Geographical Location: East of Bangladesh and Brahmaputra’s Influence

After quite some time in India, including a longer period living there, I have to say: nothing is like the Northeast. Clocks are ticking differently here, even cities are different.

Geographically, India’s Northeast has been separated from the rest of the country ever since the state of Bangladesh was founded. During British colonial rule all seven states were called Assam but is no longer the case nowadays. The east is very close to Myanmar and, in the North, to Bhutan and China.

The area is strongly shaped by the Brahmaputra River which runs through the entire area. Three quarters of the population live in close proximity to the river. Most people stay in the more developed cities in the south and east. Many residents have tribal ancestors. The second largest area, are the mountain in the North (Meghalaya, Nagaland) that have been largely influenced by Christian missionaries.

Arriving from Guwahati and Assam

Center and most important city of the Northeast is Guwahati, Assam’s capital. When you travel northeast, you will arrive in Guwahati. Guwahati has 800,000 residents and is, for Indian standards rather small. Even the entire northeast is rather sparsely populated (45 million people in total, in contrast to 19 million in Mumbai or Delhi). Guwahati can be reached from all major Indian airports; there are tons of domestic flights available. You will not be able to find a nonstop flight from Germany, a stopover in Delhi is definitely needed. Guwahati is the gateway to all other states and cities in the northeast.

Guwahati, after all, is a more relaxed Indian city but a city like any other in India. You don’t have big problems with cab driver and rikscha drivers (very much the opposite from all other cities in India). You can find anything here: more traditional bazaars, little vegetable sellers as well as fancy shops, malls, big chain restaurants and stores, huge cinemas, restaurants and coffee houses. There are also many hotels with different standards and price ranges. You can use GS Road, which crosses the entire city and the Brahmaputra River as reference points to find your way. All in all, Guwahati makes a good beginning for India.

There are no big sights in Guwahati. Some temples and monasteries (Umanada Tempel , Kamakhaya Tempel, Navagraha Tempel). Holy temples of different religions can be found here in a big colorful mix: Madhava Temple where Buddha went to the Nirvana, Pao Monastery very important to Muslims, Hajo Pilgrimage which has five temples that are important for all five religions.

Moreover, Guwahati has three Bazaars: Paltan Bazaar, Pan Bazaar and Fancy Bazaar.
Three national parks can be found in the surrounding area: Mana National park (175 km from Guwahati), Probitora National park (40 km) and Kaziranga National park (217 km).

I would not plan too much time for Guwahati. 1 – 2 days is enough, you can recover from the trip, visit a few temples and if you are interested some Bazaars and Malls.
Things start getting interesting when to decide where to go next.

National Parks in Kaziranga and Mana

Distances are large, driving takes a long time because the streets are mostly bad. Yet, the national parks in Kaziranga and Mana are worth a visit. From Guwahati you should plan an entire day to drive there. After Guwahati, you need to drive up a mountain range, all vehicles can only move slowly, even though it does not sound that much, 200 km in India is in general a long distance, even more here in the Northeast. The further you travel from Guwahati, the worse the streets get.

Everything gets more rural, there are no more typical Indian metropolis but more “villages”. The term village might create some misunderstandings; even a village in India can have 200,000 residents. Don’t base that on the number of people living there. For Indians, a city with 5 million people is a small town. A village is rather defined by its bad infrastructure, bad streets, few hotels and that it’s difficult to reach. You need to lower your standards a bit here; many “Western” things are missing. One example is warm or hot water. It’s not available everywhere but, sometimes you find it where you least expect it. But you definitely need to accept certain lower standards when it comes to hygiene.

Close to the big attractions there are, rather surprisingly, upper-class hotels with higher standards. Target group of these places are wealthy Indians, who, in the end, don’t expect a lower standard than people from the West (Europeans and Americans).

We decided to visit Kaziranga, right at the Brahmaputra River, close to Bhutan. Visiting Bhutan in a second step would have been nice but is rather difficult, to get the Bhutan visa is very difficult.

Here you can read more about Kaziranga National Park.

The State of Assam

Kaziranga is at the edge, but still in Assam. During colonial times, Assam was the name for the entire region but nowadays it includes a much smaller area.

Two ethnic groups mainly meet in Assam: immigrated Begalis and tribals. There were certain separations of tribals (e.g. Nagaland and Meghalaya). The states as they are today have existed since 1972.

In Europe, Assam is mostly known for its tea. This is one of the tourist attractions here: tea plantations. They are everywhere Assam has the largely connected tea plantations in the world.

Except Kaziranga and Mana, there are two smaller national parks: Probitora and Orang. Another interesting thing is the huge and powerful Brahmaputra river, in Majuli you find the largest river island in the world.

Traveling here is still easily possible. The streets were partly not that good, but progress is on the way. A lot of construction work can be found anywhere, in particular around the main attractions, tourism is common. There are drivers and jeeps for the national park, and tourism is well-organised here. I think, you can easily travel here you just need to decide what you want to see.

Meghalaya: Cherapunjee and Shillong

The same counts for Meghalaya, the state south of Assam and its capital Shillong. Shillong as well as Cherapunjee (Sohra) are main attractions for (domestic) tourism. The tribals’ root bridges are interesting. Information on that Cherapunjee can be found here.

