Gangtok - A Snowy Haven @ Changu lake

As i was having plans to go for trekking next month, i wanted to take my family to some place where we can feel the snow and yes without much effort, so the plan for Gangtok was finalized.

Day 1: Reach Gangtok and relax : 17th Jan 2019

We (my wife, Me and our princess Anisha) recently went for 3 day Gangtok trip. I wanted to share my experiences based on the trip so that things are a bit easier for the future travelers. My suggestions/ experiences are only for people looking for a budget trip. Lavish travelers may kindly excuse.

The best and most preferred way to reach Gangtok is via railways. The nearest railhead is New Jalpaiguri (NJP), which is nearly 150 km from Gangtok. NJP is well connected to most of the major cities in India. For train bookings, visit IRCTC. Outside the New Jalpaiguri station, you can catch a shared taxi for Gangtok. The fare is around INR 250 – 300. Drivers might try to charge high, so double check with other taxi drivers. It takes around 3-4 hours to reach Gangtok. If you prefer to travel by bus, you can get the same from Siliguri bus stand (Rs 150 per person). Remember due to the hilly terrain, buses are slower compared to sumo/safari. The cab contains 10 passengers + driver (2/4/4). So if you are 3 people, taking an entire seat makes sense. Gives you some breathing space incase someone wants to sleep.

The cab will take you to Deorali taxi stand from where you need to take a local taxi for the final stretch (5 odd km). The taxi stand is reached after taking sharp and steep left turn from the road. At the stand, you will be mobbed by local taxi drivers demanding rs 150 odd for taking you to Gangtok (MG road). Ignore them and come down to the road and wait for 10 min. You will get a shared taxi to take you to MG road, in Rs 20 each. However, since they expect to load 4 passengers, more than 1 big bag per person might cause grudges.

Day 2: Gangtok Sightseeing : 18th Jan 2019

Next day Morning, we planned for local sight-seen. After breakfast, we arranged a reserved 10 Point Half-Day Tour which cost us around 1400/-

There are many sight-seen packages like

3 Point Half Day
7 Point Half Day
10 Point Half Day
10 Point Full Day
Mixed Point
Points are fixed for all the tours unless you go for Mixed Point. For Mixed Point, you need to plan it yourself, what points you’d like to visit.

On our 10 Point tour, we went to Tashi View Point, Hanuman Tok, Ganesh Tok, Bakthang Waterfall, Enchey Monastery, Flower Exhibition Center, Handicraft Center, Chorten Stupa, Institute of Tibetology and Ropeway Cable Car.

1. Flower Exhibition Center - Located near Gangtok town and at one end of The Ridge park, the center has great collection of flowering plants including Orchids (in season though)

Flower Exhibition center – After spending our first few hours at Rumtek and Ban Jhakri Fall , we started for Flower Exhibition Center . My wife Tanusree, daughters Ankita, Richita all were eagerly waiting for this flower show. This special orchid show centre located just next to White Memorials halls in Gangtok Town. As we entered the den of orchid flowers, our daughters were running here and there to get the best feels of flowers and air filled fragrance 

The flowers show is really awesome. We have seen many varieties of orchids. We have taken snaps of many flowers and spend a quality time inside .It is a different world together, the freshness of the flowers made us fresh. So with fully refreshed minds, we came out for the center for the next spot.

2. Hanuman Tok - A Hanuman temple with a wonderful viewing area. 

3. Ganesh Tok - A Ganesh Temple with viewing lounge and open balcony. 

Ganesh Tok : Beautiful Ganesh temple located at 6100 ft height and this is the best place to see the Ariel view of Gangtok . Serenity of Ganesh Temple made us fresh again. We sit on the temple floor and saw the distant views of Gangtok town , TV towers , Rumtek Monastery .

Zoo'

4. Plant Conservatory

It's actually a nice place for nature lovers. A peaceful place. Has a long walk way. And the flower house at the end of the track is just beautiful. Never seen so many colours in one place.

5. Lhasa Falls

It's such a small waterfall but it was very pleasant. The green cover of this region is really nice. Don't forget to spend sometime here

6. Tashi View point - A great view point for watching the Kanchenjunga Snow Peaks on a clear day. Also an excellent place for sunrise view. 

Tashi View point: It very close to Ganesh Tok. So we immediately reached the spot. We climbed a bit up to reach the view point. Form here we could see the mountain range and snow covered mountain peaks. But our luck was not good; all peaks were covered with clouds.

From Tashi view point we could see the splendid views of Gangtok and other nearby places. It was around 4PM afternoon .After spending few minutes, we moved to our next spot Bakthang Fall.

7. Gonjang Monastery

At a distance of 8 km from Gangtok SNT Bus Station, Gonjang Monastery is situated at Fatak Bojhogari near Tashi Viewpoint in Gangtok, Sikkim. Located at an altitude of 6066 feet, it is one of the famous monasteries in Gangtok and among the best Gangtok attractions.

Gonjang Monastery was built in 1981 by H.E. Tingkye Gonjang Rimpoche. He was recognized as an incarnation of Yolmo Terton Ngakchang Shakya Zangpo, a 15th century Nyingmapa Terton. The monastery follows Jangter tradition of Nyingmapa school of Tibetan Buddhism. Monastic education along with Tibetan language and English are taught to the monk students here. The monastery imparts knowledge on close and comparative studies of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy based on moral values.

The monastery looks impressive from outside with a massive Buddha figure inside. Inside this monastery one can see the Idols of Khen-lop Cho-Sum, three Religious Personalities or founding Fathers of Tibetan Buddhism in 8th century, and the engraved statues of the twenty-five disciples of Guru Padmasambhava called Je-bang Nyer-Nga. Today, the monastery has over 100 monks. The monastery has Thadrol Dorjee Memorial Community Health Care Centre for providing medication to monks and the local people.

