampurhat & Siuri to Darjeeling More to connect with NH2 just south of Durgapur. There would have been no ferry crossing and you could have been much faster.

There is a direct route from Behrampur to Siuri without going via Debagram, which is a proper highway. You appear to have unnecessarily gone south, got yourself into a ferry and come back up south.

[Iluvcars]

Rated 5 *. Should I say more? . Thanks for sharing!

[ac 427]

Day 15 (Its time to return home - but not without visiting some old friends in bhopal)


Started at allahbad. Visiting the 'sangam'. Always wanted to do this. Wanted to take a dip in the holy ganges. Reached there early in the morning. The drive then started from Allahabad towards bhopal. Lovely drive.

I am updating this thread a little late, actually a lot later, but i believe that my thread deserve a proper ending.

So here are a few snapshots of my allahabad stay, my ganges visit and the road up to bhopal.




































cheers,
ac

[ac 427]

Day 16, 17.

Plan of day 16 was to chill in Bhopal. Roam around, and party hard in the night and then leave for mumbai the next day.


I will not say much here. I will let the pictures do the talking here.

Just want to add that it was a beautiful journey for me. I grew emotionally and spiritually. I am a proud indian, but after this trip the respect I have for my motherland now knows no bound. I am more in love with my country now than ever.

A drive from mumbai to sikkim and back is a large thing. I did it with my best buddies. We made friends on the way, had good experiences, had some really bad one and few which we would not even want to think about. But that does not deter me from planning something even bigger for the next year.

I urge all of you to hit the road, the real life is out there.


living it up at the Noor-Us-Sabah.


my friends giant mastiff.




The 58 Ford Jeep Fully restored, Left hand drive, 4 wd, the works. I drove this one.




the 4wd was activated by locking it here, old school.


check the dipper placed next to the clutch, the rifle holder. This is the coolest 4 x 4 i have seen till now


the side view, the car complete with an axe, a jerry can ...


on the road again.. thought for the day - blank


purush prasadhan ?


wonder balls !!


who said google was original ? like everything even the name 'google' originated from india


the sun setting on my almost perfect road trip.




the respect i have for the scorpio mhawk after this trip is phenomenal.










Signing off.


peace, love.
ac