Shillong is called “Scottland of the East”. There are mountains covered in fog but also lakes and old Victorian buildings. It used to be a British hill station. Shillong Peak is on more than 1500 meters and offers a great view of the Ward Lake. Plus, there are several waterfalls in the area (one example the fourth largest in the world, Nohkalikai Water Fall).

Bengal, Sikkim and Darjeeling

Some more states, that are often counted as Northeast States are Sikkim, Bengal and the very popular Darjeeling. All these places are further west, not east of Bangladesh and are not part of the Seven Sisters. That is which is choose to do an extra group called Sikkim and Darjeeling.

Here can be found information on…

Sikkim
Kanchenjunga
Khecheopari
Darjeeling

Off Assam and Meghalaya

Anything outside Assam and Meghalaya definitely makes the Northeast a place for adventurers. The not-so-good-streets become worse. It becomes difficult to move forward, there is rarely any tourism at all. But you can find more and more tribal areas that are protected which means you cannot travel at all or only with extra permit.

Arnuchal Pradesh: Has one of the most beautiful landscapes of the Seven Sisters, reaching from the foot of the Himalaya Mountains to the Brahmaputra River, also called Assam-Himalaya. A mountain state that difficult to access, with very mixed religious groups. Also strongly influence by its tribals even though China claims parts of its area.

Nagaland: largely stettled by tribals (16 different tribal groups), that are in vast majority Christians. Official language is English, but every tribal has its own language, not all of them are compatible among each other. There are four national parks here, but almost no foreign visitors. Some areas are restricted and cannot be visited by foreigners.

Manipur and Mizoram: The most eastern of the Seven Sisters and its southern neighbor form the border to Myanmar. There are mountains ranges with 3000 meter mountains (Patkai mountains) but also lowlands and valleys. No tourist development at all.

Tripura: close the Bagladesh Valley, a more communist state largely remote and secluded, mostly interesting for its landscape, can be reached by plane (airport in the capital Agartal) from Calcutta.

All these states have one thing in common: tourism is still in the very beginning. Problems of how to reach and how to move forward derive from that. Moreover, occasionally there are tribal areas that are protected, restricted or even fully closed. You should ask about these regulations right before your tour, changes come every now and then. One thing for sure: it’s not for India beginners, only for adventurers. But you can see pristine, secluded nature, quite often mountain regions of the Himalayans.

Religion in these states varies strongly: some have been strongly missionized (as bad as this is!), there are three mostly Christian states: Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram. Influences here are Baptist.

If you think about going to any of these states, bring enough time and do some thinking about what kind of standard you can handle. I talk about factors of development of a county: availability of power, running water, transportation, streets, hygiene etc.

What is different in the East Compared to Other States?

The short answer is: much, basically everything. People are much more relaxed, life is more quite and calm. We were left alone, nobody followed us, nobody yelled after us, you don’t get cheated at in every corner, there were no “feelable” resentments against Whites.
There were in total fewer tourists, you are not trapped in these enormous masses of people. People seem friendly and, as a foreign guest welcome you without prejudice.

I was rarely photographed without asking (only once), nobody followed me and a very rare and outstanding thing: no men were talking to me, asking for my contact number, nobody touched me, annoyed or molested me. I, a white woman, was left alone. I have not had that anywhere in India, not even Goa.

I cannot guarantee anything for single women travelers but, I have felt save. Everything I have experienced was 100% positive; I have not though this was possible in India. You always need to be careful but I have always felt safe.

Not only women travelers have an easier life her: we could agree faster with Rikscha drivers, shopping was easier, the prices they charges were ok (of course always a bit higher for Whites, but not three times the regular amount). The bazaar had fixed prices, for me these prices were fine.

And: It’s much cleaner than in most parts of India. That came as a total surprise, I was not expecting it at all. Much less trash on the streets.

On a political level there are always some turmoils and separation movements. I find so many warnings about this online. I have seen very little of that. I think, at that point, as a visitor from Europe you have very little problems. , it’s more a domestic issue.

The Northeast was a positive surprise to me, I was not expecting this at all.

Der Beitrag India’s Northeast: the Seven Sisters erschien zuerst auf travelspotting.

How do these Root Bridges Come to Life?

Root Bridges grow from the roots of the rubber fig tree (ficus elsatica). Jainta and Khasi Art (both southern Meghalaya tribals) make these roots grow into a natural bridge to cross the river. Due to their organic material, these bridges get more solid and stable over the years. These bridges are able to maintain themselves for centuries if circumstances are right. Altogether a very fascinating process that shows how to live in unity with nature in a way only indigenous peoples are able to.

Ritymen Root Bridge in Tyrna bei Cherapunjee

There are several root bridges in and around Cherapunjee and in the Jainta Mountains. We visited the Ritymen Root Bridge.

You can reach Ritymen Root Bridge from the little village Tyrna from Cherapunjee (12 km, 30 min). We stayed in a hotel in Cherapunjee and like that reaching Tyrna was easy. You can also go there from the more popular Shillong (ca. 2 ½ hours). But you need a driver, you are far from all the big cities and should not rely on public transportation.

At first comes the Ritymen Root Bridge. If you continue descending, you reach a double root bridge called Umshiang Double Decker Bridge. Double means there are two natural bridges with on top of each other.

