Manali

My perception of Manali wasn’t too positive. I always thought of it as a touristy town in Himachal only to be used as a base for reaching other less touristy parts, but this trip changed that a little. Perhaps because it was off-season, the crowd was less everywhere except on the Mall road.

Stay

We stayed in Aleo, which was a little away from the Mall road and on the other side of the Beas river. Our hotel/homestay - Qumm was a nice cozy place to live in. It had the amenities of a hotel with the vibe of a homestay. The room had a balcony with good views and there was a common terrace with great views of mountain peaks. The food cooked by the helper - Ramashish was simple but delicious. We had read a lot about our host Singay in reviews, but unfortunately, he was away, so we could not meet him. There were no other guests, so we had the common terrace to ourselves. Just going on the terrace to sit and soak in the landscapes had its own charm.

We paid 2000rs per night for the room.

Ancy’s Cafe & Kerala Store

This small eatery run by a Keralite woman served the most delicious South Indian food we had on the whole trip. It’s very close to Qumm or Aleo petrol pump. I had lunch (thali, 150rs) and breakfast (idlis and uttapam) here. The food was simple but amazingly tasty, and at a reasonable price too.

Manali Nature Park

It was a gem hidden in plain sight. It is located right next to the Mall road, on the banks of Manalsu and Beas rivers. The entrance is a 5-minute walk from Mall road circle, from the Wildlife Information and Interpretation Centre. There is a small entrance fee as well. From the entrance, a path - Van Vihar Path, goes north till Manalsu river. There is another trail forked from this path that goes to the northeast point where Manalsu meets Beas. I would suggest that you take this trail and then walk along a trail along the Manalsu to meet the original well-paved path.

I visited the park on a cloudy day. It was serene - tall deodar trees all around, hardly any people around, sound of birds, and gushing river streams. This place had my heart. Make sure you have a couple of hours if you want to properly explore the park and be ready to walk a couple of kilometers.

Sethan

We had heard a lot about Sethan, so rented out a scooter and set out for it. Though it is just 12 kms from Manali, you climb over 3000 feet in those 12 kms courtesy of 35 hairpin bends. And with the condition the road is in, it takes over an hour to reach Sethan. But boy, is it worth it! As you climb higher, you get better and better views of Simsa and surrounding neighborhoods of Manali and Beas flowing down towards Naggar.

Sethan village is very small and doesn’t have much to offer, so we rode straight ahead till the road ended at Hampta pass trek start point. The 3-4 km ride from the Sethan village till the end of the road is even more scenic. We parked our scooter there and walked on the Hampta pass trail till we reached meadows. It’s a simple trail till that point with slight elevation and a log bridge river crossing. We were not even wearing shoes. It’s worth going on the trail if you reach the start point (at least till the meadows).

From the trek start point till meadows you can get maggi and rajma rice at 2-3 places. Would recommend having rajma rice for lunch there. On the way back, our scooter slipped on gravel and we fell at one point near the village. So be a little careful while coming down.

We paid 700rs for the Scooter (TVS Ntorq 125) for 24 hrs (9AM - 9AM).

Naggar

Naggar is a quaint little town less than an hour’s drive away from Manali. You can hire a cab till there or there are many local buses that go from Manali to Naggar Chowk. Naggar castle is the main attraction there. Most of the restaurants are around the castle, so it makes sense to stay somewhere close to it. There are rooms inside the castle too. Apart from the castle, there are a couple of ancient temples around it. Naggar chowk is already at an elevation from Beas river and the neighboring Patlikuhal town. The castle is perched even higher on the mountain. The castle road after Nightingale provides a great view of Beas riverbed and towns/villages around it.

We paid 1500rs for a cab from Manali to Naggar as we had to work that day. Buses cost much less, but they take more time.

Stay

We stayed at Tsukimi Homestay. The rooms with balcony provide a good view of the opposite mountain. But the road is too close to the balcony so you can’t really sit/stand in the balcony without passers-by noticing you. The host - Amrit, cooked delicious meals. We worked from there for a couple of days and the internet was pretty good too.

We paid 2500rs for two nights for a double room with balcony. Tip: Go for the deluxe double room if you can. The double room felt too small.

Naggar Castle

Though the Castle is the main attraction, much of it has been converted into a hotel and a restaurant. You can access the common areas that provide a good view.

Nightingale

It’s a fancy Italian restaurant on the castle road. Go for the view seats on the side, they offer a great view. We had dinner there and could see the lights of villages down below and of the vehicles passing on the Kullu - Manali national highway. The ambience was amazing with good music playing in the background.

Beena’s Bhojanalaya

Highly rated on Google maps, we wanted to go for dinner but could only go one morning for red-sauce pasta which was the best red sauce pasta we had ever had.

Kasol

Kasol is famous for all the wrong reasons. While that is not untrue, it has so much to offer other than that. There are many treks to go on, hotels/homestays/hostels with great views to chill in and many offbeat villages nearby to explore. It is a bit touristy and expensive though. I can’t imagine going there in peak season.

From Naggar, we reached Kasol using buses. Took one from Naggar square till ISBT Kullu, another one from there to Bhuntar bus stand, and then the final one from there to Kasol. Don’t remember the exact fare, but it cost us less than 150rs per person. Direct cab from Naggar to Kasol was 3000rs.

Stay

We stayed at The Hosteller Kasol, Parvati Valley. Luckily we got the best Room with Balcony with an unobstructed view of the mountains on one side. It is newly built, has all the modern amenities, and is closer to the main road than the older Hosteller.

On the last day, we had a bus to catch at 9.30 PM so we stayed at Narayan Guest House for half a day. It was a forgettable experience. The rooms were unclean and lacked basic amenities. We thanked our stars that we didn’t have to stay there for too long.

For the Hosteller room, we paid 7034rs for 3 nights. At Narayan Guest house, we paid 800 to use the room till 9PM.

Nature Park Kasol

A gem hidden in plain sight. Reclaimed from a wasteland, this park provides a refuge from the busy main street. It has an entry fee, but is well maintained. There are many places to sit, but the gazebo near the Parvati river is the best. You get a great view of the river, Kasol bridge and mountains in the distance. The sitting area on the side where a stream flows into Parvati is good too.

Kasol Bridge

A small truss bridge that connects the main areas of Kasol to Chalal and areas on the other side. If you want to get away for a while from the buzzing main street, go to the other side using this bridge. Or go on it to experience the cool breeze that Parvati carries along with it. There are a couple of shacks on the other side at walkable distance where you can have a quick snack/tea.

