Sikkim, Unlimited

Sikkim it was when we decided we wanted to go on a vacation to North East. Many asked, 'Why Sikkim?'. Well, we did not have any specific reason to quote; but after the trip we definitely have lots of them. The first thing anyone does these days when planning for a trip is to look-up the 'encyclopedias'. Without going into the logistics & all the uncertain, unsealed & unsettled situations we went by to 'make' the trip, I will directly chute into the thrills, exhilaration & serenity of the place.

Destination Gangtok: Located about 5500 ft high on the hills of the eastern Himalayan range, Gangtok is a small but the big capital city of Sikkim. The temperature was quite low or so we felt arriving from a not-supposed-to-be-so-hot Bangalore, we used a heater + 3 overblankets in the room. A very warm & welcoming dinner at Royal Demazong comforted us.

The immediate realizations in the place: Travels & Taxi drivers are very friendly, they will plan your tour around the place quickly, conveniently & at a little higher price. Of course you could bargain a bit & reduce couple of hundreds; traveling around seems pricey, but quite worth. No beggars! And so you start to dig, 'how come?'. Most of them get education & enough resources to manage a decent lifestyle. 'Ah, that's why the driver is well dressed & carries fancy phone!'. Not all, but most of them. Its full of military people & camps, with three nations' borders around.

The state is a menage of Buddhists and so a home for many monasteries. Just in & close around Gangtok there are a lot of them to visit - Stupas at Do drul Chorten, Enchey Monastery, Rumtek Monastery, Lingdum Monastery, Tibetology center. Kanchenjunga is visible from parts of the city; Tashi View Point gives the clear view of Kanchenjunga & the opposite hills.

Sikkim is a small state in terms of the area. Since its mountainous & much prone to landslides, the roads are tough, adventurous & the travel time consuming. A little over 100 kms distance to cover takes 5 hours. Given its area, we chose to visit the East, South & North parts of Sikkim, in 7 days. South takes 2 days, North 3 days & can spend 2 days in & around East. Given the climatic conditions during our visit & the days in hand, we have a spillage of little bit from South & full West for a next visit.

Places to visit in & around Gangtok:
Rumtek Monastery
Shanthi View point
Lingdum Monastery
Banjhakri waterfall & Energy Park
Tashi View Point
Gangtok Ropeway
Hanuman Tok
Ganesh Tok
Flower Exhibition center
Tibetology center
Do drul chorten
M G Road
Himalayan Zoological park
River Rafting in Teesta
Nathula Pass
Tsomgo Lake
Baba Mandir

One needs to get permit from the military to visit Nathula Pass, the border for India-China. Because of the heavy snow falls, even though there were permits issued, we could not make it to the destination. Travels/hotel(s) we stay in takes care of the permit for the tourists. Usually a trip to Baba Mandir & Tsomgo Lake are combined since they are enroute Nathula pass. The lake is an exquisite sight at 12000+ ft height, as delightful is the drive getting there. Yak ride fills in the rest of the adventure & delight sought.


The roads are better, so the drive up to Baba Mandir is smoother & the sight of snow-capped mountains, glorious. If you travel further up to Baba's Bunker, you would reach an altitude of 14000 ft. If the sky is clear, the view is incredible.


We only made it towards Namchi in South Sikkim. Tea is grown in few parts of the hills. There is a Chaar Dhaam under construction, nearing its completion with 108ft high idol of lord Shiva(one of the very few places with lord Shiva's idol portrayal, and not Shivling) and a 135 ft high idol of Padmasambhava in Samdruptse hill. Ravangla is another section of South Sikkim to visit.


North Sikkim: The far-famed places to visit are Lachung, Yumthang Valley, Zero Point & Gurudongmar lake. Just the visit to Lachung & Yumthang Valley takes 2 days & the rest of the distance covered in another day. There are many waterfalls to stop by while driving up North. It was below zero degrees in Lachung & very cold. The morning in Lachung was awesome; watching the sun rise from down the valley, the early rays strike the snow capped mountains & are scattered in angles; the tip of the mountains are ready to vapor.

Yumthang is an hour's drive from Lachung. Its a valley & known as the 'Valley of flowers'. For its name, they say that spring is the best time to visit Yumthang, as the entire valley is filled with the grand colors of Rhododendrons. The rhododendrons around are in 24 marvelous colors! One also needs permit from military to visit the Yumthang Valley.There are many things we look for in a holiday, the most important element is the feeling of relaxation, content & rebound the time spent in a place can bring. Sikkim has all of it, the beauty, serenity, warmth & the quietness sought in a vacation, & more to go back to.

Victoria - Capital of British Columbia

Have been to Victoria twice; the quickest visit covering most of the places in Victoria was with my parents. You will see the list of places covered in one day shortly...

We booked the first ferry to Victoria island; by air & water are the only means to reach there. It was a one & half hour cruise from Tsawwassen port to Victoria. We had packed our breakfast; after we parked our car in the ferry's basement (it's a 5 decks ferry, with facility to park around 150+ vehicles including trucks & personal boats), had breakfast in the ferry lounge & were set to enjoy the morning sunshine in the cruise.

1. Butchart Gardens: The first time we went there was with sis & family in April. Then we made it just in time before the last entry allowed. We had to run through the gardens in an hour's time. Still, we didn't miss a part of it, enjoyed every theme. So, this time we wanted to ensure we spent some good time in the garden, main reasons being its mom's grand interest.
The garden is maintained by 40+ gardeners & has lot more than our eyes, minds & cameras can capture. They change the flora every season & we witnessed 2 different sets in 2 seasons (April & September 2009). The gardens are in themes of Roses, Italian, Hanging, Japanese & Sunken Garden.


