One month in Sikkim, India

After spending a month in Nepal, we crossed into India to an eastern Indian state called West Bengal. We first came to a busy city called Siliguri. It was mostly used for commercial purposes due to its strategic location connecting to the Northeastern part of India with rest of India. We stayed here for a few days to plan our onwards travels to Sikkim. The monsoon season had already started and it was raining heavily almost everyday. The temperatures during the day were mostly in the mid to high 30s, and the humidity was close to 90%. They were very different weather conditions compared to the weather we enjoyed in Nepal. Our visitor traveler, Sarojini Rao, who joined us in Nepal for a few weeks left to South India from here. We said goodbye to her and started our onward journey to Sikkim.


Sikkim is bordering Nepal on the West, China on the North-East and Bhutan on the West. Being close to China, the entry into this state had to be pre-approved and we had to get an entry permit from the authorities that we had to carry with us at all times. We did a bit of research in West Bengal and there were two Sikkim state run buses traveling between West Bengal and Sikkim each morning. Tickets for the buses were sold only on the same day of travel. To travel on any day, we had to get to the bus station by 5:30am and buy tickets as they were sold out within an hour. We also needed to get to the Sikkim Travel Department Office at least an hour before the bus departure timing to get the permit approved. Sam went to the Sikkim bus station early in the morning and bought the tickets for the mini bus that left at 10:00am. Then we all went to the bus station a few hours earlier than the departure time to get the permit. Interestingly the permit office did not open until 30 minutes before the departure time and they needed photo copies of documents, and a separate application for each of us to be filled up. They did not have the application forms or a place to photocopies of our documents. We went to a nearby stationary store and got things sorted out. Five minutes before the bus departed we got the permit, and we were allowed to board the bus and start our journey to Sikkim.

It was a mini bus overcrowded with people, some standing and some sitting on their luggage. A few people were standing all along the journey. Big bags were kept on top of the bus covered with a big sheet of plastic to protect them from rain in the mountains. And it did rain a few times during our ride. The journey was through a mountainous terrain with curves and twists after every hundred metres. The road was built high up in the mountains through lush green forests. We could see many valleys, streams, waterfalls, bridges, and clouds below us throughout the journey. Before entering the Sikkim state, being foreigners, we registered with the border patrol with all our visa details. A bit after noon we arrived at our destination town called Jorethang. The home we booked for our stay was about one kilometre away from the centre heading into the hills in a small community called Sisney. Luckily, our bus was heading in that direction to the next town so they dropped us in front of our house.

The area of Sisney was very small with just a few families living together supported by a few shops. All the homes were built on the slopes of the mountains, so many floors of houses were under the road level. Our apartment was two levels below the road level. The level above us was not constructed, and it was just the base framework of the building. There was another floor below our apartment where a family with an elderly person and a young kid with some form of disability lived there. Our hosts lived on the road level (two floors above us) and owned a grocery store. Our apartment had the views of the valley and the nearby river from our living room, bedroom, and balcony. We had our own kitchen and we cooked most of our meals there. We stayed for two weeks in this village. During our time here our days were mostly about cooking our meals, walking to Jortehang town to buy groceries, going down to the river when it was not raining, and taking long walks along the mountains. People in this village seem to work mostly to support tourists. As we were there during off-touristy season, most of the people in the village had a lot of free time. Men were spending most of their days playing cards, drinking, and chatting. Women were sitting in groups and visiting their neighbours and chatting in groups. The language spoken by most of the people here was Nepali. They spoke a bit of Hindi as well but most of them they did not speak English. Sam was able to communicate with them in Hindi whenever we needed to chat with them. Some young children between the ages of 10 - 15 were able to speak English and they came up to us regularly to chat with Kathi and Nora and enquire about our plans for that day.

