My walk across the Rhododendron valley on Nathu'La highway( East Sikkim).

Though ,it was our 2nd trip to Sikkim ,but I made it a point to visit both Changu lake and Nathu La top on Nathu'la highway that connects Sikkim with China border.....Mostly ,its a matter of luck ,whether a tourist can make it to Nathu La Baba  mandir or not as the highway is treacherous  besides driving  thru' the high eastern Himalayan region , where landslides , road closure is a common phenomenon  besides unpredictable  weather  conditions  that results in disruption  of traffic movements most often.

   Whoever have taken on the drive knows how difficult  the journey  is and dangerous  too but thrilling and nerve crushing..... I had been to several other highest motorable  passes across the Himalayas ie.Khardung'la & Chang'la in ladakh , Se'la in Arunachal,  Zogi'la in Kashmir valley joining ladakh with J&K , so was quite excited about adding another experience  to my already long list of adventures  across the Himalayas......

    After we started on the journey  ,our first target  was to reach Baba Mandir on Nathu'la and after a short stay we headed for Changu lake  ......Both the places ,where absolutely gorgeous  with mighty Himalayas  standing tall all across....Now the World's Highest Ropeway service have started from Changu lake that takes a person to the top most point of Nathu'la pass at 14000 + ft high where the weather mostly is almost freezingly cold....We made it a point to try this adventure  too ; 

 Now as we moved forward , on the highway , we chanced upon the beautiful  Rhododendron valley  ...though it was almost end of season of flowering but still its absolutely  beautiful....i asked our driver to stop the vehicle as i wanted to walk thru' ,a little distance and frame some memorable moments in my lens but our driver was at first quite hesitant to stop as Army doesn't allow stopping on this highway and there's lot of army camp all around....but after several request ,our driver agreed to stop for 10 mins , which sounded quite sufficient  for me to experience this untouched beauty..Those lovely pink flowers growing wild across the slopes of the high mountains...absolutely picturesque; As i made my walk thru' those small shrubs , my heart was full of joy .....I turned a 360 degree and tried to canvas its beauty  in my mind as well, besides framing it in my lens ......Just loved this experience which was totally unexpected....Hope this beautiful  valley remain hidden from the eyes of innumerable visitors to the region orelse,  it might get spoilt like other such locations of north sikkim ,where these flowers  colours up the valley during summer......