It is not the first time, but enjoying Sikkim in winters has a pleasure of its own kind. Even though my financial condition was very weak after the latest Aruanchal trip, I could prevent myself from making another trip during the shutdown time in my office. So having ample time in hand to plan a trip of 7 days, the next question is what should be the place? I had different options – 1. Doumali (Odisha, 5950 feet.), 2. Zuluk and Gnathang valley, 3. Rishop and Lolegaon, 4. Sandakhpu (Not a 2WD destination). It that case I could ride maximum to Tanglu and then after that I need to trek. Secondly when I visited the Old Silk route in 2013 I was with my mom and dad, so I could not spend the night at Nathang which was my desirous wish. But going to Zuluk had a problem of getting the permit. As my wife could not arrange a leave, my brothers-in-law were going with me this time. I heard that permit might be an issue as we had different last names. So I had another plan B in mu urn which was that if I could not get the permission to old silk route then either they need to arrange a separate car or we abode that plan and altogether we will go to Rishop and Lolegaon.
Every year just day before shutdown something happens. And as usual one big issue came at 24th Dec 2:00 PM. So all my plans seemed to be in jeopardize. My brother-in-law was pinging me continuously – what is the plan? Where are we going? Are we going anywhere at all? etc. etc. etc. Actually I did not have any answer for them and they were joining me in my road trip for the first time. Anyways, I continued my work to solve the escalation and thankfully it was resolved by 3:15 AM,25th December 2015. May be my zeal to drive has helped me complete the work. After resolving the issue I saw that everyone was fast asleep but they were done with their packing. So I decided to have a power nap and start fresh in the morning.
Day 1 (25th Dec 2015) Kolkata – NH2 – NH2B – Suri – Dumka – Bhagalpur – Purnia - Siliguri
25th Dec 2015, 6:00 AM after a 2 and ½ hour deep sleep my wife who was going for her early morning office, woke me up. Feeling fresh,I asked others to be ready within 15-20 mins… we got ready by 6:30 and started to roll on the roads.
Near Dumka
Near Dumka
I always try to avoid NH-34 during daytime.The only reason being the local traffic which eats up lot of my time. We drove fast till Dumka and anticipated to reach Siliguri by 10:00 PM. But unfortunately there were several trucks’ breakdowns in-between Dumka and Bhagalpur and the hell road condition (60 KM) killed most of the time. We reached Dalkholaby 9:00 PM, completed our dinner as we would be late to reach Siliguri and didn’t know if after that we would get dinner or not.
By 11:45 PM entered Siliguri, in the meantime on the way I called one of my friend to do a quick booking for a hotel in Siligur with a proper parking.This was required so that we need not bring out all the baggage from the car and save time for the next day early start.
To be continued .. day 2 and more ...
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.. Before starting the travelogue I just wanted to apologies knowing that I will take some time to complete it. May be after completing the Arunachal travelogue.
