Mid-October 2017. That’s the month we decided to head off to the northeast and have a piece of the Sikkim Adventure. My research suggested October as the ideal month for visiting both Sikkim and Darjeeling. As the weather would be neither hot nor too cold.
Our plan was simple. Reach Bagdogra Airport. Take a shared cab to Sikkim. Rent a Motorcycle in Gangtok. Have a road trip to Nathula Pass and Changu lake. Spend the remaining days exploring Gangtok town. Then head to Darjeeling via shared Cab.
Except things never go as planned, do they? First off, Sikkim is not Goa. In Sikkim, you will not find a motorcycle rental easily. Nor will it be cheap if you do.
Who are WE, you ask? I am this guy. And my lady friend chooses to stay anonymous. Apparently, her parents (and perhaps the society at large) are not yet ready to see their unmarried girl have a big adventure out of their reach. To see their girl go on a motorcycle trip to Sikkim. To live.
Anyway, here we go. In Kolkata airport, towards Bagdogra.
Getting Ready for a Sikkim Adventure
After reaching Gangtok, Tourgenie handed me a Honda CBR 250 to scale the mountains. Now a few Heads Up. I had never ridden the heavy CBR 250 before. And I had never ridden a motorcycle on the mountains before. (Nathula was at a 14200 ft). So I was excited about doing both in Gangtok Sikkim.
The traffic police in Gangtok-Sikkim are extra crazy towards Motorcyclists, so I was told. You can’t find a place to park your vehicle. You can’t take a U-turn at nearly anywhere. Hell, you can’t even Honk. (What!). Yeah, Gangtok has a strict no honking policy. Violate any of these rules and there is a Rs. 500 Fine.
Things were in a rush and I got my ride only a few hours before my ride to Nathula Pass. I didn’t have any time to practice riding in the mountains, so the journey itself became my practice.
My mind was constantly juggling with
A. going the right way following Google maps (because, no U-turn)
B. keeping my balance on the mountains roads.
and C. not to Honk.
Us Odiyas love to honk our horns in Bhubaneswar streets, and honking is more like a reflex action for us. So it was too difficult to control the urge.
Juggling through all of these points, we started our journey from our hotel to Nathula Pass.
Sikkim Adventure One: Nathula Pass
You will have to head towards Ganesh Tok, a popular Ganesh temple and viewpoint to reach the road to Nathula. Only up to Ganesh Tok you will encounter Gangtok traffic. After that, it will be a 50 km smooth ride without much traffic.
The road to Nathula Pass is about 25 ft wide and damn snaky. You will be taking curve after curve while heading upwards. The mountain walls will be to your left, and the valley at the other side of the road. If you are going on a motorcycle, the safe speed should not be more than 25kmph.
Soon you will find yourself way above the clouds. You can take a look down the road and see clouds floating underneath. The wind is too chilly here so you must be ready with your winter jackets; especially in you plan on visiting here in the winters. All of these experiences are only possible on a motorcycle, being inside a car actually kills the fun.
I must say, the Sikkim Government has done one hell of a job maintaining the road to Nathula pass. The road is easily one of the best riding experiences in your life. There are army cantonments and tourist facilities at some points within the road but the journey is clear and secluded for the most part. Army trucks and heavy tourist vehicles also pass you by every now and then. Spotting other motorcyclists on this route is a semi-rare thing especially in winter.
Every vehicle and tourist entering into Nathula region requires a permit, which you can obtain from any tour operator in Sikkim. But you have to apply one day prior to your journey. Also, Nathula Pass is open for tourists only five days a week, excluding Mondays and Tuesdays. And only till 2 PM in the afternoon. So you need to plan accordingly.
Nathula Pass is a protected Army Site. You cannot bring any of your stuff like camera or cellphones here because strictly No photography allowed. The place will be crawling with Indo-Tibet Border Police on this side, and Chinese Soldiers on the other, divided only by a thin line of wires. Yep, folks, this here is India, and that there is China. You are standing inches away from Chinese territory.
