Paro-Newjalpaiguri: Keep on rolling baby, you know what time it is..

I left Paro at 5:30 in the morning. It was raining early in the morning.
The only airport in Bhutan. sorry for the shake, i was in a hurry as camera was getting wet..

I was running short on petrol. But I found the petrol pump closed. The road till 10kms after Chuzom was lovely. After that rain stopped. The roads were now narrow.

I was going at good speed. The petrol needle was way below the empty mark. An army truck driver told me that there was a pump at Bunakha(14kms away). 20 kms passed and still no sign of Bunakha. Well it finally came. But no one was there. I was about to leave when a man came carrying an oil drum. He filled the petrol. It was 8:30 and I was 101kms from Phuentsholling.
Religious symbols on the way..

bad news from the heavens..

As I went on the road started getting bad after Chukha. After some tarmac road totally disappeared. Also it started raining. I rode in mud and water for many hours. Yup thats the road..

more bautiful roads..

I stopped in an army canteen for food..

I was pretty tired after the bad roads and rested for some time there. As I started again, it started raining. If the mud was not enough, the fog started settling. What perfect riding conditions!!! Totally wet, cold, having numb hands and riding in rain and fog..

i kept on going leaving my mark on the road..

I reached Phuentsholling gate at 12:30pm. After crossing the gate I took a long break. It wasn’t raining and I was feeling very hot in all the woolens I was wearing. I took off the raingear, the riding jacket liner and the gloves.

good bye Bhutan...

I prayed to god for no rain in the plains. Then I went to a mechanic and got my bike’s chain tightened which again was making all sorts of noises. While talking to the people there I came to know that there is another way to Siliguri from Phuentsholling and it was shorter than the way I had taken while coming. Also they said it was less broken up. But it was through the mountains. I was in a dilemma. What to do? Long way through the plains or short way through the mountains. But if the route through the mountains was broken it would take much longer. And main point was that I knew how the plains walla route was. For the shorter route I had to turn at the crossing after Birpara for a place called Binaguri. When I reached the crossing I decided to take a chance. A road sign showed that Siliguri was less than 100km through that way. After the turn the road was totally broken up. I was already regretting my decision. Also I was hungry. But after the bad patch came a smooth road. Then there were alternating patches of bad roads and good roads. But standing on the foot pegs I kept on going. on both sides there were green fields..

good stretches of road..

Soon hunger became unbearable. I stopped at a shop in the market I was passing and had some juice and namkeen and chips. God was listening to me today. So far no rains. The shopkeeper said it took them 3hrs to reach Siliguri from here in a bus. I relaxed a bit. It was 2:30pm and would definitely reach there faster than a bus. So I would reach before the dark. i stopped more frequently..

Soon I reached a place called Chalsa. While going from Siliguri to Phuentsholling, we had crossed this place. We must have taken the other route from here. I kept on going, waiting for the hills to begin. Well the so called “mountain walla rasta” had only 10kms of hills before Sevoke. On the road side..

next to the sculpture..



Coronation bridge in the background at Sevoke..

from the bridge..



I reached Siliguri at 5pm. I took a hotel near the station so that next day it would be convenient to catch the train.


Distance traveled in the day: 351kms
Total distance in the trip: 2566kms

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