Offlimits Coffee Kasol

A fancy cafe/restaurant situated on the bank of Parvati. Offers hemp-infused everything - from tea to cold-pressed juices. Quite expensive too. But worth a visit in the evening if you want to sip on a hemp-infused (possibly non-alcoholic) drink while Parvati is gushing by you (at a safe distance).

Panjtara Bar & Grill

Another fancy place in Kasol. Tastefully decorated. Offers a wide range of food and drinks. This place comes alive in the evening, often hosting live music events. We didn’t get a chance to attend one though.

Usha Dhaba

A small eatery run by a lady that serves delicious food at a reasonable cost. The veg thukpa and momos we had were amazing.

Manikaran and Tosh

We rented a scooter from Kasol and set out for a day trip to Manikaran and Tosh. The road till Manikaran was decent, there weren’t many turns or steep climbs. From Manikaran to Barshaini, there was a good deal of climb. The road was pretty bad at certain stretches but overall it wasn’t that bad. The road after Barshaini, from Tosh split was almost non-existent. There were too many potholes and loose gravel.

Tosh was a bit disappointing. Once you enter the village, it was mostly narrow paths surrounded by houses/stays. We went to Pinki didi’s cafe. Unlike the name, it wasn’t some small cafe/homestay run by a lady. It was a proper cafe with staff wearing t-shirts with the cafe logo. While it did offer views of snow-capped mountains from the cafe, the best end of it was reserved for private access.

We roamed around a bit in the Tosh village but there was nothing apart from rampant construction. When we returned to our scooter in the parking lot, one of the mirrors was dislocated and lying in the dust. Later we replaced it with a new one at a bike shop in Kasol; the repair guy said either the scooter had fallen or it was the work of some local miscreants.

Overall, I found Tosh very overrated. There are no good views to justify the troubles taken to reach there. If you only go till Barshaini HEP Dam, you won’t miss out on anything. The road after Manikaran till this dam is not bad and the views are magnificent. If you don’t want to hire a vehicle, you can catch a bus from Kasol going to Barshaini, walk till the dam viewpoint, explore the area and return via the same/another bus. There are multiple buses plying between Kasol and Barshaini. Make sure that you confirm with the conductor/driver that the bus goes till Barshaini because even if they have written Barshaini on the board, they may go only till Manikaran. For the views, sit on the right side while going to Barshaini and on the left side while returning.

For the scooter (TVS Ntorq 125), we paid 700 for the day (return by 9PM the same day). There is no petrol pump in Kasol, so we had to buy petrol from the same guy. He was charging 120rs/litre. The scooter already had more than half a tank full and he charged us 300rs for that.

Delhi

I had some time in Delhi between flights and buses, so ended up exploring India Gate and Red Fort. While the India Gate complex was okay, the management of the Red Fort complex left much to be desired.

This entire trip lasted a week, from Saturday (when we reached Manali) to Saturday (when we left Kasol). We had to work on Monday and Tuesday, so we couldn’t explore much on those two days. We missed out on Malana and Grahan, but that’s okay - it gives me a reason to come back! Even though it was monsoon season, the weather was nice. It was sunny on most days, and although it drizzled sometimes, it never lasted long. Overall, it was a great trip. I got to relive it while writing this post. :)

The Goal

The first step of investing is knowing what you are investing for - the goal. How far ahead the goal is in the future will determine your asset allocation. You can have multiple goals, such as big holidays, major purchases, etc. If you can’t think of any, Retirement/Financial Independence(FI)/Wealth Generation becomes your default goal. The rest of this post will assume that you are investing for FI.

Asset allocation

Once you have determined your goals, the next step is to decide what asset classes you want to invest in and what percentage for each class. This two-part article from Capitalmind does an excellent job of explaining it in detail. If you would rather not go into the details right now, here is a simpler version: There are two main asset classes - Equity and Debt. Equity provides capital growth but is risky, Debt offers capital preservation and is more stable than Equity. You would typically use a mix of both in your portfolio.

The easiest way to determine your asset allocation ratio is to subtract your age from 100; the resulting number becomes your Equity percentage. So, if you are 30 years old, you can allocate 70% (100 - 30 = 70) of your investment amount to Equity and the rest to Debt. For example, if you plan to invest ₹10,000 per month, you would put ₹7,000 in Equity and ₹3,000 in Debt.

Rebalancing

Since different instruments grow at a different rate, sooner or later your asset allocation will diverge from the desired. So you will have to take some money out from one asset class that has grown faster and put it into the other one that has grown slower. This is called rebalancing. This will prevent your money from getting concentrated into riskier assets.

Typically, you would rebalance once a year, this is called rebalance frequency. Let’s assume an asset allocation of 70:30 between Equity and Debt. If, at the end of the first year, you had ₹1.4L in Equity and ₹40K in Debt, you would have ₹1.8L total. According to your asset allocation, it should have been ₹1.26L in Equity and ₹54K in Debt. Therefore, you would need to transfer ₹14K from Equity to Debt.

Mutual funds

The simplest way to get started with both Equity and Debt investments is through passive mutual funds. For Equity, you could pick a fund that follows the Nifty 50 index and for Debt, you could use a 10Y constant maturity fund². The assumption here is your goal is 10+ years away.

How to select these? Go to https://freefincal.com/, search for ‘plumbline’, and open the latest ‘Handpicked List of Mutual Funds’. For Equity, pick an index fund from ‘Index funds (large cap)’ and for Debt pick a constant maturity fund from ‘Ten-year Gilt’. Personally, I am using ‘UTI Nifty Index Fund - Direct’ and ‘ICICI Prudential Constant Maturity Gilt Fund - Direct’.

For equity index funds, it is very important that the tracking error is low. So don’t just look at the expense ratio while selecting funds. Also, when you are investing yourself, always invest in Direct mutual funds. ‘Regular’ versions of mutual funds have higher expense ratios to pay the middlemen, and in turn, give lesser returns than Direct. How much lesser returns? For a SIP of ₹5000 each month over 20 years, you may get ₹5L less in regular funds ³.

This article compares both options in detail if you are interested in reading more. For a comparison of direct vs regular fund expense ratios and what goes into expense ratios, see this.

