side trip to Sikkim

After a couple of relaxing days in our beloved Pokhara, we took a bus to the southern plains of the Terai region to visit the jungle of the Chitwan National Park. Perry, aka ‘the Flying Dutchman’ also joined us on this trip. We stayed two nights in Sauraha, which is situated right next to the park. The day after our arrival we did a jungle walk with two local guides. It started early in the morning with a canoe trip following the stream of the river. As soon as we arrived at the starting point of our trek, there was already a huge rhino waiting for us in the middle of the river, feeding on aquatic plants for breakfast. This ‘jungle tank’ made quite an impression on us. Amazed by its appearance we started our jungle tour, on which we saw the following wildlife: vultures, white spotted deers, sambal deers, a snake, crocodiles, another rhino and two flirting sloth bears (you probably all know Balu from the Jungle Book). Luckily we only spotted footprints of leopards and the great Bengal tiger – you know, the one that’s on top of the food chain!

Back in Pokhara , we decided spontaneously to visit the autonomous region Sikkim, located between Nepal and Bhutan in the hilly outskirts of the Himalaya. Once a Kingdom of its own, it now belongs to India. Because we messed up with our Indian visas, we first had to take a flight to New Delhi before we could finally move on to the border of Sikkim. There we had to register at the foreigners check point in order to enter into the region. With all the formalities behind us, we were finally ready to explore Sikkim. First, we travelled to the eastern part, to the capitol city Gangtok. Then we moved on to the South, where we visited several sacred Buddhist sites. Finally, we did a home stay at the Dunghay farm in the western region in Hee Bermoik. The family treated us very friendly and we enjoyed delicious dishes made of homegrown vegetables and self-butchered goat meat. During the day we hiked uphill through cardamom fields and were invited to visit several local homes. In the evening, we rounded up the day by trying ‘chang’, a local alcoholic beverage made of millet and yeast.

Gangtok:

Chardham:

Buddha Park:

Samdruptse:

Dunghay Homestay:

Overall, the trip to Sikkim was a nice experience, but there were some disappointments too. Originally, we intended to do some more trekking, but this turned out to be very complicated, as you always need a guide and most tours aren’t available during winter time. Furthermore many touristic spots aren’t accessible to foreigners, because they are too close to the Chinese border (Tibet). We only learned about these obstacles, when we arrived at a certain location, which sometimes was very frustrating. In general, individual travelling seems to be quite difficult, because there are no local buses, let alone trains. Since it’s a very hilly area, the only means of transportation are shared 4×4-vehicles or small taxis. The 4×4-vehicles never depart unless they are fully packed with people and stop countless times along the way, which takes a lot of time. Private taxis are time effective, but very costly and the drivers sometimes get lost and are afraid of ‘long distances’. In addition to this, the Indian government had just recently decided to demonetize the country, which made it sometimes difficult to get cash from the ATM’s.
Nevertheless we liked Sikkim, especially the western part (we didn’t visit the northern part, due to winter season). For us this region has an abundance of unspoiled nature, as globalization and industry haven’t yet arrived here and, according to locals, people don’t want this kind of progress. The people of West Sikkim, which are mostly of Nepali origin, were always very curious about us and eager to have a little chat (and countless selfies). We haven’t met any western people for several days, which made this whole experience very authentic.

After Sikkim we travelled to Darjeeling in West Bengal, which is world famous for its tea. There we stayed for three nights, drank tea and took a joyride on a steam train.

Darjeeling:

Afterwards we crossed the border back into Nepal, stayed one night in Badrapur and took a domestic flight back to Kathmandu. Today we might pay another visit to the Bodnath Stupa, before another flight will take us into China.

At last we would like to give you some concluding thoughts about Nepal and its people:
It took some time at first, but now we can truly say that we fell in love with Nepal. Before we came here, we didn’t know much about the country, except that a lot of people come here for trekking. That’s why we were quite shocked about the persisting poor state of development. We have never seen worse road conditions (and we already did a lot of travelling…). Mostly it’s still dirt roads, but the concrete roads are in bad shape too. Daily power shortages are nothing uncommon in Nepal, and this is true for remote villages as well as the capital city.
One reason for these circumstances is that Nepal is ‘lost in transition’. In the past decades, Nepal has gone through many experiments – from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy, to governments run by Communists, Maoists and Royalists as well as multiparty democracy. Recently the country is struggling with the transformation into a federal system and they still seem undecided about whether they want a mixed market economy or a socialist economy. * Whenever we talked with Nepali people, we felt that they are not content with their government.

(* The conclusions expressed in this paragraph are inspired by the book ‘Lost in Transition’ by Kul Chandra Gautam)

However Nepali people are still very friendly and ready to smile. They seem to accept their situation and try to make the best out of it. We got the impression that Nepali are very though and hardworking people (and seem to have the world’s best driving skills). They always stayed calm and treated us heartily.
Although it may sometimes be difficult to get reliable information and travelling feels exhausting, if you have the time and patience everything seems possible in Nepal. We are thankful for the great experiences we made in this country and we’ll definitely be back.

Cheerio, the steffles