8. Bakthank Fall: 

We reached the spots around 5PM .We could see the last rays of sun for the day. This a beautiful place to spend an hour, breathe the fresh airs, and feel the freshness of falls and chatting of current along the fall. We halted some time here for evening for tea at nearby tea stall and by that time sun set in behind the distant hills .We slowly started for our hotel.

9. Do Drul Chorten Monastery - 

A famous Buddhist religious monument with a golden dome top which is visible from many places around Gangtok.

10. Well, we didn’t went to Cable Car as we didn’t think the price is justified for the timings. It’s just that, you’d be able to see the Gangtok from cable car. So if you have never been to cable car then this can be a nice experience. But we had ride cable car many times before. So this didn’t attract us.

Reserved small taxi rate for 3-pont tour: Rs. 1,000/- (in high season), Rs. 800/- (in low season) Fare updated: February 2019
Reserved small taxi fare for 7-point tour: Rs. 1500/- (in high season), Rs. 1200/- (in low season) Fare updated: February 2019
Reserved small taxi rate for 10-point tour: Rs. 1800/- (in high season), Rs. 1500/- (in low season) Fare updated: February 2019
Taxi rate for full day sightseeing : Rs. 2800/- for small taxi (in high season), Rs. 2000/- (in low season) (Fare updated: February 2019)

Day 3: Tsongmo Lake – Baba Mandir Tour : 19th Jan 2019

Next day, after breakfast, we went for Tsongmo Lake – Baba Mandir Tour. This tour generally costs 800/- per head (With Nathulla), and 500/- per head (Without Nathulla). The first stop was Tsongmo Lake.

Tsomgo or Changu Lake Near Gangtok

Tsomgo Lake, also known as Changu Lake is a glacial lake in Sikkim and located at an altitude of 12,310 feet. The name Tsomgo means 'Source of water'. It's located 40kms from Gangtok town and on the steep route known as Jawaharlal Nehru Road which leads all the way to Nathula Pass. 

This is one of the few and awesome high altitude lakes in India. The lake becomes doubly attractive with the reflections of the surrounding hills on the water. From Gangtok which is at 5410 ft, the altitude rises to about 10,000 ft in just 15kms. You can imagine how steep the gradient would be on this stretch of the road. 

Prior to 1962, this was part of the old trade route between India and China. Mules used to carry loads along this route. Some parts of the route below Karponang (which is 15kms away from Gangtok) used to be very treacherous and dangerous.

Many mules would slip and die falling into the depths of the ravines below. But no longer so, proper road has been built, although condition of the road usually remains bad due to snowy & foul weather conditions. From Karponang the road is not as steep as the earlier stretch.

Another about 10kms further up you will reach Kyongnosla Alpine Sanctuary which is home to rare animals like Red Panda, Himalayan Black Bears and birds like Blood Pheasants. Usually you can only spot a few yaks though. You can find numerous types of medicinal plants here as well as rare Orchids and Rhododendrons. From here you get nice views of Gangtok town and the surrounding hills.

The sanctuary covers an area of 31 sq. km and stretches all the way up to Tsomgo lake. Another 1km ahead and then a 5 minutes walk inside there is Tseten Tashi Cave with about 20-ft high ceiling inside. This cave was named after a naturalist who was also the private Secretary to the King of Sikkim.

Finally you will reach Tsomgo lake. It takes about 2 hours by car from Gangtok to reach the lake. The lake is filled with water of melting snow coming from the surrounding mountains. It's a one kilometer long oval shaped lake. The average depth is about 50-feet.

During summer and autumn, you will find Primula flowers and other Alpine vegetation around the lake. And during winter the lake becomes frozen and a snowfield. You can not litter the lake. Installation of prayer wheels and a small temple of Lord Shiva by the lakeside denotes that the lake is considered sacred by the locals. Tsomgo lake is a stop over place for many different migratory ducks like the Brahmini ducks.



 
You should spend some time here and soak in the serene beauty of the lake and its surroundings. In the earlier days the lamas used to study the color of water in the lake and forecast the future. A darker color would indicate that the coming year in the state may be troublesome. 

There is a pathway along the lake that leads to a resting place - about half a kilometer walk. Only about 200 meters away from the lake there are lots of stalls & shops selling tea, coffee and snacks. You will get hot Tibetan noodle soup to combat the cold.

Tsomgo Lake, Sikkim



Stalls rent out snow boots, jackets, gum boots etc. There are pay & use toilets inside the complex as well. However there is no lodging accommodation in this area to stay overnight.

What more? You can take a ride on colorfully adorned yaks and ponies. One more terrific activity is being planned at Tsomgo. Foundation stone of a 957-meter ropeway (cable car) has already been laid here in 2010. Once implemented, the cable cars will carry passengers from the lake to a hilltop nearby. 

You should reach Tsomgo lake before noon because in the afternoon the weather here usually starts getting bad. In fact best is to start from Gangtok by 7:30 to 8am and reach here by 10am so that you get clear 2 hours to enjoy. In the winter however the route sometimes get closed due to heavy snowing
are updated: February 2019
Tsomgo and Baba Mandir: Rs. 4000/- in reserved Sumo/Max
Tsomgo, Baba Mandir and Nathula: Rs. 5,500 in reserved Sumo/Max
Tsomgo, Baba Mandir and Nathula: Rs. 7,000 in reserved  Innova/Scorpio
Shared Jeep for Tsomgo (from Gangtok stand): Rs. 400/- per person including permit.
Shared Jeep for Tsomgo, Baba Mandir, Nathula (from Gangtok stand): Rs. 700/- per person including permit.

Day 4: Return to Kolkata : 20th Jan 2019