Descending the Ritymen Root Bridge

A sign at the entrance says “3 km to Double Bridge”. That is a bit of an understatement, it means 3 km of stairs. The descend is exhausting, we only walked to the first bridge, the single Ritymen Bridge.

Descending these stairs is still doable. We were there with a larger group of people, most of them athletes and fit. We had to walk down hundreds of stairs and that made all our thigh muscles shiver. But that was still ok.

There is a local tour guide who walks the group downstairs. At the entrance they rent bamboo sticks. Makes sense, of course there is no handrails at the stairs.

There are several smaller buildings every now and then that also sell beverages. Locals charge a small fee to see the bridge, 10 Rupees per person, 10 more for every camera. Close to nothing, even if they make you pay for every camera and phone you carry. Altogether it would still be less than 1 Euro (30 Rs about 45 cents).

Bridge and River With a Natural Pool

After a long, you finally reach the bridge with crystal clear water below where you can either swim or enjoy the sun while sitting on a rock. Swimming is only for men, I would discourage women from swimming here.

If you feel strong and energetic enough, you can continue your route to the double bridge. I cannot tell you anything about this. We were in a group of 9, nobody wanted to walk any further. The links at the bottom provide some more information about that.

Ascending From the Bridge

What stopped us from moving was the ascend that was waiting for us. We already had a 2000 steps descend, it’s supposedly another 1500 step to the double bridge.

I consider myself fit above average, I work out regularly and think I can do quite an amount of walking. There were marathon runners, football players and other athletes in our group. Yet, the way back was hard for all of us. It’s a steady 2000 steps ascend. It takes a long time and is exhausting. On the way back, we met several untrained but wealthy Indian families that had huge problems to walk back. Some of them were visibly suffering, looking quite unfortunate and only continued walking because there was no choice.

Our tour guide praised our fitness, said we were better in walking upstairs than the Indian tourists. How seriously you have to take this is another matter. Yet, you should know what you are getting into.

View from the Stairs and the Region’s Climate

In particular during descend,the view of the valley and the mountain is great: pristine nature that is indeed green and clean everywhere, for India very unusual.
The region is rather wet, Cherapunjee is called the “Wettest Place on Earth” (sometimes refered to as “Scottland of the East”).

It’s wetter and cooler than in the rest of India. Many Indians call it cold, but that’s a relative thing. To me, it still felt like summer, in particular around midday it was really warm. All those many steps don’t make it any better. It’s warm and the sun is burning. Definitely bring sunscreen and something to cover your head. We did not have any rain during our three days in Cherapunjee. Even the grass was partly brown and visibly dry.

How To Reach and Some Final Remarks

The root bridges are a spectacular play of nature, something totally different and new. The surrounding nature is nice, pristine, green and clean. All of this shows a very different face of India than the one in the big cities. Definitely worth a trip!

You reach Meghalaya from Assam. The best option is to fly from Delhi to Guwahati and take a driver from there (ca. 160 km, 5 hours). There are also public busses. From Guwahati, spend the night either in Shillong or Cherapunjee and make a day trip to the root bridges. We left it up to the drive how to reach the bridge that was the easiest way.

As usually in the Northeast, you are off the main tourist routes. Some Indians from other states spend their holidays here. We have not seen any other Europeans. Everything is relaxed, people are friendly and open. They let you be and don’t annoy you.

You can buy beverages everywhere, even Coke and other sweet sugar sodas. Yet, I would take a bottle of water just to be sure. But that is all you need, you don’t need to carry a bagpack full of water bottles with you.

Der Beitrag Root Bridges in Cherapunjee (Sohra) in Meghalaya’s South erschien zuerst auf travelspotting.

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.

Der Beitrag Sikkim – the northern Buddhist Indian State at the Foot of the Himalaya erschien zuerst auf travelspotting.

Khecheopari Lake: a Sacred Place

The lake is scared for Hindus and Muslims. From the entrance, it’s another 200 meters to the lake. There are small paths on one side of the lake with several small buildings, temple and many unmissable, colorful prayer flags everywhere.

At the end of the hiking path, there is a prayer point close to the water of the lake. All in all, you walk about 500 meters along the lake. The place has its very own, very spiritual atmosphere. You can fell the sacredness of the lake.

Khecheopari Monastery: colorful magnificence of Buddhism

The monastery is on a hill, a bit off the lake. It’s a bit of a walk up the hill. This seems to be too much for many visitors, almost no one went up to the main building. The main building is an extremely colorful, shining and sparkling building where the monks still live.
After hesitating for a while, we came closer to the building. Because the monks just had a meeting, we did not want to enter or look inside. But the monks were signaling us several times to come and even offered us cookies. That is how we got the pics from the inside. We would not have done any of that without them telling us to enter.

The inside of the building is an extremely colorful collection of art and crafts. No matter where you look, there is always a new painting, a new colorful piece of cloth or a painted wall. Absolutely breathtaking and unique! Totally different from everything I have seen so far.

The main buildings’ outside is magnificent. There are artful sculptures everywhere, all of them in many colors and very well-kept. I could have spent hours just looking at things. A unique architecture.

Monks in Khecheopari

All the monks were very curious and friendly. They were standing around me in a group of 6, watched my pics on the camera and took pics of themselves. That is how the monk pics were made, we did not do it, they did it themselves. We also got an orange and a very warm welcome, even though there is not even a language we both share. How great having this experience!

