Glimpses of Gangtok - Day 3 Continues !

True to my word, here comes the Gangtok post.

Gangtok, with its population of 50000, has a cosmopolitan flavor attached to it, with a combination of old-age charm, hospitality and Cyber parlors. I was fascinated with this hilly urbanized hamlet and its inhabitants.

We first headed towards Hanuman Tok and Ganesh Tok. Apparently one gets an amazing view of the Khanchendzonga from the Toks ;-).

As the name suggests, Hanuman Tok has a Hanuman Temple. The place was a humdrum of activity by the Army Junta .The next day happened to be Hanuman Jayanthi and the Governor was expected to visit the place. The zeal and fervor with which they were setting up the place was amazing. They really taught us what commitment and enthusiasm is all about .In addition to decorating the place, there was a small band of people singing bhajans and playing various instruments. I cannot describe in words, the ambience and the aura this place exuded.

Fortunately or unfortunately our gang, with all the Digital SLR’s and cameras, stood out completely, as tourists. So after all the initial introductions like “ We are from Bangalore “ – “Oh U have come ALL the way from Bangalore “ our gracious host threw a bombshell – Apparently one of the local channels was doing a piece on this event and they wanted the touristy Bangaloreans to share their exhilarating experience with the media .

Like always the guinea pig was chosen (No points for guessing) and the apparently media savvy me had to come up with a few lines! Needless to say I was horrified at the thought of doing anything remotely close to this!

So I scampered around the place pretending to take pictures etc etc. Somehow this was not to be my day. JK and I were asked to enact a dramatic ringing-the-bell entry into the temple! It was hilarious, to say the least, but thankfully the whole episode didn’t last for more than a few seconds! In the meantime the whole tourist interview was over and done with by the rest of the gangJ. We had some nice Kadak Masala chai and scooted from the place.

We went to a few other viewpoints but there were no signs of the mountains anywhere around the place and continuing to curse our luck we headed back to the city centre.

I have always wondered, why every city, not only has an MG Road, but it also happens to be the most happening part of the city. Gangtok is no different. But the MG Road in Gangtok is open only to pedestrians in the evenings and no vehicles are allowed. It felt weird and also blissful to walk in the middle of MG Road in the evening with no fear of being run over.

You would also find kids playing football on MG Road in the evenings! This was a sight worth watching especially to someone who is all too familiar with the likes of MG Road in Bangalore ;-).

Eventually we got around to discussing the itinerary. There was some trepidation regarding the itinerary because Nathu-La which was supposedly a must-see was not a part of the itinerary. After some local socializing we realized that a serious discussion with Mr. Mukhiya and itinerary-revisit was imminent.

We finally wound up on the third day with a nice walk back from MG Road to our habitat in Gangtok. There was some illusion of a glimpse of the peaks.

But it was too dark and we were too tired to decide if we were just hallucinating, or the peaks finally decided to bestow upon us the views we were longing for from the time we stepped into this land !( I know its too long a sentence ;-)).

This was just an appetizer of Gangtok. The main highlights of Gangtok will come in the next post