North & West Sikkim | JAN Treks & Travels

NORTH and WEST SIKKIM

Tour - 14 days

About Darjeeling & SIKKIM

Sikkim and neighboring Darjeeling have a lot to offer to mountain lovers, aficionados of Buddhist culture and trekkers. Wedged in between Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet – but part of India – this region shares a lot with these areas.

Darjeeling, situated at 2040m, has the typical atmosphere of Indian hill stations. It was the former summer capital of British India, and has preserved much of the old-world charm. Darjeeling is world-famous for its tea, which is grown in extensive tea estates that clad the surrounding slopes. Being very close to the tallest mountains on earth, especially number 3, the Kangchenjunga (8586m) it also boasts great views from most hotel windows.

It’s next-door neighbour Sikkim – of which it used to be part – is a gem of cultural and natural diversity. Until 1974 Sikkim was an independent kingdom, now it is part of India. It is home to different Himalayan peoples, most from Nepali descent or originating from Tibetan and Bhutan, such as the Bhutias who brought Buddhism to the area four centuries ago. Thanks to them Sikkim boasts of colorful Buddhist monasteries and Buddhist festivals. The Lepcha’s, until a few decennia ago forest-dwelling animists, hold a unique culture that the Sikkimese government is trying to preserve.

Region

Darjeeling & Sikkim
(India)

Best Time

March-April &
Oct-Dec

No. Of Days

14 days

Trip Character

Jeep tour

Sleeping Altitude

1620 - 2625 m

Price

INR XXX/ $ XXX

ABOUT THIS TOUR

On this tour, you’ll fly from Delhi to Bagdogra, south of Sikkim, from where you’ll be driven to gangtok, Sikkim’s capital. After two nights here, to rest from the journey and get acclimatised to the altitude, the bicycle tour starts.

On the first leg of the tour, you’ll explore the ‘monastic circuit of western Sikkim, visiting the most interesting and precious buddhist temples and monasteries of Sikkim, as well as its diverse people and mountains and its fascinating flora and fauna. Where possible, you follow remote roads, avoiding dense traffic routes, that wind their way through the lush countryside and forests. Occasionally you will get very good views of the Khangchenjunga (8485 m) and other Himalayan peaks.

On the second leg you’ll explore the most northern parts of Sikkim. You’ll bicycle up along the raging Teesta River and explore small settlements along its headwaters, inside the Kangchenjunga National park. Even further north, you’ll visit the Bhutia settlements of Lachen and Lachung, situted at about 2600m. From here you’ll explore the highest attainable valleys of Sikkim, close to the border with Tibet/ China and home to yak herders and ancient, tiny gompa’s that figure in the early twentieth century travel stories by legendary explorers such as Alexandra David-Neel and Lama Anagarika Govinda.

Your accommodation is a mix of pleasant homestays, ‘different’ ecoresorts and comfortable hotels.

YOUR custom-made TRIP

The tour described here, as well as the other ones on our website, are mainly meant as suggestions. We would be happy to offer you a travel proposal that fully meets your personal demands and expectations. That means that you choose where you want to go, what level of accommodation and type of transport you want and what activities you prefer.

Please let yourself be inspired by this and other trips on our website and then drop us a line (or call us) to explain your travel wishes. We will be happy to help you put together the perfect trip. You can reach us over e-mail, Messenger, Whatsapp or mobile phone.

EXTENSIONS & VARIATIONS

Apart from the tour as described here, you could consider the following add-ons and changes:

Stay longer in Gangtok or one of the smaller hamlets that you pass through on the way. Gangtok has a lot to offer in terms of local sights, such as monasteries and temples, handicraft markets, shopping and pleasant cafes. The smaller places, such as Kewzing, Yuksum, Lachen and Lachung is where you can meet the locals and learn about their culture.
Add a walking trek to your programme to get even higher into the Himalayas and enjoy stupendous vistas of Mt. Kangchenjunga. We highly recommend the Shingalila Ridge trek.

