A Trip to Nathu La - Sikkim (North-East India)

Nathu La - Indo-China Border in Sikkim. Altitude 14200 ft.

La means Pass.. Nathu La is is one of the few Indian border posts where flag meeting with PLA happens on regular intervals.. It is a tourism hotspot too. One can experience a very closer look to the PLA settlements on the other side of the border. One can meet the PLA personnels, shake hands and even take photographs.. It is one of the most peaceful border posts along Indo-China border. But reaching there, itself a herculian task due to inhospitable terrain and unpredictive weather conditions.. Nathu La is approximately 40 km from Gangtok, Sikkim and one has to opt permit before visiting the place.

After our dry North Sikkim trip, we planned to visit Nathu La on 12th November 2010. Permits were arranged by our Hotel authority. We started for Nathula at 7 am. After travelling few km, the weather began to deteriorate and enroute the visibility was mere few meters. We stopped at a small place and had our breakfast. The route plan was Gangtok - Tsomgo Lake - Nathu La - Baba Mandir and then back to Gangtok.

The road was full of Hair-pin curves and due to poor visibility it took too much time in transit. We obsered army convoys also moving in snails pace. The tyres of the army vehicles were tied with chains to drive efficiently on snow.. Snow started to fall as we reached Tsamgo. We could not take the photographs of the lake as there was virtually no visibility. But we were happy that after the dry run, finally we got to experience the snow fall. The weather was chilling and the temperature outside was sub zero. Without wasting our time at Tsamgo we proceed towards Nathu La which is 18 km away. The area was highly militarised and there were huge army settlemets, ammunition depots and number of Helipads along side the road. We got to see the highest point Axis Bank ATM near Nathu La. After further ascend our vehicle started to skid over snow.

The whole road and the hills were covered with layers of snow. The BRO and Indian Army personnels were busy in clearing the snow to keep the road open for Army Movements. After bit adventure, finally we reached the Nathu La pass. We got down from our vehicle and found no other tourists around. Probably we were the first to visit Nathu La that day. The temperature was -7. Everyone was shiverring in cold. one of our companion refused to get down from the vehicle. We started to climb on the stairs and after few minutes we saw the war memorial. Then we saw the Indian border post and in the back side the PLA post. the view was awesome and we felt proud of our Army as they are guarding the post in such rough weather conditions day and night.

We entered the main building and a very well built Army Officer accompanied us and shown the flag meeting room on the 1st Floor.. We were not allowed to take photographs inside the Flag Meeting room. He then came with us down stairs and posed for photographs. After few Chit Chats we came to know that he is Col Nathani, the C in C and from 16 Granediers. We bid good bye to him and approached near the Chinese post, but due to bad weather no PLA personnels were seen outside..

Snow was falling heavily and we proceed towards the Cafeteria and had cofee. We got the Nathu La visit certificate from the Indian Army. We started towards baba mandir which is 10 km from Nathu La.

Baba Mandir is the temple erected to worship an Indian Soldier, Harbhajan Singh, who died in a landslide. It is beleived that his spirits still haunts the Chinese Army. We visited the temple and again had tea from the stall near Baba Mandir. Snow was falling inseasently. We then started towards Gangtok and on the way back we saw the tourist vehicles towards Nathu La were stranded due to snow fall.

We reached Tsomgo and explored the local market. We had noodle soup and momo at a small shop and purchased few woolens to beat the cold. We started from Tsamgo at 2 pm. After few Km stopped due to traffic jam and we were stranded there for 2 hours. We reached Gangtok at 5.30 pm and we called off the day..

Thank You..

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