Before visiting, I had read many where how patriotic it feels on top of Nathula pass. Yes, your chest swells with pride interacting with our soldiers on top of that ice cold mountaintop. They are absolute sweethearts. They served us hot coffee, cup after cup. And showed us around the Nathula Pass main gate, which is the official entryway to and from China. I also waved at the Chinese soldiers standing at the other side of the border. They giggled and blushed like little schoolgirls while waving back.
Our Soldiers acknowledged how cold the ride must have been and complimented us on being the only solo couple in months to arrive at Nathula Pass on a motorcycle. They also gave us a souvenir certificate for conquering Nathula Pass. Being complimented by the Heroes themselves, it made all of it worth it. Memories built for a lifetime, adventure one seemed to complete.
Not quite, no.
Riding in the Himalayas. In Rain.
It is actually safer to be going up than to come rolling down from a 14,000 ft height. The mountain walls constantly protected your left while going up. Whereas on your way back, there’s nothing but an abysmal valley to your immediate left. Also, the vehicle would just keep rolling downhill for almost all the journey back (nearly 50 kilometers) even without any ignition. So I turned off the engine (to save fuel) and balanced the bike with brakes alone (Try this at your own risk). You don’t want your tires to skid while taking a nasty turn and kiss the clouds while free falling, so the brakes will be your best friend.
All in all, rolling down miles and miles on a turned off motorcycle was a lot of fun.
Then came the rains. It was almost 3 PM and the clouds that were way below in the beginning were now moving upwards. Clouds don’t look blue and white when you are passing through them, they are more like dark and grey with rain coming through them. The snaky and secluded roads as it was, started getting worse because of the rain and the fog. The roads were getting slippery by the minute and you couldn’t see anything beyond a few meters ahead due to the fog.
Soon enough, we got wet completely and shaking vehemently due to cold. There was no shelter to save yourself from the rain, you just gotta keep moving. Like I had mentioned, I had no prior experience in mountain riding, let alone in rain and fog. I decreased our speed to just 15 KMPH., no unnecessary risk-taking now. The waterfalls passing through the road were in full force due to the rain, they seemed to swallow our bike halfway. Curve after curve, circle after circle, our ride kept rolling down in the rain for 20 some kilometers.
Finally, the rains seemed to subdue. The secluded, slippery and foggy roads were behind us now. So was the excitement and the danger. We felt kind of lucky at that moment having pulled through all that. What remained was a feeling of achievement, glory, and living to the fullest. Like they say, Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Looking back, it all seems too easy now, like we could do it a hundred times again.
A bright and vivid rainbow welcome us back into the path of civilization, towards Gangtok. The perfect end to our first day in Sikkim, and my first big Sikkim Adventure.
But day one was nothing compared to what was in store for us the next day. Read on about the Day two of our Sikkim Adventure in the next page.
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It was day two of our stay in Gangtok, and we had planned a visit to the Temi Tea Garden to have our next big Sikkim Adventure. Our tour guide Phurba Bhutia drew us a rough map of our way towards Temi which was at a distance of 50 km.
Sikkim Adventure Two: Temi Tea Garden
Up to a point called Temi Tarku, it was all city and population. Markets, main roads, petrol pumps and all that. But afterward, which was an uphill journey, things quieted down all of a sudden. It’s the feeling you get when you take a wrong turn on a goat path thinking it to be a shortcut, only to find there’s not a soul in sight and the road is never-ending. Rather, it just got narrower and narrower and soon we found ourselves surrounded by woods. The kind of woods that grows on mountain ranges.
