Guwahati to Siliguri - Gangtok, Sikkim; Last Phase of NE

May 30, 2011

We left Hotel Ginger at 09:30 hrs. Unfortunately we were misled to follow a road which was taking us in exactly the opposite direction to our today’s destination Siliguri. It took us about an hour to correct course and then we were on our way.

We were taking a different route this time around to go to Siliguri from Guwahati than which we had taken while coming. We crossed the bridge over Bramhaputra and headed to Siliguri by NH31. Initially the road was bad and the traffic too was very heavy. The progress was quite slow but then after a while things improved and we proceeded at a moderate pace towards Siliguri passing through Baihata Chariali, Rangia, Barama, and Nalbari. We had lunch at Chandranagar. Here in the garden of the hotel where we had lunch, we saw mango trees which were only two years old but had started fruiting! We were told by the gardener that these were Malda Mangoes which were allowed to ripen on the tree itself unlike is the practice in Konkan region where mangoes are plucked before ripening and the process of ripening takes place in hay.

After lunch we proceeded on our way. The road was good. We passed Barpeta, Boytamari, Chaphar and just before Salkocha we had tea at a small village. This was almost entirely a muslim village. Here Raju bought some local bananas. These have several big seeds and the fruit is slimier than what we have in Mumbai or elsewhere. Then we proceeded passing through  Manas wild life sanctuary. The entire drive is beautiful. The road was very good, and the jungle and the mountains were green.

The problem driving on these roads, which is the case all over NE, is that there are hardly any milestones and boards showing directions are almost nonexistent. So for very long stretches one really does not know if one is headed in the correct direction and the distance to destination or the nearest place on the way! So one has to keep on asking directions and then keep reconfirming since there is, as has been our experience right through this trip, the communication problem.

We reached Koochbihar at 20:30 hrs. We had got several estimates of our ETA Siliguri from people at Petrol Bunks, Policemen etc. At Koochbihar we were told that it will take us about three hours to reach Siliguri. The joke was that for almost three hours now everybody was saying it will take you three hours to reach Siliguri! We really did not know how far Siliguri was and how long it would take! The traffic too was very heavy now, particularly of commercial vehicles. The saving grace was very good roads. We made some phone calls to some hotels in Siliguri as we travelled and made booking at Hotel Conclave.

We reached hotel at 00:30 hrs of May 31, 2011. It’s a good room and with a good AC.

Good night. Meet you here again tomorrow.

May 31, 2011

Our today’s destination was Gangtok, 120 Kms away from where we were staying at Siliguri.

This journey took us about four hours. The road was good.

This being tourist season time we found it a little difficult to find a hotel. We checked out Hotel Mayfair but that was out of our budget. The hotel where Mr. Kshirsagar and I had lived, Hotel Chumbi Residency too was fully booked, some place which Uday Joshi had suggested also did not have any rooms available but finally we found a reasonably good place called Hotel Central.

The roads in Gangtok are very very very narrow. One cannot stop at the road side even to make enquiries lest you should obstruct the traffic movement.

We had our lunch and Phadke Ajoba and I set out to find a good travel agent for our trip to N Sikkim, Gurudongmar Lake and Nathula since we are not allowed to take our vehicle in this region.

So tomorrow off to Zero Point, Yumthang, Gurudongmar Lake, a three days two night package. We will be back in Gangtok on 3rd. The next day would be the Nathula trip, which is a one day excursion.

So now see you on 5th June when I will again have internet connectivity and meet you here again!

Ciao.