June 6, 2009. Day 1
Mumbai - Kolkata
The flight to Kolkata took off exactly at 7.50am from mumbai airport and reached Kolkata, it felt very hot and humid as soon as I got out of Kolkata Airport, We had lot of luggage with us so first decided to get rid of it, hired a taxi and went directly to Sialdah railway station, checked in our luggage at railway station and had a heavy breakfast at Cumsome.
A friend in Kolkata had promised to take us for sightseeing, she meet us at Sialdah station, first she took us to Esplanade metro station where I enjoyed a joy ride in metro train. After that went to see Birla Planetarium and Victoria Memorial. Spent around 3 hours exploring grand Victoria memorial building and museum in it. Around 3pm I was done with museum and was feeling hungry by now, when asked about a famous restaurant around she took us to ‘Peter Cat’ located on Park Street, Peter cat is said to have one of the finest cuisines in town, and it really served hot sizzling tasty sizzlers. After having lunch we still had some time in hand so we visited Howrah bridge and a ghat along the river. At the end we thanked Komolika for taking us for sightseeing and waved her good bye. Around 7-8pm boarded train to Siliguri from Sialdah railway station.
Though there was not much adventure today it helped me in forgetting my daily routine completely. Now I was much focused on what I wanted to do in this trip, what places I want to visit, etc etc etc...
June 7,2009. Day 2
Siliguri - Gangtok
I woke up early in the morning around 4 am, it was very dark outside and I was not feeling sleepy now, I exchanged my upper berth with Manas and spent time looking at the darkness out of window. It was around 7.30am when train reached New Jalpaiguri station. We quickly hired an auto rickshaw and went directly to the GATI office to pick up motorcycles. It was Sunday and all GATI offices remain closed on the same but we had already made sure before transporting our bikes that some GATI personnel will be there to hand over our motorcycles in siliguri, it took around one and a half hour to complete the paperwork and get our motorcycles, once we are done with paperwork and out of GATI office we quickly loaded our luggage on motorcycle and rushed out to the nearest petrol pump, filled petrol and yippee!!!!!!!!! started riding towards Gangtok our destination for the day.
It was little hot and much humid in Siliguri, I had breakfast cum lunch of chicken momo on the way after siliguri as I was not willing to waste time in stopping on the way again for lunch. We rode continuously and reached Gangtok around 4 pm, quickly booked room at descent hotel nearby MG road, and were out on the streets to explore Gangtok.
June 8,2009. Day 3
Gangtok - Lingdum Monastry - Banjakri falls - Gangtok
Today it was very important to get permits for us and our motorcycles to travel to North and East Sikkim. I required about the process at the Tourists help desk at MG road, but all I came to know was you need to book some Tourist vehicle to visit north and east Sikkim and they take care of permits, individual tourists are not permitted to travel, and that too on their own motorcycles is just impossible. After long series of information gathering somebody suggested us to go to Sikkim Home department and try our luck for special permission there.
Around 10 am went to the Sikkim Home Department office to inquire about permits, all staff at office was very cooperative they listened to our travel plan and treated it as a motorcycle expedition [felt very lucky and excited for being a part of expedition], we submitted all required documents along with a written application for permits mentioning our travel plans, a generous lady in office helped us get every required document in order and submit our application, after our application was accepted she assured to get permits done for us by next morning.
This was time for celebration, we had lunch late afternoon and visited Lingdum [Lingdong] monastery, I had a big debate about its name with Hrishi as in his opinion it was Rumtek monastery which was proved wrong at end :D. The monastery is very beautiful, located in mountains, so calm, so peaceful. I was feeling so good there that when we decided to go back I asked Hrishi and Manas to go ahead and stayed there for around one and a half hour after they left.
On the way back to Gangtok I stopped to see Banjakri falls, it’s a beautiful place with hydro electric project and a small park built around the waterfall. It was almost dark by now and I was traveling alone so hurried and reached hotel, we had a big bash tonight, tasted all Tibetan cuisines Thentuk, Bhaktuk, Syaphyale, Momos and yeah Beer [Weather was cold outside, just pull beer out of crate, open it and enjoy, no need of freezers to get chilled beers, great!!!!].
June 9, 2009. Day 4
Gangtok - Mangan
We received our individual permits around 11 am, we quickly rushed to the RTO office to take motorcycle permits. Personal permits are must to apply for vehicle permit. We were done with all paperwork by 12 pm, checked out of hotel and had a power lunch of noodles and hit the roads….
