LFRH – North east
trip 2013
Darjeeling -> Sikkim ( Gangtok -> Mangan -> Lachen
-> Gurudongmar-> Lachen -> Lachung -> Yumthang -> Yumsodam
-> Lachung-> Mangan -> Siliguri -> Guwahati -> Shillong ->
Cherapunjee -> Guwahati -> Jalpaiguri -> Bangalore.
#Darjeeling - Sikkim
Through pashupatinath we reached Darjeeling in an hour’s
time. Finally, we were out of Nepal and started our ride to Darjeeling. The
place was lush green. And voila!! Our mobiles were also working now as we were
back in India now. We moved and reached Darjeeling city.
#1852 built toy train
There are toy trains trips available for 240 INR twice in a
day starting from Darjeeling station. This train takes you around Darjeeling
and takes you to some of the places like museum etc. in Darjeeling.
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| Toy train at Darjeeling |
From Darjeeling there is a nice NH route to go to Sikkim and
also another short but challenging way via Majhidhar which connects to Sikkim
via an old wooden bridge. This was our next adventure when we dragged our bikes
over a 172 years old, feeble , almost broken at so many places, wooden bridge.
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| 172 years old wooden bridge |
#Sikkim
And now we were in Sikkim. From here we started for Gangtok.
The road to Gangtok is a NH but pretty busy with lots of buses, trucks and
traffic.
#Stay
Here we checked in a hotel few km away from MG marg named Royal
Residency who gave us a room in basement for 1200 INR. The hotel offers decent
food also but we choose to go out to MG marg and eat.
PS: We suggest you
take a hotel near MG marg to avoid finding taxi’s in the night and landing up
paying them 150 bucks just for 2-3 km.
#Day of Permits to Gurudongmar and Yumthang point
Next day morning, we woke up and went for the permit. The
tourist office on the main MG marg misguided us that we can onl
y go through an
agent. After few discussions, they asked us to go to Deputy Secretary’s office
down the road. This place is at a
walking distance from the MG marg though you can always take your bikes to the
office and park them in a parking lot.
You need following documents for permit
- DL original and photocopies
- RC original and photocopies
- Pollution certification original and photocopies
- ID proof original and photocopies
- 2 photographs
We had all the documents and their
photocopies but we reached by 10 o’clock and by that time the concerned lady
was not available due to which we landed up waiting for the whole day in the
permit office. The office opens at 9 a.m. and we suggest unlike us if you be
there by 9 with all documents and Xerox then your work can be done earlier and
you could utilize the day to see the Gangtok. Finally at 4 in the evening, we
got our NOC.
#Food
Gangtok has many decent restaurants to suit your taste buds
of different ethnicity.
Breakfast (Puri sabji and jalebi) in MG marg
The place also offers lot of interesting things for shopping
warm clothes, antiques. I bought a singing bowl here for 1500 INR but there are
many cheaper options available though I can’t vouch for their quality.
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| M G Road - Gangtok |
#Mangan - Lachen
Next day early in the morning at 7:00 a.m., we got the
permits for Gurudongmar , Yumsadong , zero point but not for Cholamu. We took
the photocopy of the permits to be safer and started for Mangan. The road from
Gangtok to mangan is not a smooth ride. Mangan is the place where you will find
the last petrol bunk. Hence here we filled our tanks full and also filled the
petrol in a 5 liter can.
#Food at Mangan
The momos are the best thing to have in these places .Hot
yummy momos, dal roti and tea were served to us.
After continuous ride on steep road with water bodies and
pebbles etc. we reached to Chatan which is an army headquarter. Finally late in
the night we reached Lachen. At Lachen, you have to show your permits at the
check post so keep your permits handy.
#Stay at Lachen
There is no other place in Lachen which I would suggest for
stay except for Hotel Dhonka La because of my love and friendship for the
children of this hotel.
