Chaiti Ghoshal, actress

nIt was the place where I honeymooned and I’ve gone back there several times since, but there’s something so magical about Sikkim that I just can’t get enough. Just last winter, I went there again, with my husband, Ranajit and son, Amartya, and it was like nothing I had ever experienced before. For we had just happened to go at a time when Sikkim was experiencing the heaviest snowfall it had seen in the last decade.

We were staying in this hotel in the tiny village of Lachung, though most of our time was spent in the adjoining 150-year-old wooden house that belonged to the hotel’s owners. The surrounding area was under a thick blanket of snow, and my son had a ball, frolicking in it with the local Sikkimese children. We even ventured out to the famous Gurudogmar Lake, and the journey there was the thrill of a lifetime. We were the first to make our way there, even before the army trucks had trawled the roads, and I can tell you, it was both exciting and frightening. Our car skidded a couple of times, for the roads were snow-slick, so it was sometime before we actually reached the lake, which had completely frozen over. The roads were glittering like diamonds whenever sunlight struck them, and the beauty of the surroundings was amazing ? it was nature at its pristine best. I can’t wait to get back.