Gangtok: The unplanned cheapest two days!

Gangtok: The Unplanned cheapest Two Days!

Albin T. John, Ankit Pal.

The beauty of unplanned journey to an unknown territory that too at thirteenth thousand feet (from the sea level) is itself an adventures imagination. Beginning merely with bare imagination of getting into that terrain with minimum expenditure makes the plan, at first, not bound to happen. However, this is the first time, i believe that it is very conducive to go to the thirteenth thousand feet in this chilling winter, otherwise i don't have any other alternate to visit with planned trip to maintain my budget. So, i decided to go, whatever the consequences will be.

After having done my classes of Friday, i had four days Bihu holidays i.e., from Saturday to Tuesday, i share this unplanned trip to my class-mates while having my lunch in Barak Hostel Mess. Earlier, i planned it to be a solo trip, with the possible lowest budget, though i was not sure if anyone, whom i would share this plan, would get ready to go with me. But one of my class-mates Albin T. John, shown his willingness. I convinced him that we could manage to expend less than one thousand rupees on our trip. Even it was unimaginable for him that we have a ready-made unplanned trip to Gangtok and Darjeeling, surprisingly he asked multiple questions regarding the trip. Now, thereafter, we decided to meet at 5 pm of Friday (or get it confirmed by 5 pm).

I was in dilemma whether i could manage this "harsh" trip with the responsibility of Albin, whom i promised the one thousand rupees expenditure. But leave it upto the fate. So Ultimately, my phone got ringing of the Albin's confirmation for the trip. As i have already packed my backpack soon after having my lunch, so i requested Albin to pack his backpack as soon as possible. Now we were to head to IIT Guwahati bus stop to get a 05:45 pm bus, as the train, DBRG - CDG Express (Train no. 15903) was scheduled to arrive at Guwahati railway station at 07:35 pm, but we missed that bus that would lead us to reach Guwahati city before the scheduled arrival of train. Now, we had to get 07:00 bus, the glitch in catching the bus was that we were standing at the wrong bus stop where buses do not ply after 05:15 pm, now we got to know that we were at wrong place, so we quickly moved to the relevant bus stop i.e., Subhansiri Bus stop of IIT, Guwahati. That bus was also supposed to be missed as we were already got late, but we somehow managed to get into the bus by running all the way after having seen the bus moving towards the IIT main-gate.

The journey already took an adventures shift while we were getting into the bus with efforts. Now, I was become susceptible of getting the train too. To avoid lined up to get unreserved second-class ordinary train tickets, i booked my train tickets through UTS app (Official Railway App for booking unreserved train tickets in India) of a mail/express train near fancy bazar, as the booking is confined to 05 kilometers radius of railway station, provided you are not at the station premise too. It cost us Rs. 130/- each. We reached to our last bus stop i.e., Reserve Bank of India office, now we had to head to station at the earliest. We took another run to reach the Guwahati station, soon after we saw the train at platform number 04, the train started moving with slow pace, here we also managed to get into the general compartment of the train. The compartment was not that much crowded as i used to see at my place. I and Albin had opportunities to take seat any-where we see no passenger thereon. Some people were lying and some were sleeping, we tried to ask some place but they were reluctant to give an inch of seat to sit thereon. I asked one of the gentleman, who was pretending to be sleeping alike but it seemed he was having no perfection in pretending. so i quickly asked him to give some place, he reluctantly allow Albin to sit. But, i, rather chosen to sit after a while. The train was a mail/express train and the route till Rangiya is a "single track route" where both up and down trains have to go after one passes another train, so we suffer with multiple unscheduled stoppage of train. But indeed, at most of the stations, the train used to reach before the scheduled arrival time. The train was having multiple type of passengers therein, one of the types was migrant workers especially from Bihar, those who are working majorly in bike service centres in North-Guwahati, some are second generation residents of Guwahati, was supposed to visit their hometown to carry on some work there as well. Another one was regular commuters of Assam itself, who was supposed to go to their home to enjoy Bihu. Though there was international migrant as well, especially from Nepal. there were a group of people who are originally from Nepal and during witer vacation (Bihu Vacation) they were going to their home to chill out there. The entire journey was going on with vendors carried on Chai, Puri-Sabzi, Gutka-Masala(Chewing Substances). Train was chilling in the January winter, passengers was enjoying songs or online game in their respective devices. There were occasional fights among people for availing to seats especially those who were covering the entire seat for their sleeping purpose. Often those who were not having seats started switching on fan in chilling January night to disturb their sleep. Station platforms was having almost no people.