#Food at Lachen – Dhonka La
Home made simple rice, dal, spinach, chicken, egg
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| Dhonka la hotel and kids |
# Gurudongmar Lake
Next day morning, we quickly got ready as early as 5 o’clock,
covered ourselves in multiple layers, put up all the clothes we had and set out
for the lake. As the lake is situated on 18000 ft. altitude, it’s better to
ride/drive slow and get acclimatized to avoid nausea, headache etc.
After few kilometers from Lachen , there is a place which
offers tasty maggi and tea. Here we also rented gum boots as our boots were
wet. Though it was windy and cold but strong sun made the ride easier for us.
After few more kilometers of riding, we reached the army check post where they
again checked our permits.
The ride after the check post can be confusing because we
lost our way and reached at another Army post. This post was actually a no
civilian zone and China border was just few meters from there. The army people were
friendly and allowed us to click few pictures and we started back for Gurudongmar lake.
And there we were at ‘Gurudongmar lake’. I was dumbstruck
with the beauty of that place. The strong wind, snow covered mountains were on
one side and deserted mountains on the other and in the middle reflecting
beautiful sun rays was the blue clear water lake. It’s a must see if you are
travelling to North Sikkim.
While coming back, the wind was much stronger so we had to
hurry up.
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| The lake and The Lady |
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| Gurudongmar Lake |
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| Ek aurat aur do mard at Gurudongmar lake |
# Lachen – Lachung -
Katao
Distanced around 70 km from Lachen, today was the plan to reach
Yumthang valley. We reached Lachung in 1.5 hours as it’s only around 40 km from
Lachen so we could have easily gone and come back to Yumthang valley on the
same day. As many of the localites /Army people told us that there is no
habitation or places to stay in Yumthang hence we stayed in Lachung itself at
Iceberg hotel.
#Katao
Around 60Km from
Lachung, Katao is another point which is close to the China border. You have
to take permits from local police station in Lachung. The road is very nice, the place is scenic and
there are many waterfalls which nature offers you. As we didn’t take permit and
it was snowing in Katao, the army people didn’t allow us to go beyond the army
post and we had to return back to Lachung.
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| The bikers en route Katao |
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| The serpentine roads |
#Yumesamdong- Yumthang
Today we left for Yumesamdong via Yumthang which is 60 km from
Lachung. The road to Yumthang is decent with intermittent bad patches due to
landslides. As Yumthang is 30 km away, we reached in around 1- 1.5 hours.
#Food at Yumthang
There are many shops available which gives momos and maggi. The
lady named Prema and her sister were very nice and hospitable.
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| Maggi - 2 minute ruk sakte hai! |
We also rented gum
boots and water resistant gloves and started for Zero point. Unfortunately,
today the skies were not clear and it was already raining. But determined to
see Zero point, we started in rain. The route to reach zero point is via 4
bridgesTo see Yumesamdong hot spring, you must take a diversion at the fourth
bridge. To go to Zero point continue on the main route after the 4th
bridge also. Due to constant rain and snow we left back for yumthang after warming
up ourselves at the Army check post
#Yumthang – Lachung - Mangan - Singtam
As it was now constantly pouring so we started back for Mangan in rain itself. The roads were very slippery so we rode very slow and reached back to Mangan in almost double the time than what we had taken while coming. At Mangan, we refilled our bikes and had food at the same place.
As it was now constantly pouring so we started back for Mangan in rain itself. The roads were very slippery so we rode very slow and reached back to Mangan in almost double the time than what we had taken while coming. At Mangan, we refilled our bikes and had food at the same place.
This time we took a diversion for Siliguri from Mangan so
that we didn’t have to go all the way to Gangtok and then to Siliguri. This road
was apparently much nicer albeit longer than the road from Gangtok to Mangan via
which we had come. This diversion for the road can be easily found as there is
a board for the same.
#Stay
As we had been riding in rain for all day. We took a halt at a place called Singtam in Anand Lodge
#Stay
As we had been riding in rain for all day. We took a halt at a place called Singtam in Anand Lodge
#Singtam - Siliguri- AlipurDuar
By now our bikes were little rusty and needed a quick
servicing so we reached Siliguri and found Wasim Bullet specialist where we got
our bikes serviced.