ITINERARY

Day 1: Delhi ✈︎ Bagdogra or Pakyong Aiport & drive to Gangtok (4 h, or 1 h drive, resp.)
The flight to Bagdogra takes less than 2 h and, in clear weather, affords wonderful views of the Himalayas, including Mt. Everest (8848m) and Kangchenjunga (8568m). At the airport our guide and driver await you, and will take you to Gangtok, Sikkim's Capital. Overnight in a good hotel. Altitude 1650m.
Day 2: In Gangtok
Today you can explore Gangtok, by car and on foot. You can visit the Sikkim Research Institute of Tibetology, the Do Drul Chorten, the largest stupa in Sikkim, the Cottage Industries Center, the Flower Show and Enchey Monastery. Altitude 1650m.
Day 3: Gangtok – Rumtek (45 min)
Leaving Gangtok to the west, you descend to the river Rani Khola, after which you reach the forested mountain slopes around Rumtek, the site of Gangtok's most famous monastery, Rumtek Gompa. Altitude 1650 → 1620m.
Day 4: Rumtek - Kewzing (85 km/ 3 h)
Today, you’ll follow a backroad along small hamlets down to the Teesta River and up again to the small hamlet of Kewzing. On the way you can visit Temi Tea Gardens and a 40m high statue of the Buddha Gautama at Ravangla. Overnight in a pleasant homestay. Altitude 1650 → 350 → 2045 → 1615m.
Day 5 : Kewzing - Pelling - Kecheopalri - Yuksum (91 km/ 4 h)
First, you visit Pelling, home to Sikkim’s most revered monastery, Pemayangtse Gompa, and after that the beautiful Khechopari Lake. Overnight is at Yuksum, the ancient capital of Sikkim. 1615 → 2070 → 1160 → 1825 → 1105 → 1730m.
Day 6: Yuksom - Tashiding Monastery - Mangan (126 km/ 4-5h)
Today you’ll visit spectacularly situated Tashiding Monastery. After passing Kewzing and Ravangla, and crossing the Teesta River again, you follow a much less travel road north to Mangan. Altitude 1730 → 1605 → 655 → 2035 → 460 → 1250mm.
Day 7: Mangan - Sakkyong (23.5 km/ 1h)
Today, you''ll leave the main road and explore a less visited valley to the west. It's a relatively short distance to the simple homestay up in Sakkyong Valley. After lunch you'll walk further west and explore the fringes of the Kangchenjunga National Park. Altitude 1250 → 750→ 1450m.
Day 8: Sakkyong - Chumthang - Lachen (78 km/ 3h)
You leave this beautiful valley again and rejoin the main road at Mangan. Continuing north along the Teesta River, you pass the small town of Chumthang and enter the wide Lachen Valley, one of the two major acces routes to the borderlands with Tibet. Altitude 1450 → 750 → 1620 → 2620m.
Day 9: Lachen - Thangu - Lachen (105 km/ 5 h)
A long day with a very serious altitude gain., so you may want to ride the car for at least a part of it. You'll follow one of the main access routes to the high Himalayas on the border with Tibet/ China, a magnificent area of glaciers, forbidding mountains and green valleys where yaks graze. Altitude 1620 → 5015 → 2620m.
Day 10: Lachen - Lachung (81,5 km/ 3 h)
You return to Chumthang, where you turn east. Climbing up another valley you’ll reach the pleasant settlement of Lachung. Altitude 2620 → 1620 → 2625m.
Day 11: Lachung - Zero Point - Lachung (117 km/ 4 h)
Today we explore the desolate, high-altitude valley north of Lachung. The landscape is shaped by glaciers, raging mountain streams, snow-capped mountains and forests that harbour silver fir and juniper, as well as more than twenty species of rhododendrons (blooming in April). Altitude 2625 → 4815 → 2625m.
Day 12: Lachung - Milky Waterfall - Lachung (74 km/ 2.5 h)
In the morning you can visit the interesting Lachung Gompa (temple) before driving up to Milky Waterfall at about 4000m. Here you can explore some magnificent high altitude forests.Altitude 2625 → 4060 → 2625m.
Day 13: Lachung - Gangtok (104 km/ 4 h)
You return to Mangan and then follow the main, eastern road back to Gangtok, stopping at wonderful viewpoints and the interesting monastery of Phodong. Altitude 2625 → 750 → 940 → 585→ 1650m.
Day 14: Gangtok - Bagdogra ✈︎ Delhi (4 h drive, 2 h flight)
After breakfast the car will take you down to Bagdogra where you check in for the flight to Delhi. It depends on the timing of your international flight whether you will need an overnight stay in Delhi. In the latter case we can arrange this for you.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS TOUR