Now we reached at New-Jalpaiguri junction of West Bengal State around 03:30 am. We got fresh-up there and had Lal-Chai and coffee at platform no. 01. The station Toilet and Bathrooms was very filthy though the station authority charges every individual Rs. 5/- for using toilets and the irony is there was "free Wi-Fi" with the fine speed of 4G (relatively compare to ordinary Indian places), but for filthy bathrooms was for "Pay and Use". We were supposed to go to Gangtok by Sikkim Nationalized Transport. The first Bus was at 06:30 am. To pick the bus up, we had to move to Siliguri junction (Siliguri Area). We were told by the police staff of Guwahati Railway station to pick a Auto (Tempo) from outside the Station and usual fare is Rs. 20/- per head till the Siliguri Junction area where, apart from SNT we have multiple options to go to Gangtok either by private buses or SUMO taxi which charges Rs. 250 per head.

But we essentially decided to go with State Transport service i.e., Sikkim Nationalized Transportation (SNT) that charged us Rs. 150 per head. Near Siliguri, One could easily locate the SNT Bus stop where counter tickets can be availed easily (Online tckets for SNT are not sold yet). We pick the bus with seat no. 05 and 06. The journey started with the driver namely Aakash, who is driving the bus for 6 years on this road. The journey started from Siliguri to Gangtok is along the Teesta River all the way. We stopped at one of the enroute restaurants where we had some coffee and puri sabzi, and had an opportunity to talk with driver. where he informed us about Tsomgo Lake (Popularly pronounce as Changu Lake). He convinced us about the ongoing snow-fall and shown some pictures thereof. He also gave us some clues where to roam in the Gangtok and promised to make my visit to Tsomgo Lake by a reserved car which entailed Rs. 2600/- which included some East-Sikkim sightseeing i.e., Tsomgo Lake, Baba Mandir and if possible Nathula Pass and fee for Inner Line Permit (ILP) was also included therein. Here, i got to know unlike the Arunanchal Pradesh and other part of North-East States, that there is no provision to apply for ILP individually online. Government of Sikkim has assigned this to recognized and registered tourist operators. Where usually an individual has to give his/her passport size photographs and photocopies of his/her Identity Proof (Address Proof), one day prior to scheduled visit to the protected areas. Usually the office to availing to ILP is opened on 05 Am to 08 Am, so there is no glitch to avail the ILP the same day provided you contact with the authorised persons at taxi stand at the earliest in the morning the same day. So we gave, Aakash, our photographs and Original Identity proof (we forgot xerox thereof at our room). He promised, he would inform the respective driver (his friend) to called me up around in the evening. In the bus itself, i booked hotel worth Rs. 211/- for two adults i.e., Hotel Pine Wood in the Mahatma Gandhi Market (usually known as MG Market) along the MG Road. We got down at the SNT Bus stop in Gangtok at 11:30 Am (It took 05 Hours to reach Gangtok from Siliguri) and headed towards our hotel to check-in. After having been checked-in, we had got fresh-up and preparing for having lunch. We were roaming along the MG market to find anything to eat, especially some local food. But, on Saturday, market is scheduled to remain closed, but somehow some small state of art restaurant was functioning. Albin ordered Biryani and i, Veg Momo. We enjoyed the tasty food and moved to explore the city especially the heritage site and market system of Gangtok. we visited local taxi stand, for me it is essentially a view point. Thereafter, we moved to local market, it is more likewise a state of the-art type mall, where everything can be accessed at a one point. The market was led by or in true sense monopolized by women, where almost everything was organic. As Sikkim is the only organic State in the world. Sikkim also rece ived "United Nations Oscar for the Best Policy" in 2018 for sustainable agriculture policies that are inclusive and comprehensive of all socioeconomic aspects.

We visited, on our own, "Sikkim Legislative Assembly", along with the Tashiling Secretariat (under-construction CM office and other departmental offices). Tashiling Scretariat was used to be the Palace of King Bhanu. While roaming around the localities and street, the most amazing thing, we have noticed the strict following of traffic rules, there are multiple subways to cross over the roads, riders (including the non-drivers) wear helmets, the que of vehicles that allow proper function of traffic. Interestingly, there was no traffic signals installed on the roads. Only traffic police doing their job of maintaining traffic manually. Roads and adjacent areas were cleaned. Everywhere there are dustbin installed even, we saw the dustbin at the 13000 ft. of Tsomgo Lake. Around 05 Pm, the Sun began to go down, temperature began to drop, People’s weekend gathering had begun to increase in the MG market sitting area. Well dressed up, disciplined people was busy in sitting, roaming, chatting, exploring and having food. The atmosphere was chilled, still people’s gathering was increasing until 9 pm. We had our dinner at 9 pm and way back to our hotel room. We were to awake at the early morning to visit Tsomgo Lake and other sightseeing.

