Travellers' Checks | Himalayan ‘kingdom’ of Sikkim, in India, opens first airport and is ready to welcome travellers
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“It’s not easy to find Sikkim on the map, unless one knows where to look for it,” narrated Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray in an absorbing 1971 documentary. “It’s a tiny little kingdom in the Himalayas, surrounded by West Bengal in the south, Nepal in the west, Tibet in the north and northeast, and the kingdom of Bhutan in the east.” Four years later, in May 1975, it became India’s 22nd state, and Ray’s film, titled Sikkim – commissioned by its last king, or chogyal – was banned throughout the country.
On October 4, Sikkim’s first airport received its first scheduled flight (the last state in India to do so) and hopes are high that tourism will now grow in what has been, until now, one of the least accessible corners of the country.
Daily morning flights to the new Pakyong Airport – which was almost 10 years in the making and is located about 30km south of the capital, Gangtok – are operated by SpiceJet from Kolkata, in West Bengal. Bhutan’s national carrier, Druk Air, is due to begin scheduled international flights from Paro, situated west of the capital, Thimphu, in January, opening up this Himalayan region to interesting new possibilities for travellers.
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