Half-past four in the morning, the tour guide of our Sikkim cycling trip wakes me up from a jolly dream and drives me in pitch darkness to the top of the Tiger Hill with the promise of treating me to what he calls would be “the most spectacular sight” of my Himalayas mountain biking tour. Right! I hope he isn’t kidding me. He does look serious enough to convince me that I’m not losing my precious sleep for a lame prank. But then, you never know. Maybe he’s a good actor and I’m the one being literally taken for a ride here.
‘Look there,’ the guide of Sikkim biking trip points eastward once we are safely perched on the vantage point of Tiger Hill. I do as am told and look eastward. I see a faint outline of the rolling Himalayan mountains on the horizon, backlit by a dim fiery glow in the predawn sky. Minutes tick away and the glow keeps getting brighter and brighter until I see the diamond glint of the first ray of the sun breaking out over a distant peak. And then, as promised, the grand spectacle is laid bare.
I’m on a Sikkim cycling tour in the Himalayas of Northeast India and hardly a day goes by when I don’t come across something extraordinary.
The Himalayas fascinate me, and why should they not? A mountain range that’s been knocked up from the earth by the clashing tectonic plates of India and Eurasia and that is still rising – though at a slower rate than before – at about 5mm every year, the Himalayas, to me, embody millennia of geological labor, the slow and steady slog of mother earth to create a natural wonder unlike any other in the world. To this majestic mountain range, explorers from the world over are drawn like marionettes pulled by strings. At the sky-scraping peaks of the Himalayas, many climbers have perished with the half-realized dream of standing on top of the world.
I’m not a mountain climber but I can’t deny being nuts about Everest any more than I can deny being crazy about Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world and situated in – no freebies for guessing – Sikkim.
So just imagine the kick I got while Cycling in Indian Himalayas on the mountain biking tour of Sikkim which winds its way closer and closer to Kanchenjunga and promises distant but gorgeous views of Everest as well.
Needless to say that I could barely put my butt on the saddle on the first day of this Sikkim biking tour, so excited was I. We started off in Sikkim’s capital Gangtok and rode mostly on the metalled road cutting through the lush forests of elm, oak, birch, poplar and rhododendron. Bracing air, lovely sights, excellent weather, and easy ride: it looked like the perfect start until our legs were put to the test on the uphill slog to Martam Village. The same story repeated the next day, starting with the easy breezy downhill freewheeling from Martam to Sirwani Bridge, followed by a climb to Temi Tea Garden.
The Biking adventure in the Himalayas of Northeast India has its share of downhill breezes and uphill grinds. But it’s not the grind an average cycling Joe can’t cope with. We have a couple of 40-plus bikers on our Himalayan cycling tour of Sikkim and all of them have been equal to the challenge. Not once has any one of them held us up due to fatigue. If at all we take frequent breaks, it’s on account of the views that Himalayan biking trails throw up.
And what incredible sights they are: rolling hills of green under a vast blue sky with floating cotton clouds. Every now and then, you chance upon terraced paddy fields, waterfalls, lakes, and aromatic tea gardens. Upon the passes, you bliss out on the panoramic view of the gigantic Himalayan mountain range. Almost everywhere, you spot great diversity of animal life: birds, mammals, reptiles, bugs, and butterflies. There’s enough to keep you busy on this Himalayas adventure tour.
The human presence in this natural haven doesn’t, thankfully, stick out like a sore thumb, but mostly blends in seamlessly with the surroundings. Ancient Buddhist monasteries dot the landscape in the vicinity of the villages and small towns of Sikkim. Visiting the monasteries – and there are a lot to visit on Sikkim cycling holiday – leaves you in a calm, zen state of mind. You hear the chants of Buddhist prayers, you witness religious ceremonies, you check out ancient Buddhist art, architecture, sculpture and paintings, and you turn the prayer wheels.
In the course of ten days, the cycling adventure in Himalayas takes you to the Best tourist hotspots of Sikkim: the monasteries, the tea estates, the villages and towns, the eateries, the museums and even a train ride through a picturesque landscape. It puts you right at the foot of the Kanchenjunga mountain, which is 262 meters shy of Everest in height and quite a sight to see.
But my moment of truth comes not in the toes of Kanchenjunga but on top of the Tiger Hill in Darjeeling on the morning when the tour guide wakes me up half past four in the morning for the promised grand spectacle. As it turns out, he isn’t bluffing. From our vantage point, I see the faint glow on the horizon breaking out in the diamond glint of the sun lighting up the Himalayan peaks one after another like a light bulb coming on atop each mountain – blink, blink, blink – until the tops of the whole Himalayan range are awash with cool morning light.
And then I see it. The gorgeous Kanchenjunga and, farther afield, the mighty Everest in the same panoramic view.
I had seen Everest before in the pictures, but seeing it in real alongside Kanchenjunga was something truly extraordinary and out of the blue.
Happy and humbled, I thank the tour guide of our Sikkim cycling expedition for treating me to this grand and beautiful spectacle. He shrugs his shoulders, shakes my hand, beams me a smile, and says, “See! I wasn’t kidding you.”
