Sikkim: A Federal State With No Airport But Extra Visa

At the moment, Sikkim is rather remote. There is no Sikkim airport it can only be reached from Bagdhora in Bengal. A Sikkim airport is currently under construction (Pakgong Airport) is supposed to open soon.Foreigners need and extra visa, called “Extra Permit” in addition to the standard Indian visa to enter the state.

Sikkim is situated at the foot of the third-highest mountain in the world, the Kanchejunga (8586 m). One half of Kanchenjunga belongs to Sikkim (in the Northwest) the other half to Nepal. You find many different valleys there, some of them in larger heights even snow-covered. But all of them are largely undeveloped, mostly even totally untouched, pristine nature, large parts of the area are forested. Flora and Fauna from the Himalayan outskirts can be found everywhere. Subtropical plants from the lower areas of Sikkim and alpine plants from the higher regions exist in close distance. There are also some alpine animals like bears and leopards.

For Indian standards, Sikkim is very sparsely populated: only 600,000 people live here (for comparison: Delhi ca. 19 million, Mumbai ca. 18 million).

West-Sikkim: Pelling and Kanchenjunga

Pelling is on 1900 meters and is, from a tourist point of view, the second most important town in Sikkim. Tourism here booms, there are many hotels in Pelling: Pelling is mainly a long stretch of hotels. All of them have a great view to the Kanchejunga: if weather permits, you can see the sunrise at the mountain. You don’t need to go anywhere, just make sure you have a hotel with a great view.

More information about Pelling can be found in this article.

A very beautiful monastery is the Khecheopari Monastery and its lake which is sacred for both Hindus and Buddhist. Khecheopari is another 30 km from Pelling but you need 1 ½ hours.

This monastery and its lake were my Sikkim highlight. The building was so colorful, so shining; the monks were welcoming us so warmly and friendly.

More information about the monastery can be found in this article.

Yuksom: Starting Point For Hiking Tours But Also End Point for Road Connections

From Khechopari, it’s 30 km till Yuksom, a little village and the end of theroad in West-Sikkim. On the way to Yuksom, you drive by a waterfall called Kanchenjunga Waterfall (30 km 1 ½ hours). Yuksom is a little village, a base camp for extended hiking tours in Sikkim. Another interesting spot is the Dubdi Monastery, Sikkim’s oldest monastery, 600 meters from Sikkim but without a road connection.

The big Himalaya hiking and climbing tours usually start in Yuksom. Two popular routes are the one to Zongri (4000 meters) and the one to Gochela Pass (5000 meters). But you need another permit to do hiking in the North, the Sikkim Extra Permit is not enough. You should anyways not do the tours on your own but rather take a local guide from a travel agency with you.

A day trip could be the Tashdiding Trek, a hiking tour from Yuksom via Honri Gompa, Tashiding Village (2150 meters).

Pilgrim Routes Along the Buddhist Monasteries

Right next to Pelling (opposite direction to Yuksom) you can find the Sanga Choling Monastery (10 km, 30 min) and the Pemayangtse Monastery (10 km, 30 min) and right next to it the Rabdentse Ruins.

All theses monasteries make a popular pilgrim route (Sanga Choling, Pemayangste, Khecheopari and the only one that cannot be reached by car Tashiding).

Driving to Pelling Without Bridges and Tunnels

To see all of these places you need at least 2 days. Reaching Pelling already takes a while. To see everything you need 2 days (or 1.5 days with a late afternoon return trip) plus some extra time for hiking from Yuksom.

Driving is in general rather slow, as mentioned above you need 30 Minutes to do 10 km. Yet, it is stunningly beautiful. There are no bridges or tunnels, the streets are mainly serpentines at the mountain. This makes driving more difficult but Sikkim’s pristine nature more beautiful.

Gangtok – Capital in the East of the State

Gangtok is the biggest and most important city of Sikkim and can now even be reached by helicopter from Bagdhora. From Pelling it’s 130 km to Gangtok (5 ½ hours) from Darjeeling to Gangtok it’s 100 km (3 ½ hours). Gangtok has strict rules when it comes to trash (“no littering”) and smoking (Non-smoking city). An interesting spot is the Hanuman Tok (11 km, 35 min) a Hindu Monastery and Rumtek (18 km, 55 min), a Buddhist Monastery.
Gangtok is of interest for everyone who wants to go further north: you can find all kinds of travel agencies here who focus on hiking tours. Here, you can also organize all extra permits for hiking tours, travel agencies sometimes even do that for you.

In Gangtok in the eastern part of Sikkim, streets reach much further north than in Pelling. There is a street to Lachung and the Yumtang Valley (120 km, 4 ½ hours). Yumtang is the valley of flowers with 24 different kinds of rhodododendron and many more plants. In Yumtang Vallley, you have already reached North-Sikkim, you cannot travel any further north.