Temi Tea Garden is located about 7200 ft above sea level (Gangtok is at 5100 ft). Here’s what the journey was like. The road was less than 12 ft wide, and it was mostly non-concrete, rocky and full of potholes. Constantly elevating upwards and taking a sharp turn every 100 meters or so. So all you are doing is going round and round uphill. Every turn was looking exactly identical, I lost count after like the twentieth turn. Here I realized why they call the route to Nathula pass “The Silk Route”. Because the road to Nathula was indeed a silky smooth ride compared to this one. The roads there were wider, smoother, and with far lesser turns than this one. Here the mountains are even covered with tall trees and dense bushes, making everything seem dark and grim. And the waterfalls. Oh, we must have spotted at least a dozen waterfalls of all sizes on our way up to the Temi Tea Garden, some even passing right through the road. I remember mentioning to my co-rider, “Only Animals and Ghosts must be living here.”
Nathula pass was at a distance of 57 km, whereas Temi is only 50 km far from Gangtok. That’s what says the Google maps. In reality, the same two people on the same motorcycle took 2x the time and the effort to reach the latter. Needless to say, it got our Sikkim Adventure higher up a notch and made the yesterday’s big adventure to Nathula yesterday seem like a cakewalk. (or Silkwalk).
Temi Tea Garden is Heaven on Earth
On the very top of the garden, there is a nice little tea house where you can have refreshments and taste a variety of tea flavors. All the while treating your eyes with the Tea garden view from the window. Here you can also purchase the internationally acclaimed Temi Tea at much lesser prices. Next to the tea house is a cute little entrance to the tea garden. The weather here is cool throughout the year.
The beauty of this place can’t be put together in words. It’s like, you know the earth is round but yet it seems flat as far as you can see, right? Same here. It’s miles and miles of Green Tea fields, far as your eye can capture. The tea fields submerge with the foggy mountains in the background. And if you so happen to chase the far silhouette of the garden to what you thought to be the end, you will witness even more green tea fields far as your eyes could see. If you look up, the tea fields would merge with the canvas of the sky as the background. You can take a stroll all day long and never get tired. Here is a video of the place.
A Nightmare Comes True
Thankfully, heading down these mountains is often 2x faster, all you have to do is keep rolling while adjusting your brakes. So we did, everything was going as planned and we would have reached Gangtok before 4. And probably explore some other place in the city. The day was well spent and one more hour for the Second Sikkim Adventure to complete.
But No.
Now let me tell you about a nightmare that I dread being in. I never, I mean never want to be caught up in an isolated place while traveling with a girl. I dread being part of the horror stories we read in the newspapers.
Yet here we were. The motorcycle was slowing down, it was refusing to accelerate anymore. It was dying on us, in the middle of a jungle, on a mountain thousands of feet above the ground. It was cold as it was raining, and there wasn’t a soul in sight. NIGHTMARE.
I tried to avoid the unpleasant truth for long as I can, as we were moving very fast and I wanted to cover as much distance as we can before having to face the truth. But the truth caught up eventually and the motorcycle duly came to a screeching halt.
It was an intersection point. There was this second road going down in what seemed like the steepest slope I saw in all of Sikkim, leading to what looked like a depot for trucks at a distance. There were people there. Labourers, truck drivers, and repairmen. So we could either wait here isolated on the main road waiting for help, or we could go down this road and at least be among other people. So, unsure as I was, I slid down.
Now it had started raining to the point of needing an umbrella, which we luckily had with us. So we parked our bike a little further from the trucks. Then I tried starting the engine for like a hundred times. Autostart, kick start, all of it to no avail.
I noticed smoke coming out of the motorcycle engine. I put my hand on the engine and it was hot as hell. This must be the problem, a seized up Engine. Maybe cooling down the engine will help. Of course, we could have waited for the engine to cool down by itself, except it was almost 4 PM now, was getting darker and more due to the rains. A couple more hours and I knew we would be in deep shit.
So I wanted to speed up the process. I found a water source nearby. Using a plastic bottle, I fetched water to pour on the engine to cool it down. Like I thought, the water instantly fizzled into gas as soon as it touched the engine. Such was the temperature on the engine surface. I must have gone to and fro fetching the water more than twenty times.
