Gangtok capital town of Sikkim
Gangtok is the capital town of India’s 25th State called Sikkim. It is situated at the eastern Himalayan range at 4,714 ft altitude,Hill top. Gangtok being the state capital, it is the headquarter of the East Sikkim district. More Importantly it is famous for its scenic beauty such as lush green valleys, sloppy tress, fast flowing rivers, flowers and spectacular views of the Kanchenjunga, which is third highest mountain in the world.
The town offers three climatic Conditions (seasons) -summers starts at march and remains till beginning of June then begins rainy season from late June to august resulting landslides, road blockage and so on, in around town and other parts of Sikkim. Winter arrives quite mildly at September giving pleasant weather till November however, giving sudden fall in temperature December, January and February is the coldest winter season in Gangtok around 6 degree centigrade. The most favorable time for tourist, visitors, explorers and for business is in the months of March to April and from September to February.
Population of Gangtok is around 50,000 mainly Lepchas, Bhutias and Nepalese, and there are considered amount of Tibetans and business people from other parts of the India also. Most common spoken languages are Nepali, Bhutia, Hindi and English.
People here are deeply religious yet non-interfering and very open minded. Buddhism and Hindu are two vastly followed religions in Sikkim. Choten Gumpa (monastery)- Namgyal Institute of Tibetlogy is quite famous for locals and international people who want to learn in depth about Buddhism.
Combining beautiful nature, with their ethnic culture and tradition with adaptation of modern living style makes this hill station quite unique, balanced and pleasant heaven on earth. This is the reason why Gangtok has become popular tourist hill spot among many other much famous hill station in India.
In the recent years the town has developed vastly in terms of urbanization by renovating Mahatma Gandhi Marg into shoppers broad walk and making it spit free zone, Fly over bridges, state of arts hospitals, Broad Roads, luxury Star hotels. In addition there are already existing places in and around Gangtok of many interests such as religious places like monasteries, temples, churches, learning institutions, view points, parks, cable car(ropeway), exhibitions, shows, library, adventures activities centre, Clubs, Bars, Restaurants, cafes, Cinemas, casino, Shopping complexes, Stadium and so on.
The food in town is fusion of Traditional Nepalese, Tibetans, Chinese and Indian tastes such as Rice, stir fried or stew curry of vegies, meat fish, pulses, Roti (Indian bread), Dim sum, Noodles, soups etc.
In Gangtok there are Universities, many prestigious private boarding, missionary, semi private and government schools such as Tashi Namgyal academy, Palzor Namgyal Girls Senior Secondary Schools to name a few to provide quality education.
Gangtok is connected to the rest of India through 31A National Highway, which links Gangtok to Siliguri, located 114 km, Darjeeling 94 km and kalimpong 80 km away in the neighbouring state of West Bengal. Town is not directly connected with airport and train station therefore, the nearest Airport is Baghdogra, which is 124kms from Gangtok, and nearest railways Jalpaiguri is 125 km away. However it has small Helipad connecting Gangtok to Baghdogra
Town of Gangtok major transport system is quite basic such as Taxis, state buses, and jeeps. Locals mostly travel in fare fixed taxi jeeps, cars, and buses from one town to another for their daily jobs, shopping and business activities.