In the previous part, my family and I took the train from Delhi and reached Gangtok and then did the day trip to Nathula pass followed by the drive to Lachung.
To read about the experience until now, click here: Sikkim Roadtrip Part 1
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Day 5: Lachung to Yumthang Valley and Zero Point
After a sound sleep, some of us woke up in the morning to go for a walk and enjoy the fresh mountain air.
We then had our breakfast and started from our hotel for the day trip at 9 AM. Although our driver wanted us to start earlier, we were too exhausted from the long drive the day before and wanted to feel the ground for some time before getting into the car again.
The drive to Yumthang valley was quite scenic with beautiful Rhodendrons lining both sides of the road for quite a stretch.
However, the weather began to deteriorate as we climbed resulting in reduced visibility.
I guess we had to pay the price for starting late.
The plan was to first drive to Zero Point which was about 1 hour further up from Yumthang valley and then stop at Yumthang valley on our way back.
At Yumthang valley, there were shops where you could rent snow boots/jackets etc. Some of us took boots.
After Yumthang valley, the drive became quite steep with winding mountainous roads and the landscape almost instantly changed. Until Yumthang, we were surrounded by green trees and flowers and after crossing Yumthang, the road turned barren dotted with huge reddish boulders. Our driver mentioned that the redness was due to the sulphur deposit.
There was actually a natural hot sulphur spring in this area, but we could not go there as it was a diversion of about 2 hours and considering we had started late from our hotel, we would not have had time to cover this.
Zero Point
Zero point is at an altitude of ~15.5K feet. To put it into context, Everest base camp is at an altitude of ~17.5K feet.
Due to the high altitude, there is lack of oxygen and some acclimatization is recommended. In fact, due to the lack of oxygen, most vehicles give out black smoke which can be quite irritating when you want to roll down the windows and take in the beautiful fresh mountain air.
This is the last motorable road and hence gets it name ‘Zero Point’. This is actually very close to the Indo-china border; however, unlike Nathula pass, tourists are not allowed to go to the border.
We reached here around 12:30 PM. The first thing that hit us was the chilly and blustery weather. We knew that most of us would not last in this weather, so we quickly took a group picture before half the crowd went back to the coziness of the car.
Four of us (My uncle, Nidhi, Namit and me) decided to venture out into the snow and climb a bit at least. My uncle and Namit had rented snow boots and were felling quite comfortable to climb.
Nidhi and I were under FOMO so we decided to take small steps but go ahead with them.
More than the temperature, it was the cold wind that was bothering me. I tried to cover my face with my scarf but failed. My lips had become so numb that it was getting difficult to talk!
Surprisingly for most bit, the snow/ice was not slippery. However, when the climb started, it got difficult for us. We had now committed to the climb though, so we climbed on all fours!
We all finally climbed to a particular point. By now my lips and hands had become numb.
But somehow there was an adrenaline rush as if I had climbed my level of Mt. Everest!
We decided to have some maggi and chai to celebrate our ‘achievement’. Talking about celebration, at the maggi shops, there were liquor bottles kept (mainly whiskey, Rum and Brandy). They were placed on a table equidistant from each other. It reminded me of the way we used to have the ring game in melas. Instead of Parle-g/chocolate that we used to win in the melas, here you could win a bottle of Old monk!
We decided to have brandy coffee to give us some warmth.
As we had spent too much time in the snow, we decided to give maggi a skip and head to Yumthang valley.
The shops at Zero Point were also winding down as the place usually shuts by 14:30-1500. Ours must have been amongst the last cars to leave Zero Point!
The drive from Zero Point to Yumthang was completely downhill and hence we reached in about half an hour.
Yumthang Valley
This is also sometimes known as ‘Valley of Flowers’ although at our visit, there were not many flowers there – we actually saw more flowers on our way from Lachung to Yumthang.
Nonetheless, the valley was quite stunning with gentle lush green slopes leading to a tributary of Teesta river. There were small purple flowers on the slopes, but not as many as I had imagined from a valley of flowers.
The scene though seemed to be out of a movie. Perfect weather, lush green grass, clean flowing river, grazing yaks, White fluttering tall prayer flags and snow clad mountains all around (of which you could catch glimpses as and when the clouds cleared).
If you replaced the yaks with the cows, I could have called this ‘Switzerland of India’.