Early in the morning, I got my phone ringing, he was Sanjay, who was supposed to drive us to Tsomgo lake and other enroute-sightseeing. But the conversation was not in favour of us initially. He confirmed us that small vehicles are prohibited today to ply the Tsomgo lake due to heavy rainfall. He contacted us to collect our original identity proof, which we earlier left with his friend and SNT driver Aakash. We reached their to collect our IDs and soon we got to know by an another travel agent present there that we can get into the sharing SUMO taxi by paying only Rs. 400 per head. After having discussed mutually, we respond them positively and got ready to go by this chance. I withdrawn money and soon rebook my hotel for an-another day. (we could have avoided this rebooking by checking out and put our luggage in the common area) but I got to know this policy later on. Actually we needed to pick the SUMO sharing car at the different taxi stand i.e., Vajru Lanchung Stand which is approximately 03 KMs from the MG Market Taxi Stand. We took a local taxi upto there, which costed us Rs. 80/- for both, and ultimately, we reached there and somehow managed to locate our car. We were around 9-10 people in the car, our payment had been conformed there only and we moved to our destination.

Enroute ILP checking was done by the Army men at the third mile check-post, further we were continuously moving ahead with no checking and other hinder. It took almost two hours to reach the Tsomgo Lake, which was entirely frozen. We were told by our driver that we had only one and half hour to stay here and do some walking along the lake to top of the mountain hill by a rope way. We didn’t rent the special shoes for trekking on snow and moved ahead along the lake. Entering into the lake was liable to Rs. 5000/- as well as 10 sticks on the butt as a penalty. This was duly instructed by a on duty police officer to us, in a repeating way that in the case of otherwise to the instructions, we had to get 10 sticks at our butts, it was moreover a fun for others who was waiting for their chance to get instructed by the officer-in-charge. However, we moved by our own and didn’t take Yak, the best way to commute on the snow filled track. It was cos upto Rs. 300/- for a Yak. We reached at the counter of Rope way after having played in the snow, even we had tasted the ice. The ticket was of Rs. 350/- each for the rope way. The capacity of one compartment was 6. We and other four reached the mountain top in 10 minutes and stayed there for 15-20 minutes. During Staying at the mountain Top, Albin had BSNL network in his phone, so he called his parents up there informing them that he was at the one of the highest places of India. We returned to the rope way counter area again and take coffee and Maggie at this height, it was really adventures. After having visited the lake, now we were to move to taxi stand again. Now we were to come back to Darjeeling but due to unavailability of sufficient money, we decided to head back directly to New Jalpaiguri(NJP) and supposed to take a train to Guwahati. Before taking a bus or taxi, we had our lunch, Albin ordered fried rice and i had chowmein there worth Rs. 210 for both. Now there was no Sikkim Nationalized Transport Bus, so we went to Sikkim State tourism centre to consult them how to go back to NJP. They informed us that we could take private SUMO taxi because the last SNT bus departs on 02 Pm. So we reached NJP taxi stand, by paying Rs. 25/- each via a local taxi. The taxi driver was very humble and welcoming. We greeted him and took a SUMO taxi therefrom worth Rs. 300/- each upto NJP station. We enjoyed our trip, everyone was quite interactive and we had omelette and coffee in our way and moved to NJP. We got down at the NJP railway Station at 9 Pm and started waiting our train. The train came around 1 am and we got seat in the general compartment by paying the superfast charges i.e., Rs. 145/- each. Our train was Dwarka Express (train no. 15635) which was scheduled to arrive at Guwahati around 07:30 Am that day, but was delayed by two hours. Due to unscheduled stoppage of train at Agthori Railway station (nearest to IIT, Guwahati), so we got down there and reached our campus by 08:15 Am.

Here, i am presenting the expenditure list.

S.N. Particulars Fare Remarks

01 Train Ticket (Guwahati to New Jalpaiguri)

General Second Class Mail/Express Ticket. 260

(both)

02 Auto Ticket (NJP to Siliguri Junction) 40 (Both)

03 Sikkim Nationalized Transport Bus : From Siliguri to Gangtok 300 (both)

04 Hotel Pine Wood, Gangtok 422(both) *for two days

05 Lunch 260(both)

06 Dinner 290(both)

07 Local Taxi : from MG Market to Lake taxi Stand 80(Both)

08 Sumo Taxi : To Tsomgo Lake 800 (Both)

09 Local Taxi : from Lake taxi stand to MG Market 50 (Both)

10 Lunch 210 (both)

11 Local Taxi : MG market to NJP Taxi Stand 50 (Both)

12 SUMO taxi : from Gangtok to NJP 600 (both)

13 Train Ticket : From NJP to Guwahati

General Unreserved Second-Class Ticket 290 (both)

11 Train Snacks 60+ 20, Platform Snacks 5+10+10+5 Enroute Snacks 20+60+60+50+10+10 310 (both)

Total Rs. 3962/- (Both)

Rs. 1981/- for each.