With the lullaby of the waterfalls, I had a great sleep in the little cottage that was nestled in the laps of the Himalayan beauty. The cold night was getting colder towards dawn. I woke up to see it was 4 am. I woke up Guna as our driver had mentioned that we must leave the cottage at 4:30 am to go to Gurudongmar lake that morning. Predicting we’d be late by at least twenty minutes, I was getting ready as if I had a flight to board. As I was getting tensed and facing the sarcastic comments of my man as always, I threw the towel over his face and asked him to get ready. With little scoldings to my daughter, I made her ready too and we were out at 4:50 am.
As we opened the door of the cottage, we were warmly welcomed by the clouds with a silver lining. They kissed us good morning. With the satisfaction of having saved ten minutes, we boarded the cab. Lachen looked much more beautiful with little cottages covered by fog at this time. The fresh leaves seemed to have taken bath just now and still had droplets over them. The greener leaves seemed to smile at us.
As the cab driver started accelerating, the green mountains seemed moving. With the movement of every mountain, a new range was approaching us. The silver clouds seemed to travel with us. The cab was zooming into the clouds and it appeared like we were flying. Lachen was already at an altitude of 9000 feet and we were moving towards Lake Gurudongmar which is at an altitude of 17500 feet. My husband enquired about the Oxygen level at the lake and I said “We’re going! No questions asked!” and winked. However we had checked on the same a couple of times already and it seemed fine.
The distance to the lake from Lachen was about 70 kms but since it’s a mountain range and the approach roads weren’t good, it would take about 4 hours, we were told! We saw a number of cabs moving around at the same time towards the same direction. On the way, we saw a number of boards that said “Defence area” and we could see some army camps too. The driver stopped at a small cafe near an army camp for breakfast at 7 am. As I walked around, I was excited to see the pride of India flying high at an altitude of 12500 feet. I felt really emotional to see the dedication and commitment of our Indian army at such a cold weather in the early morning performing their duties to us and our country. Hats off to them!
We then moved into the small cafe for breakfast. Maggi and tea were served hot. The cook was preparing Maggi, bread omelette and tea as fast as a lightning and still welcomed the guests with a warm smile. The cafe looked small but people here seemed to have a great sense of hospitality.
We then moved ahead towards the lake. The road was muddy and hardly could be spotted as a straight road. For the first time I saw the charm of a desert with mountains and greenery beside it and lake on top of it. What a country is ours! I thought to myself. The mountains had trees covered with different colours of leaves ranging from all shades of green, orange, red and brown. The silver mountains covered with snow also seemed to peep at us. On the other side, blonde mountains seemed to smile. While we moved still, horses and yak were grazing on the grasslands on the sides. The yak and horses here appeared more hairy. What an intelligent system our nature is? Nature has created all species to survive as per their habitats. The hairy body would help these creatures withstand the extreme cold. Who can win the law of nature! I smiled.
As my mind was admiring the beauty and the intelligence in Gods creations, Guna shook my shoulders asking me to get out of the cab since we reached the lake. As we got down and walked towards the lake, I was stunned and frozen looking at the lovely blue lake. The mesmerising beauty it was. Is this the colour liquid my daughter leaves behind after her painting? Is this the colour the peacock bears on its neck? Is this the colour of the throat of my Neelkanth Lord Shiva? Is this the colour of the Mighty Vishnu? Did the Lord God playfully mix the different shades of Blue and Green and leave behind? No words could explain how I felt looking at the lake. The blue lake in the centre surrounded by Brown and white mountains – looks like the bride surrounded by people blessing her! What a stunning beauty was she! For the first time, I wished I had a better camera and I regretted for not knowing photography.
This lake has been named after Guru Rinpoche who visited this lake in 8th century AD. He is the founder of Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism. This is identified as the most sacred Buddhist lake and has a history of Gurunanak and many saints visiting it. Nearby the lake is a temple of the Guru. The weather was freezing and obvious as we were at an altitude of 17500 feet above sea level. After about half an hour I could listen to the palpitations of my heart and moved towards the cab. The lake really seemed to have magical powers as it left me blank for a few minutes.
