Gangtok: the rush for permits..

5:30 we started from Siliguri. I was leading the pack. As we got out of the town and hit the smooth road of Mahananda Wildlife sanctuary, i heard a beep-beep and a whoosh.. the RTR just disappeared from view in front of me. Following the RTR were the Karizma and P200. Only companion i had was the Hero Honda Ambition. I too accelerated and saw the Ambition disappear in my rear view mirror. Then i slowed down and Anup and i rode together. When we reached the hills, we stopped for a brief photo break.






The place was full of monkeys..

Jithu with Gopi behind him..

Anup..

Since we had only around a 100kms to do in the day, we weren't in much of a hurry. But the roads were so smooth that driving slow was difficult. I taped my mobile on the mirror and took this video..

Lotsa wterfalls on the way..

and lotsa greenary..



Again we enter Sikkim..

the river Teesta..

some wild flower..

We reached Gangtok at 11:00 a distance of 102kms from Siliguri.

A long line of cars awaited us a few kms before Gangtok. Slowly we moved along with the single lane traffic. The first job was to arrange the permits for visiting places in Sikkim like Nathula, Yumthang valley and Gurudogmar lake which were in the restricted areas were tourists were not allowed. We had been told that the permits are made in the DC's office. So after searching through the city we finally reached the office. When we were searching for the office, a Yamaha R15 passed us. When we reached the DC's office, the R15 came from behind and the guy asked us if we were from Bike India magazine? After talking to him, we came to know that he was a local who was an avid reader of the Bike India magazine, and was willing to help us in getting the permits. His name was Phuentsok, PG in short. PG, Anup and I went inside the office. Surprisingly nobody seemed to know about the permits. They sent us from one office to another. Finally we reached the police SP's office. He was leaving for some place. In a hurry he told us that they don't handle the permits. We should go to the Sikkim Tourism office. So we mounted the bikes and went to the Sikkim Tourism office. Again PG, Anup and i went inside. They too had no idea about the permits. This time we were directed to the office of Police Check Post. Again there were 6 bikes, 5 of them laden with luggage marching through the city. We reached the Check Post office. Finally we had come to the right place. There was a sign saying that permits for restricted area were available here. Enquiry at the office revealed that the Home Ministry issued letters for the permits and then the Check Post made the permits. We decided to take the nearest hotel and leave the others and our luggage there. So after removing the luggage from 2 bikes, Anup, PG and I went to the Secretariat. There we went to the office of the Deputy secretary of the Home department. We met the assistant dep sec, who told us to write a letter to the secretary and attach our documents along with it. Since we dint have the documents for the other people we went back to the hotel and collected them. At 1:30pm we reached the office again. The secretary was out for lunch. PG told us that in government offices in Sikkim, people came late and many times left after the lunch. We hoped that this would not be the case today. Soon a friend of PG, Raol joined us. Both of them were wanting to join us for Nathula, hence we had added their names in the application. We stood outside the office for an hour. Got so tired that we sat on the stairs. i put on head on my knees and fell asleep. After half an hour, Anup woke me up. Still no sign of he officer. We had ran out of topics to talk. Finally at 3:30pm the Deputy Secretary showed up. He looked at the applications and the papers along with it and signed on them. Then his staff, a set of very cheerful ladies entered all the details in the computer and made he permits and printed them out and put them in envelopes addressed to the respective check post. We now had to give one letter to the Check Post office and another to the Army. Till the time we got the letters, it was 4:00pm. In Sikkim the government offices close down at 4. So this meant e wont be getting the permits today. But we still felt like trying our luck. I rushed to the check post office while Anup went to the Army camp. But the Check Post office were closed and the person in the Army camp wasn't there. So both of us came back, damn tired, and went to sleep. The others having rested all this while decided to go to check out the market. When we got up, it was raining like hell outside. There was a thunder storm blowing and both of us waited for it to get over. The electricity pole outside our hotel window. Seemed as if it was about to catch fire..

We had not eaten much since afternoon and were really hungry. Sitting a the window gave me the chance to do some photography.

Finally the rain lessened and we took our umbrellas and went out. We took a taxi to the main market and met the others. We went to a place called Indulge..


There was a chicken shortage going on, so no chicken. So ended the day with drinks and dinner.
To Sikkim..

Tomorrow we are going to go to Nathula. But first thing in the morning would be to complete the permit process.

Distance traveled in the day: 127kms
Total distance in the trip: 447kms

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