Gangtok, Sikkim
The sweet smell of diesel filled the air as we arrived in Gangtok, via a 6 hour ride in a shared jeep.
Our home was to be Tara’s Urban Homestay, a delightful place about 3km from the town centre. When the clouds let up, we had incredible views of the surrounding mountains.
Our room was super comfy and we ate delicious home-cooked food. The best part though, was the kindness of our host Tara and her husband Manoj. Lucky for us, they are both tour operators and so were able to offer us lots of helpful advice. We spent 4 nights in Gangtok. Two on either side of our trip up to North Sikkim.
Gangtok kind of took us by surprise. It was totally different from the picturesque village of Darap.
The town centre is totally pedestrianised, which means you can take a nice stroll through without worry about getting knocked down. The streets are lined with shops selling mostly clothes.
For shopping, we found it fairly uninteresting, although the markets were fun and we picked up a few bits and bobs.
As our homestay was away from the town centre, we were able to take a walk in and see some of the less touristy things we probably wouldn’t have spotted if we’d stayed in the centre. This is a really good tip for visiting somewhere new. If you have the time, stay a bit out of the way because you see cool stuff and you get some extra exercise!
Some of the most popular things to do in Gangtok are shopping, visiting monasteries, visiting the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, riding the cable car as well as taking various walks and treks. Unfortunately it wasn’t the season for trekking as the sky was mostly full of cloud, but we did manage to fit various other things into our time in Gangtok.
One of the things we planned to do in Gangtok, was to organise a tour to north Sikkim. We'd heard lots of lovely things about this snowy, mountainous region and so it was at the top of our list of things to do. It’s only possible to visit North Sikkim as part of an organised tour. Trying to do this as a couple was far too expensive for us and we weren't allowed to take the tour with Indians. Therefore we needed to find some foreigner friends and fast! As if by magic, Manoj was able to use his super powers to locate an English couple who were also looking to take a tour. As if sent by the Gods, the couple he found for us were Steve and Sarah, two of the most wonderful people we could have hoped to explore unknown lands with. After a quick coffee, it was clear we were all going to get along, so we got on and booked ourselves onto a tour for the next day.
We spent the rest of that day together just rambling around and taking in what Gangtok had to offer.
We came this close to getting on the cable car, but for some reason the ride didn’t go ahead. No one actually told us it wasn’t going ahead. We just sat up at the top of the building for ages waiting (and taking killer photos like this).
After waiting for a considerably long amount of time, we realised some of the other people who had been waiting had left. It wasn’t until we asked the car operator what was happening that he just shook his head at us. We took this to mean we wouldn’t be catching a lift and headed back down.
After wandering through this utterly bizarre orchid sanctuary where we saw zero flowers, a girl with a bleeding foot and a tonne of broken stuff…
…we headed to the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology.
The museum was absolutely packed full of beautiful artwork and housed a huge collection of artefacts relating to Vajrayana Buddhism and Tibetan culture. We weren’t allowed to take any photos but we spent ages wandering around and reading the descriptions of paintings which told various Buddhist stories.
Back at the homestay, Tara made us beautiful food every day. She even made us homemade pasta because she overheard us talking about it! So delicious!
When we were out and about, we ate at Roll House (several times) which is in the main town. The place has a reputation for cooking up Gangtok’s finest rolls and Momos and we can confirm that it is incredibly good scran.
For now, I leave you with this:
