The Sikkim team in Siliguri on Friday. A Telegraph picture

Siliguri, April 11: Introducing a group of youths from Sikkim, a teacher at a girls’ madarsa in Andhra Pradesh said: “They have come here all the way from their country to meet us.”

The teacher and the students were surprised when nine persons on an all India overland cross-country expedition spoke in Hindi and said they were Indians.

“Isn’t Sikkim somewhere near Hong Kong’ a student asked us,” said Manoj Chhettri, a member of the group.

It was a journey through myriad experiences for the youths consisting of tour operators, hoteliers and travel agents — all members of the newly-formed Sikkim Tourism Cooperative Society.

They reached Siliguri today on the penultimate day of the expedition after covering nearly 20,000km.

The expedition was flagged-off by chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling on January 14.

“In some places, people hadn’t even heard of Sikkim,” said Manoj. He added that people in some areas were so eager to come to “Sikkim and sought details from us”.

After hitting Calcutta on the first leg, the two-car convoy travelled along the coastline covering Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, till the southern-most tip at Kanya Kumari.

In the second leg, the youths crossed Kerala, Bangalore, Goa, Mumbai, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi, Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradhesh to reach Uttarakhand.

Kishore Chhetri, the president of the cooperative society, said Agra, Varanasi, Gwalior, Khajuraho, Patna and Bodh Gaya were among the places they had visited later.

“We organised road shows and distributed a lot of publicity material — pamphlets, caps, T-shirts — on Sikkim tourism, and the response we received was tremendous,” said Kishore.

The youths said the expedition was not just about spreading information on Sikkim, but also about getting home experiences and ideas on improving tourism in the state.