#Food at Siliguri
Here at Siliguri we
ate at a place called Sona Pure veg which was delight to our taste buds
From Siliguri again there are 2 routes available to go to Guwahati. Based on the recommendation from local people, we took the way via Alipur duar as everyone suggested that road is better on this route. Hence, after spending this day in bike servicing, around 5 in the evening we started for Alipurduar.
From Siliguri again there are 2 routes available to go to Guwahati. Based on the recommendation from local people, we took the way via Alipur duar as everyone suggested that road is better on this route. Hence, after spending this day in bike servicing, around 5 in the evening we started for Alipurduar.
#AlipurDuar –
Guwahati
In the night we reached Alipur duar. The place has many
hotels to stay which are in range of 700-800 INR.
#Food at Alipur duar
Poori and sabji. Mishti dahi and Sondesh. The local shops
had very tasty Mishti dahi and Sondesh.
#Stay
We stayed at Madham guest in Alipur duar.
#Stay
We stayed at Madham guest in Alipur duar.
Now we started for Guwahati and this was a plain NH road
with nothing much to offer. On this route one of our bikes chain also got
broken so it took longer for us to reach and late in the night we reached
Guwahati. As we wanted to go to Shillong hence we didn’t want to go inside the
Guwahati city and instead kept riding on the by pass to Shillong.
#Stay
On the bypass you can find many hotels and restaurants.
Based on the budget, you can pick your choose. We stayed in a hotel named Neozone
#Shillong
From the bypass we reached the Assam -Meghalaya border
in the morning. Unfortunately, there was a bandh in Meghalaya till 5 in the
evening and hence we stopped by at the Assam – Meghalaya border working
on one of the bike’s tyre puncture.
At around 4 o’clock in the evening, a police car escorted us with other few foreigners. On the way, we again had a tyre puncture due to which we took longer to reach Shillong.
#Stay
In Shillong we stayed in a hotel named Blue mount in the
city centre but there are many more options available. As we landed up in the
city on a bandh day we had lesser options.
#Living root bridge –
Mawlynnong - Cherapunjee
You might want to take help of google maps and localites to
reach to Living root bridge as it’s very inside a village and roads are narrow
and lush green.
PS: There is another living root bridge in Cherapunjee which
has 2 levels of bridge so you could decide on which one would you like to see.
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| Living root bridge |
#Mawlynnong
It’s the cleanest village in Asia and one can see it very
easily there. Few km away, there are view points to see Bangladesh border from
the village.
#Food at Mawlynnong
The food was extremely fresh, clean and tasty and it was
same dal, rice, chicken and tea
#Cherapunjee
The road to cherapunjee is also extremely
beautiful with serpentile roads. There are many waterfalls and caves in
Cherapunjee. We visited Mawsmai which is 12 km from the city. The entry to caves it opened till 6 p.m. so you
would want to plan your trip accordingly.
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| Mawasmai caves |
#Food at Shillong
We went to cloud 9 in Shillong. It was an expensive but not
that great food place.
#Shillong - Guwahati
Today we finally started from Shillong back to Guwahati by
10 a.m. We reached to Gati office as we had to send our bikes by gati courier
back to Bangalore. We filled forms, gave
them Xerox of DL, RC and insurance paid 6000 INR for RE and 5500 for Unicorn. This
took us around 2-3 hours. Finally, we started for the railway station as we had
our train at 9:45 p.m. to Jalpaiguri. The train was late by few hours so we
veiled out time in the railway station itself. Finally our train arrived and
after 30-45 minutes of waiting at Guwahati itself, left for New Jalpaiguri.
#Jalpaiguri
Next morning by 8 a.m.,
we reached New Jalpaiguri and took a rikshaw to hotel Breeze. We went around to
the butcher market, vegetable market and bought Sondesh.