Then the engine seemed to cool down a notch or two. Still, no luck starting the engine. Finally, I went to one of them truckies asking for help. By the grace of God, they seemed to be good men. One of them checked our vehicle thoroughly and found the problem. Apparently, the engine oil had been completely dried up, the engine was running completely empty for the last couple hours. That too revving up on these mountain ranges. The motorcycle rental company had done a bad job in checking before renting. In any case, we are stuck up here.
That’s all the help those two truckies could offer, as they were repairing their truck themselves.
So we need engine oil for the bike. And we could get it in the nearest petrol pump which was still more than 12kms away from this place. If only we could get our bike to roll downhill to that point. But there were two problems. One. Now we have to go back to the main road which is, like I mentioned before, now at the steepest climb in all of Sikkim, nearly 300 meters of sharp 60 degrees uphill. And two. Even after getting back on the main road, it is not a downhill journey immediately, but a nearly 3 km uphill journey. Which is why the bike halted here in the first place.
A Hustle to Survive
So, I and my lady friend went door to door to every guy standing nearby. Men of all ages, and some kids as well. And requested all of them to lend us a hand pushing the vehicle for this 300 meters steep climb. We managed to get 2 of them agreeing.
Now the Honda CBR 250 is a heavy vehicle, 165 kilos of dead weight to be precise. We started pushing it uphill, me leading in the front with the handles, and both of them holding it from the rear end. One push, the vehicle didn’t budge, rather the rock under my shoes seemed to slide away. I looked back and the guys were only balancing the vehicular movement, not really putting any strength in pushing. Their faces were amused and seemed like they were enjoying this whole thing. So I was mostly on my own abilities.
To say it took all of my training, strength, and determination to get it to the top; would be an understatement. I had never done something so grueling and physical in all my life. I was cursing myself why did I slide the bike down to the depot in the first place. Those 300 meters, Man. The slope was too slippery with small stones.and my feet lost their balance several times, but somehow I managed to hold my ground. I was panting like a dog once I was on the top of the road again. The two guys were passing weird comments and asking me questions but all I was doing was panting.
Yet, there was no time for celebrations. We need a way to move the vehicle further some 3km or so. These next 3 km is not so steep like the last one, yet the bike will not drag itself. We parked the bike on the side of the road and walked to a nearby tea stall. The owner was a lady herself and she understood our situation. She called for help, a resourceful cabbie who arrived in some time. It was nearly 5 PM, the dark was dawning on us. My lady friend was exhausted too from all the walking so she sat inside the cab. The cabbie tied the bike with the thinnest piece of rope and asked me to balance for the next 3 kilometers as he drags the vehicle. That I did; or tried to do. Except you know, the road wasn’t exactly silky smooth. Only 15 feet wide pathway, and gasping freefall to the side.
Also, Pothole here, pothole there. One jerk from a pothole and bam, the rope broke. The cabbie was very patient, he was promised handsome remunerations after all. He got down and reconnected the ropes with some effort. But still, it didn’t last too long. It was almost dark by then and I didn’t want to waste any more time. So I suggested to hold the car with one hand and balance the bike with another. We gave it a try, and despite feeling like my arm is going to dislocate from my shoulders trying to pull this 165kg deadweight uphill, we finally managed to reach the sweet spot. The spot from which there is nothing but a downhill roll. The cabbie bid goodbye and left me and my friend to God’s mercy.
We covered the next 10 kilometers in under 10 mins, rolling down at a speed of 50kmph. We just wanted to come out of the mountains before it is too dark. Both of us were completely wet due to the rain, thirsty and exhausted. Sikkim had tested our physicality to the extremes. Finally, we reached the gas station. Put an engine oil. And couldn’t believe ourselves when the stupid piece of junk finally started up. We finally reached our hotel room at nearly 8 in the night.
The second half of the day was ruined to dust. But looking back, I couldn’t say if all of it was a bad thing. Sure, it was a nightmare, being stranded there all alone. But did we learn something? Yes, we did. Will we remember it all our lives? Yes, and in a good way.
And would we want to visit Temi Tea Garden again in life? Of course, we would, and on a motorcycle only.
