Secret Sikkim

It seems like an age ago since I was in Sikkim and a month on the road really is.

I arrived in Gangtok the central town of the province of Sikkim in Indias far north east. It is a bustling tourist town for Indians and home to an affluent mix of Nepali, Tibetan and Anglo-Indians which showed all of us backpackers up with their fine jeans and rip off labelled outdoor wear.

To get into Sikkim you need a permit. Free in price but not in hassle. It had meant I held up a jeep load of locals for 30minutes at the check point. As I walked down the street in Gangtok, dodging the evening rain two guys I met at the checkpoint shouted “New Zealand Girl”. They beckoned me into shelter where I met a German guy and two Hungarians. We needed a group of at least 5 Foreigners at least to hire a jeep and get more permtits to be able to go to the holy lake of Changu bordering Tibet. It meant we would be going high into the hills, near snow! And after months in the heat I was excited to use the merino clothes I had been carting around with me!

The trip to Lake Changu was rather pedestrian for Sikkim, high winding roads sweeping us above the tree line to 3780m. The snow was unsurprisingly cold and the lake disappointingly small (about the size of a football pitch round – so, similar manmade lakes in city parks in our countries). There was a nice selection of well decorated yaks to be ridden – whilst guided by a man in jeans and a LA Lakers cap. The groups of people visiting were rich Indians all there to see snow for the first time.

Bollywood meets Lake Changu snow

I couldn’t help but feel like I was on a set for a Bollywood film a lot of the time. As the thunder clouds loomed for the day and hail started to fall many were excited by their first experience with snow…I was fast to point out it was hail and that snow was much nicer to experience. It seems peculiar to me to not experience all weathers and seeing adults in child like wonder at the weather conditions made me see it through fresh eyes, and be very pleased for those who had briefly hired a jacket and gumboots/wellingtons to brave the elements…the poor ladies in saris and sandals never ceased to amaze me. We were the last of all the jeeps to leave the mountain and after stopping for Momos, the army swooped in and sent us down hill where slides were common and we then had to wait out clearance of a couple. It was a fun experience. Hats off to the people working on the roads in these hideous conditions.

As an aside the roads signs were hilarious in the region – claiming to be excellent roads when most of them would not be farm worthy let alone for public use! But seeing the people break rocks and cast them made me begin to understand the hardships of the hills and the lack of access these people have to machinery and skills we have so freely in the West.

Over the next couple of days I spent time with  Stefan (a German returning from a year in Australia) and Adi (an Israeli Architect) attempting to see parts of Sikkim where we could do some trekking. But we ended up spending more time in Jeeps than we would have liked, taking in Pelling, Ravangala, and Lake Khecheopalri before going our separate ways.

Sakyamuni Gompa with the Himalayas beyond

Ravangla afforded us a walk up a hill, we enjoyed the walk and the talk and didn’t make it to see the Monk living at the top of the hill before clouds loomed and we reached shelter as a hail storm hit. The following morning we made for the hills early to see a spectacular view across the Himalayas with the newly renovated (and not yet finished for tourists) Sakyamuni Gompa where a 41m high gold statue of Buddha rests on the upper hillside. To see the tallest mountains in the world (Everest and Khangchendzonga was enough for me – or at least that was the mountains I believed I saw, they don’t have little toothpicks with signs on them you know!).

Lake Khecheopalri

Pelling offered us a hub in bad weather and the sight of the Permayangtse Gompa with its raunchy paintings in the upper halls hidden behind cloth. While Khecheopalri lake was a one horse town with little more than a Momo shop, basic lodging and a small lake with many prayer flags. It was peaceful and with its greenery reminded me of many a lake in Fiordland – albeit with more colour, bells and insence!

On the whole I spent 10 days in Sikkim. Much of which was spent in a jeep on winding roads and crammed amongst several locals all getting around the valleys as is the normal way of life. I CANNOT imagine what this place would be like during the monsoon. If our afternoons were already filled with storms and rain I cannot begin to imagine the terrible state the roads would be in with more weather damage. I would also hazard a guess Sikkim would be a lot more fun if you went on an organised tour. Somehow I feel like it was hard work to be independent here and I guess this is all part of the goals of the permits – to restrict tourists as much as possible.