Gangtok

In Sikkim’s capital Gangtok, the rear neighbours almost always live on another street and hardly anyone has a garden, because the slopes are too steep for that. This also means that the roads are nowhere wide and often clogged. But fortunately most locations in the city can be reached on foot. Pedestrians can use a whole series of footbridges to cross busy roads. Gangtok was also the first city in India to declare its centre a pedestrian area. Here it is pleasant to stroll and shop and there are numerous ‘hip’ restaurants and cafes. Thanks to the government’s serious approach to environmental problems – a rarity in India – this is also one of India’s cleanest city centres. Interesting places to visit include the flower exhibition – with many varieties of orchids, – the Institute of Tibetology, Enchey Gompa and Tashi Viewpoint.

Rumtek Monastery

Rumtek Gompa is the most famous monastery of Sikkim. It was originally built in the middle of the eighteenth century under the direction of Changchub Dorje, the 12th Karmapa, the reincarnated head abbot of the Karma Kagyu Sect. It served for some time as the seat of the Karma Kagyu Sect in Sikkim, but later this was moved to Tsurpu (or Tshurphu) in Tibet. When the 16th Karmapa arrived in Rumtek in 1959 after fleeing the Chinese oppression in Tibet, the monastery was in ruins. At the invitation of India’s first prime minister, Jawahal Nehru, and with generous support from the Sikkimese royal family and the local population, the monastery was rebuilt as a replica of the Tsurpu monastery, and the sacred objects that had been brought from Tsurpu were reinstalled. A golden stupa in the monastery contains the remains of the 16th Karmapa.

Teen Taley Eco Resort

Teentaley Eco Resort is not a hotel but, as they say “an organic experience of the real, rural Sikkim.” Here, you stay in cozy bamboo cottages amidst a sprawling landscape garden, with a farmhouse and a private forest where you can go bird watching without leaving the premises. The food is home-grown, organic of course, and dinners are accompanied with the typical Sikkimese tongba – bamboo containers filled with millet beer. As the location, in Rumtek, is close to Gangtok, you can stay here, sleeping in the quiet of the mountains and waking to the birds’ songs, while visiting Sikkim’s capital during the day.

SIKKIM Tea

If there is one legacy of the Brits in India it is tea. Tea estates, tea processing and exporting, and tea drinking. It was long believed that wild tea, Camelia sinensis, only grew in China, but this small woody brush was ‘rediscovered’ by the British in the early 19th century in the jungle of Assam. Camelia sinensis var. assamica had long been used by indigenous people. Large tracts of land were converted into tea gardens and these days Darjeeling (and Assam) tea are known worldwide. There are two kinds of preparation. The black tea that is being dunked in water that just has been boiled is called orthodox. In Indian households and tea stalls the tea is generally boiled for some time with milk and sugar, and sometimes spices. This is called CTC tea. The two kinds of tea require different factory handling, but both have the same Camelia leaves as the starting point.