Sikkim – Pelling , Gangtok and Yuksom: Where Should I Go?

You can use the two towns Pelling and Gangtok as a reference point. Both of them are starting points to see several things. Pelling is a bit nicer, Sikkim Tourism suggests Pelling. Here, you can get closer to the high mountain, even as an amateur and with no real climbing to the top. For an average tourist like me, this is already a big adventure: not even Pelling and Gangtok are that easily reachable.

Hiking and climbing tours to bigger heights can be started from Yuksom. You reach Yuksom via Pelling. Agencies and Extra Permits can best be organized in Gangtok.

Border-Crossing to Sikkim: Melli and Rangpo – Information About the Extra Permit

There are two border crossing points to Sikkim: Melli and Rangpo. You can get the Extra Permit at both these stations. When we did it that was easy: you need to fill out a form, you need a xerox (=copy) of your passport , 1 – 2 passport pics and the passport gets checked and stamped. All of that worked quite well and can be compared to the immigration process to another country. But you definitely need to consider it and don’t forget it. We Europeans tend to forget about borders and visas quickly. They also asked us how long we are planning to stay. The thing I read everywhere is that everything up to 14 days is not a problem, I don’t know what happens if you want to stay longer (for example for bigger hiking tours).

Traveling With Your Own Driver

There are busses and jeeps as Sikkim’s public transportation. You always find a way to move forward at the next stop. Anyways, this is a bit exhausting, takes a lot of time and you have to squeeze in a packed jeep.

It’s easier to take a driver and your own car. That is a bit more expensive but doable. We paid 25,000 Rupees for a trip from Bagdhora (to Darjeeling, Pelling, Kalimpong, 5 days) which is about 330 Euro. Drivers wait at Bagdhora Airport for tourists, there is a counter at the airport called “Sikkim Tourism” who organized all of that for us within a few minutes after landing. These things usually work quite well: we had to pay half of the money in the beginning and the second half when we were back at the airport. I would do that again. Driving on these bad roads is exhausting as it is; the driver was the right thing to do for us.

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Darjeeling – A Village of World Reputation

Darjeeling – a word that sounds strangely familiar. Everyone has already heard the name. Darjeeling is very well-known ever since the English have started making tea here that gets exported it into the world. But: most people don’t neither know where locate it on the map or nor anything else about Darjeeling.

Here is some basic information about the little town:
Darjeeling has about 130,000 residents, In Europe that would count as a town, in India that is only a village. Darjeeling is on an elevation of 2000 meters in the state of Bengal (sometimes referred to as West-Bengal) at the foot of the Himalayans and usually serves as the gateway to the mountain area. Darjeeling is never really warm but mostly rainy. Its seasons are similar to the ones in Europe, June to August are the warmest time of the year, but temperature reach only 20 degrees on average. Winters are mild, temperatures don’t go below freezing point. The only real difference is the monsoon that makes summers usually wet.

Darjeeling – Home of the Famous Tea

Of course, first thing that comes to mind about Darjeeling is the famous black tea. Tea plantations are everywhere in and around Darjeeling. There are 150 tea plantations in Darjeeling, not all of them are open to public. You can do a tour on some or even book an overnight stay on others. We visited Happy Valley Tea Plantation. Happy Valley is right in Darjeeling, easy to reach and the best thing to do for a short tour. Full travel packages from the German travel agencies often include a visit to Glenburn Tea Estate. But there are many more tea estates to visit.

You can find a list here:
https://www.darjeeling-tourism.com/darj_00008b.htm

Anyways, some of the plantations on the list are rather far from Darjeeling.
We did not do much planning in advance, we just asked the driver and that worked quite well.

At the market place (end of Mall Road, easy to find) there is a “Tea Tasting”: a tea shop with a café where you can try several kinds of tea. The shop owner is Golden Tips, you find all kinds of tea here (black, green, white tea) to buy but also to try.

Toy Train: Small Railway in the Mountains

The English have built are narrow-gauge railway in Darjeeling. This was a way to manage the areas ascends: the train moves in circles up the hill. This means no bridges and tunnel are necessary. Today, this narrow-gauge train is still a tourist attraction, a classic steam train that drives from Ghoom to Darjeeling.

We did not take the train but saw it in Ghoom and Batasia Loop. Batasia Loop is a viewpoint from which you can see quite nicely how the train moves up the mountain in a circle. The train makes quite some noise and leaves a huge steam cloud behind. I would definitely recommend visiting Batasia Loop but I think you don’t really need a ride on the train.