Quick note on alternatives

For the Debt part, you could use fixed return instruments like Provident Funds and Fixed Deposits too. Most of the salaried folks will have some investment in EPF, which you can consider as part of your debt portfolio. Those without access to EPF(and even those with EPF) can use PPF. Rebalance would be difficult with these as you can’t easily take the money out. So you can use a combination of PF and debt funds. I personally use PPF + a Constant Maturity Gilt fund + a Liquid fund.

What about stocks? I wouldn’t recommend investing directly into stocks until you have done your research and are willing to regularly spend time on maintaining your stock portfolio. If you are tempted to invest in stocks, you can maintain a small stock portfolio (< 5% of your entire portfolio) to scratch the itch. If you do invest in stocks, ensure that your stock portfolio is at least beating the Nifty 50 Index.

How to invest?

Use Kuvera. It’s easy to use and gets the job done. If you are investing in stocks too you could use Zerodha’s Coin. There are many other sites like these two and you may use those, but do so after doing your research. I have used many, and have spent some time cleaning up the mess they created. Then there is MF Utilities created by mutual funds, and each mutual fund house has its own site and app. These are far from user friendly though.

Kuvera also lets you add assets other than mutual funds to give you a consolidated overview of your investments. I started much before Kuvera became mainstream, so I directly use mutual fund websites and use a Google sheet for tracking my portfolio. Also, automate your investsments through SIPs/STPs and stick to websites for setting these up. You don’t need to look at your portfolio daily. Not using apps helps you stay sane and avoid unnecessary tinkering when there is a dip in your portfolio value.

Where to go from here

Now you know enough to start investing. This passive portfolio will serve you well for a long time⁴. Parallelly you could learn more about personal finance and investing, and get confident about your investment decisions. Or find a Fee-only Financial Planner to do it for you.

Here are some of the quality resources that I found useful in my journey:

Freefincal - Website | YouTube

Freefincal has a lot of excellent free articles and videos on various subjects, especially index investing. It’s free ebook on debt mutual funds helped me a lot in understanding debt funds. Plus, they publish a list of handpicked mutual funds every quarter, which is a great help for DIY investors.

Primeivestor - Website

This is a paid service but the frequency, quality, and usefulness of their articles is top-notch. They review the mutual fund universe every quarter and select the best ones for you. They also have several goal/situation-based mutual fund portfolios wherein mutual funds and their weights are pre-decided by them, you just have to follow the portfolio recommendations. They recently added a forum where you can ask your questions and other people/folks from Primeinvestor can chime in. Overall, their Essentials plan is worth the money if you want to read more about investing or want to DIY beyond passive funds.

Capitalmind - Website | Podcast

This is again a paid service, and quite expensive at that. The main attraction is the Slack community and the Slack archives. You would find a lot of knowledgeable people on it discussing a wide range of topics. Although the community recently has somewhat lost its sheen because of the departure of several key members, it still has a lot of interesting discussions and they still have Deepak Shenoy. They provide model portfolios and strategies too, but that needs a fair bit of involvement on your part. They also have a great podcast and a good deal of articles and videos across a range of topics. I feel you would be able to make the most of the subscription once you have learnt the basics from elsewhere.

Zerodha Varsity - Website

They are the pioneers of stock market and financial education. Have a lot of in-depth and free articles on the stock market. They are trying to create videos too. And all this is neatly arranged into modules. You gotta appreciate how much quality content is available for free.

This is not a comprehensive list, these are the sites I have used personally and have found trustworthy. There would be several other resources that are equally good, but for every good resource, there are ten others selling snake oil. YouTube channels such as CA Rachana Phadke Ranade’s are good for learning concepts, but don’t go on making random bets based on their advice.

In addition to these, I would recommend reading The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. A lot of investing decisions that you and those around you will make will be driven by your unique worldview. This book will help you understand some of your biases and will make you more empathetic about the strange behavior of others when it comes to money.

Parting thoughts

The world of personal finance is filled with complexities, but you don’t need most of the fluff. Keep it simple and manageable. At a young age, you are better off paying attention to your career than your investments. Earning and investing more will take you to your goals faster than optimizing your investments⁵. If you find yourself spending more time with your investments than with your friends, perhaps this gem from Tim O’Reilly will put things in perspective - “Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations.”

Footnotes:

If you are unfamiliar with the concept of conversational memory, here is a brilliant explainer from Pinecone about it.

Redis

Motorhead uses Redis as a backend. The Redis instance needs to have the RediSearch module enabled, though. The easiest way to get a Redis + RediSearch instance is through Redis labs. It’ll give you a Redis URL that you can pass to the Motorhead server.

Motorhead server

Motorhead gives you a couple of options to run the server. The simplest way is using docker image, passing OPENAI_API_KEY and REDIS_URL.

docker run --name motorhead -p 8080:8080 -e MOTORHEAD_PORT=8080 -e REDIS_URL='<redis>' -e MOTORHEAD_LONG_TERM_MEMORY=true OPENAI_API_KEY='sk-<>' ghcr.io/getmetal/motorhead:latest

You can verify that the server is running correctly by hitting endpoints specified in Motorhead README.

Langchain

Once you have the Motorhead server up and running, you can use the MotorheadMemory class in Langchain to store chat messages to it. Langchain’s Python docs do a decent job of explaining it.

Here is a basic Flask server that accepts an input message, sends it to OpenAI + Motorhead, and returns AI’s response.

Gotcha:

There is a bug in the current MotorheadMemory implementation. It doesn’t include context from Motorhead while generating the prompt. I have reported it in their discord. As a workaround, you can manually pass the context in the prompt like this.

Motorhead (and even Langchain) is in the early stages of development. You are likely to face many issues while using it. The best place to get those resolved is their Discord. Motorhead does make creating conversational chatbots with long-term memory easier. It would be interesting to see how they evolve from here.

The first step

If you wanted to learn Ruby in 2012, you had two choices: Humble Little Ruby Book and Why’s (poignant) Guide to Ruby. The latter’s humor and narrative style didn’t suit me, so I went ahead with HLRB. It was very concise and helped me get familiar with the language.

There are several interactive sites for learning Ruby these days, such as Codecademy, Learn Ruby Online, and Ruby Monk. Even the Official Ruby site also has a 30min interactive tutorial that covers the fundamentals.

Going deeper

Ruby is deceptively powerful. It looks simple, and you can go for a long time without having to use metaprogramming. But the sooner you learn about it, the better your Ruby code will become. And what better resource to do so than Metaprogramming Ruby?! It’ll introduce you to Ruby’s advanced features. You’ll learn how some of the stuff that made Rails so powerful works underneath.

