May 8 | Met ‘Luckhpa’ the smartest and coolest driver one could have for a journey like this

Being a weekend, it was not just the tourists who were getting out of Gangtok, but the locals as well, hence it was a little fight for our friendly travel agent to find a cab for us, though later we found out the cab he assigned to us was his own, so don’t know what the fuss was about. Anyway, the permits also took sometime, so we were asked to report at Vajra Stand only at about 10:30AM. So after another good breakfast at Baker’s Cafe, we reached the stand in time only to end up waiting another hour for all to be fixed and packed and the departure.

Here we meet Luckhpa, our friendly driver cum guide on all matters of Sikkim, Bhutan, Tibet, Nepal and the cultures of each of these places. We would guess he is about 27-29yrs old but with the wisdom and experiences to share of someone who’s over 40yrs. In the start he had realized that we were already late, but he needed to get his tyres checked, he rerequested and added, “don’t worry, i know we are late, but i’ll make sure we cover everything you want to watch” his confidence was striking and we almost knew that he would either be an asset showing us around or a talkative burden we’ll have to live with.

Along the way, Luckhpa had stories about most of the places and solutions to any of our problems, be it the need of an ATM or a quench for thirst, he would almost instantly fix the problem. He told us about various landslides that had happened on the way and how things were different on the road when he was at the same place the last time. On the way he gave us short notes about each of sights that had anything worth watching. He even told us about all the formalities that go into getting a permit and how far we could go on our bike without the permit. All this information was good, but Sushant seemed to be bored with all the waterfalls and overwhelmed crowds around these falls, so he asked Luckhpa to take us someplace that had fewer people but was a good scene to see. The solution had already popped in Luckhpa’s head and he knew where he would take us as a offering to our request. We continued on the roads watching the various waterfalls, one of them was the ‘Seven Sisters’, these are basically a single stream falling off a high cliff but falling on flat beds and falling over again seven times, which means there should’ve been seven falls in a single line, though we could spot only four, but still it was a good stop. Even in between, we kept stopping and sometimes just passing places that the others stopped at. Finally, just as we were reaching ‘Chamthung’, Luckhpa stopped to show us the construction of the dam across the River Teesta and the scale of the constructions was mind blowing. We can see why people didn’t generally stop here because to them this was hardly a scenary, but we, he realized would appreciate the scale. Its here he told us a lot about the original Sikkimese being the Denzongpas and the Bhutias, all others had either migrated or were offshoots of others who had migrated earlier.

The last 10kms Chamthung were probably the worst stretch in the entire journey. But once we crossed Chumthang, the drive was amazing and would be an even better ride. Again on the way, we came across more falls, a few discovered and a few others that were still virgin. All along the route we were moving along the river Teesta and other rivulets that eventually join the Teesta. When one would peep in the valley looking at the stream of water, it would look like a small stream of water surrounded by mammoth giant mountains covered in very thick garbs of trees, to which Sushant commented “This would be how Cambodia would look” and it reminded him of the movie Tropical Thunder where the choppers move along the valley. On the way we had stopped to flash our permits, where Luckhpa suggested we stock up on refreshments and water because all the things are twice as expensive at Lachung.

We reached Lachung around 7:30PM, the rooms were the kinds that we did not want to stay in when we reached Gangtok, but then it was just a night here and we did not want to make any fuss about it. When we had gone to the travel agent to book ourselves for Lachung, we wanted just the vehicle, and he said that we would not get rooms because all are always assigned to one travel agent or the other, so we should go for the entire package, but a mistake we made was that we did not go to the bigger agents, they probably would’ve been able to put us up at better places and just to find if there are any better places we ventured out and came across a Mayfair Hotels’ property. The place was lavish and looked expremely cozy from the outside so we went in to check on the tariffs and also spend sometime at the restaurant. To our surprise, the rooms were all full and they explained to us that because of the hotle being full they will not be able to servve us at the restaurant and that we look for another place, it was surprising how a hotel could refuse guests to the restaurants instead of suggesting a waiting period, but anyway, guess we understood and would not blam them.

Just taking a walk on the main street, we came across a small hole in the wall run by a man who was over 60yrs old. He seemed to be retailing the general store stuff and also alcohol, but we did not need the bottle, we just needed a drink or two, so we asked if he would serve us a drink outside and also organize two chairs to sit. He obliged and trust me it was a beautiful evening to sit out and sip on an Old Monk in the chill of the evening. Not in the first drink that he served but in the second, we realized, each of his large was basically a double of a large, a Patiala Peg! We were happy very soon and started to feel extremely hungry so requested for something to eat and were served Omlette. We requested the owner of the shop to sit and have a drink with us and he said that he would just stand behind the counter with his Chang (the local alcohol made from fermented millet seeds) but he told us a lot about how earlier he was into farming, but a lot of his land was taken over by the army to set their base here, it was difficult to judge if all he said was right so we did not want to take sides or form opinions. By now, we had completed our second drink and were joined by an officer from the Sikkim Police who had earlier served in the Army and the ITBP (Indo Tibetean Border Police) he was part of the contingent that came with some minister and part of the contingent was also the PSO and a few other officers. We had a general and entertaining chat about why our first guest left the army and eventually joined the police and what he intends to do once retired. It was a good and entertaining evening with the locals. But in the whole session, we forgot to eat enough food and drink lots of water and this would eventually catch up with us on our way to Yamthung tomorrow.

Morals: Local cab drivers very often have great stories to tell, so always befriend them and find out more about the place. No need to rush and reach Lachung, there’s nothing there, its a place to just go and crash, so rather soak in the scenary and other places on the way. Visit bigger travel agents if you are fussy about the room that you have to stay in, the ones provided are not extremely comfortable. If you find a place where you want to have a drink or spend sometime, ask the owner of the place, do not hesitate, the locals will most often oblige, even welcome you into their homes to make you comfortable.