Sikkim - A State of Mind: Day 3
Day 3: 19 April 2016
We're woken up at 4:45 AM by a cacophony of bird calls outside our room. I step out and am struck by the glorious view of the Kanchenjunga with the morning sunlight falling on it.
There are times when the camera and words cannot capture the enormity of what you're seeing and this was one of those moments. We clicked dozens of photos of the mountain emerging over the clouds.
Reports have come that the road to Lachung is still blocked and we may not be able to proceed. We go for a walk in the town on Mangan as we wait for the work to progress. As the district headquarters, Mangan has many government offices, schools and even a post office (PIN code 737116).
The "Special Branch" also has an office with a great view of the mountains.
Football (the global one and not the the American version where players use their hands and wear helmets!) has a huge following in Sikkim and we cross what is probably one of the most scenic football ground in the country.
Schools start at 9 AM and we see children on the way to school - there's a lot of climbing involved in the day to day activity of going to school.
We're already out of breath with the higher altitude and the constant ascents and descents across the town of Mangan.
The views are amazing.
The houses on the roadside are small shacks, built of wood, with the water supply catered by the mountain streams that are always flowing.
We're walking back to the hotel to get ready to depart when we're stopped by the most unusual sound one would expect to hear in these high Himalayas.
A fire engine is blaring horns and hurtling away on the dirt road towards downtown Mangan.
As a backup, we get permits to visit the hotsprings at Tarum and then proceed from Mangan towards Chungthang in case the BRO is able to clear up the roads later in the day.
Soon we're on our way towards Lachung and the grand panoramas open up again.
There's a constant war being waged by humans in Sikkim to bring a semblance of order to the mountainous land - road building is an incessant activity and the mountain strike back by discharging streams that wash away these roads, either in the streams that work slowly or a torrent that washes away swathes of land in one fell stroke.
The trails of earlier landslides mark the hillsides as we proceed.
Since the landslide has not yet been cleared. we stop for lunch so that we are ready to move once the road opens up. Our lunch options are limited - we are at a roadside restaurant beside a waterfall where the cook and her husband are plucking watercress to cook for the large number of visitors who will stop by. We speculate that these small businesses must be praying for landslides to bring customers to their doorsteps.
The the dining area has a few plastic chairs and tables and the kitchen is sparse but well lit with a sweeping view of the Lachung Chu valley,
DSC_0200 8557
We wait for 20 minutes listening to some Nepali songs playing from a USB drive on a music system studded with LED lights. Soon we're served hot Chow Mein, sauteed watercress and some pakodas.
We're hungry, the food is fresh and good and soon we order for a second round.
We see what will turn out to be a common practice across Sikkim - flowers being grown in small containers wherever possible and vegetable patches - cabbages, cauliflowers and mustard.
We're woken up at 4:45 AM by a cacophony of bird calls outside our room. I step out and am struck by the glorious view of the Kanchenjunga with the morning sunlight falling on it.
There are times when the camera and words cannot capture the enormity of what you're seeing and this was one of those moments. We clicked dozens of photos of the mountain emerging over the clouds.
Reports have come that the road to Lachung is still blocked and we may not be able to proceed. We go for a walk in the town on Mangan as we wait for the work to progress. As the district headquarters, Mangan has many government offices, schools and even a post office (PIN code 737116).
The "Special Branch" also has an office with a great view of the mountains.
Football (the global one and not the the American version where players use their hands and wear helmets!) has a huge following in Sikkim and we cross what is probably one of the most scenic football ground in the country.
Schools start at 9 AM and we see children on the way to school - there's a lot of climbing involved in the day to day activity of going to school.
We're already out of breath with the higher altitude and the constant ascents and descents across the town of Mangan.
The views are amazing.
The houses on the roadside are small shacks, built of wood, with the water supply catered by the mountain streams that are always flowing.
We're walking back to the hotel to get ready to depart when we're stopped by the most unusual sound one would expect to hear in these high Himalayas.
A fire engine is blaring horns and hurtling away on the dirt road towards downtown Mangan.
As a backup, we get permits to visit the hotsprings at Tarum and then proceed from Mangan towards Chungthang in case the BRO is able to clear up the roads later in the day.
Soon we're on our way towards Lachung and the grand panoramas open up again.
There's a constant war being waged by humans in Sikkim to bring a semblance of order to the mountainous land - road building is an incessant activity and the mountain strike back by discharging streams that wash away these roads, either in the streams that work slowly or a torrent that washes away swathes of land in one fell stroke.
