Two things happened in 2022 .. First – my friend Sujata came from USA bearing gifts for me .. Trekking poles, head lamp used for night treks, and a beautiful two-in-one jacket. I had finished Kashmir Great Lakes just in 2021 and there were no plans for another trek in my mind.. nothing I wanted to do. Usually we say mountains call.. only then a trek to it happens. Second – YHAI camp leader Rohini Joshi posted her picture of herself in Goecha-La, Sikkim. It was a mesmerizing picture, and she told me go for Goecha-La pass trek, that it is different.

I started looking for youtube vdos for Goecha-La pass trek and was enthralled by it. But YHAI did not have it in their program list. Me being a hard core fan of YHAI looked at other trekking companies but didnt feel confident. I kept surfing net for various adventures. Got hooked for Sela Pass cycling in Arunachal Pradesh. The cost was 39K ! That was huge amount for me. So I called up the program coordinator Mr. Shashank Dhanve, he said the cost is actually reasonable but Sela Pass is serious business and will need lot of practice with a gear cycle – he was specific – 7*3 gears. Meanwhile on Facebook, I happened to see a cycling group for above 50 and found myself very motivated by the fit 60 and 70 year olds cycling 25 to 40 miles happily and posting their fascinating stories! Though it sounded a difficult task … buying a new gear cycle – but was easily done – thanks to my sports loving hubby. Yahoo ! We bought two new cycles in Dec 2022 so that we could ride together. 🙂

My goal was simple -I wanted to cycle atleast 25 km at one go. I went upto 15 km some mornings … but the cycling interest dimmed as my first love was plain walking ! It was at that time I was checking YHAI site and found Sikkim Goecha-La pass trek announcement on their page and I jumped at the news. 😀

Honi ko koi rok nai sakta – By Jan 2023 I was frantically looking for friends who will be interested to join for this trek. Checked with all who I thought will be likely to … but no one was there to accompany me for various reasons. At home, hubby made a lot of efforts to discourage me – ” dont go North, lets go south somewhere” “Bus karna yeh sab trek ka pagalpan” and I was simply scared but I wanted to do it. Then I checked with few close family friends for a Sikkim trip and they were gladly agreed for the dates we proposed. Tadaaaa 😀 4 couples (including us) got the stay, tickets booked by Feb 2023 and then I booked my YHAI seat for April 29th reporting at Yuksom, West Sikkim.

Sikkim trip for 8 of us was from April 24rd to April 29th… all of them to return to Bhilai after that and I would continue to travel to Yuksom and further go for the trek became the plan. We got a good deal for a 12 seater tempo traveller for Rs. 9500/- per day in Sikkim, wonderful stay in Gangtok, and home stay at a remote village Rinchenpong, with the help of a friend in Bhilai – Tanejaji, who worked in Gangtok for 5-6 years. Once this much was done, we were sure we were going 🙂 As tourists who has only 5-6 days to explore, we need some agency to help us with our permits which is most essential as we are visiting sensitive areas in these border states.

Meanwhile my worries for the trek continued…. preparations were very irregular. I wanted to walk 10 km every morning by March end, or walk 5 km in at least 40 minutes, cycle 25 km at least once… nothing happened. To add to my woes, my tummy seemed sick. I would have loose bowel movements in the mornings even if it was a biscuit I ate previous day that was not home made. I strictly ate only home made food. But one day it was terrible. I freshened up in the morning and went for my walk, hardly 1 km and I felt some rumblings in my tummy. I continued my walk but felt some uncontrolled pouring which was okay to begin but in 5 to 8 minutes it was non stop!!!! I turned back, for home, thought I could manage walking back. I realized that was not possible, hailed a tempo which gave me a lift half way and then managed to walk rest of the distance. Came back home in total 12 minutes and removed soiled underwear and my pant and washed all. Phew ! Honi ko koi rok nai sakta !!! 😀 Miyaji said – Chalo Dr. Nath se mil lete h. .. his favourite doctor – Dr. Nath of Hudco, Bhilai – who asked me few pertinent questions and prescribed the pills for 15 days which I religiously took- thanks to Miyaji’s timely administrations.

Finally we all boarded the train to New Jalpaiguri from Durg on April 23rd and boarded the tempo traveller to Gangtok on April 24th by 7 am. The plan was to do river rafting at Teesta river on the way to Gangtok and to spend the rest of the day with whatever… River rafting turned out to be great adventure for me as the raft man allowed us to go into water and I could really float in the river for nearly 5 minutes by myself. That was the limit ofcourse as my hands and calf muscles were freezing by then… I was glad even Miyaji took the opportunity… and the hit of the day was Chavreji who was most scared of water, dared to do river rafting. You can see him holding the rope as to dear life. 😀

The rest of the trip was simply fantabulous as Sikkim enthralled us by its simplicity, beautiful weather, clean nooks and corners. Traffic rules were followed by every one and we kept finding these wonderful hoardings by BSF on the way. Visit to Nathu-La Pass was epic for one of our friends, Shekharji remained in his T-Shirt all thru when all of us were literally shivering in the cold weather. I knew about altitude sickness, so though I wanted to dance and run in the snow, remained quiet, Archana who had played in the snow had feelings of nausea and headache soon, but recovered soon after having some food. Our stay at Rinchenpong was an adventure as the homestay had atleast 40 steps down to reach the rooms. But the place was amazing .. have a look at the vdos posted.

Rose bushes grew abundantly and the various seasonal flowers floored us, thrilled us to bits by its profuse hue and color. Through out Sikkim we found every house balcony plentifully decked up with seasonal flowers. We saw young Monks (with folded robes) playing football, in the green pasture with a make-do football, other elder Monks went around cleaning up the premise and we stood mesmerized by the peace around the place, cool breeze even at 3 pm in the day.

I must mention about our host at http://www.hiddenabode.com/ – Pasang Bhutia, of Gangtok. We learnt how to be a perfect host – take food orders, serve food, look after hotel premise, give us the simple benefits and make us feel at home… when we got to dry our clothes and later in the evening we found them safely tucked in, saved from the rains!! Jai ho !!!

We missed one day of site seeing as our flight got cancelled. Beware of ” GoFirst flight” – do not use the flight. .. very unprofessional ! Kolkatta – Bagdogra flight service – cancelled for the month of April !!! They did return the money but we had such a scare.

I parted ways with my friends to go to Yuksom, while they travelled to Bagdogra to catch the return flight.

This short trip was most fullfilling as we got to see one beautiful state, be at peace without the honking noise of traffic. We met this bhutta-selling lady who will not allow us to pee on the road side – no Sir! Hats off ! We appreciated the people of Sikkim for being cool, calm, and law abiding.

Will you please disperse your kind of people to the rest of the country too? hmmmm.. no they cant bear the heat of the land Dear!

Thanks @Sujata Lakhe, @Rohini Joshi for this trip happened because of you both. Will continue the rest …