After a goodnight’s sleep, I set out to visit the historic Nathula pass this morning. Nathula pass was the primary reason I choose Gangtok to be my next stop on the trip. And I was quite excited on finally getting the chance to strike one item off from my Bucket List.
The pass is a mere 50km from Gangtok. I thought it to be ‘mere’ until I realized that when you are in the mountains, you think in completely different terms. We were barely averaging 20 km an hour, as Nathula pass is located at an altitude of about 14,000ft and most of our journey as uphill. However, this was barely the issue. As we ascended, the road became horrible, making the journey arduous. We soon discovered that most of the route to Nathula from Gangtok was under construction. The men of Border Roads Organisation were braving the cold and making every attempt to make Nathula accessible to all.
As I continued towards the pass, I realized that I wasn’t alone. The same tourist groups I encountered at several locations in Gangtok yesterday soon joined me. The Telugu group struck up a conversation with me when we were forced to wait together in a traffic jam. I couldn’t believe the shock they expressed when I told them that I was travelling alone. ‘Brave girl’ said one of them, shaking his head in disbelief. In fact, I received similar expressions of surprise and shock from several people during my entire trip, not excluding the drivers of the other tourist cars. My driver reported to me that they were jealous that he got the chance to ‘travel light’ while they were stuck with noisy and whining tourists, who complain that 40 rupees for a plate of Maggi is outrageous, conveniently forgetting that they are at an altitude of 12,000 feet.
Finally, after abusing my body for three hours, we reached the last check post 4km away from the border. This is where the bad news was delivered to us. Due to a land slide that occurred last night, the pass was closed to public (I wonder why the land decided to slide only in that last 4km stretch when there were much more dangerous spots through the rest of the route from Gangtok?). The tourists were enraged. They had come from faraway places and invested quite a bit of money in this endeavor. What they did not realize was that the whole area is Defence property and they have a right to refuse admission any time they wish.
I, though disappointed, did not despair. I have lived enough to learn that it is always wiser to cherish what life offers you than to crave what it doesn’t. Nathula was beautiful, surrounded by snowcapped mountains on all sides. The scenery that I was treated to en route the pass was breathtaking. The Tsomgo Lake, at an altitude of about 10,000ft, mesmerized me. I spent most part of my day in the clouds, literally. I couldn’t help being awed at the beauty and intricacy of God’s creation. From what I could see around me I learnt that life in mountains is very different from that in the planes. These men and women literally live on the edge, braving the cold, landslides, the snow and the dangerous roads.My journey wasn’t futile. I had no complaints.
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