You’ve probably heard that in Ruby, everything is an object. There is an entire chapter in the Metaprogramming Ruby book that covers Ruby’s object model. I recently discovered this video that brilliantly explains the topic - A Deep Dive into the Ruby Object Model. Worth watching even if you have read Metaprogramming Ruby.

Writing better code

Avdi Grimm is a well-known figure in the Ruby community, known for his expertise in Ruby programming and software craftsmanship. I wish I had read his Ruby books sooner. They are full of practical advice and will help you write better code.

Confident Ruby This book is full of little practical nuggets that you can start applying immediately. If you’ve been using Ruby for a while, you’ve probably thought of several of these on your own. This isn’t one of those high-level design pattern books; rather, it’s something you can apply at the method level. Overall, this book will improve your Ruby skils and make you a more confident Ruby developer.

Exceptional Ruby This book is a deep dive into Ruby exceptions. It starts with explanation of Ruby exceptions and exception-handling mechanisms and then suggests some techniques for dealing with them effectively. There is little overlap between this and Confident Ruby. Even though it only covers a small part of the language, it is full of practical insights. I would recommend this if you write Ruby code for a living.

Another book I would like to mention is Practical Object Oriented Design in Ruby. Unlike Avdi’s books, this is a bit high-level. Think of it as a book on Ruby design patterns. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the other books, but there were some interesting ideas to consider.

Testing

Every developer who has worked on a codebase with a test suite knows the importance of good tests. Yet very few work on improving how they write tests. RSpec is the most popular testing framework in the Ruby world. Its DSL takes some getting used to, but it is extremely powerful. Effective Testing with RSpec 3 will teach you to use it effectively and to make full use of its capabilities. After going through this book, my tests became much more concise, and needed fewer changes as the code changed.

Ruby and Rails have played an impactful role in web development in the last decade. I have yet to come across a more capable web application framework than Rails. While Ruby and Rails have fallen out of favour in recent years, I remain optimistic that Rails 7’s return to its roots as “The One Person Framework” will usher in a new era of glory.

Shekhar was the ideal travel companion I could have asked for. I could count on him to do all the difficult talking, and he could ride a bike in the mountains with me as a pillion :p. We had a similar attitude towards food - eat a healthy, balanced diet; avoid packaged food; don’t spend a lot on eating at fancy places. We had a similar spending habits as well. We stayed in hostels for the most part. When there weren’t any hostels, we found cheap homestays. Took cheap shared cabs as much as possible and walked a lot. As a result, we ended up spending a lot less on the trip than expected. As an experiment, I meticulously tracked all of the expenses for this trip in Splitwise. For a month-long trip from home to home, including flights, I spent around 65000 INR.

Planning a trip to Sikkim

We started out trip from Gangtok. It was our base for most of the trip. We did North and East Sikkim trips from there and then moved to Pelling in West Sikkim. It can be done the other way around as well. You can comfortably cover most of it in two weeks. There are plenty of resources online to plan a Sikkim trip on your own. You can start by watching this short video from Tripoto - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7IYGNxwzQA

Other useful links:

• https://www.budgetwayfarers.com/permits-for-sikkim/

Some transport expenses(INR)

• Wizzride Cab from Bagdogara to Gangtok - 990/person
• Ravangla to Siliguri SNT bus - 250/person
• Siliguri to Airport auto - 350
• Gangtok Scooty - 1000/day
• Gangtok Himalayan Royan enfield - 1600/day
• North Sikkim 2N/3D package - 4800 per person, Kalapatthar and Zeropoint addition - 400 per person per point
• Shared cabs (per person)
  • Gantok to Pelling - 450
  • Pelling to Gangtok - 300
  • Pelling to Yuksam - 200
  • Pelling to Geyzing - 65
  • Yuksam to Geyzing - 200
  • Geyzing to Ravangla - 150
  • Ranka stand to near Ranka Monastery - 70

This is what we paid. Some of these are seasonal, changing constantly. Some, like pre-planned trips, adjust daily based on availability and demand. Shared cabs are usually Mahindra Maxx, Bolero, Sumo, or similar. They usually put 10 people(2-4-4) in one cab. This can get really uncomfortable if there are more than two non-lean people in your row. There is, on some routes, a luxury shared option that offers better vehicles (Innova, Xylo) and fewer people in one cab (1-3-3).

Epilogue

Sikkim is a beautiful little state. It has diverse terrain. From the rugged and mountainous terrain of the Himalayas in the east and north, to rolling hills and wide valleys in the west. There is something for everyone. Someday, I’d like to return and explore even more of this incredible state. Until then, I will hold onto the memories of my time here, and the warmth and generosity of the people I have met, and be forever grateful for this amazing experience.

I was woken up very early by a call from the shared cab driver. He had called to inform me that the shared cab was full and that I should make other arrangements. It looked like I would either have to extend my stay by a day or hire a private cab to Pelling. I decided to try my luck and got ready. Before leaving, I explained the situation to the host. He and his brother tried calling all the shared cab drivers to get a seat for me. There were three shared cabs from Yuksam to Geyzing. One was booked to ferry local kids to some exam, one’s driver was sick, and the third and the only one was already full. The host asked me to go to the market and see if I could get a shared cab. If I didn’t, they would have a place for me when I returned. His brother also called the driver requesting him to make some space for me. Finally, the driver agreed to take me in the cab.It was a regular Sumo with over 15 people crammed into it. Some locals had to sit on other people’s laps. I was in one corner in the last row. It was a bit uncomfortable, but I was happy to have got a place.

We reached Geyzing stand around 10:30. Geyzing has the largest taxi stand in the area. From there, shared taxis run to all major towns in Sikkim and northern West Bengal. The next cab to Ravangla was at 11.45. I bought a ticket and went around and had breakfast. When I returned to the cab, the driver was nowhere to be found. He came sometime after 11.45, and we started towards Ravangla in a drizzle. The ride was all uphill as we had to go from 2700ft(Geyzing) to almost 8000ft(Ravangla). After crossing Legship, the visibility was very low but you could sense that there was a deep valley on one side. We saw many signs of landslides along the road.

