India By The Road: May 2015

Thursday 14 May 2015

Druk Diaries: An experience of a lifetime

During January 2015 when I first mentioned that I think we should drive to Bhutan, the family's response was cautious. I think they initially though that I was joking and they let it pass. As day came nearer, I started preparing for it. Slowly everybody was on board.

The original plan was to start the trip in second week of April, but my family has to be in Delhi during first week of April. We decided that they will directly join me in Kolkata and I will drive from Bengaluru to Kolkata alone. My all the road trips have been with family and this was the first time when I was planning on driving more than 1500 kilometers alone.

You can find the total trip map above. We reached Bhutan by taking east coast of India and then came through central India. The total distance of the trip was upwards of 7700 kilometers and total fuel consumed was more than 850 liters. I did not keep track of total toll paid for this trip but it must be more than Rs. 4000/-.
Here is the detailed account of the trip.

This trip was a test of endurance for us, all of us in the family, which we passed with flying colors. Many times it was tough, particularly during that dark, rainy night of drive to Trongsa, when we had no idea whether we were even on right path or the final day of drive when we decided to do Bhopal to Bengaluru without taking at break. At around 12:30 AM when I was really sleepy, my wife, who doesn't prefer to drive in night, offered to drive and that hour and half of drive by her made it easier for us to reach without taking too much risk.

Before this trip, the maximum that we had driven in a day was approximately 985 kilometers, i.e. Pune to Mount Abu. Now it stands at 1500+ kilometers.

If I were to do it again

If I were to do it again, I would probably modify the itinerary as follows.

Do Dochu La as part of drive to Punakha and stay in Punakha
Do Trongsa in day time and continue and stay in Bumthang
Move Paro to start of the trip
Couple of days extra for Mongar and Trashigang, 1 day to Mongar 1 day in Trashigang and then exit via Samdrup Jongkhar

Because of under construction roads, drive to east is specifically painful in Bhutan currently. It is very difficult to drive long distances across West-East highway. If locals were to be believed, it would probably 2-4 years before things would become better.

Lessons Learnt

How important are your own tools in the car. The puncture guys whom I found on highway neither had spanner nor jack that would fit my car.
It is very important to have a pump in your car. With a slow leaking tire, my trip would have been very difficult if I did not have pump with me to fill it up

Thanks are in order

This trip would have been much harder to plan and execute if not for the support of many friends on HVK Forum on facebook including but not limited to Rajneesh Khare for all the help around central india, Sandipan Mallick for all the help around east specifically Kolkata and Asansol and showing a friendly face in hotel, Panduranga Kudige Shenoy for helping me finalize the Deoghar route, Kumar HV for all the guidance, direction and help and everbody who is working with HVK Central Hotel Desk,

If I missed somebody, it is not intentional, I am thankful for any help extended by anybody that helped me make this trip successful.

Finally thanks are in order to my wife and daughter for agreeing and putting up with the madness of being on the road for more than 20 days.

Druk Diaries: Day 23 - Return journey,Bhopal to Bengaluru

02-May-2015

Finally the epic trip was coming to an end. We had to just reach Bengaluru from Bhopal. Originally we had decided to drive up to Hyderabad and then drive to Bengaluru the next day morning. Since we were out of home for far too many days and we were so close, we decided that if we can reach Hyderabad around 6pm, then we will continue to Bengaluru otherwise we will find some place to stay in Hyderabad.

4:50 AM We were out of our home in Bhopal and on the road towards Hoshangabad.

5:30 AM Crossed Obaidullaganj

6:22 AM Crossed Habibganj

7:30 AM We reached Pipariya. There is a MP Tourism motel, we thought we can get some tea and breakfast. But they had still not open, they only were ready to serve tea. We had to make do with that. The place does have clean toilets.

10:00 AM Reached Chindwara bypass. It is a very good two laned undivided road with very little traffic.

11:32 AM Crossed Savner

11:53 AM I was advised by friends at HVK forum to just cut through the city. So that's what I did, didn't turn out too bad.

12:20 PM I was on the other end of the Nagpur

1:22 PM Reached Hinganghat. There is a big flyover under construction that confused me but did not loose much time.

The road is otherwise good, there is a small portion of the road, around 40 Kms which is under construction.

2:20 PM We were looking for some place to have lunch. Something that looks like a restaurant rather than a Dhaba. Couldn't find anything. Finally stopped at this place that looked like a proper restaurant. This hotel was horrible. Actually as soon as the staff saw us, they told us don't go inside the restaurant because people drink there. There is a hut outside the hotel, they served us food there and we quickly got out. Even food was nothing to talk home about.

3:10 PM Started back on our journey.

As soon as you cross into AP/TS, the highway quality improves multi-fold and the drive is much more fun.

3:30 PM Crossed Adilabad

4:15 PM Crossed Nirmal

6:20 PM We were on Hyderabad ORR. We decided that we will continue on to Bengaluru.

7:50 PM We found this food court and decided to have dinner.

9:15 PM Crossed Mahbubnagar

10:29 PM Crossed Kurnool

12:15 AM Crossed Anantpur

12:59 AM Crossed Penukonda

2:00 AM Crossed Chikkaballapur

2:45 AM Reached K R Puram

This was the longest single day drive by us. We completed 1500 Kilometers in approximately 22 hours.