As we were moving down back to Lachen, the driver redirected the route for about half a kilometre and stopped at the Chopta valley which seemed to be a house of flowers in spring. However since it was just the onset of spring, we could only spot a few flowers. The grasslands appeared lovely.
We moved back to Lachen and after some rest and lunch, we proceeded our journey towards our next destination Lachung. We were now climbing down the mountains and stopped by the side of River Lachen. The turquoise shade of the river with soft appearing pebbles and rocks on their beds seemed beautiful. Harshu was busy picking pebbles and calling them as soap stones, marbles and slimes. She cherished her collection and was enthusiastically explaining her experience spotting them. River Lachen is a tributary of River Teesta we saw on day one.
Our next stop was the Naga falls. This is one of the longest waterfalls in Sikkim. We tried to trace the origin of the waterfall as we sipped our hot coffee but failed as it was moving higher and higher far across many folds of mountains above it. The surrounding beauty of the mountains appeared clothed by the moving clouds. The mountain probably was changing her clothes with moving clouds to find the best outfit for her! As beautiful as she was, the clouds were just an add on to her beauty! As I was smiling to myself, I realised that I was beginning to giggle and seemed crazy. I moved on.
We then reached our final destination of the day – Lahung. The cute little town was like a garden in a fairy tale. Quite similar to Lachen but this time it was not only mountains surrounding most cottages but also little brooks. We walked around to see a little stream behind our cottage. Harshu seemed excited and posed for quite some pictures. After playing by the river side we moved to our cottage. This town seemed to have no electricity since a week now. When enquired, the shop keeper mentioned that this was normal in this town. Although my daughter and husband were upset in the beginning, I told them that this would be a new experience to us. I lit the candles in our room and pointed the window by the bedside. The window captured the mountain just beside it and this turned out to be the loveliest experience. “Turn any situation to a lovely moment” I smiled at them.
We slept peacefully keeping in mind that we may have to be ready by 5:30 am to head towards Zero point, the much awaited destination. We were right on time and got into our cab. We stopped for breakfast at Yumthang. As usual there were tiny little cafe. As we waited for bread omlette, my daughter was curiously showing the big tea pot and asking questions of the chimney. After a hearty breakfast, we proceeded towards Zero Point.
Zero point is situated at an altitude of 15000 feet above sea level and is said to have zero degrees temperature round the year. With high anticipation of snow, we moved closer but disappointed. Since it was summer, we could see only lesser snow. However the temperatures seemed to be less than zero degrees. We had to walk over a little stream and move towards the snow. Few mountains were snow capped. Little kids dressed like mountaineers were picking the snow and throwing at each other.
After playing for about half an hour, we moved downwards. Our next stop was the Yumthang valley which was called the sanctuary of rhododendrons. It was quite similar to Chopta valley with lesser flowers at this point of year. After traversing a little more, we stopped at Lachung Chu lake. The lake is also another tributary of River Teesta. It seemed to have lesser water than usual. The lake was moving in a zig zag direction and appeared like a dancer moving elegantly to a softer music. The lake was surrounded by Pine trees. The trees seemed to raise their hands to dance with the river but the distance separated them.
We proceeded back to Lachung. After some home food at the cottage, we packed our bags to leave back to Gangtok. Our way back was yet another scenic drive. The mountains seemed to have befriended us now. They were accompanying us all the way from Lachung to Gangtok. They didn’t seem to mind the fog or the rain that left them drenched later in the evening. The drive back was as thrilling as the roads were hardly seen in the mid of the fog. The headlight seemed to fight the fog and the battle was going on for about two hours.
I wondered at the driving skills of the driver in such roads at such a weather. Had he lost the battle, we’d have equally lost to the hungry demons below 😉
As we reached Gangtok, we thanked the driver and bid him goodbye. As we entered the hotel lobby, Harshu asked me “How many days left for our vacation to get over Amma?” And I said “two more days dear”. “Would you write a story tonight and read it to me?” she asked. I nodded with a smile. Here I complete the third part of our vacation and looking forward to read it to her as a bed time story!
Darjeeling awaits us tomorrow and the last part of our vacation would soon get over. North Sikkim is indeed a painting by the Lord God himself and is a paradise on Earth. The curvy and tough roads we traversed so far only reminds me “Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations” and “Tough situations in life build stronger people”!
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