Tiger Hill Viewpoint

Another very famous spot is the Tiger Hill Viewpoint. You can already see the Kanchenjunga from here. Tiger Hill is 11 km from Darjeeling but you still need 30 minutes to reach. Sunrise is at 5 am, you need to leave at 4.30 am. We were unlucky: it was rainy and cloudy, no view to the mountains at all. The following day was better; we could see the mountains but have missed the sunrise. We saw that later in Pelling.

The view from Tiger Hill is very good and very nice. If you are in Darjeeling, definitely try to find and see Kanchenjunga. If you travel further to Sikkim, you will have another change. But in the mountains, always use any opportunity the weather permits.

Tibetian Refugee Center and Japanese Peace Pagoda

Two more interesting spots are the Tibetian Refugee Center and the Japanese Peace Pagoda. Driving to the Tibetian Refugee Center (from 1959) is a steady climb on a hill. This center has several exhibits about the history of Tibet, its art and craft. There is some wooden and woolen work available, as well as carpets and leather. You can buy all these products in a store which is much cheaper than anything you find in town. The Refugee Center is definitely worth a visit.

Japanese Peace Pagoda (also called Japanese Temple and Peace Pagoda) is a spiritual place on Jalapar Hill. The Buddhist monastery was built as a sign of peace for people all over the world, no matter which race, religion or color. It wants to remind of peace and friendship, there are several peace pagoda worldwide. Darjeeling’s Peace Pagoda has a very good view.

Darjeeling Ropeway and Mall Road (Chowrasta)

There is a ropeway from Darjeeling to the valley. The rope did not work for us, because it was cloudy with no view at all. I’m sure the view to the valley is great on a good day. You can go down to a lower stop and visit a tea plantation.

Mall Road is Darjeeling’s center. Here, you find stores and restaurants the area is mostly blocked for cars and only open to walking traffic. There is a CCD (if you don’t know, that stands for Café Coffee Day, the Indian equivalent to Starbucks) with a very good valley view. A few steps further, you find the Golden Tipps tea store I mentioned above.

Traffic in Darjeeling

If you have ever been to India, you know the big mess traffic is there. Take all this mess, put it into a little mountain village with narrow streets and you have Darjeeling. Plus, there is a lot of walking traffic. Residents from Darjeeling quite often simply walk, and there are many kids in school uniforms walking around. Everything else, “typically Indian” is also there: rikschas, shared jeeps, busses, cars and scooters. Darjeeling has become a popular holiday destination for Indians that means many tourist cars (usually Toyota Innova) are everywhere. The toy train also drives every now. Parts of its tracks are on the street that means everyone needs to share the road with the train as well. As soon as the toy train comes, the entire traffic stops and collapses. But even without the toy train, traffic is very slow and you get stuck in traffic a lot, and only move very, very slowly.

How To Reach Darjeeling

Darjeeling does not have an airport. The closest airport is Bagdhora. You can reach Bagdhora easily with all Indian carriers. In Bagdhora, you should take a driver. There are no busses to Darjeeling and everything else is too exhausting and takes too long. There is a tourist counter at Darjeeling airport that was very helpful in organizing a driver and a tour. The drivers already wait at the airport. That is what we did, everything worked quite well.

It’s only 70 km from Bagdhora to Darjeeling but it takes 2 ½ hours. Driving along the mountains makes a nice road tour. You should stop every now and then to enjoy the view.
If you feel uncomfortable like this, you can book a driver in advance through your travel agency. You will not have a different driver, but maybe you have more security or feel you have more.

If you dare and have the nerves to do so, book when you are there. It’s not a problem at all, that is how things are done in India and you can trust it. It’s definitely much cheaper than anything you get from your travel agency.

Sightseeing in Darjeeling

The driver took us around and showed us everything that is important in Darjeeling. That was the right thing to do, without him we would not have seen that much. There is basically no parking anywhere. The drivers stop at the roadside, somehow turn around (I don’t know how they do it in these narrow streets.) and wait at the car. Things are such a mess; you need to leave these kind of things up to locals.

How to Combine Things:

You can go to Ghoom, on the way you pass Batasia Loop. The Samten Choling Monastery is right next to it. Tiger Hill Viewpoint is a bit further, also reachable via Ghoom.
At the other end of Darjeeling, there are Happy Valley Tea Estate, the Zoo and the Mountaineering Institute.

Resume Darjeeling

If you only know India’s large cities, you will see an entirely new and different India here. It’s colder, you are at the Himalaya outskirts and things are somehow, much more relaxed. People are very friendly, a bit of a chaos is there, but the mood is good and friendly. Even the street dogs look healthier and fitter. I have never seen any landscape that can be compared to Darjeeling. Tea Plantations are everywhere on steady mountains. There are thousands of visible power lines, but no bridges or tunnel. Definitely an extraordinary place and a good starting point for tours to the Himalaya Mountains.

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