Gilbert K. Chesterton once said
An adventure is only an inconvenience, rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.
Gilbert K. Chesterton: On Running After One’s Hat.1933
It’s been a while, since I last published a blog. Laziness at it peak. Oh yes, what else would you call it when you have 6 posts in the draft of your blog editor?🤦♂️
It has been a while, since I took a vacation with all my loved ones together. I remember, the last one was before COVID, which essentially means, it wasn’t in this lifetime altogether.
For those who are new to this space, I am Sandeep aka phoodiemonk, and I am always up for a foodie adventure. With this series of blogs, I wish to pen down my recent trip to Sikkim – the land of enchanting tranquillity.
Day 1 – A Humble Beginning
My mom, wife and I set out from Pune on 30th of May 2024 for the adventures of Sikkim. Usually, I am unable to sleep before a long-awaited trip, and this time, it wasn’t any different. I merely slept for 3 hours before we got on our midnight flight to Kolkata. Maybe it was the optimism that behind my back, the rtCamp sales team will withstand, regardless of what comes their way, or perhaps it’s just age, I already feel 50, man.
Anyway, enough of my never-ending rants. The first leg of the journey didn’t start well. The hotel, Transitel, apparently a boutique hotel, provided very little hospitality and offered long waiting hours before we could get a room. As the day went by, we strolled through the city and ended up in the area which holds memories of lifetime, the City Centre 1 in Saltlake. We began our culinary adventure with Aloo-Chole-Tikki-Chat and followed by Phuchka (also known as golgappe) at Chowrasia Chat Centre. After a short sprint at shopping, traditional sarees, white saree with a red border.
Next,we headed to my favourite restaurant, Oudh 1590. By now, I have decided, I won’t visit this place on my next trip to Kolkata. Nothing wrong with their delicacies, it’s rather my wife’s taunt that I never take her anywhere else. 🥲
We repeated my favourite dish, Oudh Special Raan Biryani along with Murgh Awadhi Handi Biryani, Murgh Zafrani Kebab and Murgh Afghani Kebab. With filled tummies, we said goodbye to my cousin and her husband, returning to the hotel. The day that followed held a secret promise for the onwards journey, and as the sky turned blue, the thrill I was waiting for finally surged through me.
Day 2 – A Bumpy Ride, PYG or IXB?
My wife & I had been anticipating a bumpy start. The flight for Pakyong, Gangtok was being cancelled at a stretch for the last 3 days. We did have a backup plan – to fly to Bagdogra airport instead. The first choice was obviously to see through the original plan – flying to Pakyong. A text message from Spicejet is all it took to wake me up at 4:00 am, our flight was postponed. We went back to grab some more sleep. By the time we checked out of the hotel, I received another text and our flight was delayed again. Our carefully laid plans were thrown into a disarray by the gloomy morning & dark clouds. I started checking for flights from Kolkata to Bagdogra and in a jiffy booked the next available one. My wife wasn’t too impressed by my impatience to cancel the original plan, but I swear, it wasn’t intentional. I was just checking how the cancellation process works.🤦♂️
At the airport, the Bagdogra flight got postponed twice, while the Pakyong one wasn’t cancelled yet. Imagine standing on two stones, not knowing which one will sink. My mind wandered through the worst of possibilities, will I need to rebook the Pakyong flight?
On the plane to Bagdogra at last! I felt relieved, but a part of me kept checking the other flight, like its cancellation would correct my mistake.
We reached Bagdogra and I loved this small airport owned and managed by the Indian Airforce. On the other hand, the Pakyong flight was also on its course, too late to be guilty. I shrugged my sadness as I was about to meet the first love of my life, Poggo, my niece. She recently turned 8 and is almost a dance celebrity now.❤️
My sister, brother-in-law and Poggo had reached New Jalpaiguri railway station around the same time we landed in Bagdogra. We had a decent lunch at a cute outlet near the station, Rail Coach Restaurant. By the time we were done, our ride to Gangtok had arrived. While the warmth of family was comforting, the scorching summer heat and the filth around the station was quite a frustration. I shall never ever visit the New Jalpaiguri station! It took us some 45 minutes to get through the city traffic and hit the National Highway 10. We soon had our first encounter with Teesta river and since then, it accompanied us almost throughout our journey to Gangtok and later even North Sikkim.
The condition of NH10 ensured that we took multiple breaks on the pretext of tea and snacks. One of the notable ones was Oasis Cafe. By notable, I am referring to the view of Teesta river & the ambience because the food was undoubtedly pathetic. Some positive vibes could be felt as we had finally entered Sikkim.
We reached our Airbnb stay, located at a walking distance to the famous Mahatma Gandhi (MG) Marg around 8:30 pm and to our disappointment, most of the food outlets we had shortlisted over the course of the last one month were closed. We finally found a place, Osm Restaurant & Lounge. The vibe and the food didn’t disappoint us. We tried Chicken Thukpa, a Tibetan noodle soup, Chicken momos, rice noodles and chilli chicken. This Thukpa was probably the best one we had, though we did not explore many local outlets. The exhaustion from the long journey slowly wore off, and we were happy souls at the end of the day.
Having stuffed a lot of food, we were bound to burn out some calories. No, it wasn’t out of compassion, but rather need of the hour. So, we decided to take a stroll on the fascinating Mahatma Gandhi (MG) Marg. To our relief, the streets were relatively empty and we had a pleasant walk. Having faced the scorching heat of Delhi and Pune, we wanted to soak as much as of the cool breeze as possible. The view on the MG Marg was too alluring to keep us from clicking snaps of almost everything.
Our Airbnb stay had a unique name, AirKnB. It could be a typo, but it also has a certain ring to it, don’t you think?
It was amazingly spacious and, fortunately, the room my wife and I shared had the best views of the mountains – clouds dancing over the mountain tops and slowly descending into the valley. Gangtok’s weather contrasted with our expectations, and I was surprised to see that there were no fans or AC in the room. The surprise turned into amusement as the night grew. The temperatures dropped sharply and the cool breeze from the Himalayan ranges embraced our souls and bodies.
This marked the end of the first leg of our family reunion at Sikkim. Stay tuned for the next part as it has in store numerous twists and turns 😉