It started raining but still riding was like dream come true. We had planned to ride and reach Lachung valley the same day, but it got late and after observing poor light and road conditions I decided not to take risk and stayed in a hotel at Mangan.
It continued to rain heavily till very late night, we had some drinks and then dinner at the Mangan residency hotel. Rooms are clean and food served is also ok, but make sure to finalize the rent and what all amenities will be provided by the hotel before checking in, people seem to disagree afterwards and ask extra money, so better make it clear in the beginning.
June 10, 2009. Day 5
Mangan - Lachung - Yumthang Valley, Zero Point - Lachung
As we had to take a halt in mangan yesterday, to be on schedule we started riding around 5.30 am, Mangan has the last petrol pump on the way to Yumthang valley and Gurdongmar lake, so filled up tanks of motorcycles and bought 10 liter extra petrol in can as backup, I tied the petrol can on the side of my motorcycle and started riding.
The rain had stopped so it was very pleasant and quick ride to lachung, we reached lachung around 10am and checked in at Alpine resort, rooms and hotel are fully made up of wood, it is located at a very beautiful place and you get a stunning view of the valley from here. I unpacked luggage, had breakfast and started riding to Yumthang valley, it takes around 2 hours to reach Yumthang valley from lachung. Yumthang has numerous shacks run by local people [all girls ;)]. They run these shacks during tourist season and study in college’s rest of the year.
If you are not satisfied with the beauty of Yumthang valley you can travel ahead of yumthang to Zero point, zero point is a place where road built by Indian army ends and it’s in vicinity to Tibet border ahead, zero point is at an altitude of 15378 feet. If you are crazy enough this is a place you must visit on motorcycle. The best time to visit zero point is early afternoon because after 5 pm it gets dark and temperature falls very rapidly.
I reached zero point around 3.30 pm, it was dead silent as there was not a single tourist when I reached, even the small 2-3 shops serving Maggie, tea and boiled chana were closed and the owners had left. I was very disappointed to see shops closed as that was my only hope to get some food and protection from cold. Any of us was not wearing any warm wear and it was raining and foggy on the way, by the time we reached zero point temperature was quiet low, due to severe cold and high altitude hrishi started showing symptoms of High altitude sickness, so we quickly had a photo shoot and started riding back to Yumthang, I had a fall on the way back, but was very lucky to survive that fall only with minor injuries and a broken glass of helmet, it could have been worse.
June 11, 2009. Day 6
Lachung - Katao - Lachung
Today though I managed to wake up early it was not as pleasant as it should be, I was having severe pain in my elbow, knee and few ribs because of accident I met with yesterday. Today we decided to visit zeku phayak and Katao. We reached Zeku Phayak and were stopped at a check post for checking permits. Here the person at check post pointed out that we are not allowed to visit Katao as its not mentioned in the permits. We talked with their seniors at next check post but were not allowed to visit Katao. The soldiers after learning about efforts we have taken to be here allowed us to go little ahead from that check post but warned to return from a point from where Katao is just 12 km away. It was very disappointing to return back without visiting Katao when it was just a few kilometers away. The road to katao is very beautiful with around hundreds of hairpin bends on the way, surely a place must visit for motorcycle enthusiast.
This was a lesson for us, always make sure every place you want to visit is mentioned in your permit, having permits for visiting a place strictly doesn’t means you can roam around that place. We returned back to hotel and I took rest for the remaining day and enjoyed beauty of Lachung valley.
June 12, 2009. Day 7
Lachung - Thangu - Chopta Valley - Thangu
I woke up at 4am, it was quiet bright as compared to in Maharashtra at such early time. Visibility was clear and seemed very correct time to start riding. We checked out and started towards Thangu which was our next destination. On the way we stopped at chungthang where we were required to show our permits, it took some time to find the concerned authority as he was not present in office, We reached thangu around 1pm, thangu is a small and beautiful village with much less population, a small stream flows from within thangu village and people have established their own water system using vertically cut bamboo stems which bring water from stream directly into their kitchens, the taps continuously keep flowing till stream freezes in winter, amazing isn't it!!.
As tomorrow we had planned to visit Gurudongmar lake, Thangu is a good place to stay for acclimatization and it is the place forward which any foreign national is not allowed to visit. There is a place called ‘Chopta Vallye’ around thangu we visited it. After returning back we had a two course lunch with starter as momo followed by ‘Wai WaiNoodles’ as main course for lunch. Its very cold even during clear afternoon in thangu.
We meet Mr.Vineet who is an Medical Captain posted in Thangu and had studied in AFMC, Pune, so we got topics to discuss with Mr.Vineet and it was quiet interesting to know what he does there. He took us to his room in military area and even invited us to see cricket match as he was having personal television in his room.
