North East - V : Mesmerising Gangtok #northeastphotos

The first place where our taxi driver-cum-guide brought us to was Enchey Monastary, which was also very near to our hotel. Established in 1909, this sacred place devoted to Buddhism is highly colourful, very calm and serene. It is not allowed to talk loudly there. Right from the main entrance to the main prayer hall, very rich and vibrant colours - red, gold, blue, green dominate the scene. We didn't know how to pray in a monastary so just folded our hands as a mark of respect and left for the next stop -

2nd Stop : Bakhtang Water Falls

There is nothing extra-ordinary at this place. There is a small fountain which must be very forceful during monsoon. Rock climbing and flying fox activities are offered there but all of us, being senior citizens did not venture for the same! Across the road, there was a cafe also but we had taken our breakfast hardly half an hour before so we didn't enter the cafe and got into the cars for the next attraction.

Tashi View Point

Some of the ladies with us, when saw lots of stairs to climb, refused to go to the Tashi View Point which offers wonderful views of Kanchenjunga peak. In order to lure the tourists to climb, there were pani-poori wale also midway to the Tashi View Point. People were taking selfies on the platform and there was quite rush there because a large number of deaf and dumb girls had arrived there from some local school. As the kilometer stone pointed out, this place is 6 km from Gangtok market, 129 km. from Siliguri, 54 km. from Nathu La and 90 km. from Chungthang. I don't know what Chungthang is.

4th Stop : Ganesh Tok

Ganesh Tok literally means "a hill dedicated to Lord Ganesha". True to its name, Ganesh Tok is a small but ancient temple and is situated at an altitude of 6000 ft., as I found written on a board there. Local people have deep faith in the powers of the presiding deity 'Vinayak' or Lord Ganesha.

After leaving our taxi, we approached the stairs after leaving our shoes at the designated place. An old woman was selling prasad on the middle floor. The octagonal construction of the temple was attractive but different from the usual style of temples found elsewhere. There were colourful flags tied across the road.

I spent some time with my camera at the temple floor and also in the parking lot where some make shift shops were displaying highly colourful items.

After spending nearly half an hour at Ganesh Tok, it was the turn of Hanuman Tok, a temple dedicated to Lord Hanuman at still higher hill. But let's talk about that in the next post.

In case you would like to visit my earlier posts pertaining to this trip, here are the links for the same:

North East : I - It was love at first sight

North East : II - Darjeeling

North East : III - Kalimpong

North East : IV - Namchi Char Dham

I have also written a review of Hotel Summit Golden Crescent and Resort, Gangtok which can be found here.

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