Such was the day two of my Sikkim adventure.
So I thought I’ve faced the worst and survived. Boy, could I be more wrong? Throughout my stay in Sikkim, each day seemed like the most challenging one ever; only to be proved wrong the next day. Read on.
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3So I had used up all places in Gangtok and some in Sikkim, so I thought it’s time to head to Darjeeling as my Sikkim adventure is finally over. WRONG, Sikkim wasn’t done with us. Right, when we were escaping from Sikkim’s clutches to seek safe harbor in Darjeeling; we were thrown on our faces the next big adventure in Sikkim.
We boarded the shared Tata Sumo to Darjeeling at 2 from the taxi stand in Gangtok. Like all other days in Sikkim, this one also started perfectly, without seemingly an iota of a chance that anything could go so horribly wrong. It was supposed to be a five-hour journey, Gangtok to Darjeeling, so we should be reaching our booked hotel in Darjeeling, at about 7?
We wish! We were on the NH10, enjoying the sight of the evergreen Teesta river flowing alongside the road. It was a one-way road, and not too wide. All our luggage was fastened tightly on top of the vehicle, the time was 3 in the afternoon, and we spotted a traffic jam ahead. Not the kind of traffic jam you would want to be in. It was stretching for miles. And miles. Far as your eyes could see in these snaky pathways they call highways. “Nothing to worry, it should clear up soon”, said our driver.
Sikkim Adventure Three: The Roadblock
But nothing seemed to move, not a single vehicle. We kept waiting. Our driver finally got down and went on foot to get more information. We waited. An hour passed, other vehicles kept on jamming behind us. No one had a clue what was going on.
Our driver soon returned with a long face. He didn’t say much. Only this “It could take many more hours.”
What choice did we have? With nothing to do and nowhere to go, all passengers got out of the vehicle. And joined the hordes of other passengers from the other vehicles. Ninety percent of those vehicles were loaded with tourists, and nobody had a fucking clue what was happening. Or when anything will happen?
Thankfully we were parked in a market area, so there was enough food and water even when we were stranded here. But how difficult waiting is. We had thought of finally relaxing in Darjeeling after the three tough days in Sikkim, and starting this evening. Now we don’t know when, and if we’ll reach Darjeeling anymore. We couldn’t even turn back to Gangtok now, as even behind us the vehicles have been piling up for miles and miles.
All of this was too much. We weren’t really going anywhere, so I decided to take a walk and visit the source of the problem. Left my lady friend along with the other passengers, all sitting and chatting in that market area. And started walking.
A good 15 minutes walk alongside the parked vehicles on one side and the Teesta river-valley at the other. Gradually the parked vehicles subdued, followed by a dense crowd. Many policemen, and even more Army personnel. There I witnessed the problem. A gigantic Army truck carrying emergency medical supplies had fallen down the river. Maybe a hundred foot deep. And two large cranes were trying to get it back on the road. Blocking all vehicular movement on both sides in the process.
This was taken 3.30 in the afternoon.
A Military Rescue Operation
I took a grasp of things by talking to the people gathered as well as a few policemen. Apparently, it was a poor management decision to block the roads in the middle of the day. The Army officials acknowledged that they should have started the rescue operation at midnight when there was less traffic. But anyway, the Cranes are already here, they have already attached the hooks to the fallen truck, even have managed to get it out of the water and hanging midway in the valley. Now nobody has any choice but to wait for the rescue mission to complete; until the truck is back on the road.
So it went on. Minutes turned into hours. The truck must weigh a few tons, and it required strategic rescuing. One wrong move and the dead weight might even drag the two Cranes back into the valley, into the River. So the placement of the hooks was being carefully changed after every few feets of elevation. Crane engines revving, the smog of diesel burning and the crowd roaring with every movement of the truck.
