The day started with Amit trying to wake everyone off the bed at 5am. Damn!! After the ride from Lachun with all possible pit stops: tire puncture, landslide, people falling.. it was too trying for us to get up. Somehow we managed.. By 8.00 we were ready to leave but the exit to the hotel was blocked by cars whose owners were no where to be found. We waited till the section got cleared. 8.30 we started the ride. Rode constantly. I had a map in my tank bag which i was frequently refering to. The road till Sevoke was great straight tarmac, then it got bad. Lots of pothole. Then after few kms a smooth tarmac came. Then there was alternating stretches of potholes and flat roads. What good speed we made on the good roads, we lost on the bad roads. On both sides the of road were huge lush green tea gardens..
the good part..
jungle boy..
the line up..
We were riding on the Siliguri-Guwahati highway. We left this road at point from where Jaigaon was 18kms. The road after this was badly broken up. We reached the Bhutan border at 2.30pm. Jaigon is the Indian side of the border. There is a gate where there was a long line of cars waiting to enter Bhutan and from the other side a long line of cars was entering India.
On the gate there Bhutanese police guards checking the cars and some people sitting on the ground spraying a purple liquid on the tires. This we came to know later was to prevent bird flue virus from entering the country. There were also an immigration officer who checked our ids and told us to go to the immigration office on the otherside. We crossed the gate and there we were, in Bhutan..
The gate.. Yes we are STANDING IN BHUTAN!!!
We parked our bikes in an office parking and Anup and i went to get the permit. There the process was simple. We got a form to fill. While Anup filled his form, i went back to others who were taking care of the bikes, to give them their forms. Anup submitted his form and took charge of the bikes and we all went to submit our forms. So need to give the form with 2 photographs and id photostat. Then they click a digital photograph there for printing on the permit. Then we were asked to wait till 4 for the permits. Now we had to take permits for our bikes from the Road safety and transport office, RSTA. For this we first needed the immigration permits. So we waited till 4.
Till the time we were talking to the locals finding out more about Bhutan. The level of literacy left me astonished. The guard of the office took the LP Bhutan from us and was reading stuff from it. Finally after a lot of efforts from Anup we got the permits. Then we rushed to the rsta office fearing it might close. Our fears came true. The officer at the office said that we were late and should come tomorrow. If this was not enough to make us said he told us that the roads from Phuentsholling to Thimphu were closed every Monday and Tuesday for repair. WE WERE STUCK IN Phuentsholling FOR 2 DAYS.. Nothing else to do we decided to live 2 days lavishly. We checked into hotel Westend Inn. Great accommodation for Rs.550+650. First thing i did was have a nice leisurely shower. Sun set from my room window
After others had also got ready, we decided to checkout the "best pub in town". It happened to be a snooker bar. We played many games with some rounds of local whisky. It gave a good kick.
the khiladi's..
the anadi's (look at the whisky dripping from his eyes)..
the champions in making..
Then we came back to the hotel and sat on the pool side with some more Bhutanese whisky. Then we had some great local food and went to sleep.
Distance traveled in the day: 167kms
Total distance in the trip: 1360kms
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