May 5 | I wished everyday was like today

We were craving for clear skies and that’s just what the weather had to offer after a heave downpour yesterday. The plan was to look around Yuksom and experience the places and the weather. Our guide and also the manager at the hotel suggested a small lake called ‘Kathok’ also just close to that is also the ‘Coronation Throne of Norbugang’ where the three Lamas met in 1641.

Yuksom which means the meeting place of the lamas was the first capital of Sikkim but it has nothing that can qualify to be even a tier two town now. The roads leading to the Red Palace can be really tough on the tyres so we wanted to avoid the bike ride on them often, so we just took off on a walk after breakfast.

Our first stop was the Kathok Lake, well, when we first saw, it didn’t look like anything great but we decided to generally hang around and then it started to rain and then it just got more and more beautiful. Make sure to spend time chilling here, it’s superbly peacful under those trees looking at the lake. From there a stone’s throw distance is the Coronation Throne, again nothing great to look at but has a great historical relevance.
Another place to visit is the Monastry, but that requires one to hike and frankly both of us were in no mood to exert so we decided to take it easy for now, get lunch done and then decide about the trek or plans for the afternoon and eve. We called for a few beers and followed that with lunch and but obvious, we were all lazy, but then the weather gave us the sign that today is the time to chill at the hotel just sipping on some alcohol and looking into the oblivion. The skies were scary black but a sight to look at, just sitting there i was thinking “What a day and way to spend the day, i would love to do this more often” The eve went past just relaxing and looking at the skies while the skies threw dark clouds and rainbows at us. We crashed early today because we will have a long ride tomorrow heading to Gangtok.

Morals: Have chill days like this planned in every trip, it completely rejeuvenates you for the next round of the trip. While chill days are important, we missed a good trek, make sure you take the trek to the monastry, or the place where the Goechala trek begins, both the places are beautiful and not to be missed.