Tibet has always allured me.. but I do not know when will I be ever able to visit the place.. I am also a staunch supporter of the Free Tibet movement and relish the works of Dalai Lama and Rinpoches. Thats why I now write about Sikkim and Gangtok which has many attributes of Tibetans coming on from there and also from the people now settling in.. to let you on whatever little knowledge that I possess about this heavenly place..
There are various ways to get to Gangtok.. via the Bagdogra airport (which would need a connecting flight from Kolkotta) or via the Guwahati airport or railways. You could even hit the road enroute Siliguri or Darjeeling and visit these places as well.. anyway, however you may want to visit, I’m sure the travel agent will have more ways up his sleeve then I can ever think of!
Gangtok is somehow to me very much like Shillong (capital of Meghalaya).. same hill station environment and nice people. I made it a point to stay at Hotel Tibet and this January 2003, my Mum and husband had accompanied me.
Hotel Tibet belongs to the Dalai Lama and often, there are many foreigners coming in here. So you would expect this hotel to be a little on the expensive side compared to other hotels in the area but worth it and if you look at it from other cities, this hotel is economical.
Local taxis in the form of maruti vans can take you around the city to view the local viewpoints.. for more of the adventurous kind who’d like to wander a bit far away from the heart of the city, its usually Sumos and jeeps.
Right, so I’ll start from the city.. when you enter Gangtok on road via Siliguri/Darjeeling, you’ll find a beautiful oriental styled gate adorning the checkpost.. I really felt I was entering the Himalayan kingdom.. obviously after that, all tourist taxis take you to the ’hotel area’ of the city and as I mentioned, it was Hotel Tibet for us. The hotel itself has many souveniers which you can take home and proudly show off to everyone. If you’re interested in feng shui and lucky signs, this is the place which will offer you such wares at dirt cheap prices compared to most other cities in this region.. you can choose from the lucky 3 gold coins, the 6 lucky signs, the wind chimes and a host of other oriental products.
While I was there, I got myself this book that I had always wanted but somehow never had got an opportunity to buy it: :The tibetan book of living and dying by Songyal Rinpoche. Now as the book says, Rinpoche means a Master or a learned one. Tibetans/Buddhists believe that this present life is just a temporary passing phase and the local dialect for ’body’ means luggage which is used in travel and needs to be discarded once the journey is complete.
The heart of Gangtok has banks and ATMs accepting all major debit/credit cards, so you’ll have no problem if you run out of cash which just might be a problem in most places in the north-east. So we booked a Sumo and headed out to the hills the next day. There is also a viewpoint in Gangtok city which you might want to visit. But a few kilometers outside the city is the holy Tsomgo Lake pronounced by the locals now as ’Shomgo’’. At a considerable height of 13, 000 ft, this beautiful lake was frozen in snow when we visited.. the picture mouthshut portrays of Gangtok is that of Yak riding (during the summer) which is available at the lake for around Rs.20. I had a whale of a time riding a Yak! and so did my husband. Ma decided to take the conventional excuse of being too old for this to not take a ride and instead concentrated on talking and meeting the locals there who were very hospitable and even took a few pictures with my very beautiful Ma! & let me tell you, she’s not too old for yak riding as she says.. she was just scared perhaps.
Ahead of the lake is a shrine dedicated to Baba Harbhajan Singh.. a army men who had ( as the legend goes) single handedly kept that post from the Chinese for a long time before reinforcements came in from the Indian army. He died in battle and his soul is said to be still at that post. That is why all his possessions are still maintained and his clothes are kept pressed regularly including a peg of rum by his bedside. You wouldn’t believe it, but legend and local people say very convincingly that the clothes are worn out or crumpled by the end of the day and the peg of rum is also consumed. Moreover, the jawans on the post are alerted or often disturbed by Baba if they are found neglecting their duty. I saw the tremendous amount of faith in him when I noticed most of the tourist vehicles adorning his name on their windshield. It is said that he visits his home in Amritsar for his leave period and is provided with transportation by the army and I believe the jawans also have full faith in him.
Besides the mystical and supernatural described by me above, Gangtok is also adorned by beautiful white flags on its mountain heights. Tibetans/buddhists put up such white flags when a near or dear one dies, if I’m not wrong for peace of the soul travelling and on its way through its journey. The higher up the flag is hoisted the better or bigger the person is in status.... so as you ascend in Gangtok, you’ll find more rows of flags fluttering in the breeze.. a beautiful sight indeed! & of course there are these colourful flags adorning every household fixed on a bamboo pole which is posted by a local priest after offering prayers to the nakshatras and asking for peace in the house and to ward off evil.
The next day, someone mentioned Yumthang valley to my husband and we were literally forced to extend our stay in Gangtok by a few more days since Yumthang meant travelling for an entire day with a stop at Laichung. Now Laichung is interiors of Sikkim and here you literally wont find any banks, leave alone ATMs! The army maintains most of the region with the BRO (Border Roads Organisation) playing a major role in constructing roads in this very difficult terrain as well as removing snow everyday so that tourist like us could visit all the spots we wanted. So when we reached Laichung by evening, we learnt there were no lights and it had been that way for the past one week! They have to wait for such facilities since its a far flung place and someone practically has to travel with all the equipments right from Gangtok or a nearby town. Laichung Inn where we were given a room had candles for light, but a nearby hotel had a generator and that attracted my husband who went in for food. He noticed everyone drinking beer (he thought it was that initially) but was served the local rice beer which is frothy with hot water being poured into your drink!
The next morning we headed off to Yumthang.. now many people get disappointed when they reach Yumthang cause there’s no one here to tend to you.. thats the beauty! virgin unspoilt snow unlike that of Tsomgo Lake or the other more popular tourist destinations adorn Yumthang. You;re the King of your world here.. no one else except your vehicle and just snow and beautiful mountains all around you.. there’s a beautiful little cottage constructed by the tourist department on the way (which is obviously closed) where we had clicked pictures.. our guide was right! Nobody could make out it was Yumthang.. everyone back home had one question ’’When did you visit Switzerland is it?’’ or ’’When did you go abroad this year?’’. Because just a handful of tourists opt for such a far flung place such as Yumthang, you’ll get it all for yourself.
What would you say: Land of the living or dying?