An Indian State to be proud of– Sikkim
Me and my husband visited the state of sikkim, Gangtok city for tourism purpose in the month of April 2007. There are a lot of things about this state that caught my attention and commanded my admiration and respect.
First is the beauty of this state. Well, I guess i will stick to beauty of the ‘Gangtok’ city since i really did not get to see much else of the state. This city is spread over the hills near the himalayan mountain range and has an amazing view of ‘Kanchenjunga’ the third highest mountain peak in the world and the highest peak in India. We were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of this peak, since the tourist guide mentioned that there have been many a tourist who have stayed in this city for weeks together and have returned without a view of the peak.
For a mountainous region, this place is amazingly green…..
To add to the beauty of this place, the city of gangtok does a great job of keeping the city and streets clean. It was a big deal to me because, we had just then returned from visiting darjeeling, the hill station which is currently extremely polluted in human inhabited regions, I almost felt guilty towards nature for being a part of human race.
Our tourist guide who was a rather friendly and warm hearted person gave us some backgorund about this city and state which was very interesting. He mentioned that the city of gangtok is free from corruption and that you cannot get anything done by trying to bribe a person in uniform. now that is something to be extremely proud of in India, since the country has been more popular for corruption than anything else in the last few decades.
The government of Sikkim is formed by a local popular group and it seems like they intend to do good for the state. Atleast they succeeded in making the residents of this state proud of their government.
There are a lot of places in India, where the local people in tourism popular areas try to take advantage of the tourists, especially if they are not from India. It was interesting to learn that the city patrol officers talk to the tourists directly, not communicating with the tourist guide or cab driver and find out what price they are paying for the tour/trip/hotel, etc… this keeps the locals on check and tourism flourishing…
Among all states I have been in India, Sikkim is one that I am really proud of!