We were very tired by now and were willing to sleep asap as we had planned to start riding early in the morning tomorrow at 4.30am for Gurudongmar lake. We skipped invitation for watching cricket match by Captain Vineet and went to a canteen run by Indian Army and names ‘Dosa Point’. It serves hot dosa and Kerala Paratha with some curry at very low price, It was amazing to have a kerela paratha after having momo for breakfast lunch evening snacks and for dinner. A thousand thanks to our soldiers for taking time and serving us the parathas at such an altitude for such a low cost. Its only Indian Army’s determination and values that makes such difficult things possible when at war and at peace.
June 13, 2009. Day 8
Lachung - Gurudongmar Lake - Chungthang
When I woke up in the morning and started preparing for the ride, it was so cold that we were not even willing to get out of our beds and touching water was just impossible. We started riding around 4.30am and is was cloudy and misty when we started from Thangu. It took us around 2 hours to reach next check post where we are required to show our permits before proceeding to Gurudongmar, on the way we came across many army posts and meet Mr.Dasharath who was in charge of construction of roads going on the way to Gurudongmar.
After verifying our identities and showing the permits we were given a go ahead but were warned to keep left whenever you are in confusion while selecting a road when in confusion and always take right in same situation while returning back, as per them this guarantees that in any situation you stay in Indian territory and don’t enter into Tibet area by mistake, also there were many minefields with live mines on the way which were planted to face any unwanted incursion by Chinese army into Indian territory. This seemed very adventurous and gave us a realization of what situation we were in there.
We reached Gurudongmar very early as to what we had expected though it was very cloudy when we started the sky become very clear and blue as we continued our journey, it was very amazing to see long barren terrains on one side and ice clad mountain peaks on other while riding. There is a ‘Sarva Dharma Sthal’ at Gurudongmar lake just besides the lake. It was so cold there that Manas refused to come out of temple as he was feeling cozy there, me and hrishi planned to take a walk around lake, after returning back the Army jawans posted there offered us a hot cup of tea which we required more than anything else. We spent around 3 hours at lake and returned back to Thangu, we checked out of Dragon Lodge and decided to travel upto Chungthang as it would save our time next day. There is only one lodge available at chungthang and it is not in a very good condition, the rooms are smelly and don’t expect anything more than what is required to survive a cold rainy day.
June 14,2009. Day 9
Chungthang - Gangtok
Now as per our schedule I think its not necessary to mention that we woke up early and started riding, because when you are there it’s a routine, the day rises at around 4am bright enough to start your work and sets down early enough like 5pm and dark enough to stop driving on such risky roads. We rode and reached Gangtok around 4pm, we quickly booked a room at a hotel near ‘Vajra Cinema Theatre’ we preferred to stay there as its on the other side of where we stayed earlier at MG road. We settled down and went to a nearby disco called ‘X’Cape’, it was not as per our expectations, but was a nice place to enjoy a beer and get relaxed after such a long and tiring day. This was it for the day, the hotel we booked was good enough for a tasty dinner and to get a long relaxed sleep after spending a night at Chungthang lodge, and that’s what I preferred, a tasty dinner and a good night sleep. J
June 15,2009. Day 10
Gangtok - Nathula Pass - Gangtok
We had permits approved to visit Nathula pass on June 16, and we were 1 day ahead of our schedule so we decided to get our permits renewed to visit nathula pass the very same day, it took a lot of time in filling up the new forms and getting it approved as we preferred spending one extra day we got in Bhutan than spending it here in Gangtok doing nothing. We started riding as soon as we had permits for nathula pass in our hand. We reached the check post for nathula pass around 2pm, and it was too late for a tourist to be allowed further according to the guard at check post. After a series of arguments and requests he called his officer in charge and asked to talk to him. The person we talked to was Capt.Chauhan, who told person at check post to allow us till his barraks, as we travelled ahead a army jawan was waiting for us on road and asked us to park our motorcycles and follow him into the barracks. There was no question in doing what he asked us to do. As soon as we entered Capt.Chauhans room the environment changed, Capt.Chauhan was a young guy not much older and seemed young and full of joy, but the atmosphere was serious enough and we had no clue why is it like that as compared to our previous encounters with army persons. After a series of questions about our intentions to visit nathula pass beginning with normal questions like why we want to visit there upto are we planning to escape into China from nathula pass, finally Capt.Chauhan satisfied with our answers allowed us to visit nathula pass but instructed to stay for only 30 minutes there and return immediately as he will be holding the scheduled blasting along the road for renovation till we return back. We agreed to follow his instructions and continued our journey. The nathula pass Indo-China border seemed very simple than what I had expected [Remember the Bagah border ceremonies we watch on television]. The army jawans posted at nathula pass offered us a cup of tea and a good time that we spent chatting with them. We hurried and returned back asap as promised to Capt.Chauhan. Returned back to Gangtok had dinner and went to sleep, next day we had a long ride waiting so thought of taking as much sleep as I can for the day.