2. Butterfly Garden: I wondered if it were just collection of butterflies on display boards & was skeptical to go. Its a home for 3000+ butterflies. I was more than glad to have not chickened-out on the place; you feel as if you are in one of those fairy tale stories, with colorful butterflies flying all around you! We were awed looking at the varieties, colors and how undisturbed'ly they flew around us.


3. Undersea garden: A ship sunk & made into aquarium! The place isn't as exciting as it sounds; has only very few varieties of species, like a lengthy, huge aquarium in a big hall. Vancouver Aquarium is more scintillating than this one.


4. Royal London Wax Museum: Collection of most of the wax idols (not all) from that of Madam Tussauds museum, its a nice visit. The idols of prison captures & their tortures was much horrifying & disturbing. We forgot to collect one of the rare pics that could have been in the collection; that of our heads cut & placed in a plate! May be we should be glad we didn't get one :)


5. Parliament house: On occasions visitors are allowed inside the parliament, which that day was not. So, we spent ample amount of time in the open grounds of the parliament house. Could see horse carriages taking tourists around the place; and the horses' tail plaits were worth pictured.


6. Craigdarroch Castle: The Castle of the Dunsmuir's from the 1800s, a wealthiest man of a time. The Castle has all the arrangements as left by the Dunsmuirs, their family history, the rooms & dressing rooms arranged as per their times with beautiful furnishings & glass works.


7. A Street show: After all the roaming around we still had some time to watch the street show that happens around the harbor area. After all, the true way of visiting a place is to know & familiarize such displays on streets and watch all the hustle-bustle that happens down town. The showman entertained his audience very well, the knives act, uni-cycle tricks & the engagements with the audience. "This is my only profession & this is what pays for all my bills. I request you all to donate not less than $5, but anything more is always welcome & I would be grateful for". That surely fetches his more than $250 a show!
Victoria is a beautiful city, with the English touch & heritage still around. The miss in the September trip was the Royal BC Museum & Miniature World. To compensate that, we did visit

8. Elk & Beaver Lake: on our way back to the Victoria port to take our ferry back home. We stopped by to enjoy the sunset at this beach-like lake. A walk in the water, with the view of sun setting for the day & watching a few kayaking and photographing birds.
Our cruise back home was a quiet one; all of us not so much interested in getting out of the car in the ferry parking, reclined back through the cruise after an eventful & lengthier than expected day.

Banff National Park in Summer

First time we visited Banff was with my sister & family during their trip to Canada. It was April & that's when the place opens for tourists. April is considered the ending of winter in Banff, with snow falls still happening here & then. Many here usually visit Banff in summer, so our summer trip was due, only until our parents' visit. Timing was perfect & no better trip could have given them the beautiful impression of this beautiful country. So, we set on to Banff in August.The entire drive of 900kms is beautiful. Can't take our eyes off those rocky mountains & wide spread greenery. All those rocks are fully filled with snow & even the trees; so in winter we really couldn't make out why its called Canadian Rockies. The tip of the mountains are completely rocks while trees cover them all over for the rest 3/4th of their heights. All the time we were comparing the contrasting sights of winter & summer. Both are entirely different & yet as breathtaking.We were amazed with the greenish blue waters in the all lakes that we crossed. It's said that the sulphur content of the rocks mix with the melting snow & hence that color.

Like last time, Lake Louise was our first stop. We were just in time to not miss canoeing. Steering the canoe to right direction was a big challenge. With 3 people in a canoe we did want to go 3 different directions & sync up! When we stopped rowing the canoe, the waves would hit the canoe & turn it to its course of direction; it was a lot of fun!


Next day morning our first visit was to Sulphur Mountain. The sight from the Gondola ride & mountain, was again, so different from how it looked in winter. We could hike up to the tower on the next mountain & enjoy the view.

We then headed to Icefield Parkway in Jasper National Park. There are 12 viewpoints between Lake Louise & Icefield centre, but only a couple of hours in hand! We took stops at Bow Lake & Crowfoot glacier points, rest we just drove by.

From Icefield centre, they take us in an Ice Explorer bus on to the Athabasca Glacier. The bus stops on the glacier & tourist are given 30 minutes to walk around . In winter, the entire area - the surrounding mountains & boundaries were all filled with snow & the site was very cool. Now, the glacier was the only ice & the surrounding mountains were all black. It's said they are the rocks & minerals the Glacier pushes in its 20m move forward in its lower part every year. The upper part moves much faster, 127m per year. This is the only Glacier in World which has the bus accessibility on it. The rest of the glaciers are to be reached by helicopter or hiking.

Before heading back home, we decided to visit Johnston canyon the next morning. The Canyon gets completely filled with snow & the waterfall freezes during the winter. Tourist hike the waterfall in winter. When it all melts, the water flow erodes the rocks & that's how the canyon is formed. They have constructed a walking rail for the entire stretch of few kms in the canyon. The walk in the canyon was very pleasurable & the force of the waterfall very awing.We visited Banff twice in the year & have wonderful, lifetime experience & memories of its two different facets.

Lake Louise - The frozen lake

First destination we hit as we reached Banff was Lake Louise. April, and the lake is still completely frozen. We did sight a few frozen lakes enroute to Banff, however Lake Louise is the renowned one. Least had we known that we could walk on the frozen lake. The sight of the lake being fully frozen was itself mesmeric.

Eventhough we could see so many people moving on the lake, to take the first few steps on it was edgy. At most places the ice was thick and in some it looked like fresh snow settled down.

It's an astounding experience to have been there. When we checked the website for Lake Louise, apparently, there is a totally different facet of it in Summer.