We reached Ravngla at around 2 PM. The visibility was so poor that you could only see a few meters ahead. Ravangla was noticeably colder as well. I walked one km uphill to reach my Airbnb. The walk felt a lot longer with all the luggage. I had lunch there and set out to explore. I went straight to Buddha Park. I unknowingly entered from an open gate that was not meant for tourists. Saved me a few hundred meters of walk and an entry fee. The weather had also cleared up a bit, and I could clearly see the entire Buddha Statue. Under the statue, there was a museum that had beautiful wall murals depicting various scenes in Buddha’s life. A circular path went up to the base of the statue and along the path, there were display boards explaining Buddha’s journey. On the ground floor, there were mattresses for people to sit and meditate. Though it was hard to do with people talking loudly all around you.

After a while, clouds came back and I couldn’t even see the entire park. The buddha park is huge. Ravangla Gumba is outside the park but right next to it. When I went there, it was shut. I observed a local moving down a trail. Google Maps’ aerial view indicated that it went to Ravangla market. I followed the trail and encountered the local who confirmed that the path indeed went to the market. It was a shortcut. I roamed around in the market and came back up to the Airbnb, finishing a circuit. It was dark and while on the way up I could see the Buddha statue lit up. While the dinner at the Airbnb was being prepared, I went back up to take a look.

The following day passed quite quietly. I woke up late. After much analysis paralysis, I went down to the market, had breakfast at two different locations, and then slept all afternoon. The caretaker of the guest house had told me that there were no shared cabs for Ralong monastery. But he wasn’t a local, so I doubted that. In the market, I saw a shared cab to Borong, route to which goes from near the monastery, but I didn’t feel like going through all that trouble. In the evening there was some trouble with the Geyser and I ended up reading a lot of North to Paradise and eventually taking a quick bath with cold water.

I left at around 7 to go to the market. It was already dark and there were no streetlights in some stretches. Most of the shops in the market were closed as well. I had my last meal at Taste of Sikkim. The chicken was surprisingly good. It had already begun to drizzle as I finished eating and turned around to go back. It was a spooky uphill walk. All the shops were closed. It wasn’t unsafe because there were houses along the road and I was in Sikkim. My only worry was stray dogs. There were a lot of them on the way. But fortunately, because of the drizzle (and maybe because of the cold), not many were roaming around.

Back to the plains

I took Sikkim Nationalised Transport’s early morning bus to Siliguri. It was slower than the shared cabs but much more comfortable and cheaper. As the bus descended from Ravangla, I tried to soak in the views as much as possible. It would be a while before I would be back in those mountains again. We passed through Namchi. I was glad that I had decided not to go there. It was just a city with replicas of Char Dham being its main attraction. The bus reached Siliguri at around 11:30. I walked a kilometer to the hotel room I had reserved from the bus stand. Probably should have taken a cycle rickshaw, but old habits die hard.

Figuring out what to eat in Siliguri was easy. I was in West Bengal and had to eat fish. I found a local restaurant nearby that served fish thali. I had half a day to roam around, and Iskcon Siliguri was one of the top attractions, so I went there. It was quite disappointing. The garden was only there for aesthetic purposes, and it was far too crowded. I decided to go to Surya Sen Park and spend the evening there. I couldn’t find any rick so started walking towards it. Good thing I walked because I spotted a Ferris wheel along the way. There was some Baishaki Mela. I couldn’t resist the temptation so bought an entry ticket and went in. It was sunset time. The Ferris wheel offered good views from the top. After eating a bit in the mela I moved towards Surya Sen Park, taking the inner lanes of Siliguri. I was late, and the park was almost closed. I went a little ahead and spent some time on the banks of the Mahananda river.

Finding a place for dinner proved to be a task. It was Sunday, so most of the popular places were full. After walking by a few restaurants, I ended up having dinner at the same place I had lunch. But that was good. I needed to replenish my emergency supply of Parle G, so after dinner, I set out to buy one. While returning, I checked for ice cream places and decided to try a Kulfi place. They didn’t have the typical kulfi, and since I have trouble choosing food, I ultimately had an Imli Kulfi. I decided not to experiment more and returned to the hotel. It had been a long day. I had walked everywhere except for the bus ride in the morning. I could feel it in my legs. The trip had come to an end, and I was pleased with how it had turned out.

Yuksom is small town on the edge of Kanchendzonga National Park. Many treks within the park, including the well-known Goecha La, begin there. I was looking forward to visiting Yuksom. The next day I settled my dues and left Mochilero Ostello after lunch. Thankfully, Nimesh did not demand more money, as he had done with Maya the day before. When the cab guy called to inform me that he had left from Geyzing, I bid goodbyes and left the hostel. I took the shortcut from the hostel to reach Lower Pelling. Even though they call it a shortcut, it’s an uphill walk for about a kilometer. Doing that with my laptop bag and rucksack knocked the air out of me. While I was waiting, it began to rain. Fortunately, the shared cab arrived on time, and I was able to board it before it began to rain heavily.

It rained for nearly the entire journey. When I got into the cab, I booked an Airbnb so I wouldn’t have to go homestay hunting in the rain. The Airbnb had no name; it simply stated, “Cheap and best homestay with free breakfast.” So when I arrived in Yuksom and the driver asked where I wanted to get down, I had no idea. I attempted to contact the host, but he did not answer the phone. I arrived at Karthok Lake because Airbnb showed the location there, but when I arrived, there was an abandoned building. Finally, the host answered the phone and gave me the correct directions. I had to walk back a few hundred metres because it was a few hundred metres away. Thankfully, the rain had stopped. The room was excellent. The best place I stayed in Sikkim.

It was nearly six o’clock, but it wasn’t dark outside, so I freshened up and went out to explore Yuksom. I decided to go till the point where the road ended. Beyond that, it was all Khangchendzonga National Park. There was a helipad at the end, according to maps. It was a good stroll. There were barely any vehicles on the road. And after Kathok lake, there were not many houses till the helipad colony. The final few meters to the helipad had big imposing mountains on three sides and a plateau-like area on the fourth. In the distance, you could see the lights of Pelling city. The Rathong Chuu River flows from near Yuksom. I couldn’t see it because of the dense forest between the helipad and the river, but I could hear it. There were a couple of big waterfalls on a mountain on the other side of the river. It was lovely and very peaceful. I stayed there until it was nearly dark. The stretch of road with no houses on the way back was a little frightening. There were no streetlights either, so I had to use my phone’s flashlight.

Because the rooms resembled those of a 3-star hotel, I was concerned that the dinner would be geared toward tourists, but that was not the case. The food was delicious and home-cooked - local chicken and vegetables from the garden. The hosts served the dinner in a room inside their house. I met a couple of other guests who were staying in the homestay. We had an odd conversation that started with hobbies and ended with the guy telling me about Plato’s work. After a day of walking and a satisfying meal, I was ready to drift off to sleep quickly.

