Footsteps : Through the Mountains in a Tempo | Day 4

A Day at Namchi, Sikkim

Day 4 : I was absolutely free today. No schedule, no need to get ready so, no worries. I woke up early today and went to walk towards the bridge over the Rangeet river. Stood there for sometime, soaked in the Sun. As I was coming back I heard the prayer sounds from the Monastery above. I saw the entrance to the Monastery that I saw everyday. Today I was in no hurry so Started going up the hill through the stairs and after about 5 min reached the top. It was not a big one but a very small one rather. they had some monk quarters for and a small Buddhist temple where they prayed. When I reached the prayer had already finished. I walked around the area a bit , spoke to the people residing there and after enjoying the views of Jorthang from top I returned back down. 

I didn't really take pictures there just a few

this was also taken from the Monastery

I went to aunt's place for breakfast . I had some big rice dumpling with chicken filling inside. I can't remember the name after all theses years. If anybody knows please let me know below.   

Soon at around 9 am I was ready and went to the Jeep station in Jorthang, which was just in front of my hotel. I looked for a ticket counter and found it quickly too. asked for a ticket for Namchi. There were jeeps available for Namchi almost one after another at that time. I wanted a window seat. I didn't get it in the first one so I waited for the next jeep and booked seat there. There are regular daily passengers mostly. They usually have their seats booked beforehand. Anyway I booked a jeep, sat near the window and we started to move around 9:30 am. 

The green building strait ahead behind the trees is the jeep station 

The public transport is not as same as the private vehicle that I became used to during my trip there. You are sitting tight with other passengers. Four people sat in the middle seat and thank God I took the window. Its  winter so it was not hot or anything so it was ok. As we started moving towards Namchi people started getting down and getting up through out the journey. around 11 we reached Namchi town. 

Didn't take much photos of the town so same picture 

The first thing that I noticed was it was way bigger than Jorthang and looked a very happening place and of course like most of Sikkim it was quite clean. There was the main square in the middle of the town. I saw a lot decorations coming up and and stage was getting built also. Most likely for x-mass and new year. Anyway I had my plans. I wanted to visit the Char Dham mandir , get on the rope way and visit the Buddhist monastery also. So, I went to taxi stand first and asked how can I go there. Back then they had these small tour packages for going to these places. When I asked for the ropeway, people were not really sure if it was open or not. So I took a cab to rock garden for 200 bucks for one hour and for each more hours 200 extra. Not sure about the ropeway, I went on to go to the rock garden. It was a little out side of the town. Soon we reached the entrance of the rock garden. I made a mistake. I took the car number and everything but didn't take the drivers number. Neither did he. He told me that he would wait at the entrance and I could take as much time as I want, just cautioned me for the 200 extra every extra hour. 

Beautiful view from the garden

The rock garden was beautiful. The garden entrance was on top and garden was going down hill from there so I could see the entire garden in it full beauty from above. And in the background there was Himalayan ranges in the distance. Garden beauty aside I found something exciting. I saw the cables hung from a large tower and as I kept my eyes on them, a group of three cable cars came from below and slowly going to the top somewhere and it had people in it. Yesss I found the ropeway and it's operating  . 

Saw the ropeway

This confirmed its working

But I couldn't see the entrance to the ropeway. Was it inside the garden, outside the garden, how do I get there. But I went downwards anyway. The garden was a beautiful itself with absolutely beautiful views around. It was quite big also. I couldn't see the end of it as I was going down. Suddenly I saw a building down there and looked like the cables are coming from there and of course a rope way was returning to that direction. Great, I found the ropeway starting point. Now how do I get there? I went on excited. Soon the path to the ropeway building looked clearer and after quite some time I finally reached it. Mission accomplished. 

Going towards ropeway office if you can see the green rooftop 

Almost reaching the the entrance its the first tower

At the office they told me about everything. The ropeway started just 2  months ago around October, 2018. It then operated till the monastery. It would be extended to the city in the future(now probably its done). Great news , so I could go to the monastery myself in this ropeway and back also. Just one time two way fee for 180 Rs . And the return ticket worked for the whole day. Absolutely fantastic news. So, what else to think. I bought a two way ticket waited for the cable cars and hopped on to one. 

This was my first experience of riding a ropeway and that too at such a place where you have the Himalayas infront of you. So words are not gonna be enough to explain the feelings. 

On the way up

Reaching the top and the view 😍

After around 15 to 20 minutes of travel in the cable car we reached the top. Oh the ropeway stopped in the middle twice for a minute or two while we were going up. At first I was a bit startled but later figured out what happened. Let me know in the comments if you know what happened.

From the top there was walkway to the Monastery. The name of the Monastery was Samdruptse. I don't really remember if I bought any ticket for that or not 🤔. Anyway I had a great time at the monastery too. It was at the very top of Namchi area so the view also was great. I walked around the area for quite a bit of time. It was such a peaceful place that I wanted to just stay there as long as possible. But I had to be back. There was a person waiting for me also and I have not told him about any of these extra adventures of mine. He was probably thinking (he thought, I got lost) what was I doing in the garden for so long.

Samdruptse Monastery entrance

View from the top of the Monastery

Samdruptse Statue

Close up

I don't remember how much time I spent there but I when I returned ,the driver was in panic. As I told you before we both forgot to exchange numbers. He told me how he was looking for me in the garden office and everything. He thaught I got lost or something. Anyway I told him what happened and after a while he was calm and we both had laugh about it while returning. But I think he was a bit frastrated when I told him about the monastery visit. He missed his extra payout. Any way he was over all a great guy. Brought me back to this very nice food place in the town. We exchanged numbers and he left. Oh yeah, forgot to tell you almost. My plan for chardham had be cancelled as I was already late. I took a lot of time there. That's why you need to make itinerary with local guidance. But to be honest I enjoy this kind of travel rather than packed scheduled tours. Most importantly I enjoyed my time there. Both in the garden, the ropeway and the monastery.

On the way down

and the view again 

Almost getting down

I liked the Namchi town a lot so walked around a bit here and there. Sat on the benches under the big tree at the square. After a while I booked a car back to Jorthang. Around 5 pm I reached Jorthang.

I enjoyed the whole day quite a lot traveling alone. I did my evening walk around Jorthang town near the river, the playground and the square. I bought some souvenirs for memory. Jorthang is not quite touristy so the prices were ok.

That concludes the day and story for today. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. The day after will be the last  day in Sikkim and the end of this story. Like all good stories all good memories also come to an end. But that will be tomorrow. 

Please share your thoughts and comments and I will come back with the next part of the journey tomorrow.

Thanks.