Nora watching the valley, river, and the mountains from our balcony

Nora and Kathi walking towards Jorethang market from Sisney

Sam and Nora walking along the river/valley during low tide

While we were staying in Jorethang, we also visited a nearby touristy town called Namchi. Almost all of the transportation in this area is with Jeeps. This is how it works - there is a specific vehicle designated for each destination town. Passengers who wish to go there buy their tickets and leave their luggage in the vehicle. And then wait until the entire vehicle is filled with passengers. The waiting time may vary from 10 minutes to two hours or more. It all depends on how many people are going in that direction that day. We had to wait for half an hour and our vehicle was full and we took off to Namchi. .After we arrived in Namchi, we spent an hour or so strolling around the town. From here we took a taxi and went to a nearby temple called Siddheshwar/Char Dham where there was a 108 feet (33 m) tall statue of Shiva. It was a cold day there was fog everywhere. It seems like people book taxis to go to the temple and also come back. As we were unsure how long we wanted to spend at the temple, we booked the taxi only one way, to get to the temple. We were able to see a few temples in Char Dham but due to heavy fog we couldn't see the Shiva Statue. To come back to Namchi, we could not find any taxis. Being a very foggy day, visibility was just a few metres and our phone signal was not there. We decided to walk back to Namchi town, which was a few kilometres away. Just as we exited the gate of the temple, someone offered us a ride and we had lovely chat with that person and got to understand a bit more about the culture and people of Sikkim.

The city centre of Namchi

A monk walking with a group and posing for a photo for us

Siddheshwar Dham - Namchi Image Source: https://southsikkim.nic.in/gallery/chardham/

After two weeks in Jorethang, we found out about a local Jeep going towards a town called Pelling. We heard that we could view the Kanchenjunga mountain range from that town. We packed our bags, said goodbye to our hosts, and went to the jeep pickup location in Jortehang. This time we had to wait for three hours or so to get started. But the Jeep ride was incredible with beautiful views just like every other ride we did through Sikkim. It was hot and humid in Jorethang but it was very cold in Pelling. It was incredible that from our room as well as from our balcony in Pelling we had the views of the Kangchenjunga Mountain, which is the third highest mountain in the world rising up to 8586m (28,169 ft). During our stay here we were given free breakfast, and it was incredible watching the Kangchenjunga mountain in front of us while eating our breakfast everyday. A truly memorable experience.

While we were in this town, we also visited a few nearby monasteries -  Pemayangtse Monastery built in 1705AD and  Sangachoeling Monastery built in 1701AD. The views on the hike towards Pemayangtse Monastery were incredible. The roads were curvy and steep. There was a lot of traffic going towards the Monastery by cars and Jeeps. As always, we walked up to the Monastery, took a lot of breaks, and soaked in all the views. On top of the hill there was the Monastery and just a little walk from there, there was another tourist attraction with a huge Chenrezig statue which was 137 ft (41.7 m) high sitting on the mountain which was 7200m high. We didn't wanted to pay the fees to get up close to the statue but the views from far were wonderful. After resting for a few days we also went to the Sangachoeling Monastery. It was also a fun hike and we enjoyed the views from the Monastery. Our time in Pelling was wonderful. We did not have access to kitchen during our time here so we ate at local restaurants and got to try all the local foods and experience the local cuisine of Sikkim. The cuisine was heavily influenced by both Indian and Nepali cuisines. All the dishes we tried in Nepal were also available here and they also sold many South and North Indian dishes.