The monastery was one of the Sikkim highlights. I would definitely recommend coming here.

see Sikkim Tour ###Link###
see Pelling ###Link###

Der Beitrag Khecheopari Lake and Monastery close to Pelling and Yuksom in Sikkim, India erschien zuerst auf travelspotting.

Kanchenjunga in the Himalayans

Kanchenjunga has 8586 meters and is located partly in Nepal and India. The little state of Sikkim is far in India’s north right between Nepal and Bhutan at the Eastern Himalayans. Sikkim is one of the smallest and most-unknown states of India and was, for many years, and independent kingdom.

The Himalayan Mountains stretch far from the West in Pakistan to northwest India (Kashmere, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh) to a piece of land between Nepal and Bhutan which is Sikkim. Sikkim’s Kanchenjunga is the third-highest mountain in the world, only Mount Everest and K2 are higher.

When you want to see an eight-thousender but have no real experience in mountaineering, this is the right place for you.

View from Pelling in Sikkim

The view from Pelling is great: in the mornings, the sun slowly rises and the mountain appears in many different red colors. You definitely should not miss this spectacular nature phenomenon.

Sikkim is now more than a secret for mountaineers. Sikkim has many ways to see and experience the Kanchenjunga. When you enjoy hiking, you can go to Gangtok. Here, you find many tour companies for hiking and mountaineering. Gangtok is the state’s capital. You need to plan enough time for the region: all the paved roads end in Yuksom. If you want to do some hiking from Gangtok or Pelling, you should plan several weeks for that. We could not simply do some hiking in the heights, I think you should always consider the altitude and be careful.

The see the mountain anyways, you can travel to Pelling. Traveling there is a bit exhausting, but Pelling itself has many hotels and a tourist infrastructure. After all, Pelling is basically a long road full of hotels. Choose a hotel with a good view (in fact, all of them have a great view) and you can see the sunrise in the morning from the rooftop terrace. In the end a very comfortable and easy way to see the sunrise at an eight thousander.

Traveling to Pelling: Crossing an Inner-Indian Border

Pelling is a bit difficult to reach. The best thing is to combine it with Darjeeling, in the more southern state Bengal. From Darjeeling it’s 90 km to Pelling but you need at least 4 hours for that.

In Bengal, the streets are still reasonably good but as soon as you cross the Sikkim border, the streets get much worse. For Sikkim, foreigners need an extra permit, the standard India visa is not enough. The borderline appears to be the one of a new country: policemen are everywhere with loaded machine guns, they check your passport and you need to fill out some forms. It helps to have a copy (Xerox) of your passport. The lady at the border was friendly and helpful, the paper work went quite smooth but it’s anyways something that has to be done. When leaving Sikkim, you need to go back to the counter return some of the forms and get a stamp in your passport.

This extra permit is enough to travel to all the developed areas, most importantly the towns of Pelling and Gangtok. All areas further north, most of them nature conserve areas, are restricted and require another extra permit. You can ask the tour companies to do the paper work for you.

All of these regulations are subject to change. Ask Sikkim Tourism for updated information:

http://www.sikkimtourism.gov.in

Driving from Melli to Jorethang and Pelling

We did cross the Sikkim border at the Melli border control. After Melli, you drive along a valley for some time right next to the Rangeet River which also marks the border between Sikkim and Bengal. This part of the trip is still nice and relaxing even though the street is rather narrow. The next thing you reach is Jorethang, a very nice little town that makes a nice stop.

After Jorethang, the exhausting part of the trip starts: from now on the road constantly climbs up the mountain. For the last 60 km, you need three hours. There are no bridges or tunnel you just drive on a mountain street, sometimes on serpentines. We had a driver, driving ourselves would have been totally impossible, it was already exhausting the way it was. A big adventure! I have never driven that close to an abyss. The valley and mountain area are very beautiful: only a few streets and apart from that largely undeveloped area.

In Pelling: Khecheopalri Monastery and Kanchenjunga Water Falls

The following day, we went to see a Buddhist Monastery and a waterfall. The Khecheopalri Monastery and the waterfalls are close to Yuksom. Yuksom is, in East Sikkim, the last village that can be reached on roads. You can only do hiking to move further north.

Further information on the Monastery can be found in this article.

There are also the Rabdentse Ruins, leftsovers from the fallen Sikkim Kingdom and right next to it, the Pemayangtse Monastery. For Pelling, I would recommend to stay an entire day. Because reaching there is rather exhausting, you need an entire day for sightseeing in two nights in Pelling.

Hotels in Pelling

It’s not difficult to find a hotel in Pelling. Second only to Gangtok, Pelling has the most tourist infrastructure in Sikkim. There are also more fancy hotels. We did stay in the Seven Summit. Many of the other hotels were fully booked, the Five-Star-Hotel was all that was left for us. The rooms were clean, the hotel was really good. But even this place did not have a heating system. We had a heating pillow, a heating element for the mattress and warm water in the shower. But the rooms were still cold, really cold and the only warm place was under the blanket. Definitely consider that and bring warm winter clothes.

How To Reach Pelling

Sikkim currently does not have an airport, the closest airport in Bagdhora in Bengal. That is why most tourists travel from Darjeeling to Sikkim. There are busses from Darjeeling but also Shared Jeeps (Jeeps that come to meeting points and transport everybody who wants to). There are also train connections from Bengal. In the end all the standard ways to travel in India are available.

