Travel Goof-ups on Honeymoon

There are certain places that make a place in your heart. Sikkim is truly one such place for me. When we were planning our honeymoon, we checked out a wide variety of places. From Lakshadweep to Singapore Malaysia and we narrowed down on Sikkim & Darjeeling. Sikkim is indeed an offbeat destination and a paradise on Earth and I would suggest, do visit it at least once in your life!

This travel again had a few goof ups. We had a flight from Mumbai to Kolkata and from Kolkata to Bagdogra. The time between two flights was just about two hours and the flights were of different carriers. The first flight got delayed and when we reached Kolkata airport, the second flight took off in front of our eyes. The next flight was only on the next day. The lady said we will have to rebook the tickets of the next day as it wasn’t their flight and not their mistake that we missed the flight. So, it meant that we were losing on our money for the earlier tickets. After about an hour of my husband talking with her she agreed to shift our tickets to the next day at no extra cost.

The next task was to shift our entire program. We were supposed to stay in Kolkata on last two days but that shifted to one day on the start of the trip and the next day would be at the end of the trip. The booking company managed our bookings and we started with our trip. I had big plans of shopping in Kolkata and buying those Kolkata sarees. But due to the change in plan our last day came on a Sunday in Kolkata and much to our chagrin, the local markets are closed in Kolkata on Sunday (which we came to know only at the last moment). This meant no saree shopping for me! Of course, this meant my husband’s happiness knew no bounds…!!

My shopping dream shattering kept aside, I really really loved the place. Sikkim has loads of wonderful places to visit. There is the famous Nathula pass, which is the India-China border. The frozen Changu Lake, beautiful mountains, the Yak are things one should not miss! The zoo has Panda which are very rarely seen in India. Darjeeling has a Place called Tiger Point and the sunrise at the place is one which you would perhaps not experience anywhere! The sun rises on the ice-clad Kanchenjunga mountain range. The colour of the mountain changes from orange to yellow as the sun rises. You can witness this beauty only if skies are clear! We got to witness this but forgot to carry a camera to capture it. The trip to Tiger Hills was early at around 5 AM and in a hurry we forgot to carry our camera. The mobile phones in those days weren’t good enough to capture the photos as they had poor camera configuration. So while most of the janta was busy clicking pictures, we were capturing the beauty in our eyes. Although this falls under the term of a goof-up, you know, I’m really not regretting this. The view there is such a feast for the eyes, no camera can capture the actual beauty (unless of course, if you are a world class photographer!).

The return journey was equally eventful. We had booked a train from Siliguri to Kolkata as it is a long distance and due to some bandh our train got cancelled. We had to travel by a state transport bus as most of the buses got full due to the last minute cancellation of the train. So we travelled back for around 14 hours in a bus, sitting uncomfortably straight for the whole night.

There were again a few firsts in our trip. It was my first plane journey, first time I saw the snow clad mountains, had first cable car ride- another thing in Sikkim not to be missed, saw the monastery for the first time! And not to forget the train journey in the toy train in the highest train station in India – the Ghoom station. The ride in the steam engine was indeed fun.

With all these experiences, I would truly say that travel teaches you a lot! I would definitely love to go back to Sikkim one day and relive those wonderful memories and probably have a few more Goof-ups!

Do you have such funny stories to share? Do share with us and we would love to publish them!