The next morning, I got up early. Since it wasn’t raining and there was still time for breakfast, I decided to go sightseeing. I wandered through Yuksom town, arriving at the Coronation Throne. It was too early. The ticket counter was closed, but the complex was open. Some monks were praying in a small monastery inside the complex. There was a small football field behind the complex and a few houses in the distance. This was also close to the river, so I looked for trails that led to the river but couldn’t find any. I wandered around the complex, listening to the prayers in the background. On my way back, I stopped by the Yuksom Temple, which had giant prayer wheels.

I went out again after breakfast to see Kathok Monastery and Kathok Lake. The Monastery had been closed. It had begun to rain by the time I arrived at the lake. Despite the leeches, I spent some time there before returning to the homestay. Because I hadn’t booked for two days, I had to settle for a shared room. I considered going to Dubdi Monastery, but the rain refused to stop, so I ditched that plan. I returned to Yuksom town in search of food. Because it was the off-season, most places were closed. Finally found a restaurant that only served momos.

There was an uphill path from town that appeared to lead to a monastery. I went up, but it was also closed. It had been raining the entire time, so I returned to the homestay. I ate a packet of Parle G before heading out to the helipad in the evening. I called the cab driver in the evening to reserve a seat until Geyzing for the next day, but he had work the next day and couldn’t go. He gave me the contact information for another driver, who confirmed that he had a seat available. Dinner was a simple affair. The lady in the family struck up a conversation with me, telling me about her family and her daily routine. Since I was going to leave early morning, I settled the dues and packed my bags. Although it wasn’t the ideal time to travel to Yuksom, I enjoyed the serenity of a tiny town. Without a doubt, I would visit Yuksom again for Goecha La.

I had heard that it was possible to see Mt. Kanchenjunga from our hostel around 5 AM, so I set my alarm for 4:30. When I woke up, it was cloudy outside. I kept checking the weather through the window and snoozing my alarm until 5 AM, but eventually gave up and went outside to see for myself. No luck. I would repeat this routine for the duration of my stay at Pelling but the mountain remained elusive. We had decided to get up early and go out but everyone took their time to get up and get ready. We gorged on parathas at breakfast (we ate so many that the next day they put a cap on the quantity), negotiated a cab for sightseeing, and left around 10:45 AM. There were six of us - the four of us who had traveled together from Gangtok, Anwesha - who had come there from Tag Along 2.0 earlier, and Nivedha - who was doing a solo trip to Pelling (and was originally from “near” Mumbai). Nimesh, who runs the hostel, also joined us as there were no other guests.

We headed straight to Khecheopalri Lake. It was crowded. We didn’t stop near the lake though. Nimesh knew a spot which offered good view of the lake. We did a short 30 min hike to reach there. It was drizzling all the way, and there were plenty of leeches along the trail. The view from the spot was worth the hike. When we arrived, nobody was there. We bought tea/coffee from a small cafe there, and took plenty of pictures before more people came. While coming back, we took a different trail that went through a tiny settlement. There we got to sample a local fruit. On our way back, we encountered leeches again, but by that point, most of us were no longer concerned about them. We would simply pluck them off if they attached themselves to us.

After coming down, we had the famed Latop’s Pizza. Having Pizza in this part of India sounded gimmicky, but I was in for a surprise. I am not a foodie, but even I could tell it was a great pizza. The bread was super soft, and we had it fresh, straight from the oven. It was delicious.

After that, we went to Kanchenjunga Falls. It wasn’t very high, but the flow had some force. Nimesh had asked us not to go beyond a wooden bridge a few feet away from the water, but slowly all of us went to the plunge pool. Since Anwesha and I were wearing floaters, we could get into the water. Seeing us in the water, Shekhar couldn’t resist. He removed his shoes and got in. He even crossed the stream and went to the plunge pool from other side. The rest of the gang followed. That side was slippery. Abhishek had a nice fall reaching there. Fortunately, he was alright. After spending a lot of time at the waterfall we returned to our vehicle fully drenched from water splashes.

On the way back, we stopped at Rimbi, but the orange garden had closed. We were not really interested in the garden. We just wanted to go down near the river and sit there. But an old person at the gate didn’t let us in. There was another waterfall on the way back to the hostel, but we had had enough waterfalls for the day. After dinner, we had a session of dumb charades. This was more civil than the one in our North Sikkim trip but fun nonetheless.

Skywalk and Rabdentse Ruins

The next day, we went on foot to see the sights around Pelling. We went to the Skywalk first because Nivedha had to leave in the afternoon, and she wanted to go there. We took the shortcut from the hostel to Pelling. It was uphill and not particularly short. We got one small cab at Pelling Circle to the Skywalk. Shekhar and I decided to walk rather than take another cab. The weather was pleasant, and the distance was only 2.1 kilometers (though uphill). We walked quickly so as not to keep others waiting too long. We cut some time by taking a trail and avoiding a hairpin bend. We arrived at the Skywalk in 25 minutes, less than what we had expected. We were sweating, but it wasn’t exhausting. The Skywalk was average and overcrowded. We climbed the stairs to get to the Giant Buddha Statue. It was far better, with fewer tourists and panoramic views (hidden by clouds). We spent quite some time there. It was getting late for Nivedha, so we took group photos and walked back to Pelling, this time avoiding all the hairpin bends.

After saying our goodbyes to Nivedha, we spent some time deciding where to eat, finally settling on a local spot nearby. We had inquired about taking a taxi to Rabdentse Ruins earlier, and the taxi drivers had quoted us around 2000rs for a 2km journey, so we decided to walk. We were all walking at our own pace, and Abhishek fell behind. He decided he couldn’t walk all the way and asked for a ride. Fortunately, he noticed our hostel car approaching from the same direction. They dropped us at the bird park’s entrance. The distance seemed longer in the car. We were glad that we didn’t have to walk all the way to the ruins. We had to walk a few hundred metres through a mini forest from the gate to reach the ruins. The ruins were spread over a large area. We took our time exploring them. We had a lot of fun taking pictures in random poses. We dispersed after a while. Everyone found their own place to unwind and relax. It was peaceful after most of the tourists left. We could even see the Pemayangtse Monastery at some distance. On our way back to the gate we witnessed the skills of a budding pet photographer in our group.