I would anyways recommend only two of them: per plane to Bagdhora and a driver from there. It takes a while to travel, distances are not long but slow. Driving yourself in the mountains is impossible; a driver is the easiest and least-stressful way to travel. We would not have made it without a driver.

Sikkim – A Big Adventure

Sikkim was a big adventure for us, an outstanding trip to more undeveloped areas at the outskirts of an Eightthousender. At the beginning I was not sure if all of that is worth it: all the time it takes, the border formalities and that exhausting drive. But I would not want to miss any of it. Sikkim is absolutely beautiful, great valleys and mountains, nature, plants and Buddhist monasteries and shine in sparkling beauty. We have by far not seen everything, but I would always comeback. It was a unique experience!

Der Beitrag Kanchenjunga: the Third-Highest Peak of the World in the Himalayans (8586 m) erschien zuerst auf travelspotting.

Where is San Gervasio?

San Gervasio is in the north of the island, from east/west distance right in the center. It’s the most northern point you can reach on a regular street (the very north is undeveloped and cannot be reached). The street ‘Traversal de Cozumel’ (Quintana Roo C1) is the only cross-country road on the island and kind of its ‘northern border’. From here, you drive a bit further north to San Gervasio. As soon as you leave the main road, the street gets much worse, a bit uneven and sandy. We had a scooter and that worked just fine. After a 9-km-ride, you reach San Gervasio.

Taking a Walk in The Jungle

San Gervasio has seven bigger ruins: the best way to see these ruins is a walking tour. It comes out as a bit of a hike, the trails are uneven and rocky but still fine to walk. Between these ruins, you need to walk something like 1 to 2 km. We were mostly alone; only 2 more people were walking. Also the parking area was empty, no other cars around.

You can find some more information about the ruins on Wikipedia. The ruins are well-preserved, only the buildings’ roofs are missing. There are very few barriers and shutoffs, you can basically walk anywhere. All the lawns are accessible; you can just walk to all the ruins. Some of the buildings are locked and you cannot enter, others are open. I assume that is the case because San Gervasio only has very few visitors (Tulum was the complete opposite).

All the trails lead right through the jungle, heavy brush and trees. That means many mosquitoes are everywhere, definitely bring some mosquito spray. All the thick shrubbery creates a rather dark atmosphere that matches the ruins quite nicely.

The ruins are visibly smaller and less spectacular than the larger, more popular ones like Chichzen Itza and Tulum.But that does not make them any less pretty or worth seeing. I found the jungle walk to the ruins quite comfortable. You only need to be aware of what is waiting for you: smaller ruins, less busy but with vast walking trails in the jungle. If you are in Cozumel, you should come here.

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3 public entrances

The swamp expands to 180.000 hectares and is mostly protected. There are 3 entrances to the swamp – all three are located in Georgia: by Folkston in the East, in the South by Fargo and in the North by Waycross.

In the Stephen C. Foster State Park which is located south you can rent canoes, kayaks and motor boats, go fishing, enjoy a guided tour or go hiking. The Fargo Folkston entrances are used mainly by adventurers for canoe tours – there are several spots in the swamp to spend the night at.

Boat tour at Okefenokee Swamp Park

We visited Waycross, Georgia in November where the Okefenokee Swamp Park is located. Right at the entrance we had an encounter with a huge alligator which obviously enjoys to rest on a small island within a narrow channel left of the visitor parking lot. The visitor center provides information about the tours.

One of these tours is a boat tour with a small motor boat using the swamp’s water roads. We were lucky: due to a hurricane the previous  day, visitor load was very low, the park was basically empty. The tour guides has information about flora and fauna and tells stories about the park while we were travelling cozily in the channels of the park. Alligators are everywhere, quite likely right next to us. We saw some young alligators which were nurtured at the sides of the channels. We did not spot fully grown alligator during the tour.

The water tour stops once – at an observation tower reachable by a walk on a bridge. The tower is approximately 30 meters high and provides a stunning view over the vastness of the swamp and the high tree tops where many different bird species live. After 45 minutes the tour ends.

Train tour and animal encounters

As a second tour option is a ride on the small train with a little steam engine. The tour goes 1,5 miles through the park. The train drives very slowly – almost walking speed. It stops on a little island where an exhibition about the early settlements of the swamp is shown. It is a nice tour, although the first one is a little more spectacular. Maybe you should first do the train first tour and the boat tour after that.

Back at our starting point, the visitor center, we watched a 30 minute presentation in which animals of the swamp where shown. At least it is NOT some kind of circus thing – the animals (snakes, baby alligators e.g.) are just shown for a moment while some interesting facts about the species and life of these animals are given. Afterwards they go back into some boxes. We sa some baby alligators, very little ones that are only a few months old and slightly older ones that are still tiny. I asked where they come from an the answer was: 2 animals per year can be held in captivity for educational purposes.

Having this presentation at all and presenting these animals at all is debatable and maybe questionable. Of course it is interesting to learn about the animals of the swamp. But do you really need to see a living animal for demonstration purposes? The animals were looking fine, they did not seem to suffer (as far as I can judge). To me, this presentation is not a reason to boycott the park because they treated their animals respectfully. 2 alligators per year are arguable – there are also living alligators in zoos for example. The animals were not severely bothered during the presentation, so I can accept this (in other parks I have a different opinion).