The trails of earlier landslides mark the hillsides as we proceed.
Since the landslide has not yet been cleared. we stop for lunch so that we are ready to move once the road opens up. Our lunch options are limited - we are at a roadside restaurant beside a waterfall where the cook and her husband are plucking watercress to cook for the large number of visitors who will stop by. We speculate that these small businesses must be praying for landslides to bring customers to their doorsteps.
The the dining area has a few plastic chairs and tables and the kitchen is sparse but well lit with a sweeping view of the Lachung Chu valley,
DSC_0200 8557
We wait for 20 minutes listening to some Nepali songs playing from a USB drive on a music system studded with LED lights. Soon we're served hot Chow Mein, sauteed watercress and some pakodas.
We're hungry, the food is fresh and good and soon we order for a second round.
We see what will turn out to be a common practice across Sikkim - flowers being grown in small containers wherever possible and vegetable patches - cabbages, cauliflowers and mustard.
We proceed 6 km further and reach the site of the landslide. There' a huge convoy of vehicles parked - civilian vehicles, army jeeps, army trucks and taxis.
There's a single earth mover eating away at the rocks and gravel that have blocked the path, pushing them down the hill side, where they roll down, hammering at the trees that still stand. The crowd is patient, giving way for the army personnel and Border Roads staff who are directing the work. A few people have started walking across the landslide, to take the taxis that are waiting on our side of the landslide. Drivers are playing ludo, chatting with each other. One of the pedestrians takes selfies of the earth-mover behind him.
It's at times like this that we realize the immense forces at play here - a nudge on the hillside and thousands of people are cutoff, army lines disrupted. However, waiting here for the roads to clear is not like the perpetual traffic jams in Bangalore - there's no honking, instead a calm acceptance that this is the way things are. The only people pacing up and down are the tourists, worrying about whether we would be able to get to our destination by nightfall - driving on these mountain roads at night with the prospect of pre-monsoon showers and further landslides is not something we're looking forward to.
We're asked to go back- the plan is to drill a hole in the huge boulder that is blocking the road, insert dynamite and blow it open.We walk back to the car - and a short while later there are a few controlled explosions - the rocks have been spit. We walk back to see the progress and find that another earthmover has come from the other side, and they work in tandem, one pulling rocks and mud across the path and the other pushing it down the hill side.
There's a flurry of movement when the path is finally cleared - the army jeeps are the first to leave followed by the vehicles heading downhill to Gangtok. Many of the passengers in the cars have been stuck for over a day, missing their journeys back to the plains. The rush is cleared in twenty minutes and we resume our ascent to Lachung. It's 5:45 PM and darkness is swiftly falling as the sun is cut off by the peaks which surround us.
Twenty minutes later we are at the Toong Police Picket Post where we have to show our permits to enter Lachung.
We're driving in the darkness now, with the moon occasionally casting light on the mountains as it emerges from the clouds. The headlights only carry till the next hairpin bend. There's no sound except for the tires crunching on the loose gravel.
And then our destination appears. First a few scattered lights. Lachung is a small town, famous only for being the gateway to the Yumthang Valley. We pull up into Modern Residency(Taagsing Retreat) which is built in the model of a Tibetan monastery. Bags are quickly unloaded and moved into our rooms. After being roasted at almost 40C in Bangalore, it's a cold 8C here. We have a hot cup of tea before proceeding to the dining room.
It's a surreal experience.The walls and roof are lined with Buddhist motifs - it's like eating inside a temple.
The food is simple, but warm and filling.
The temperature has dropped further to 5C and our host provides us hot water bottles to warm ourselves when we go to bed.
Day 1
Day 2
And then our destination appears. First a few scattered lights. Lachung is a small town, famous only for being the gateway to the Yumthang Valley. We pull up into Modern Residency(Taagsing Retreat) which is built in the model of a Tibetan monastery. Bags are quickly unloaded and moved into our rooms. After being roasted at almost 40C in Bangalore, it's a cold 8C here. We have a hot cup of tea before proceeding to the dining room.
It's a surreal experience.The walls and roof are lined with Buddhist motifs - it's like eating inside a temple.
The food is simple, but warm and filling.
The temperature has dropped further to 5C and our host provides us hot water bottles to warm ourselves when we go to bed.
Day 1
Day 2
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