June 16,2009. Day 11.
Ganktok - Pheuntsholing/Jaigaon
Started riding early around 4.30am, today the target was to reach Pheuntsholing by afternoon and try to get travel permits for Bhutan done by the day end. The journey till Sevoke bridge was very smooth good tarmac till there, but as soon as we crossed bridge and started riding towards Hashimara the road started showing up pits and rubble. We reached Pheuntsholing by 1pm which was what we had targeted, you are allowed to stay in pheuntsholing without permits if you book a hotel in there, the border which separates twin towns of Pheunsholing on Bhutan side and Jaigaon on Indian side is a simple gate with people and cars crossing freely.
When I went to apply for a travel permit I didn’t had my passport so it created a little trouble, I was required to get a Identification slip from the Indian office in Phuentsholing, I was required to submit a form along with my residence proof like driving license, pancard etc, here in Indian office I met a very rude person who as usual had a very bad attitude towards person who made him work a little for which he gets paid. Somehow I managed to hear his bak bak and get my identification slip after which it took just 15 minutes to get travel permit till Thimpu from Bhutan office, every person in office was very cooperative and polite just as I experienced in Sikkim.
After receiving my travel permit it was time to celebrate, had a great bash in hotel room and ate “Ema Datshi” a Bhutan’s national dish prepared with liquid cheese, green chilies, and onions, and rice, really very yummy. Today it was a very long and tiresome day, but was worth for adventure waiting ahead.
June 17,2009. Day 12
Pheuntsholing - Thimpu
Today I had a leisurely sleep and woke up little late as there was no hurry, the RTO office opened at 9am and we got our motorcycle permits done and started riding towards Thimpu around 11am. Road till Thimpu from Phuentsholing is ok, not so good not so bad, but is very adventurous to drive as it goes through a lot of mountains and valleys, simply beautiful. There is a good wide cement road approximately 25kms in length that starts before Thimpu, feels like flying while driving here after a long bumpy ride.
Reached Thimpu around 6pm and it was getting dark, so we quickly booked a hotel just in front of a small amphitheater like structure on Thimpu’s famous Morzin Lam. Today we went to a pub called ‘The Hub’, pub was good with live singers playing a mix of Hindi and Bhutanese songs. We enjoyed lot of hindi songs here and met ‘Sangey Tashi’ who works part time as a lead singer at The hub. I Spent time chatting with Sangey about the places around, about Bhutan, and about people, overall it was fun.
June 18,2009. Day 13
Around Thimpu
At phuentsholing office I was handed over a permit to travel till Thimpu and was told to get the permits for other places I am interested in travelling done from Permit office in Thimpu. Considering the number of days I had in hand decided to Visit Punakha Dzong, Paro, and Tigers nest and got permits done for visiting these places.
Sangey singer at The hub had advised to visit Cultural department but it was closed, so went to see other places he advised we must visit in Thimpu, first went to Takin national reserve, a reserve for Takin Bhutan’s national animal. After that we went to BBS tower which has a radio broadcasting antenna installed on a hill. After reaching at the top of BBS tower one gets a very beautiful view of Thimpu city and the valley.
Spent rest of the day at leisure.
June 19, 2009, Day 14
Thimpu - Dochula Pass - Punakha Dzong - Thimpu
Now as I had received permits to travel around Thimpu I decided to visit Punakha Dzong, Punakha has one of the biggest Dzongs mostly used as the administrative office for a particular area [i.e in Bhutan there is a Dzong per major town]. On the way to Punakha lies “Dochula Pass” which has 108 chortens and a small monastery in front of it on a small hill. After spending some time seeing chortens decided to visit monastery nearby. The door of monastery was closed but some monks opened it when I reached there, in doubt decided to get in and see whats inside. As usual there were 3 statues of Rinpoche and 2 others besides him, but all the walls were painted beautifully with bright red, green, blue and golden colors, those were most beautiful paintings I had ever seen in other monasteries. There was even a photograph of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru sitting on a yak when he visited Bhutan .