Ravangla

The Lepchas

When visiting Yangsum, be sure to visit the Lepcha Heritage House. The Lepchas are a very interesting people. Both “genetically” and ethnically-culturally they differ from the Nepalis and the Bhutias. Originally, they were hunters-gatherers who practiced wet rice cultivation in the lower reaches of Sikkim. The Lepchas consider themselves the most original inhabitants of Sikkim. Researchers suspect that they originated from (eastern) Tibet or Southeast Asia and that they have come to Sikkim via southern Bhutan (where Lepchas still live today). Originally, they were animist and some still are, particularly those living in the Lepcha Reserve in northern Sikkim. Until the nineties, shamans would be found in most Lepcha villages, where they would practice their rituals. Today, in central and southern Sikkim, most Lepchas have converted to Buddhism, and a minority to Hinduism or Christianity.

Pemayangtse Monastery

Pemayangtse Gompa was built by Lama Lhatsun Chempo in 1705, and it is one of the oldest monasteries in Sikkim. It was expanded by the third Chogyal (king) of Sikkim Chakdor Namgyal, who was considered the third incarnation of Lhatsun Chenpo. The monastery follows the Nyingma order (‘Old sect’) and is the main monastery of this order in Sikkim. The monks of the monastery are normally chosen from the Bhutias (ethnic Tibetans living in Sikkim since the seventeenth century). The top floor of the monastery houses a rare work of art made of wood, a seven-storey representation of Guru Rinpoche’s Celestial Palace (known as ‘Sanghthokpalri’ or ‘Zandog-palri’). Guru Rimpoche, also known as Padmasambhava, was one of the most important spreaders of Buddhism in the eighth century.

Yuksum

For the Bhutia tribal community of Sikkim, Yuksom has a special religious and cultural significance. It has a number of well-known Buddhist monasteries and historical monuments. Being at the head of the Khangchendzonga National Park and functioning as the starting point for trekking to Mt. Khangchendzonga, it has large influx of trekkers and mountaineers from all parts of the world. The village people, as stake holders in biodiversity preservation of the Rathong Chu valley, where the village is situated, have played a significant role in trendsetting and promotion of eco-tourism in the area. The inhabitants of this village have not only adopted ecotourism in their own region but also ‘exported’ it to other areas in Sikkim. Yuksom is thus considered a model village for eco-tourism.

Lachen and Lachung

The towns of Lachen and Lachung are located in the north of Sikkim, near the border with Tibet. Both sit at an elevation of about 2650 m in a valley surrounded steep forested slopes. The word Lachen means “big pass” while Lachung means “small pass.” Before the annexation of Tibet in 1950 by China, Lachung was a trading post between Sikkim and Tibet. The town’s flailing economy was boosted in recent years as the region was opened up to tourism. Vistas of the Himalayan peaks, the flowers of Yumthang Valley and the Lachung Monastery. Most of the area’s inhabitants are Lepchas and Bhutias (people of Tibetan descent), apart from a notable Indian army presence. During winter, the towns are usually covered in snow.

THE BHUTIAS

The Bhutias hail originally from Tibet, most likely Kham area. In XXX their leader, prince Khey Bhumsa, made a historic pact with the Lepchas of Sikkim that laid the foundation of the kingdom of Sikkim. At present, Bhutias are found in most parts of Sikkim, but only in the north, in Lachen and Lachung, they form the majority. Although they ultimately abide by Indian law, the Bhutias still have a legal system in place called zumsa, which is overseen by local village heads, called pipon. Apart from growing seasonal crops like maize, millet, potatoes and barley, the Bhutias keep goats and yak at the pastures of the higher Himalayas. The Language spoken by the Bhutias is Sikkimese, which is a dialect of Tibetan. Being devout Buddhists, they love (buddhist) festivities, songs and music. The traditional dress of the Bhutias is still very reminiscent of Tibetan costumes. The men wear a full-sleeved loose mantle called bakhu, while the women dress in a sleeveless gown with a silken blouse called honju. They fancy jewelry of turquoise, mountain coral, silver and gold.