Way to sikkim for the second time

By Tanmoy Biswas

Sikkim-this place never stopped me from being a adventure lust. nature has stuffed so many resources here which attracts me much towards it. this pulled me finally for the second time to have a visit for sikkim. We did posted a meme about our North sikkim journey on internet, which boosted lots of energy, traffic, enthusiasm & excitement by public. Thanks to them heartily.

As we planned, me & my cousin brother who stays in USA met together in 30th of December at his place- it was an ist meet with him after 9-10 months he left India, so we spent a good time that night. we had flight from kolkata to Bagdogra in next morning.

The next morning we woke up early and it was 6:30 AM we left for airport. It was JET Airways , & the flight was on time , no delay which made our arrival in Bagdogra easy. We took a private taxi to appear in Shiliguri. though there was option to reach Gangtok from there. but I think there should be  a possibility of price hiking. so its a better idea to come directly to shiliguri where we would get enough vehicles to start our journey to gangtok.

We took a shared car, which consisted 10 passengers including us & it started its journey towards Gangtok. the whole journey from west bengal to sikkim takes generally 4 hours and theres a lunch or breakfast break in between. shiliguri is a well connected region of west bengal from where anyone can choose his destination, tourists have lots of options to go for, some people can chose sikkim, some can go for pelling (west sikkim), even darjiling,kalimpong,bhutan all destinations’ car is available from shiliguri.

As our car was moving, the weather started to become cool & we soon felt that we need to wrap our neck,ears. the cool breezing was blowing through the window & the scenic beauty of the Teesta river just snatched out attention. The Teesta river leaded us the whole way & it was seemed like she is flowing with us in parallel. we dint take our breakfasts, so we were really hungry,which pushed us to an enjoyable lunch in the breaktime of the journey. then again we resumed the journey. soon we reached Rangpo- its the border region of these two states-west bengal & sikkim, there are two separate police stations in Rangpo- one is from the Darjeeling end(west bengal) & another is from sikkim side. we entered the sikkim state- a great gateway welcomed us which is above the Teesta river. then we crossed Singtam & finally we reached Gangtok- the capital of sikkim.

Its advisable to book your hotels earlier, before coming, otherwise its quite possible that you wont find any hotel vacant mostly in the peak season. if you re a new person to this state, you would find all the national highways here are uphill & downhill, so you would not walk much with your luggages. One important thing here is mentionable – the car from shiliguri to Gangtok would take you to a bus stop named- Deorali bus stop, but it would not take you to your hotel or any hotel. all these vehicles dont have their permit to ride on Gangtok city, they would just stop you to this bus stop. From this bus stop you need to hire another Taxi (sikkim Taxi,though they are not like traditional taxis,rather they are some commercial vehicles,which are made for Taxi services). Tell the Taxi driver in which hotel you wanna go or ask him to drop him to a good hotel .

I have experiences with Hotel Imperial , Hotel Madhavi. Hotel Imperial is on Tibet road, I will recommend this, but Hotel Madhavi is just a budget hotel, I had to stay here in an emergency situation.

We needed to pack our bags & get to sleep soon, so that we could wake up early in the morning, we didnot want to miss the sunrise view from the hotel window, as well as the next journeys towards Lachung.