During the train tour we could see some Christmas decoration. The typical Santa Claus Figures, reindeer, sleighs etc. where positioned near the tour. In the South it’s obviously only Christmas when some fancy decoration is arranged – just like the snow fits to Christmas in Germany. I personally don’t need to see that but it didn’t really bother me.

See also article on Atlanta

Atmosphere of the swamp

Remarkable in the swamp is the very dark prevailing mood. Despite of bright daylight everywhere else the water is almost black and you always expect some alligator beneath every water lily. The black color of the water comes from the many dead plants and derives from the fact that it is marsh land (“Blackwater River”). According to the tour guide a lot of water was evaporated during the summer – consequently, the level was too low. Because of that the water appeared even darker. The atmosphere of the Okefenokee Swamp is very unique, difficult to describe and capture in words. It is dark and mysterious – like from a louring fairy tale.

Organisation Tips

Due to the size of the swamp it is necessary to pick one entrance. It is not possible to drive to more than one entrance in a day. Within the swamp there are no roads, only waterstreets. A car doesn’t help here. By car, the only option is to travel the long distance around the swamp. In the swamp, only boat traveling is possible. Okefenokee is not really easily accessible. We traveled from Tallahassee but it takes around three hours till Waycross (150 Miles). In the South, distances are always long and that is something that has to be considered – we started to travel early that day so we reached early enough to spend enough time in the Okefenokee Swamp Park.

From Jacksonville, the swamp area is easier to reach by the North entrance in Folkston. But here it is best to rent a canoe and go paddling. That would be surely a great adventure but for us not the right thing for the first visit. I wouldn’t want to paddle and suddenly an alligator is swimming right next to me. Moreover the swamp is a huge maze consisting of water streets, moor, swamp, land and lagoons. I would have quite some problems to know where I am and I would defintely need a tour guide. But anyway, it would certainly be a great adventure to once do a canoe tour with someone who knows the area!

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Far Away From Everything Else: The Forgotten Coast and its Protected Areas

In Panama City, you reach the end of the Emerald Coast. Highway 98 continues along the coastline. Florida’s Forgotten Coast starts in Port St. Joe. Coming from the west, you can change routes and reach the interstate 10 up north in Panama City (highway 231) or Port St. Joe (highway 71). This is the option to drive directly to Tallahassee on the Interstate. On this northern route on I-10 and the little village Marianna, you can reach the Florida Caver State Park. These are the only cavers in Florida that are open to tourists. It only makes sense to do these caverns when you decide to stay on I-10 because you are now too far from the coast highway.

If you decide to not do that route, you can take the beautiful coastal highway 98 until St. Marks Wildlife Refuge. No matter how nice these coast routes are, you always need to consider that you cannot move fast at all. To do the entire route from New Orleans to Jacksonville on the coast highways, you need to plan several nights on the route. You can go from New Orleans to Jacksonville on the interstate in one or two days but you do not see get to see more than an interstate.

I liked all the retirement homes at the coast along that route, in particular for veteran homes. Spending your retirement like that is a dream, usually good weather and no cold winters.

There are many protected areas on route east of Panama City. For example the St. Marks I mentioned above (as the end point of the route) but also St. Joseph Bay and St. Vincent Wildlife Refuge. Further north, there is Walkulla Spring Park, a recreational area and common holiday destination for Americans with lots of flora and fauna. In Walkulla, the Tarzan Movie from 1938 was shot.

Tallahassee as a Stop

Floridas capital Tallahassee is now close. Tallahassee is not one of the most spectacular cities I have ever seen. But it makes sense as a stop after several days at the coast. Tallahassee it the biggest city in Florida’s North (180,000 people) and has many hotel options. Interesting for tourists are two places: Goodwood Plantation and Museum (a former cotton plantation) and the Knott House Museum, that shows an exhibit about Florida’s history.

In Tallahassee you have temporarily left the coastline. You now have three options to continue your route.

You can go east to Jacksonville and the Atlantic Coast. Again on I-10, it takes 3 hours. You can continue your route further south from here.

A second option is to go north from Jacksonville to Savannah and Charleston.

See Georgia Island

We chose a third option which is to go from Tallahassee to the Okefenokee Swamp and to Savannah after that. We did not do Jacksonville at all to have more time in Okefenokee.

See Okefenokee Swamp

Some Information about the Panhandle

Don’t underestimate these routes. One example: driving along the southern peak of the forgotten coast (on highway 98 from Panama City to St. Joseph and St. Marks till Tallahassee) you need 5 to 6 hours for only 300 kilometers. The fastest route (highway 213, 20, and interstate 10) takes only 2 ¼ hours (180 km). That makes quite a difference. For these costal roads, you need time, rushing along these routes is pointless. You need to pick a few places that are important to you and decide what you want to do and what you can omit.

Anyone who enjoys crusing, stopping every now and then, seeing various nature preserve areas, watching birds or walking along a beach, has found the right place on earth in the Panhandle. Camping option are available and stopping is always possible. You can easily spend two weeks at the coast just doing that.

