Our first stop was Gangtok, the surprisingly modern (especially compared to the rest of India) capital town, where we aimed to meet up with others to jeep share up to the picturesque mountain landscape of the Yumthang valley, near the Tibetan border. However, we only had an hour to find willing travellers and get our permits approved so it was looking unlikely. Just when we thought it was only the two of us, we bumped into Petra, a Dutch girl we met in Darjeeeling, who managed to steamroll the travel agent into pushing for her permit, way, way after the deadline. Awesome. The next morning, we then hooked up with our shy yet amiable guide/driver Bema and off we set on the mere 120km journey. The bumpy, mostly unpaved road was extremely windy, snaking around mountains and over picturesque wooden bridges adorned with colourful Tibetan prayer flags. These flags are ubiquitous over this border region, much to our delight, as they add a human touch and splash of colour to an already incredible backdrop. It was also great to have another companion, Petra is just on a short trip from Holland and her fresh enthusiasm was infectious, just what a couple of jaded travelers like us needed! The longer the journey continued, the more mouth-watering the scenery became, huge mountains loomed over us from all angles and Bema was happy to oblige with numerous photo stops. Five hours into the drive we had still only covered 100km, but no-one was complaining. The next part of scenery was continuously more impressive than the previous, the final section saw us clinging to the side of the mountain with pretty towns captured in the valley beneath us. The night was drawing in as we reached our destination for the evening, Naremchu Nest, in the mountain town of Lachung.
Dinner wouldn’t be ready for some time, so we entertained ourselves in the charming shop cum bar cum restaurant cum meeting place, which wouldn’t have looked out of place in rural North Wales. Petra was a good laugh and we drank to our fortuitousness in stumbling upon each other again for the trip. (well that and the fact it was the only way to keep warm). Whilst drinking we met, Lama and Sonam, 2 guys who were supposedly cooking up our supper. Lama was young and wide-eyed, whereas Sonam is about my age with a contagious smile and easy-going manner. We joined them in the kitchen, where 3 other friendly, yet shy young guys, were also cooking up our feast. Not caring for a second about possible cultural sensitivities, Petra got right amongst the boys, making little Lama sit on her lap for photos and just generally being boisterous. None of the boys had a clue how to handle her, the local lassies might be a little more retiring, but they thought Petra was hilarious and really enjoyed sharing a bottle of Old Monk rum with us and a little party began in their primitive kitchen amongst the curry-cooking. All this tomfoolery inevitably delayed our dinner, which was eventually served up at 10pm, but everyone was pretty merry by this point and couldn’t care less. A great night meeting the boys from Lachung.
The next morning, after a breakfast of cornflakes and hot milk (?!)– Sonam had wanted to boil them up for us! – we clambered into the jeep with Bema towards the Yumthang Valley. The drive-up yielded our first yak sightings, as the jeep veered between traditional tin housing on the ever-winding road. About 10km past Lachung, we spotted several jeeps parked up on the road ahead. Goodie, we thought, must be an excellent viewpoint to warrant so much activity. However, our hopes were dashed as we heard the fearful words, “avalanche” whispered through Bema’s open window as we approached the other jeeps. Tragically, our path to Yunthang had been cut-off by a serious avalanche and now instead of a road to take us thorough we greeted by tens of Indian tourists sliding around on the unwanted blockage. Fortunately, the incredible scenery took the edge off the crushing impact of the avalanche and we happily snapped away at the awesome mountains. Almost sensing our residing disappointment, our intrepid guide, hoisted us over the avalanche and we began to progress towards the Yumthang Valley on foot. Five minutes of walking and we’d left the crowd far behind, meaning we had all this staggering scenery to ourselves. Our group was in high spirits as we crossed the threshold into the valley, launching ourselves off rocks into foot deep snow, chucking snow at each other and making angels. All this fun in the unspoilt powder, with mountains flanking us on both sides was a truly memorable experience. After 2km of walking, our route was sadly blocked again, this time by an even deeper avalanche, but we were eternally grateful to Bema for taking us this far.
Back at Naremchu Nest, we had some tasty yak for lunch and then visited other places of interest around Lachung. Most interesting of all, was the Tibetan monastery which featured imposing paintings throughout, but most scarily of all a “Hell door”, behind which were even more terrifying pictures of beasts with their eyeballs hanging out. Bizarre. Take a look. Despite lunch, we all had a craving for the Nepali favourite, momos (similar to Korean dumplings). Fortunately we found a lovely sweet lady who was happy to indulge us and her and Bema (was there no end to this man’s hospitality?!) cooked up an absolute mountain of them. Her inviting home was a cosy place to rest and inquisitive locals kept appearing to have a look at Mama’s unusual guests! Sikkim has the friendliest people we’ve met in India, shy, yet warm and open. After the feast, we waddled out, endeavouring to find a nice tea shop. Within minutes we had found another wooden home with another exceptionally accommodating host. The young female proprietor was so happy to see us and also had the cutest kid possible, to which Sarah became literally attached for the next 2 hours! After a steaming cup of tea, we enjoyed a tonga of chaang, which is hot, local beer made from millets in front of the roaring fire and once again found ourselves the centre of attention as more jolly locals appeared in the log cabin. It felt like we knew the whole town already and I was more than a little sad that we would have to say goodbye to all these wonderful people the next day. Back at the guesthouse, we were quickly reminded of how different the “low-lander” Indians are to their mountain brethren but we still enjoyed one last supper with our great hosts, Sonam and the boys. Definitely finishing India on a real high note.
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