Gangtok Travel and Tourism Guide

5/20/07We woke up early and eager to finish the hike down to Yuksom. Even though it rained hard last night, the trail was muddy and slippery but wasn’t as bad as we thought. Thupten was on high speed mode, unusual for him, but he was probably anxious to get back too. All in all, it was about five hours of walking, mostly downhill, crossing bridges and winding through the jungle/forest. This was the same path that we initially walked up the first day and we were impressed with ourselves afte...

The Himalayas strech 2500km.The range boasts of fourteen peaks in excess of 26,200ft/8000m,including Mt.Everest which at 29,028ft/8848m is the highest mountain in the world. The highest peak in our country is the third highest in the world -the Kanchendzonga ,located in the second smallest state , Sikkim. Sikkim is between Nepal on the West ,Bhutan on the East ,it has the towering Tibetan plateau to the North and the sourthern region bordering West Bengal is the only way of accessing the area.

Armed with my permit, I set off for tsomgo lake, climbing 7,000ft in the process (by jeep of course). If I tell you that the journey of 28km took two hours, you'll get the idea. A sign along the way exhorted us to "think of the people who risked death to bring you this road". At the third police checkpoint (we were very close to the Chinese border) there were half a dozen stalls, each selling hats and gloves. Hmmm. I arrived at the lake to find it a bit chilly. The lake was frozen over,...

A year long road trip driving from Sydney to Southampton in a BMW X5 checking out progress on the Asian Highway Project and visiting 100 world heritage sites along the way