When I was done with Dochula pass went ahead to Punakha, Punakha dzong is built on river bank where two rivers meet, It has a grand wooden bridge at its entrance constructed over river. Spent few hours exploring dzong and returned back to Thimpu. Spent evening at leisure exploring local market and had a beer at Tiger bar [very popular amongst locals for drinking beer and testing their skills of karaoke singing]. Today was my last day in Thimpu, tomorrow I was going to say goodbye to Thimpu as Paro and Tigers nest were waiting, went to sleep thinking about all amazing things I have seen so far during this journey.
June 20,2009 Day 15.
Thimpu - Paro - Tigers nest - Paro
We had planned to reach Paro as early as possible so left Thimpu around 6am, while we were still in the outskirts of Thimpu saw prince Jigme Wangchuk Namgyal travelling in a black car [considered myself lucky to see one of the royals before leaving Thimpu, I had seen posters, photographs of him almost everywhere, every place I went in Bhutan].
We had planned to reach Paro as early as possible so left Thimpu around 6am, while we were still in the outskirts of Thimpu saw prince Jigme Wangchuk Namgyal travelling in a black car [considered myself lucky to see one of the royals before leaving Thimpu, I had seen posters, photographs of him almost everywhere, every place I went in Bhutan].
Reached Paro around 10am, the road was smooth till a fork where we need to leave main road and turn in for Paro, from here though it was a small road it had smooth tarmac so was still very comfortable, before entering Paro we came along a airport which located just along the road that enters Paro. Paro has the only airport in Bhutan, the airstrip is very small, and is located in a valley with mountains around without a straight path for planes to land, the planes need to lower their altitude and enter valley and keep flying and take a turn while flying between two mountains before touching down at the airstrip, sounds scary but really the ones who do it must be brave ones.
Booked a hotel in Paro, unloaded luggage and had a very heavy breakfast and started riding towards Tigers nest.
June 21,2009. Day 16
Paro - Pheuntsholing
It was a very rough day yesterday, the trek to Tigers nest was very exhausting, it was near to impossible get up early today, started riding little late as there was no hurry, today I was going back to Pheuntsholing from Paro, the journey I had started 15 days back was about to complete, I reached Pheuntsholing around 4pm, stayed at the same hotel that we had booked when we entered Bhutan. Did some shopping in evening, here I must have a special mention of “Dalla Pickle”, made up of small, round Bhutanese chilies, it is so hot that it is almost impossible to eat a single bite of this chili pickle, but as I like spicy food I enjoyed it a lot, after going home whenever I ate this pickle it kept me reminding about my memories in Bhutan.
It was a very rough day yesterday, the trek to Tigers nest was very exhausting, it was near to impossible get up early today, started riding little late as there was no hurry, today I was going back to Pheuntsholing from Paro, the journey I had started 15 days back was about to complete, I reached Pheuntsholing around 4pm, stayed at the same hotel that we had booked when we entered Bhutan. Did some shopping in evening, here I must have a special mention of “Dalla Pickle”, made up of small, round Bhutanese chilies, it is so hot that it is almost impossible to eat a single bite of this chili pickle, but as I like spicy food I enjoyed it a lot, after going home whenever I ate this pickle it kept me reminding about my memories in Bhutan.
June 22,2009. Day 17
Pheuntsholing - Hasimara - Kolkata
Today I travelled from Pheuntsholing to Hashimara, at Hashimara went to GATI courier office and paid the amount to transport my motorcycle back to Pune. After that went to Hashimara railway station and boarded train for Kolkata.
Today I travelled from Pheuntsholing to Hashimara, at Hashimara went to GATI courier office and paid the amount to transport my motorcycle back to Pune. After that went to Hashimara railway station and boarded train for Kolkata.
June 23,2009. Day 18
Kolkata - Mumbai - Pune
When the train reached outskirts of Kolkata, some passengers travelling with me suggested to get down at Vardhaman Nagar railway station as it would be closer to airport compared to Sialdah station, so got down at Vardhaman nagar station and reached airport, the flight was on time [I love Indigo for this]. Reached Mumbai around 3pm and it was raining heavily in Mumbai, somehow managed to get a cab from airport and travelled back to pune. Reached home.
When the train reached outskirts of Kolkata, some passengers travelling with me suggested to get down at Vardhaman Nagar railway station as it would be closer to airport compared to Sialdah station, so got down at Vardhaman nagar station and reached airport, the flight was on time [I love Indigo for this]. Reached Mumbai around 3pm and it was raining heavily in Mumbai, somehow managed to get a cab from airport and travelled back to pune. Reached home.
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