If you have less time, you are not able to see everything. You need to use the interstate 10 occasionally, just to make miles and drive a bit faster. Otherwise you would be spending your entire day in the car and you only have time for very shorts stops.
I prefer to mix these two options. In this case, that means: spending time outside, see the countryside, beaches and islands, with no rush there but also moving forward. I recommend this tour:

• Start in New Orleans
• First night somewhere between Pensacola and Fort Walton Beach. Depending on time and interest – 1 or 2 nights. Definitely stop in Perdido Key State Park. You can also camp here (or any other location from the Gulf Island National Seashore). Nature lovers and whoever wants to have more time for the countryside should plan to stay an additional 1- 2 nights
• If you like shopping – plan some time for the Silver Sands Premium Outlet in Destin. Depending on what you prefer – you can easily spend an entire day here; Drive to Panama City Beach – on the route you need some time to stop at beaches and swim if you feel like it. Two nights in Panama City to see the city and spend some time on the beach
• Next stop is Port St. Joe. Book a hotel somewhere close to the state parks. Now you have time to visit St. Joseph and St. Vincent and St. George Island
• Next Stop is Tallahassee – if you have time you can visit Walkulla Spring State Park on the way.

Is this the Right Holiday Destination For Me?

If you enjoy nature, like to be somewhere off the main tourist routes and don’t mind driving a bit longer, this is the right place for you. You find nature, coast, beaches and tranquility. Action and Entertainment are somewhere else, Orlando and Miami. I do like nature; it definitely looks different from everything I know from home. Bigger towns are everywhere; there you can get anything you need. You can visit these towns, but it’s not really necessary. Hotels and motels are everywhere, you always have many options. But you definitely need your own car and have to drive 2 – 3 hours per day. Depending a lot, of course, how much time you have and what you want to see. If you don’t mind that, the Panhandle is the perfect place for you.

This is Part 2.

Part 1 of this article can be found here:

The Panhandle: The Part of Florida Most People Have Not Even Heard Of – Part 1: Panama City, Emerald Coast and Information About the Climate

Der Beitrag The Panhandle: The Area of Florida Most People Have Not Even Heard Of – Part 2: The Forgotten Coast, Tallahassee and Route Options erschien zuerst auf travelspotting.

From New Orleans To Jacksonville

Southern Florida is famous for its main tourist attractions in Orlando and Miami as well as its beaches and coasts. The so-called Panhandle, Florida’s Northwest is much less known. It’s called panhandle because its shape on the map resembles a panhandle. To locate it roughly, you can pick New Orleans as the starting point and depending on what you like Jacksonville or Tampa as the end point of your route. Of course, New Orleans is not in Florida, on this route you reach Florida after a little less than 3 hours driving (320 km). The total distance from New Orleans to Jacksonville is 880 km (to Tampa 1050 km). This is too much for a short field trip; you need to spend a couple of days in this area.

More Information on New Orleans can be found here.

The Panhandle as a Winter Destination and Year-Round Holiday Destination?

Is the Panhandle a good Year-Round Holiday Destination? Can I spend my winter holiday there and take a sunbath at the beach? Unfortunately, the answer is no. To find perfect beach weather, you need to go further south in Florida. The Panhandle is warm but not warm enough to take a sunbath and swim in the ocean. I was there in November in off-season. The plus side is obvious: very few visitors, the hotels were cheap and the weather was perfect to do some sightseeing in the cities. For a beach holiday, it was not warm enough. I did some walking along the beaches; it’s even warm enough to sit at the beach on midday. But it was not enough for sunbathing and swimming. To me, this is “T-Shirt-weather”, just like a nice, sunny spring day in Germany.

The only difference is that it starts raining all of a sudden. The residents always say weather at the coastline can change within minutes. That’s definitely true, we could see that all the time. Also, it’s quite windy, of course it is, we are near the ocean. Many Kitesurfers are here, we could see them regularly. This area is particularily interesting for them, we saw many residents kite surfing.

Emerald Coast: Gulf Island National Seashore, Pensacola and Panama City

Why would I want to go to the Panhandle anyways? The westernmost point of Florida is Pensacola. You can already experience the character of the Panhandle here: everything is more quiet, laid-back and less touristic. There is lots of pristine nature, long-stretched beaches and calmness. Some areas are protected, but this usually only means that you need to pay a fee (10 to 15 dollar entrance per car) and are only allowed to move within the designated areas. These nature protection areas are extremely important to flora and fauna and need support.

One example is the Gulf Island National Seashore (close to Biloxi). It has a 15 dollar entrance fee. There are beaches, you can go hiking, watch birds, kayak and enjoy the nature. Parts of the park are reachable by car. One of its islands is Perdido Key.
Gulf Island National Seashore is a coastal area, 160 miles long. It’s partly in Mississippi and Florida and consists of 12 different units. A car with less than 15 people in it costs 15 dollars. There are three visitor centers.

More information on: https://www.nps.gov/guis/index.htm

I would have liked to spend more time in that recreational area. We could not do that, but I’d really like to come back some day. Just spending 2 days in that protected area, leave the car somewhere and do some walking all day long, spend time at the beach and simply relax and unwind.

Something quite remarkable is the transition from sea to fresh water in the swamps. You can see this very well in Perdido Key State Park. Many of the typical Florida alligator live in this protected area. More Information on Perdido Key can be found here.

The most important connecting street is interstate 10. But the interstate leaves the coastline quickly and is located a bit further upcountry. You should leave the I-10 as soon as possible and rather take the coast highways. There, you can enjoy the view and cruise very American-like along the coast. You can stop as you like and take a walk at the beach or simply have coffee or enjoy lunch.

