Friends,

I am always dreaming of travelling to unknown places because I love travelling and walking towards the unknown. Travelling allows us to really take our time and experience with people and that new places.

I did not get enough opportunities to visit new places because of the paucity of times during professional life. Now I am retired and have time to relax and enjoy travelling to unknown locations.

Yes, last month, I travelled to Sikkim and a nearby location. Travelling can have a significant impact on our person’s mental health by allowing us to disconnect from stressful daily routine life while being one with nature.

After Breakfast at Siliguri, we continued our journey to Gangtok. We were enjoying the beautiful views of hilly terrain. On my left side there were long trees of Pine are standing and on the right-side river Teesta was flowing that was making our journey enjoyable ..

Our plan was to reach Gangtok before lunch. Because of heavy traffic, we reached Gangtok in the evening. We had our booking in a hotel there at. We checked in and took a shower to get fresh. The weather was clear and very pleasant. We were feeling much relief from the scorching heat of Kolkata.

An evening in M G Marg

It was around 6.00 and looked like a beautiful evening. So, we went to M.G Marg, which was walking distance from our hotel, to enjoy the evening. Really, that was a beautiful place to spend a relaxing evening.

The road is lined up with glittering shops, restaurants, cafes & bars on both sides. Many tourists take a table at a roadside restaurant and watch the activities on the street. Before returning to our hotel, we had coffee and snacks in a restaurant there.

It was very amazing to see the beautiful view of the terrain from the window of the Hotel. It was like a carnival like atmosphere out there. The entire area was free of litter, smoke and vehicles.

It’s a pedestrian only zone and vehicles are not allowed on this approximately 1km stretch of the road. I found this city is disciplined .

We had decided to visit Tashi View Point the next morning for the view of the sunrise. But it started raining in the night and it continued almost the whole night. With a heavy heart, we dropped the plan.

But we had a surprise the next morning. When I got up at 5.45 a.m. we saw a clear view of Mt. Kanchenjunga from our hotel room. It was really breathtakingly beautiful. Though it was visible only for 15 minutes only, as soon covered with clouds, we found our mood upbeat for the day.

Temi Tea Garden

After having our breakfast, we started our journey towards Ravangla. Our first destination was Temi Tea Garden. It is the only tea garden in Sikkim. The distance from Gangtok is approximately 50 km & it took 2.5 hrs. to reach there.

The view was exceptional. The tea garden stretches out all over a mild hill slope that begins from the Tendong Hill. We saw the majestic view of the nearby terraced slopes and villages. The surroundings were filled with pine and prune trees, and there were many walking trails all around.

We got a small shop in front of the garden where we enjoyed that beautiful view with a cup of tea. Our next destination was Chardham

Chardham

From there, we headed towards Namchi. It took almost 1.5 hr. to cover a distance of 20 km. Our Car was running on tough road conditions as the road was terrible due to rain. Our major attraction in Namchi was Chardham . It is a huge cultural complex, developed by the Sikkim government.

Though the whole place was amazing, but the 87 feet tall statue of Lord Shiva mesmerized us a lot. We were very surprised to see that there were replicas of twelve Jyotirlingas to offer one platform to all devotees of Shiva.

Along with that, there were replicas of the four dhams (Badrinath, Jagannath, Dwarka dedicated to lord Vishnu and Rameswaram dedicated to lord Shiva). We were overwhelmed after seeing all these and we were filled with spirituality. Our next destination was Buddha Park.

Buddha Park

We went to Buddha Park at Ravangla. We have been told that the Park is spread over 23 acres of area and this parkland has a towering sitting statue of Buddha which is 137ft 22inch tall. The face of the statue is coated with 3.5kgs of gold. It is the tallest metal statue of Buddha in India. Really, it was looking amazing.

Exceptional looks of mountains and forests surrounded by this area had mesmerized us. There was battery operated auto available,  which was helpful to make a complete tour of this park. 

This is definitely a famous attraction that serves as an important landmark to the Buddhist community; it was constructed on eve of the 2550th birth anniversary of Lord Gautama Buddha in 2006.

This divine comeliness is fenced in by a lush eco garden. This helps promote pilgrimage tourism in Sikkim. Buddha Park is almost entirely covered by tinkers and a destination of both international and domestic tourists . This is admiring the scenic charm of the memorial and its surrounding beauty.

We had also visited the Cho Djo Lake, which was within the complex . That was the added attraction for us .

I would like to add one more thing that, a Buddhist conclave and a museum meditation center make the place even more impressive. It depicted the life of Gautam Buddha in two different manners within a gallery constructed in spirals.

We fell in love with the eternal beauty of this place. We found People, especially the local cabbies and hotel staff, are very helpful & friendly. What I feel is that probably at no other tourist place, one can find such nice localities. I was thinking of visiting this place again whenever we get time. That was the end of 2nd day of our travelling.

Please click below the link for Adventure Trip to Nathula..

BE HAPPY….BE ACTIVE….BE FOCUSED….BE ALIVE…

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Categories: Tour & Travel