Hello and good morning everyone! It's my fourth day on Steemit today and I am loving it! I met a lot of great people here, learned a lot and became a part of MSP/PAL group.
I would like to share some pictures from my trip to Sikkim. It is a beautiful place with lots of things to see, or rather experience. People are extremely friendly, the place itself is pocket friendly and is a great place to visit when you want to take a break from your mundane life. I should warn you though, I'm not a professional photographer - so the pictures are not really that good.
#1
This is a picture of Tsomgo Lake. This lake is situated in East Sikkim at an altitude of 12312 ft and covers around 24 hectare of land. The lake has a max depth of 50ft. This lake is considered to be very sacred by local people. There's a temple just beside the lake and you can find a lot of yaks here. See that faint white line at the opposite side? That's the source of the lake, a small stream which when we reached was completely frozen.
#2
Somehow, we were able to walk around the lake to reach the source. The path was very narrow and at times I thought I was going to fall down as the ground beneath me hardened due to freezing cold weather and my shoes offered no grips at all. This picture was taken from the opposite side of the lake, just under the source stream. Notice how bright blue the sky is. We were above clouds that time so it was quite sunny too.
#3
This waterfall is a called Mangan and it is situated in North Sikkim. The elevation of the waterfall is about 2000 ft. I tasted the water and it was pure bliss!
#4
A picture of the freezing cold zero point. The bright sun provided a bit of warmth but it was still very cold. I walked past that frozen river to the other side, managing to fall on my butt as my shoes failed to provide proper grip once again. It was a complete mess, I cracked the thin layer of ice and before I could even realize my sweatshirt was wet! Zero point or Yumesamdong is very close to the Indo-China border and is at an altitude of 15300 ft. This is usually not a part of the standard itinerary but we nagged our driver and he accepted to take us to the zero point after having breakfast in Yumthang valley. I couldn't take any pictures of Yumthang valley because although it was situated at a comparatively lower altitude of 11693 ft, there was a cold breeze that chilled me to the bones. Yumthang Valley is also called the Valley of Flowers (rightfully so) as it hosts around 24 species of the rhododendron. We went there during the winter so we couldn't see the flowers. Here's a link to a few pictures of Yumthang Valley (Googled):
Wikipedia Picture
Yumthang at its full glory
The river in the background is called Teesta and I was really shocked to see the unusual color of its water. It's bluish green, almost turquoise — I think the color should receive its own name, The Teesta Green :P . I believe it's either because of fine particles of rock present in the river or some form of algae.
#5
This picture was taken after crossing the river stream and hiking a bit on the hill.
Thanks for checking out this post. I really appreciate this! Please do comment if you can.
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Thanks to @rituparnaghosh for this awesome gif!
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Very beautiful places and amazing shots...thanks for posting this stunning photos
Thank you! :D
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STOPThis is a great post - thank you very much for explaining what we are seeing in each picture, it adds so much value. I can enjoy a photo which is maybe not the greatest photo in the world if I learn a story about the place - and likewise I get very little satisfaction out of amazing photography if I have no connection or story.
I am guessing this is relatively high up in the mountains - what elevation were you at?
You are right - drinking straight from an icy cold mountain waterfall is pure bliss. Nothing better. This post actually made me a little homesick for my hometown in Alaska and the mountains, lakes and streams there.
Cheers - Carl (@gnashster on PAL)
Hey Carl. Thanks for checking out the post and taking the time to write a comment on it. I'm glad that you liked the explanations.
Coming to the elevation part, yes apart from Mangan we were above cloud level - so pretty high up. As per Google,
Tsomgo Lake (#1, #2) is at about 12000 ft.
Mangan Waterfalls (#3) is at only 2000ft.
Zero Point (#4,#5) is at whooping 15300ft.
Thanks for reminding me, I will now add these new information to the original post for future readers.
Holy crap! 15,300 feet is really high!!! I have never even been above 10,000 feet and even that felt crazy, the difference in the air is so noticeable. I have always felt personally that mountain lakes are sacred places and I thank you again for sharing your visit :)
Yes the difference in air is quite noticeable. That small hike on the hill at zero point forced me to breath fast.
Hello everyone. After taking the suggestion from Carl I decided to update my post to include more details.
BOTTY loves nature pics :]
Thank you Botty :D
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