The US-army has a base in Pensacola which makes the cities well-known nationwide.
The coastal area between Pensacola and Panama City is called Emerald Coast – named after the precious stone. This name describes the beauty of the area quite nicely. The ocean shimmers in many different colors, the beaches are huge and most of them are totally deserted, the nature protection areas are gorgeous.

Between Pensacola and Panama City (near Fort Walton) is a little town called Destin. For anyone who wants to go shopping, the outlet mall Silver Sands Premium Outlet in Destin is a huge shopping-lovers paradise. You cannot miss the mall. You only need to drive along coast street 98 (the main road). Signs are everywhere at the highway.

After Destin, you reach a little town called Seaside. Seaside is so picturesque; Hollywood used it as the hometown in “The Truman Show” with Jim Carrey. It’s only a little town, but very nice and a good place to stop on the route.

Grayton Beach State Park and St. Andrews State Park: Best Beach of America

Two beaches on the Panhandle need some special attention. Both of them were called the Best Beach in America in different years. Dr. Beach (a geology professor in Florida) picks a winner every year and has a Top 10 list.

Grayton Beach State Park, right between Destin and Panama City, only a few kilometers from Seaside, was number one in 1994 and regularly appears in the Top Ten, 2016 as number 6.

St. Andrews Beach State Park was topping the list in 1995 and is also a regular Top Ten Guest. St. Andrews is another 55 km further east, close to Panama City.

Both beaches are part of a protected area (both state parks). That means you need to pay to go there. The list of activities includes: hiking, nature watching, animal watching, fishing, cycling, camping and of course spending time at the beach, swimming and sunbathing.

This Article continues in Part 2:

The Panhandle: The Part of Florida Most People Have Not Even Heard Of – Part 2: The Forgotten Coast, Tallahassee and Route Options

Der Beitrag The Panhandle: The Area of Florida Most People Have Not Even Heard Of – Part 1: Panama City and Emerald Coast and Information about the Climate erschien zuerst auf travelspotting.

Tolerance and Happiness in Total Chaos

India is a very tolerant country. People are always friendly and in a good mood. Chaos always rules everywhere but in the end everything, somehow, works. We need plan and a daily structure. India does not have any of that. For us, this is a lesson to let things loose, be relaxed and to wait and see what’s happening in the end. It is not possible to control everything, rather the opposite. You feel that very strongly in India.

Land of Opposites

India is a land of opposites: poor vs. rich (also very poor vs. very rich), different religions (Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jain, Parsi and Sikhs), different identities (different languages in every federal state) and different lifestyles. India’s ad campaign is called “united in diversity”. You can only imagine what that really means after spending some time in India. There is a, largely, peaceful togetherness of entirely different lifestyles and concepts of life.

Humbleness and Modesty

India makes everyone humble and you learn many lessons for your own life. I became aware of the fact how decadent we partly life. In India, people are happy about running water, we consider a cold shower a catastrophe. Indians are often more happy than we are, even though they have less. Material things are not as important to be happy.

Colonialisation as One of the Biggest Crimes in Human History

We get to see what colonialisation, the biggest crime of the West to the rest of the world, has done. Indians were forced to speak a new language (English), they were told what is right and what is wrong. The only right thing is of course, whatever the West decides, everything else is wrong. Yet, India has its own ways of doing things, we can learn something there. Not everything is better in the west and worse in the East, it’s quite often the other way.

Poverty

A theoretical construct that is clear: the West is only rich because others are not. This more theoretical understanding become more alive and vivid here: there are extremely rich Indians but also poverty and beggars both to certain extend that we don’t know in Europe. Germans have forgotten what poverty, real poverty is and means. India helps to learn that.

How To Handle Emotions

In Germany, there is only one way to handle emotions: swallow them and don’t show them at all. If, in work life, you responded emotionally, for example crying in public, no one ever takes you seriously again. We channel emotions at sports (mostly football), most commonly in the audience or during big public parties (things like Oktoberfest), not any other time. There are no more socially accepted ways to show emotions. Emotional is a negative word for us.

Efficiency and Slowness

“Discovering Slowness”: Things in India are slower, in general but also in particular. Germans are made for Efficiency, being fast and having “no time”. Slow is bad, inefficient is annoying. India is a chance to think about that, to try and live a different life.

The country runs slower, even literally: everyone walks slower on the sidewalk. If you try to walk in “German pace” it becomes exhausting, unnecessarily annoying and does not lead anywhere. Better do things slowly, act in the same pace as the rest of the country. It’s not bad when things take longer and are done much slower. It even becomes convenient to have more time, less hectic and not be under time pressure all the time. You need to lose a big load of impatience for that!

Joy of Life and Patience

There is a lifestyle outside western norms and ideas. This lifestyle can teach us a lot, for example high spirits and vitality but also being satisfied and patient. We have almost lost these abilities in the West.

India has a joy of life that is unbelievable. This becomes most obvious during dancing. In India, there are no Non-Dancers. Everyone storms to the dance floor, no one is thinking about whether it looks embarrassing and everyone just dances however it feels right. In a club, I did hear some singing louder than the music from the speakers. This is not possible in Germany. Everyone always waits until the dance floor opens . That’s

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