Soon it started getting dark, and the rescue was not even halfway through. We were standing on a mountain road overlooking a valley and the power had been cut in the whole zone due to the rescue operation; as the power lines were too close to the Crane’s movement. Soon the clock hit Seven and it got pitch black everywhere. That is when the operations slowed down significantly, nothing was visible down the valley. Everyone started fearing that they might even have to spend the night here on the road. There were a few army men with flashlights. That, combined with the Crane’s headlights, that was all that’s available to get the mammoth sized vehicle moving up. And clearly, they weren’t enough. Especially in order to see how the Truck’s holding up vertically hanging in the valley. A couple of men turned on the flashlights on their cellphones to assist the army, but most didn’t. No one wants to be stuck out here with a dead cellphone because they used up their batteries on the flashlight. Somebody had to do something, the mission could use all the help it could get.
I had already walked to and from the market and our other passengers several times now, and been giving them updates about the rescue. Only this time I walked back looking for help. I purchased the most powerful flashlight the market had to offer and went back to the rescue zone. Everyone in the crowd even made way for me seeing the light in my hands, and soon I was at the front line of the rescue operations along with the other torch-bearing army men. I kept glaring the light down the road towards the hung vehicle as the hook operators moved back and forth the valley doing their thing. The Cranes and its operators kept doing their job, one strategy at a time.
This was taken at 8 in the evening. Notice how dark the whole area is?
Little by little, finally the truck reached a position from which it won’t fall down again. 3 PM to 9 PM. 6 hours worth of waiting, and quite some effort. But the mission was finally a success.
The Wait Seemed to be Over
You should have seen the speed with which everybody got back into their cars and buses once the army gave the green light. The trail of vehicles has now stretched for like ten kilometers, both ahead and behind us. The rescue mission was a success, it doesn’t mean everyone can hurry off on their journeys. Vehicles moved at a speed of less than 5kmph, and with constant halts. This went on for another couple hours. Our driver proclaimed it as the rarest of rare events on this road, being the first ever he has witnessed in his career. Had to be on the day we were traveling, too fucking great.
The entire highway was full of petrol and diesel smog due to the rush and sudden vehicular movement. Not an ounce of fresh air, nowhere to escape to. My lungs must have breathed a lifetime of pollution in a couple hours in that traffic on that God-forsaken day. Everyone was looking sick, especially my lady friend who seemed almost lifeless on the verge of such punishment. To think how the previous two challenges went in Nathula and Temi Tea Garden, they were too good the memories compared to this one. I would still choose those experiences many times over this.
Long story short, the traffic finally cleared and our driver revved his Sumo round and round uphill, to Darjeeling. All of us were sick, hungry and exhausted. I and my partner were looking for nothing more than a clean shower, a decent meal and to rest for the night in our hotel.
But Was Our Hardship Over? Hell No.
The day was cursed indeed. Little did we know that Darjeeling and the nearby areas turn into a ghost town as early as 9 PM in the night. Check out our journey to Darjeeling at 10 in the night in the below video.
As you can see, a Ghost town. Apparently, Darjeeling was undergoing through a rough patch in history with the ongoing protest against the West Bengal Government. It seemed to me like everyone just packed their bags, locked their homes and left. Not a single light was on. Not a single soul in sight, humans or animals. Only the loud hum of insects, tall pine trees and abandoned looking buildings.
For city dwellers like us, we were completely unprepared for this. No restaurant to buy dinner from, not an open shop to buy even a bottle of water. We called up our hotel and he confirmed the same thing. That Darjeeling shuts down early evenings. Sure, we would stay in our hotel but we just have to sleep hungry. Some hospitality, some welcome into Darjeeling.
That was the last chapter in the three days of grueling Sikkim adventure, and we lived it.
My overall Sikkim experience is mixed. I wouldn’t say it was all rosy and good, but it was like life itself. Full of ups and downs. I am just happy that we faced this adversity and conquered them all as a couple. This is not something most couples do. This is not something most people do.
If you are planning a trip to Sikkim or Darjeeling soon, you can take cues from my experiences on what to know before heading to Sikkim & Darjeeling.
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