Darjeeling- Sikkim trough my eyes.

My mom was planning this trip for the longest time, my dad also kept searching for the most beautiful places to go to in Sikkim and without any doubt they were successful in planning one of the best trips of my life. It was me ,my parents and my best friend Bhumi. so it was around 10 days trip to Darjeeling and Sikkim.

We left for Ahmedabad from Vadodara early morning on 31st oct,2019. We had a flight from there to Bagdogra, Siliguri. From Bagdogra we had a taxi arranged from there to Darjeeling. On the way we passed through the beautiful Himalayas of West Bengal. As the state falls in the east of India, night falls early. so it was just 4 or 5 p.m and we were already witnessing the sunset. we haulted for a while at Kurseong, got down from our cars and could not stop taking pictures of the sky.

Our first destination was Darjeeling. I have always wanted to go to the three Ds , Dehradun, Darjeeling and Dalhousie. and this was my second D after Dehradun. i expected it to be a serene place however the crowded town disappointed me a little. As we reached at around 7 8 p.m. The town was closing down. so the only thing we witnessed was the crowd going back to their hotel rooms and stalls closing rapidly without entertaining customers.

However, day 2 at Darjeeling started beautifully as I witnessed one of the most amusing sun rises ever at Tiger hill. There were tourist all around but the beauty of the sunrise did not allow me shift my attention anywhere else. As the sun come up we saw the first ray fall on Mt Kachenjunga right on our left turning it Golden. it legit felt it was a golden treasure on the earth.

The whole day was spent visiting various tourist spots which included The peace Pagoda, The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Zoological Park, The Batasia Loop and last but not the least The famous Tea Gardens of Darjeeling.

The next day we left for Pelling, experiencing a lot of waterfalls on the way, enjoying the beauty of Sikkim and trying to sync with it. In Pelling we visited some famous places which included the Rimbi falls and the Botanical Garden.

My friend and I tried some wine here, it was a family which was in wine making business and they served us with some banana and some cardamom wine. After having a good conversation with them. We went and sat at the river Bank and spent almost an hour listening to the stream. We did not talk but our hearts did. There was no other the voice, just the stream conveying the nature's message to us.

After experiencing the mesmerizing natural sceneries (little did we know that we were yet to visit some more spectacular places) we continued our further journey to Gangtok.

On the way to Pelling we visited Namchi Char Dham Mandir. we start seeing huge statue of Shivji from far. On reaching there I got to know that it didn't only was a mini chardham it also had mini temples of 12 jyotirlingas constructed. It was a wonderful religious experience. I wish I get to go to the original Char Dhams real soon.

We also visited India's first sky walk in Pelling. I wish it was constructed in a better way and advertised well to attract more tourist however it did provide us with some beautiful photogenic locations with scenic Himalayas on one side and a colorful Buddhist Monastery with a huge Buddha statue on it.

After a stay in Gangtok, we left for Lachen where the main attraction was the Gurudongmar Lake. The temperature was -6 degree at night in Lachen, not even a glass of rum could help. Next morning as we moved to our destination listening to Nepali songs some of the tourist faced some oxygen shortage and it was obivious that they would as the lake was situated at the height of 5430 metre above the mean sea level.

It isn't merely a lake, it is one of those dream destination for those who love mountains and the life there. I think words would not do enough justice to the beauty. Hence, attaching the pictures

This was the ultimate destination of our tour after which we visited two more special places namely The Nathula pass which has a story of it's own, there is a temple of a martyr soldier BABA HARBAJAN SINGH who is said to be serving even after his death and Army kept promoting him and he retired as a Captain. On the way back we also got a glimpse of the Changgu lake.

The last but not the least was the Yumthang valley, we had to drop the plan to zero valley for some reasons. however, yumthang was the cherry on the top. beautifully embedded with colorful flowers, surrounded with snow clad mountains, clean and most of all a beautiful river flowing by. what else brings more peace than the sound of flowing river and the blowing wind. I legit wanted to spend some more time there. however trip had to come to an end and so this was it. we later travelled to Gangtok and after a overnight stay left for airport with our hearts filled.

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