Dodak and Samdong, Sikkim
Like every morning I woke up early. I am not a morning person at all, but something happened there with me when I was in Sikkim. I don't know what was it, probably excitement for the journeys every day. Mr. Jigme came early too. We had some prerequisites to do and also wanted to start early as it was the last day. We were going to a place called Dodak at first, then going towards Samdong from there. Till then we were going within south Sikkim and always went eastward. We were going to West Sikkim that day.
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| This side Sikkim other side West Bengal |
We started at around 10 am finally, after finishing all our closing paper works. We did cross the Jorthang bridge first and went towards west through Jorthang- samboria road, which goes along the Sikkim -West Bengal border. Also a river called Rammam also goes along with it. This river later meets with Rangeet river at Jorthang. Basically one side of that river it was West Bengal and the other side was Sikkim. As we drove out side of the Jorthang Jigme showed me a road on the left that goes to Darjeeling through some tea state or something. He said it's a very scenic route to go to Darjeeling. Anyway, we moved on. I was enjoying the riverside drive. It was not really high at the beginning as we were going along the river. The road was quite wide too. There were quite a lot of road work going on too. So it was a bit dusty. Big trucks were going every few minutes. Later I figured out, there was a NTPC power station ahead and road construction was going on too. That caused all those traffic. We reached the NTPC area by 45 min or so.
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| Bridge connecting West Bengal to Sikkim |
From there the road to Dodak went up the hill towards north. So the narrow winding roads started again through the mountains. This is what I loved the most. Slowly going up through twists and turns and as you go above, the views keep getting better and better. I was soaking it all as it was the last time. After half an hour or so we reached a place called Soreng and from there we took a narrower road to the the left to reach Dodak school. The road was ok but both side of the road was covered with beautiful trees with many flowers in them. Jigme said this was one the most scenic roads he brought me. Apart from trees small wooden houses with their beautifully decorated gardens was spread across the whole road till we reached the school. This was not a long journey but it was just so beautiful. After the route to Rabangla this would be my favourite route in the entire trip. These, not so known and of the beaten paths, are the gems that are spread all across Sikkim. Very rarely people go to these places. I thought myself to be so lucky back then. There was no way I would have gone to these places other than work. These are one of the reasons I am telling these stories of these places, which otherwise won't be in most people's radar. I really hope anybody who reads this get to know something different that you usually won't hear about.
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| Going towards Soreng |
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| Way to Dodak |
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| Dodak School |
Sorry, I went on a tangent back there. Anyway, we finally reached the beautiful place where the school was located. They had a lot of people that day for some reason. I met the principal and explained him everything. Lot of people came to see what we brought. I was actually having fun. They offered us some food, which we ate and left after we were done. I enjoyed the return journey the same way.
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| Towards Samdong getting Cloudy |
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| Entering Samdong |
We returned back to Soreng again and from there we went north towards Samdong. Samdong was not really that far. It took us around 45 mins or so may be. Around 2 pm or so we reached our last school at Samdong. The road was beautiful as always. I was soaking up every last bit of scenery, view and trying to enjoy as much as I could. The weather up there was bit cloudy that time. This school was also at beautiful place. I went out for the last time to meet the principal. He told me how eager he was for this shipment. Finally after all the paper works I was done. My work was officially complete in Sikkim. I was relived and sad at the same time. My work was completed without any hitch and but it was the time to go back. So for the last time after saying good bye to the school we started our journey back.
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| On the way to return |
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| Sat down for some lunch near the river |
We went down the hill road slowly towards Soreng first and then towards the Rammam river. We got down at a nearby a restaurant beside the river. Because of NTPC probably there were some residences and other amenities around the place. Mr. Jigme told me a lot of stories from his different trips. We kind of made a good bond through those days. Now it was time for departure. After we finished the lunch we started our return to Jorthang. It seemed like the return was quite faster as we reached before 4 pm. We had our last talks and I payed him all his dues and everything. Then Jigme left for his village. I had his number with me, which I lost when I lost my phone around 3 years later. I really regret that to this day. If only I had saved it in the email I would have still had it.
I had nothing to do after that other than planning my return to Siliguri the next day as I had flight in the afternoon from there. So I went to the Jeep Station and booked a car for next morning for Siliguri.
After that I enjoyed the last evening in Jorthang by walking as much as I could. I walked by the river, by the playground, by the bridge and of course sat through the evening at the main square.
This ends the story of Sikkim and it's not so famous places for me. I hope I get to visit them again and visit Sikkim once again. I hope you liked the journey. I know there is nothing super interesting to read but for me it was a great trip of my life so I wanted to share it with people who like to read them. The only regret would be that I went just before the snowfall started. Other than that it was perfect.
Completing the story really took me back to those days of travel. As this story ends so another begins and I hope to tell you another one.
Please share your thoughts and comments and I will come back new journey tomorrow.
Thanks.
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