Day Five - Sikkim

We started early that day our vehicle was waiting outside the hotel for trip to a few sunrise view points in the city. Our Driver suggested that we miss Tashi viewpoint as it will be crowded with toursits , he said Hanuman Tok which also gives a similar view would be a better choice and we agreed and that quite set the tone for the rest of the day as our driver cum guide suggested a lot of things each one of which made the trip really wonderful , we managed to have quite a good time and avoid the crowds. We reached Hanuman Tok first and we were the only ones there. The place was temple of top of a hill and it presented a magnificent view of snow capped mountains with Kanchenjunga standing out . Next to the temple is the burial bround of the Royal family and it was resplendent with flags. The temple itself was neat much to our amusement the priest at the temple after handing us the prasad showed us a snap of the mountain he had clicked 5 min back ! Mountain is looking really beautiful today and its such a clear day u guys r really lucky he kept repeating. He also showed us the best place to take snaps of the mountain from the temple. Only when we were finished and the sun was totally up did other tourists turn up and we appreciated our driver's suggestion to go against the normal tourists route. We next went to place called Ganesh Tok , it had osbservatory built by toursim dept. the views of the mountains one one side and the scenic hills and city of Gangtok on the other side were unforgettable. We then saw the Sikkim legislative Assembly building and then went to another view point which was right on top of a hill with beautify view of the valley below. It was wonderful to watch the entire valley gettin lit by sun's rays gradually.We returned back by 8Am , finished our breakfast and set out for Tsamgo lake(40 Km) and Baba Mandir (54 Km) , the trip was supposed to take about 2 hours. There are lots check posts outside the city 5th mile , 8th mile ans so on .. to go to any place you need to get a permit stating ur detaisl and ur reason for visit , the drivers get these things done pretty quick , they help Govt track people movement int eh border state and also check any possiblity fThe journey was amazing and roads built by BRO wind through the hills , its a really marvellous feat by building such high quality roads on such a trecherous terrian.
We stopped for a warm cup of tea just before reaching Tsango lake , our driver had mentioned that there a few places which were not part of our original itenary , but could be 'arranged'. We then reached Tsango lake (called Changu ) , but did not stop there , we went past it and our destination was a place called Baba Mandir , enroute we saw snow on one side of the road and barren rocks on the other side. in half an hour we reached this place called Baba Mandir , which was built in memory of a soldier. The temple also had memorial for soldiers who lost their lives for the nation in that region. Since we had gone on sundays we were provided with prasad at the temple on sundays all visitors were provided with lunch by the army. When we were eating lunch suddenly we were hit by a cold winds and the temperature dropped very drastically. thanksfully we were well equipped with wollens and gloves. During lunch the visibility was very poor though it was one clock in the afternoon. Our driver was very sceptical about covering the next place we had planned a couple lakes a bit higher than the Mandir. He checked with a few cabbies who were back from that place and told us that though there was a chance that the trip would be ruined by poor visibility and storms there was also a chance of the fog clearing off and asked us to choose.



we decided to try our luck and were not dissapointed the next few hours turned out to be the highlight of our joureny to sikkim as we went higher and higher and soon saw snow on either side , we came across the world's highest ATM and cyber cafe ! After that it was pure heaven ! we went as much 1400 ft high and the view of Himalayas and kanchenjunga mountain was amazing . After apoint he stopped the vehicle and there small hills covered with snow , where we could play with snow , we had a snow fight and it was truly a gr8 experience.






after an hour we returned back to Tsango lake which was oval shaped and over a kilometre long , thanx to influx of tourists a lot of shops selling trinkets and offering joy rides on yaks are there.
While we were ambling about enjoying the beauty of the lake and snow covered mountains we were hit by sudden winds and mist which made it even more memorable !

We got back to Gangtok with a sense of statisfaction this particluar day made the trip and would stand out among all the wondeful memories of this trip. Missing out Nathula was the only regret.



We came back to Gangtok and did some shopping for shawls n sweaters at the local bazaars and also finalised the itenary for the next day , the plan was to visit a couple of monastries nearby.