Gangtok: Day 1

I think I have eaten your heads enough with my blogs about my trip, Hehe 😝 but just two more to go! Hang in there, the torturous ordeal is soon about to end! Haha! 😜

After reaching Gangtok, we were all so tired that we just checked into the hotel and crashed into our beds!
Gangtok city was a little warmer than Darjeeling and the roads were wider which is a given being a capital city. Once you enter the city, you do get the city vibes and oh the smiling faces! The best part about the trip to north east were the locals, I have never in my life seen people happy and chirpy all the time even at 5 am in the morning when I’m just struggling to wake up and drive all the way to the gym! 😤 The next morning we woke up to a gorgeous view. A pair of birds were sitting in our room’s balcony and all we could see were clouds and snow clad mountains! I come from a land of forts, deserts and palaces, yet when I see those I get excited like a kid, now imagine how difficult it is for me to contain my excitement when I see snow! 🙌

After golloping down the breakfast we were all set to set foot at Banjhakri Waterfalls! A  100-foot waterfall located in a landscaped park with forested area, is at a distance of about 7kms from Gangtok town. There are paved pathways and footbridge around the park which spreads across some 2-acres of land area, there’s also a man-made lake here with a dragon at the center. The entire park is themed on Shaman culture and you can see Sikkimese architecture visible all across the park. Ban Jhakri means ‘Jungle Priest’, according to a popular Nepali urban legend, the first Jhakri or Shaman acquired the power of mastering the evil spirits from the gods. However, he required to identify the right boys and teach the technique secretly in his forest cave. And after the training the boys themselves became Jhakris being able to cure anybody affected by evil spirits. Hearing this, I saw a ray of hope that my evil spirited brother👿 would be cured now! Sadly he wasn’t and still bugs me day and night! Hmmmphh 😭

I’m the craziest in my crazy family, I guess the pic says it all!

The temperatures suddenly drop when you reach the place, but you feel like you are in a different world. The chirping birds, the sound of water splashing over rocks, the wind teasing the leaves just makes you smile and forget everything and soak in the beauty of nature! We are family of nature admirers, so visiting such heavenly places makes us adore and cherish God’s glory! 💞

After clicking around 100-200 pics near the waterfall (oh you think that’s too much, haha you don’t know me at all then 👻), we left for Dro dul Chorten, which is a stupa in Sikkim.

Inside this stupa, there are a complete set of Dorjee Phurba, Kangyur relics (Holy Books) and other religious objects. Around the stupa are 108 Mani Lhakor or prayer wheels. The stupa is surrounded by Chorten Lakahang and Guru Lakhang, where two statues of Guru Rinpoche are present. The monks rotate the prayer wheels and chant along the recitation of mantras imprinted on wheels. It was such a peaceful place where you feel disconnected from the rest of the world. Everywhere I looked, I was greeted with spectacular views, young monks playing, sound of bells, a prayer area where around 200 candles were lit cleansing the aura of the place. After rotating the prayer wheel, we sat inside the prayer area. I don’t speak for everyone but when I’m inside a holy place, I feel more anchored and in sync with my soul.

We would have sat there the whole day, had it not rained cats and dogs! It started drizzling and our driver called us back and within a few mins, I could see hailstones all around me. We decided to head to the hotel as we could barely see as the car windows were completely occluded by the mist. Kudos to the driver for driving like a pro on those hilly roads and taking us back safely to the hotel.

Unfortunately cause of the rain, we couldn’t see the other two places on the itinerary but as soon as the hotel staff told us that we were to a height of 14,500 ft the next day, my brother and I had the widest grin!

The next day turned out to be thrilling adventure! But more on that in the next blog so stay tuned! Please please come back for the next blog, I promise that’s the last blog of my north east trip! Then I would just bother you with some other blogs. Hehe 🙈

Love,

Aakanksha😘