Nora and Kathi walking towards Sangachoeling Monastery

Sangachoeling Monastery

View from Sangachoeling Monastery

Kathi and Nora walking towards Chenrezig statue

View of Pelling on our walk towards Sangachoeling Monastery

Pemayangtse Monastery

View of Kanchenjunga from the balcony of our hotel room 

View of Kanchenjunga from the balcony of our hotel room

As we did not have any specific travel plans, we asked people around in Pelling where to go next. The next village that came to us was Darap which was about 14km from Pelling. It was a small village with about 1700 people that was being promoted as the home to Ecotourism homestays. We could not find any contacts to book a place in advance, so we asked a local cab driver to drop us at the village entrance. It was a very small village with just a few homes and a few hotels. We walked around the village with our bags and looked for the homestays. We found one, but to our surprise, it was extremely expensive ranging almost up to $150 a night including food. That was way outside our budget. So we started asking the villagers if there were any cheap rooms to stay for a few days. We were referred to the house of a local village council member who was offering room to the local people. There was a room where they were renting out beds for Rs. 200 each (about $2.5) per night. We asked for two beds and booked the place for three nights. It was a single room with three beds. There was a small shared toilet after two rooms, which the neighbours also used. During our three day stay we had electricity only for a few hours as there were issues with electricity lines due to heavy rains. During our stay here, we just let go of all expectations and just wanted to see what comes our way. Our stay turned out to be an amazing one. Being in a cheap place we were always surrounded by local villagers and local children and we did not meet any other tourist during our stay here. When we visited one of the homestays to enquire for the price, there was a dog that belonged to the owners that started following us from that time on. It slept outside our room, walked with us wherever we went, and it was there with us every step of the way until we left the village. As we had no access to a kitchen to cook our meals, we talked to a neighbour who agreed to cook lunch and dinner for us. We had to tell them in advance what we wanted to eat and they bought groceries according to the menu and cooked fresh meals for us. The home cooked meals were delicious. Nora bonded with their kids and another young neighbouring kid who was a bit younger than Nora. During our time here, we went for walks through the mountains and saw incredible waterfalls nearby. We also walked to Rimbi Waterfalls which was about 4kms from the village. It was mostly walking down the mountain towards the waterfall. Luckily, on our way back, we got a ride from a local school headmaster who shared a bit about his schools and what they are doing in that area to promote education.

Nora and Kathi walking to a nearby waterfall in Darap

Nora and Kathi playing with local kids in Darap

Nora with the dog that followed us everywhere in Darap

Walking towards Rimbi Falls

Nora watching the Rimbi Falls

A photo with the family who cooked for us and a few of our neighbours in Darap

Nora playing with tadpoles in Darap

Delicious homemade food that we ate in Darap

After our unexpected wonderful time in Darap, we took a Jeep going towards a town north called Yuksam which was the first capital of Sikkim with a population of about 4000 people. There was only one Jeep going that direction everyday and they ran the Jeep only if there were enough people to start at the starting point. Luckily we got the ride that day. The paved road in Sikkim headed in this direction ended in this town. We did not book a place before arriving here and we asked the people in the village if we could find a cheap room to stay for a few days. We found a nice place a bit outside the centre of the town where they also offered to cook breakfast and dinner for us at an extra cost. The hosts took care of their homestay very well with a lot of personal touches. They raised their own vegetables in their backyard, raised a few rabbits, and made an artificial pond to raise the fish that they ate. We stayed there for five nights. As we were traveling here during heavy monsoon season, most of the hikes were slippery and the locals recommended that we don't go on those hikes as they are dangerous. Heeding to their advice, we limited our walks to the nearby monastery and did only a small hike.

Another thing we had to deal with in this area were the blood sucking leeches. Being a humid and wet region for most of the year, leeches were almost everywhere. Their sizes ranged from being a few mm to being long up to a few centimetres. We had to always carry powdered salt with us to neutralise them if they started sucking our blood. They were everywhere, sticking on to our legs -- on the streets, in our backyard, and sometimes they were on our beds, in the toilet, and on our windows. Even though they were not life threatening we were not comfortable with the idea of our blood sucked by leeches anytime and everywhere. Nora also had a few leeches on her legs that we took off with salt. It was terrifying at the beginning but we got used to them just like everyone who was living there. We could see a lot of bite marks on the legs of people and children everywhere. This seemed to not bother anyone here and it also bothered us a bit less by the time we left this place.

Nora walking towards a stupa in Yuksam

Nora standing in front of the Norbugang Coronation site - built 1643AD

Nora turning a prayer wheel in Yuksam

Nora and Kathi taking a small hike along the water stream

Sam and Nora taking a hike along the forest in Yuksam

Kathi and Nora on a swing in our backyard

Nora feeding the rabbits in our backyard

Nora spending time with a neighbouring kid and his cat

Nora walking with the kid of our hosts

From here our hosts helped us book a jeep to travel to our next destination called Darjeeling, a mountain town in the state of West Bengal. We took off early in the morning and we were accompanied on the ride by a lot of local Sikkimese people and we passed by many big and small waterfalls, streams, rivers, forests, and mountains. The road passed through a lot of tea plantations and road was very steep. The jeep had to even take a break for half an hour to cool down the engines with water pipes. The Jeep took us to the same checkpoint where we entered Sikkim and we validated our permits one last time before leaving the state.

Sikkim gave us a lot of memories and got us in touch with many wonderful human beings. We did not expect to have so much nature, water, and kindness from people everywhere. We might visit here again someday in future. On to Darjeeling...