By the time we had reached Yumthang, most of the tourist crowd had left which proved to be in our favour as we had the entire place to ourselves.
After Zero point, this weather seemed so comfortable. We spent quite a bit of time here and took in the beauty. We could have spent more time there – if only our driver hadn’t called to say that Yumthang was shutting down and we had to leave.
Next to Yumthang, there are some sulphur springs which I believe are manmade. Since we were now late, the springs had shut down and we could not explore that.
We were, however, happy with the way we had spent our day.
We reached back at 6PM – exhausted but happy and content.
Advice: The washroom since throughout this route was not too great. There were a few washrooms at Yumthang but there was a long queue there. We stopped at an army base, but the washroom there was quite a mess. Wherever you get a chance, take the washroom break and don’t hold for the last minute. It can be quite a struggle.
Lachung to Gangtok: The negotiation
We had initially thought of spending three nights in Lachung as we had planned to visit Gurdongmar lake. However, the road towards Lachen had been severely damaged after the Oct 2023 floods and had not been repaired at the time of our visit.
So, we decided to come back to Gangtok and spend an extra day exploring MG road.
As per our driver, we could either leave in the morning slot of ~7-9AM or in the afternoon slot of ~12-2PM as there was a particular stretch on our route which was converted to one-way at pre specified times.
As we now had an extra day in Gangtok, we decided to go for a hike around our hotel in the morning and them leave in the afternoon slot and reach Gangtok in time for dinner.
Our driver though had different plans. He wanted to leave in the morning and gave us 100 reasons as to why we should go with the morning slot – mainly playing on our fear of getting stuck in Lachung due to road closures which were supposedly quite common during bad weather in North Sikkim region. And as per his information, the weather on our travel day was going to deteriorate in the afternoon and it was crucial for us to get out of North Sikkim by afternoon.
As mentioned earlier, our driver did have some incredible convincing skills.
We finally agreed to leave in the morning provided we could stop at multiple points on our way to Gangtok – something we were not able to do on our way to Lachung as we were pressed for time.
Day 6: Lachung to Gangtok drive
We woke up at 5AM to go for a morning walk. It was a beautiful clear morning.
We started from our hotel at ~8AM. We did have breakfast but since it was early for us, we could not eat much and to add to that our driver was putting a lot of pressure on us to leave quickly.
The weather was clear and the road condition was also good due to which we were making very good time.
After about 1 hour, our driver wanted to stop for breakfast since he had not eaten anything. We stopped at a small restaurant. It was a nice place and at this point we were still quite high. After this we were to begin our descend.
We had chai here and were just sitting around taking the views when our driver started pushing us to get back on the road. I was a bit irritated as the idea of leaving early was to make as many stops as we wanted and not rush through the drive.
The driver said that we had still not crossed a particular point and we could stop after crossing the point which was about 1 hour away.
His conviction skills worked again and we all got into the car.
Soon we crossed the particular point and asked him to stop near the river. Now he mentioned that we could not stop as there was a line of army trucks behind us and if we take a stop, they would overtake us and we would not be able to make time.
By now we were all getting irritated. We understood that his intention was to reach Gangtok by 1PM which was not our understanding as we wanted to spend more time in North Sikkim – just taking in the mountain air and beautiful views.
There were a few heated words exchanged between some family members and the driver which created quite a bit of tension in the car.
That is definitely not a pleasant experience. The driver started driving a bit rashly- seemed like he was venting out his anger on the car which resulted in a very bumpy ride on the already treacherous roads.
As we had not eaten anything since 7AM, we wanted to stop for lunch. The driver kept saying he would stop somewhere but all the places he stopped at only had Maggi and chai – and we really could not have anymore of that.
We wanted hot regular food. The driver kept assuring us – “aagey milega” said he. I was famished by now and on checking the maps I realised that we were only half an hour away from Gangtok.
The idea for me was to eat at a nice open restaurant in the hills and not in the city. It was not even 1PM and we were about to reach Gangtok.
Definitely not the understanding we had with the driver.
All of us were hangry and extremely irritated with the driver’s slyness. We had a showdown and it was decided that we would not continue with him for the rest of our roadtrip. We made him drop us and cleared his dues.
A roadtrip with such negative atmosphere was absolutely no fun. And we did have quite a bit of our journey left.
So that was it – now we had to find a Third driver!
Continued in Part 3 – Click this link to read: Gangtok-Namchi-Pelling