2022
Our journey for South East Asia Local Guides Meetup had entered day 2. Day 1 detail is on this post by @SovitaD.
We reached Pashupatinagar border town at 6:00 AM despite the delay caused by vehicle's wheel problem.
The conductor of our bus told us that his friend across the border will take care of all our traveling, hotel and meals for NPR 6000/- per person. We calculated roughly and agreed with the rate because we that way we could save up on lots of unnecessary delays and confusions. (When I returned to Kathmandu I found out that my friends from Kathmandu University had the same deal for NPR 4500/- per person, a year ago.)
The Indian registered vehicle picked us from Nepal side of the border. The vehicle with Nepali number plate cannot cross to Indian side without permit, but vehicles with Indian number plate could come easily inside Nepali side of the border town.
As we boarded our Indian number Chevrolet Tavera the car stereo was playing an Indian song, but when it crossed the border and reached India the driver changed the music track to play Nepali song. Our quick witted local guide @RupendraNeupane pointed out this fact and made us chuckle. Almost everyone in Darjeeling speak Nepali language while the official language of the state of Sikkim is Nepali. I was amazed to see these people's love for Nepali language and Nepali music.
Getting over all the fatigue of the previous night's journey, we decided to start our trip even before reaching the hotel. We then took the smooth blacktopped hilly road to Darjeeling. We hauled at Simana View Point and glanced at marvelous Mt. Kanchanjunga, we also took a short detour and visited Jorpokhari on our way.
In Darjeeling we visited Gorkha War memorial at Batasia Eco Garden, Tea estate, St. Joseph's School, Padmaja Naidu Zoological Park and Himalayan Mountaineering Institute before we reached our hotel Darjeeling Guest House. We concluded Day 2 by visiting Chowrasta, where we saw the statue of first Nepali Poet Adikavi Bhanubhakta Acharya. At darjeeling we added few businesses and uploaded lots of photos to google maps.
We started 3rd day on a 100+ km journey to Gangtok, Sikkim. Sikkim is the only organic state of India, which means that the farmers of Sikkim do not use harmful pesticides and chemical fertilizer in their fields. Also, the Government of Sikkim has banned smoking at public places with a fine of upto INR 500/-.
There is a rule in Sikkim that only State registered vehicles are allowed to take tourists on a sightseeing and only 4 person can travel in a taxi. So we took 3 taxi from Gangtok station and visited Flower Exhibition Center, Ganeshtok Temple, Tashi view point, Lhasa falls and reached our Hotel Lhonark in Denjong Cinema road.
MG road the the most famous place of Gangtok with lots of pubs and shopping centers. Alcoholic Beverages are very cheap in Sikkim because of low taxes on alcohol. Most of the tourists buy liquor from here as a souvenir.
On our 4th and final day we visited Char Dham, Sai temple, Baichung Stadium in Sikkim and returned to Darjeeling to finally meet Bangladesh and Indian Local guides at Ghoom Heritage Railway Station. After that we returned to Nepal, booked a night ride to Kathmandu and missed the amazing view again.
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It was great time to travel with local guids from Nepal. It was our pleasure to meet local guide from Bangladesh, and thanks to local guides from bangladesh for the stickers and badges.
And i also can't forgot that earthquake of 4.6 which was centered in Sikkim in midnight. As local guide @BibekN mentioned , it was fun and we got to know different places and information and interaction with each other.And it will be memorable for me.
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