Riding through the land of Thunder Dragon (Bhutan)

The flight has just arrived at the Bagdogra International Airport and we were in hurry to rush towards Siliguri. The plan was to pickup the bike from the vendor and to reach Phuntsholing by evening. After passing through the narrow roads and heavy traffic of Siliguri we were able to start our bike journey around 2 PM in the afternoon. As decided we took the shortest and the most scenic route as suggested by google map (Sevoke-Malbazar-Nagrakata-Jaigaon route). This part of our journey took us through the scenic Doors floodplain. We passed through numerous rivers (river Teesta being the biggest one), beautiful tea gardens and scattered settlements. The road was in very good shape and we reached Phuntsholling around 7PM (with 2 breaks in between).

Phuntsholing, the border town is considered as the financial capital of Bhutan. All Indians as well as foreigners entering to Bhutan through road has to obtain entry permit from Phuntsholling. It hardly takes an hour to obtain the entry permit for entering into Bhutan. They don't charge anything to issue entry permits to Indians. After obtaining entry permit our next leg of ride was to reach Paro by evening. We have started riding towards Paro around 1 PM in the afternoon. The road from Phuntsholing till Paro is built and maintained by the Border Road Organisation (BRO) under the name project Dantak. One can see a number of beautiful waterfalls, dense forest, hairpin bends and mountain passes while crossing this road. I would say it is one of the most beautiful motorable roads I have ever travelled. Don't forget to have some snacks and tea at the Dantak canteen on the Phuntsholing-Thimphu highway. They serve some really nice stuffs. Finally we have reached Paro around 6:30 in the evening. It was chilling cold in Paro with a temperature of 4-5 degrees. The day ended with some wonderful Bhutanese food in the hotel at Paro.

The temperature dropped to -4 degree in the previous night. The room heater in the hotel was the only saviour. We woke up little late and started towards the Tiger's nest monastery after our breakfast. Nested on the stiff slope of a barren hill the Tiger nest is one of the most sacred Buddhist sites across the globe. The trek to the monastery can be considered as a moderate trek. It took us almost a day to climb up and down. But the effort was worth taking. It was really a blissful and indescribable experience inside the monastery.

The next morning we started our ride towards the Chele La pass. The plan was to ride upto the Haa Valley. But after passing some 15 KMs we were unable to ride due to heavy snow on the road. We even could not reach the Chele La pass. Anyway it is always a wonderful experience to play with the snow. We played quite some time with the snow before moving towards Thimphu, the capital city of Bhutan. It was drizzling in Thimphu that evening. The temperature remained well below zero degree that night.

To our utter disappointment it was a Sunday and the immigration office in Thimphu was closed. We didn't get restricted area permit to further travel towards Punakha and Wangdue. The mood of the weather was as bad as ours. It was cloudy and cold. So we decided to explore Thimphu market that evening. The market was vibrant and a great place to spend a beautiful evening. The best way to explore Thimphu is to walk as much as you can. We walked through the streets, had some amazing food and sat near the watch tower in that lazy evening.

We applied for restricted area pass in the next morning and rode till Dochula. Due to time constraints we could not go till Wangdue and Punakha. Dochula is the mountain pass on the Thimphu-Punkaha high way. One can see the Gangker Puensum, the highest peak of Bhutan from this place. But due to cloudy weather we couldn't see the peaks. There are 108 small stupas and a monastery at Dochula. After visiting the place we have come back to Thimphu in the afternoon. There are quite some places to see in Thimphu like Buddha Dordenama, memorial chorten, museums etc. most of which we covered that day.