Gangtok...A Trip to The City of Monastery

The trip began with a simple plan between few friends. It was a getaway after our exams. We booked our tickets and we were off for our destination. Our trip started from Guwahati, from there we boarded our train which left us in New Jalpaiguri. Now an advice to all reading this, after you will leave the New Jalpaiguri station you will find many travel agents who will try to convince you to take their packages but do not take those packages if you wanna travel freely, also ignore all the taxi people if you are comfortable in travelling buses. So after leaving the station we took a Rickshaw from NJP Station to Siliguri Bus stand. Travelling from Siliguri to Gangtok by bus will save you almost 300 per person as bus fare is only 150 per person and taxi will charge you almost 500 per person. The bus took approx three hours to reach the destination.

The next job after reaching a destination is to find a place to stay. Second advice either book a hotel before hand or find one which can atleast provide you comfortable beds and also try finding a hotel near M.G. Marg or else you will have nothing to do in evening. So after reaching there we booked our hotel which was named Sukhim Guest House it was a well maintained and a hygienic hotel.

Now you have reached the destination, you have a place to stay, your next task is the most important one that is to roam around the city and to go for sight seeing. For this take a taxi, bargain if you can or take it on the price they say, reason being all the points are situated far away from the city so unless you can walk from morning till evening you should hire taxi. The taxi people will take you to all the points and if your driver is good enough he will also provide with all the little details that you need to know about the place.

On our first day after checking in our hotel rooms we spent the entire evening on M.G. Marg and trust me you won't get bored. That street will be the best part of our entire trip. There are all kinds of shops on the street food, clothes, souvenir name the thing and you will find it there. So we spent our entire evening on the street and you must try momos and do not miss Khan Uncle's Roll, they are the best rolls you will have and they were very cheap. The next day we booked a taxi and went for the points that were very far away from the city and which you can't miss; like Baba Harbajan Singh Temple, Tsongmo Lake. Visiting these points will take your entire day as you won't just visit these places you will also play in snow and that is the best part about these points you will find a lot of snow and you can stay there for as long as you want, our evening was the same as the previous one that is on M.G. Marg. The next day we took another taxi to visit the points that are a little close the city. Now the city is divided into two parts and the taxi will only take you to one part. Both the parts have one monastery each and there own points to visit, we took the Ranka monastery part, as this was the monastery where the shooting of TRIPLING took place after that there are several points like Tashi View point, Ganesh Tonk, Flower Exhibition center, Banjhakri falls, and many other points but these were the only ones I found interesting on this side of the city. Our trip plan also had one day reserved for Lachung but as maximum of the points there were closed due to a Glacier explosion so we cancelled that part and instead on the next day we took a bus back to home. And at last "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page". So plan a trip, pack your bags and go travel as travelling to other places is the only way you'll get out of monotony in your life.