While returning, we got a lift from a shared cab going towards Pelling. It was already almost full, but somehow they made some space for us. The driver took a slight detour to deliver a package to a four-star hotel, where we noticed a pair of what appeared to be Samoyed dogs. They were beautiful. We got out of the cab at Pelling Circle and began walking back to the hostel. Our luck was good that we spotted our hostel car in lower Pelling. That saved us some walking. Abhishek had planned to cook chicken for everyone that day. He’s really good at it. We devoured it. Afterward, we hung out in the hostel’s only indoor sitting area. Shekhar and Abhishek had planned to leave for Gangtok early the next morning, so they said their goodbyes, packed their belongings and called it a day.

Muted sightseeing and Goodbyes!

Shekhar and Abhishek left early morning. It rained all morning, ruining my plans to visit Pemyangste monastery. Maya left in the afternoon as well. Nimesh, our host, had been super chill and helpful up until this point. When Maya went to him to settle the dues, he began demanding more money for taking us to the viewpoint in Khecheopalri. And he was demanding more money than we had paid for the entire day’s trip. I told Maya that I would settle it with him later when I checked out. That was an unexpected and unjust demand, and I began to dislike the hostel. I decided to leave the next day and go to Yuksam.

In the evening I stepped out for a walk. I decided to go check out a local viewpoint. I followed a wide but slippery trail that I had seen and inquired about earlier. It went through a patch of trees and reached a small settlement. From there, it split into two paths. There was no one to ask for directions except for a kid who didn’t understand anything I said. After some guesswork, I reached the viewpoint. It was a small clearing with a wooden bench for sitting.

A few local girls were already there. There wasn’t much room and it was awkward just standing there waiting for them to move, so I returned to the split and waited there. When they didn’t return for a long time, I went back and checked; they had gone another way. The viewpoint provided a 180-degree view of neighboring mountains. Mt. Kanchenjunga could be seen from there on a clear day. I would have liked to stay longer, but that place was full of leeches. They irritated me after a while, so I returned. On the way back, I took a stroll. The weather was pleasant that evening.

Many of us staying at Tag Along 2.0 hadn’t planned to stay there that long, but there was something about it that made it difficult to leave. The six of us who did the North Sikkim trip together (and Abhishek) had grown comfortable with the hostel and each other’s company. Tag Along 2.0 is well-designed for long-term stays. The rooms are airy and spacious, and plenty of common spaces to chill and work. Inside, there are board games and instruments to play, art supplies to try, and furry friends to spend time with. Outside, you can play badminton, try skateboarding, or learn slacklining. And if you don’t feel like doing anything, you can just sit in the open spaces and enjoy the view. There is even a slide inside the hostel. We tried our hands at almost everything the hostel had to offer and kept extending our stay till Saturday.

Finally, on Saturday, Shekhar, Maya, Abhishek, and I left for Pelling. Anshika, Sourabh, and Tulip left for Kolkata after us. Before leaving, we had a little group photo session at the hostel. Some of us wrote our parting messages on a hostel wall, which was reserved for it. Anshika and Maya had their little heart-to-heart feedback session.

The four of us going to Pelling took a private cab to the Deorali taxi stand. Its driver was the most honest cab driver we met in our entire trip - he charged just 150rs for it (we were expecting at least 300). There was only one shared cab available till Pelling, and we got 4 seats in the back. It was supposed to leave at 1 PM, but after a long wait, it finally arrived at around 1:40 PM and left around 2:00 PM. Even though there is a shorter route(distance-wise) through Ravangla, cabs to Pelling take the route along the West Bengal border which even enters West Bengal at certain stretches. The elevation changes are also significant on this route. You start at 5400ft (Gangtok) and descend to 330ft (Melli) before climbing back up to 5900ft (Pelling). The cab also stopped for lunch and for tea on the way. By the time we reached Pelling, it was already dark.

We were going to stay at Mochilero Ostello hostel, which is a bit away from Pelling city. There is a shortcut to the hostel from where the city ends. We walked till there but couldn’t find the shortcut. So Abhishek contacted the owner, and he sent a cab our way. We still had to do a short hike to reach the hostel. The homestay-like kitchen of Mochilero was exceptional. We gorged on the delicious dinner and called it a day.

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East Sikkim

On Saturday, we started early from our hostel so that we would reach Nathu la on time. When we reached the rental shop, our police permits hadn’t arrived. So we had breakfast, took a pre-ride video of the bike, and waited. Note to self: ordering dosa in northern states is not a good idea. We finally got the permits and left the shop around 9 AM. There was already some traffic jam on the route towards Nathu la. To add to that, Shekhar noticed some issue with the 2nd gear of the bike. We even turned around to go back to the shop to get it sorted out, but it kinda got resolved on the way back. So we turned and continued towards Nathu la.

Once we passed the first checkpoint, where they checked for the permit, it was a beautiful ride. The road kept going up and up. Gangtok is at an elevation of 5400 ft, and Nathu la is at 14000+ ft. We had a lot of altitude to gain. Soon the entire road was covered in fog/clouds. We couldn’t see anything beyond the road’s edge, and the temperature dropped. The thermals I was carrying proved useful for the first time. At one point, we stopped and layered up. There were multiple viewpoints on the way, but we couldn’t see anything because of poor visibility.

We reached Tsongmo Lake(~12000 ft) around 10:30 AM. We could only see part of the lake because of poor visibility. We loitered around, took photos of Yaks, and proceeded towards Nathu la. Low visibility and roads without diversions meant I had nothing to do as a pillion. That, combined with nice cold weather, caused me to drift in and out of sleep. I actually dozed off a couple of times and slightly lost balance. Fortunately, I didn’t fall, but it alarmed Shekhar. Finally, we reached Nathu la and were greeted by hoards of tourists. We went up with the crowd, saw the China border, and came down. There wasn’t really much to see.

Nathu la was manned by the Maratha regiment as there were a couple of statues of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. And I could see Maharashtrian surnames on soldiers’ name tapes.

While coming down the Nathu La road, we stopped at a point to get a view of Sarathang and Nathula Lake. Later we even took an off-road just because we had a Himalayan Royal Enfield. But that road took us to an army camp, so we had to turn back. There was a traffic jam on the road to the new Baba Harbhajan Singh Temple, largely because of tourist vehicles on a day tour of East Sikkim. The new temple is constructed by the army near Nathu la pass for convenience of tourists. It was so crowded that we decided to skip it. We were anyway going to visit the original temple.

