Places Included In This Tour :
Tsomgo Lake
A popular and probably the best day tour from Gangtok is a trip to Tsomgo Lake – a glacial lake about 35kms from Gangtok and at an altitude of about 12,310 ft. The same day trip also covers the fabled Baba Mandir. Tsomgo lake and Baba Mandir combination takes about 5-6 hours round trip (including the time it takes to see the places). Nathula is not included in this package. This shall be provided on request at an additional cost of approximately Rs. 3000/- to Rs. 4000/- per vehicle, if the passes are issued. It is not 100% assured since it depends on the daily availability quota, climatic conditions, geo-political situations and other various reasons.
Baba Mandir
Baba Mandir is a holy shrine situated at the distance of 50 km from Gangtok towards Nathula Border between China and India. It was constructed to show reverence to Baba Harbhajan Singh, a soldier of an Indian army, who was drowned in a glacier while trying to lead a column of mules carrying supplies to a remote outpost. The search operation was launched and every effort was made to find his missing body but it was nowhere to be found. According to the legend, it was Baba himself through a dream, helped the searching party to find his body covered under a huge lump of snow and even expressed the strong desire to have a samadhi made after him. It is further believed that during the event of a war between India and China, Baba would warn the Indian soldiers of any impending attack atleast three days in advance. It is said that he did continue to serve the nation even after his death. This folklore has been very popular not only among the Indian soldiers but also to the Chinese side as well. In fact during flag meetings between the two nations at Nathu La, the Chinese would set a chair aside in honour of Harbhajan Singh who has since come to be known as “Saint Baba”.
