{"id":3198,"date":"2010-04-27T21:24:37","date_gmt":"2010-04-27T15:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/?p=3198"},"modified":"2014-10-27T12:06:09","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T06:36:09","slug":"sikkim-day-5-amitabh-falls-and-feats-at-17100-ft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/2010\/04\/27\/sikkim-day-5-amitabh-falls-and-feats-at-17100-ft\/","title":{"rendered":"Sikkim Day 5 – Amitabh Falls and Feats at 17100 ft"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was the big day, the day we would visit the lake at 17100 feet – Gurudongmar. The driver said that the earlier we started, the better. Our versions of \u2018early\u2019 obviously didn\u2019t match, and we left, with me still in REM mode, at about 5 AM. For the record, that\u2019s practically the day before, not early morning.<\/p>\n

But the views of the sunrise, as we moved past heavily wooded mountains was worth the early start. We stopped at Thangu for breakfast – eaten in a tiny \u2018hotel\u2019, as we warmed ourselves next to the stove. Breakfast consisted of Maggi noodles with loads of chilies. Thangu also serves as the first loo break. I use the word \u2018loo\u2019 very loosely here, it is a shack with a hole in the ground, hopefully with some moving water way down that will ensure that you don\u2019t get to know the intricate details of what the previous occupant had the day before. Thangu also has a military camp, and a tourist guest house, where, the driver said later, he had picked up a trio of Dutch cyclists a few days back. (they cycled till there from Chungthang!!)<\/p>\n

\"1\"<\/a> \"2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The next stop was at Gaigong, where the military guys checked our papers, and warned our driver to refrain from using his army fatigues style jacket. They didn\u2019t notice my umbrella. Immediately after Gaigong, we noticed some yaks having their breakfast.We moved on, and gave a lift to the yak owners. We dropped them off a while later, at a place which offered no shelter from rain or sun. The driver said he pitied them, because they were refugees from Tibet, who hadn\u2019t even seen Gangtok. They survived on yak milk, and provisions the army sometimes gave them.<\/p>\n

\"13\"<\/a> \"14\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The terrain was barren, but breathtakingly beautiful, literally. The driver advised us to munch on popcorn we\u2019d purchased at Thangu, as its smell apparently boosts the metabolism. Ok. We raced with another cab and had fun climbing the last 1000 feet.<\/p>\n

\"3\"<\/a> \"4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"5\"<\/a> \"6\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I asked the driver where the name Gurudongmar came from and characteristically, he gave me his own bizarre explanations. I was tempted to give it right back to him with an equally bizarre \u2018Guru -Dong – Mar\u2019 version, based on \u2018Tehelka\u2019, the Bollywood film. (featuring Amrish Puri as Dong, and Dilip Dhawan – \u2018Guru\u2019 in Nukkad. Amrish Puri actually kills him after this song<\/a>.\u00a0 Mar. Note that the film also deserves credit for the first use of the Avatar hairstyle in Bollywood)<\/p>\n

Gurudongmar is quite a beautiful place, and has many stories associated with it, as I learned from the military camp at Gaigong later. Drinking the\u00a0 water from the lake is supposed to help women conceive. Also, one part of the lake, apparently marked by the Guru in question at the behest of locals who needed drinking water, remains unfrozen even in the coldest winters.\u00a0 The lake is at 17100 feet, and you tend to struggle for breath sometimes, but if you have erm, enough airs, you can take a walk around the lake, while watching most people participate in a puke fest. I was afraid for D, but she seemed strict about her retch workout timings.<\/p>\n

\"7\"<\/a> \"8\"<\/a><\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QCH9r08i4G0<\/p>\n

The return journey was relatively uneventful, though we detoured a bit for the Chopta Valley view. Photography is prohibited in military areas, and the driver raced ahead when I asked for a single shot of the \u2018caf\u00e9 at 15000 ft. We got back to Lachen by 1.30, and after lunch, immediately set out for Lachung, 50 odd kms away. Bollywood refused to leave me as the stereo played a remix of \u2018Saat samundar paar\u2019 from Vishwatma!! Awesome! The only tourist attraction was Bhimtala falls, according to the driver, who also said it was more popularly known as Amitabh Falls, because of its height.<\/p>\n

\"10\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We reached Lachung by 5.30, and settled ourselves in a room with a view, and I started reading \u201cChasing a monk\u2019s shadow\u201d. Dinner was significantly better though D refused to the chicken, after her nocturnal adventures of the previous two nights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was the big day, the day we would visit the lake at 17100 feet – Gurudongmar. The driver said that the earlier we started, the better. Our versions of \u2018early\u2019 obviously didn\u2019t match, and we left, with me still in REM mode, at about 5 AM. For the record, that\u2019s practically the day before, […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4410,412,1335,17],"tags":[1380,1375,1381,1377,1374,1372,1370,1365,1378,4954,1376,1371,1373,1379],"class_list":["post-3198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bollywood","category-india-travel","category-life","category-sikkim","category-travel","tag-amitabh-falls","tag-amrish-puri","tag-bhimtala","tag-chopta-valley","tag-dong","tag-gaigong","tag-gurudongmar","tag-lachen","tag-saat-samundar-paar","tag-sikkim","tag-tehelka","tag-thangu","tag-tibet-refugees","tag-vishwatma"],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3198"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8820,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198\/revisions\/8820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}