GANGTOK – Tsomgo Lake – NathuLa pass – Baba Mandir – Phadamchen (Padamchen)
Today is going to be one of the best days of our trip, as good as the Okhrey trek. Putting the discomfort of North Sikkim trip behind us we start our day afresh. Again, a series of permits for Nathu-La pass as it’s the Indo-china border. It’s shut now for tourists due to cold and snow, so we will not get to see the border. So, we eat Maggi on our way and reach Lake Tsomgo or Changu lake. Its located at the height of 12,400 ft. in Bhutia language “Tso” means lake and “mgo” means head i.e. this is the source of water for people here, and rightly named so.
Tsomgo Lake
There is a newly built cable car that takes tourist up to a height of 14,000 ft. One can get down here on top of the mountain, play in snow here and then take the return cable car back to Lake. But Haard didn’t want to risk getting down here and feeling giddy again so we return back in the same cable car without alighting. There is enough snow near the Tsomgo Lake as well for us to play and now that Haard is getting back to normal gradually, he and Youg venture into the snow, and boys surely have blast. We spend good time here taking a lot of pictures. Then as usual our lunch here is Maggi, momos and a cuppa hot tea.
View from the cable car
After the cable car ride and snacks, we hop into the car again and head towards the Nathula Pass. The Indo-China border at the Nathula Pass is closed due to severe fog, as obvious from these foggy pics. Next stop is Baba Harbhajan bunker. There are 2 Baba mandirs – old/ original and new. We make a quick 5-minute stop at the new Baba mandir and then stop again at the old/ original Baba mandir. It is actually a bunker where the Indian soldier Harbhajan Singh normally operated from.
Babaji Bunker
There is a very interesting folklore about Baba Harbhajan Singh among the Indian Army jawaans, villagers and even the Chinese soldiers across the border. He martyred at the age of 22 during the Indo-Sino war in 1965 and his spirit is EVEN NOW believed to protect the Indian Army. Even the Chinese still spot Baba at his regular spot at times. Anyways, there are more stories on the internet for an eager tourist to explore. There is a climb of a few hundred steps leading to the Baba’s office and his bunker from where one can spot the Chinese soldiers across the border. But as luck would have it, it’s raining and its very cold; we weren’t able to spot the china border and didn’t spend much time here; just a quick visit and back in our warm and cozy car. It’s 3 pm and raining, cloudy and foggy, as has been this way daily.
Zig-Zag Zuluk
We proceed towards the Silk Route for Zuluk. But the fog and clouds block our view of the famous zig-zag roads of Zuluk. We have to stop our car for at least 10 mins due to complete lack of visibility. Then the clouds clear up a little and we get to view the zig-zag roads. We pass through the beautiful hamlet of Zuluk and reach the next hamlet on the silk route, Padhamchen.
We hadn’t planned our journey after Gangtok, we had decided to take it as it comes. But then our driver gave us the confidence that he could take us very comfortably on the Silk Route as well. Hence, we cut down our stay in Gangtok for one day and planned silk route. The Padhamchen hotel was booked by the reference of our Lachung hotel owner.
Phadamchen (Padamchen) – village on the silk route
We reach Phadamchen homestay, Luzangla, at around 4 pm. The rooms are good and owners staying in a home next to our little 2 storeyed building. Our host is the sarpanch of Padhamchen and politically active as well. The lady host serves us hot ginger tea and some popcorn. There is no network here in east Sikkim, in fact we are connected to wi-fi of China or Bhutan at times and hence switch off our phones for the fear of getting billed as per international rates here.
We take a little walk and a hike to a temple and a monastery up in the hill, and this road turns out to be the original route for traders to travel with their mules and horses and yaks. The road for cars was built quite recently and that’s not the original silk route. We have all the time to interact with nature and spend some quality time here with each other as there is no network. (you can see one of the pics taken by the mobile trick in the dark). This time will be cherished forever. Post dinner it starts raining and there is no electricity as well, so we did what we had done in Yuksom – sit in the verandah and stare at the rains and talk. Finally, we call it a day and retire in our room.
- Summary
- Distance travelled from Gangtok to Tsomgo lake 37 kms
- Altitude of Tsomgo Lake – 12,500 ft
- Altitude of Baba mandir – 13,500 ft
- Altitude of Nathula pass – 14,400 ft
- Altitude of zuluk – 10,000 ft
- Distance travelled from Tsomgo lake to Phadamchen – 62 kms
Homestay review – Luzangla homestay.
- Rooms – Recommended – Good – Very basic, newly constructed and good clean rooms. We opted for a family room with 2 double beds. No cupboard or storage space in the family room, where we stayed. Had to put all bags on a spare single bed.
- Food – excellent
- Location – Good location with a good view, situated on the main road.
- Contact person – Mr Navin