All the East Sikkim tours originating from Gangtok end at the new Baba Harbhajan Singh Temple, so the road after that was almost empty. We stopped near a little village on the way. Till that point, I was riding pillion and was itching to ride the bike. Even though I don’t ride a bike in cities, I have ridden in Ladakh. That too to the famous Khardungla Pass. So I thought if I rode slowly for a few kilometers, I would get a hang of the bike. There were multiple holes in that argument - I didn’t have a pillion in Leh, here there was bulked up Shekhar. In Leh, it was a cruiser bike - Avenger, here it was a touring motorcycle that was much taller and heavier. Before Leh, I had had some practice on a friend’s bike inside office’s compound, here I was riding a geared motorcycle after 6 years. But my enthusiasm trumped all these, and I decided to try. I was a little intimidated by the bike though.

I positioned myself on the left side of the bike, flung my right leg over the other side, and got it off the stand. I tried to shift the bike’s weight on my right foot so that I could put my left foot on the gear shifter, but my right foot didn’t touch the ground. And before I realized what was happening, the bike was flat on the road. In my enthusiasm to ride the bike, I had misjudged the ground on the right side. So before the right foot touched the ground, the entire weight of the bike had shifted on one side, and I couldn’t control the fall. We both lifted the bike up and put it on the stand. Because of the altitude, just this much effort caused shortness of breath. We also noticed some petrol leaking from the side on which it had fallen. Fortunately, nothing was broken because of the leg guards, and the leak stopped in a few seconds. I tried riding for a very short distance alone, but that fall had crushed my confidence. I was convinced that I wouldn’t be able to handle Shekhar as a pillion. We decided that Shekhar should ride it for the rest of the trip so that we make it back to Gangtok alive.

We showed our permit at a check post in the village and continued towards Zuluk. Near Elephant lake, we saw a few people trying to get back a Himalayan Royal enfiled on the road. We came to know that it hadn’t accidentally gone off-road. There was a little plateau near the road, which offered better views. It was connected to the road by a trail, but the trail dipped sharply right off the road before it climbed slowly to reach the plateau. A couple of adventurous youths had taken their bike to the plateau, but while coming back, the slope was too steep for the bike to climb. So they ended up calling the local police for help. We walked to the plateau, wondering why and how they pulled it off. The view from there was great. We took lots of photos and continued towards Harbhajan Babaji ka Bunker.

Clouds were back, so we couldn’t see much around. The road had become worse as well. The road from New Baba Mandir to Zuluk is still being built. There was a lot of road construction going on when we passed from there. I suppose in a couple of years the road will be built, and these relatively untouched spaces will get flocked by tourists. When we reached Harbhajan Babaji ka Bunker it was very cold. There were hardly any civilians. The place was full of Army soldiers. Army also runs a canteen next to the bunker. We had Maggi and Pakoda there and chatted a bit with a local politician sitting nearby. It was already 3PM, and we had a good deal of distance to cover. So we hurried off towards Zuluk.

The road was mostly unpaved. Visibility was better for a little while as we went through an opening among mountains. Once we reached the end of the opening, it started drizzling. We had to stop and get our windcheaters out. The drizzle turned into proper rain in no time and drenched everything not protected by our windcheaters. Visibility was low, and because of the rain I couldn’t check the map either, so we had no idea how far we had reached. There was no other road, so we just kept going.

Suddenly after a turn, we saw a road winding down the mountain. At first, we were confused. Had we reached Zuluk loops? As we went down a couple of hairpin bends, there was no doubt left. We were greeted with mesmerizing view of Zuluk loops through gaps in the cloud cover. The first time we got a glimpse of it, we were speechless. Only after coming down a few loops, the rain stopped, and we could take our phones out. Throughout our downhill journey, we experienced a play of clouds and Zuluk village. It was a surreal experience. Something that couldn’t be captured using a camera.

Upon reaching Zuluk, we found a homestay and freshened up. Shekhar hadn’t brought a spare set of clothes, so he had to alternate between using his towel as a lungi and my windcheater pants (which looked like it was made of tarpaulin). We had simple but scrumptious lunch. After lunch, we lay down under blankets so that we don’t fall sick. There wasn’t much to do outside because of the rain, so we had dinner and called it a day.

The next day we had a filling breakfast and took photos with the host family. Shekhar’s charger had stopped working, and our phones were almost dead. The weather was such that even our quick-dry stuff hadn’t dried. We did some jugaad around both problems and left the homestay at around 9.30 AM. Zuluk was still wrapped in clouds. After winding down a few hairpin bends, we stopped at Eco Nature park and spent some time there. More hairpin bends later, we were under the clouds and could see mountains till far.

We had a lot of time, so we were going slow. Enjoying the views and stopping frequently. At one place in a village, we nearly got attacked by a bird (probably a turkey). It was all hairpin bends till Nimachen, then the road straightened up, and soon we reached Rongli. We had descended a lot and were starting to feel the heat. We stopped at a corner near Rongli, had some snacks, and removed excessive layers of clothing. There were a couple of cute furry friends to play with us. Just before that, Shekhar did a stunt and tried to get the bike up a pile of gravel. He thought there was a platform at the top where he could park the bike, which turned out to be open container-like boxes. Luckily the bike did not go all the way up.

First, we were thinking of going to Rolep, a small beautiful hamlet in east Sikkim. But our host in Zuluk had informed us that the roads were bad, so we decided not to take the detour. Since Pakyong airport was on the way, we decided to visit it. We were going on a road along the Rangpo river which merged into a well-paved highway after Mulukey. This highway looked recently made and went all the way to Pakyong. It was a smooth ride, with Shekhar getting to 5th gear for the first time. At Pakyong, we were surprised that they let us go all the way to the airport building. There were other tourists as well, waiting to witness a flight landing. We freshened up and spent some time there and then proceeded towards Gangtok.

By the time we reached Gangtok, we were hungry. We couldn’t find parking near M.G. Marg, so we went to Kundey again and had delicious Bhutanese food. We still had a lot of time and petrol left, so we decided to go to Gonjang Monastery. The monastery wasn’t noteworthy, but it offered a great view of Gangtok city. We stayed there till the monastery closed. While returning, we took a slight detour and visited Ganesh Tok before returning the bike and walking to the hostel.

Our two-day motorbike adventure had come to an end. The weather played a bit of spoilsport, but it was a memorable bike trip. I definitely want to do a Gangtok - Tsomgo Lake - Nathu La - Zuluk trip again during a better weather window, preferably riding a bike or even a cycle. It’s just that beautiful.