Following are my notes from the trip to Sikkim this Durga pooja time.

Around Durga Pooja holidays my parents and me decided to take a trip to Sikkim. With plans of visiting Kalimong, Gangtok and Pelling.

Taking the whole week off from work, On Friday (30th october) we took the night train to NJP (New Jalpaiguri). Early morning on saturday we left for Kalimpong after breakfast of Poha and aloo paratha.

Staying at the Mayfair resort at Kalimpong, it was quite a pleasant stay. The Library was my favourite spot and early morning on sunday we could see an amazing view of Kanchenjunga from the main lawn. They even have binoculors to see the mountains clearly.

Saturday being haat market day, Papa and I walked down to the flourishing haat and enjoyed the crowd thronging from around to buy things from vegetables to clother to farming implements.

With slight change of plans, on Sunday we moved towards Namchi instead of Gangtok. We visited Graham’s Home (School) as well as Delo park (popular for paragliding). At Namchi, Staying at the Guest House at char dham, it was a pleasant layover. I personally visited char dham temples around 3 times ! Including the evening and morning aarti. The food at Yatri Nivas restaurant there was not so good.

Early morning we left for Gangtok, visiting statue of Guru Padmasambhav (why the angry eyes ?!) and Temi tea garden, apparently Sikkim’s only (organic) tea garden.

Weather turned from sunny and cloud to more foggy and frequent drizzling. Stay was cozy. Next day (Tuesday) we visited Runtek Monastry, and weather became poorer when we visited MG Road in the evening. On Wednesday we went to visit Natu La Pass, on the border with China. The weather played spoilspirt with rain and fog there at the border. We also visited Guru Harbhajan Temple nearby. We were back by evening visiting Changu lake enroute. Also Ganeshtok view point and Flower Show (no flowers though !).

With lot of travelling to and fro Pelling, we decided to drop the plan to visit it given the poor weather. Pelling is famous for being base camp for Kanchenjunga, 3rd highest mountain in the world. So the next day we spent going on ropeway, Tashi view point and a waterfall. Weather had surprisingly improved that day.

Friday we decided to roll back to NJP, entire day travelling as there was heavy traffic. Near Teesta bazaar we spent 3-4 hours to cover 5-6km ! We reached NJP after 10 hours of travelling that day.

Next day in NJP was relatively calm as we had no site to visit. We had lunch at the Mayfair tea resort with an uncle and aunty my parents knew from Guwahati. We also visited Golden Plaza to buy some porcelain crockery. Our train back to Guwahati was at right time at 8:30pm.