Druk Diaries: Day 19-22 - Rest and fixing the car

28-April-2015 to 01-May-2015
During our drive, there was a huge puncture in one of the tires and the car was warning about breakpads getting too thin. We decided to take a break in Bhopal so that we reach Bengaluru during weekend.
Since Bhopal doesn't have any service stations, I had to drive to Indore to get the car fixed. They replaced the breakpads but did not have tires. So I just re-fixed the puncture and decided that it be taken care of in Bengaluru.
There was another issue in the car, during the last few days I was getting an intermittent error that was pointing to EGR (exhaust gas re circulation) fault. The Indore dealer guessed that it may be due to bad fuel. Later even Bengaluru dealer tried to find the root cause, but as of now there is nothing.
I used BMW diesel additive that is supposed to cleanup injectors etc.

Druk Diaries: Day 18 - Return journey,Kanpur to Bhopal

27-April-2015
We had planned on staying in Bhopal for few days, so this day was a shorter drive.

5:40 AM We were out on the road.
7:20 AM Crossed Orai

9:25 AM Crossed Jhansi bypass.
10:25 AM Crossed Lalitpur
11:22 AM Crossed malthone

11:58 AM Reached Bina.

1:45 PM Crossed Vidisha

1:55 PM Crossed Sanchi

2:40 PM Reached Bhopal

Druk Diaries: Day 17 - Return journey, Purnea to Kanpur

26-April-2015
We continued our return journey. Since it is just a return journey, the only stoppage were for food and bio-breaks.

4:45 AM Started from Purnea, got out of the town and was on highway in less than 10 minutes. Early mornings are the best time to drive in India. Very few people to bother you on the road.
5:43 AM Crossed forbesganj.
9:08 AM Byepassed Muzaffarpur
10:20 AM Sometime after this, we got stuck in a road block. It seems some of the locals wanted LPG because there is no supply of LPG and they decided that the best way to get it is to block NH.

11:20 AM Finally police arrives, they negotiate with protesters, and they let us go. Don't know if they got the LPG or not.
11:50 AM Crossed Gopalganj.
12:25 PM Crossed the border and into Kushinagar.
12:42 PM Just when I thought only people of Bihar can block national highway, this time politicians of UP. The highway is this time properly blocked by the police.

1:03 PM Finally police relents and lets us go.
1:28 PM Get on to Gorakhpur outer ring road
1:51 PM Exit Gorakphur ORR
2:22 PM Found a restaurant called Anand Resort on the highway. Had lunch there. The place is really terrible. Don't bother eating there.

5:20 PM Stopped at another road side restaurant for Tea. Regular bus stop kind of place. Nothing to write home about.

6:30 PM Crossed Barabanki
7:10 PM Got on to Lucknow Outer Ring Road. Great road

7:30 PM Got on to Kanpur Road
8:26 PM Crossed Unnao
8:40 PM Entered outskirts of Kanpur

9:20 PM Reached CHD arranged hotel. The hotel did not have any dinner service at least on that day. I am not sure if they ever have or not. There is a restaurant just next door, but unfortunately for us, there was a wedding going on so they told us that there would be 45 mins wait time. We were not keen on waiting for that long. So we had to take out our car again and go in search for food. Finally we ended up at Cawnpore 1857. Here is my review of the place.

Druk Diaries: Day 16 - Return journey, Paro to Purnea

25-April-2015
Sadly, the fun times were over, we had to start back on our journey to Bengaluru. It was going to be a long drive.
4:30 AM Started from the hotel, as usual, we had settled bills in the night, we asked them if they can get us some breakfast, they were not very positive about that. So we just left.

5:15 AM We were at Chuzom and started on the highway towards Phuentsholling.
6:40 AM Crossed Chhukha
7:30 AM We reached Dantak Canteen. We were worried that they may not be open but fortunately they were open with the full menu.

8:20 AM Crossed Gedu
9:20 AM We were in outskirts of Phuentsholling. We got through the checkpost, returned the route permit, technically we were now almost out of Bhutan.

9:45 AM We reached the phuentsholling market area. We realized that we had few of the Bhutan Currency left with us, so we decide to spend it there.

Kizom Cafe

As we are walking around, we see this cafe called Kizom Cafe near the Tashi building. They serve good coffee. we spent some time there. Spent all our money. Here is my review of the cafe.

Phuentsholling streets, last view

11:20 AM Finally we leave Bhutan. As soon as you are out of the gate, you get a shock. Pretty much same set of people, how can they turn so disorganised suddenly.

11:55 AM We cross Hasimara

1:30 PM We cross Jalpaiguri.

2:00 PM We find a hotel called "Motorists Inn Motel" and decide to have lunch there. This is just average hotel, average cleanliness, decent food. But it is on highway.

3:00 PM We start our journey back.

3:20 PM We crossed Siliguri. We turn into Siliguri Byepass. It is one horrible road.

4:39 PM Crossed Islamnagar. Since this was the day of local body elections in West Bengal, we were anxious to get out of West Bengal as soon as possible.

5:05 PM Crossed Kishanganj

5:30 PM Crossed Dalkhola. There was some congestion on the road near border but not too bad.

6:35 PM We reach outskirts of Purnea. We get stuck in a traffic jam of trucks which is further compounded by some political leader who somehow wants to fly.

We were not sure what will be our destination at the end of the day. It was a toss-up between Darbhanga and Purnea. Finally we ended up spending too much time in Phuentsholling so we could only progress till Purnea.

7:00 PM We reach at the hotel arranged by great people at HVK Central Hotel Desk. The hotel is phenomenal and we order room service and sleep early. The next day is another long drive.

Wednesday 13 May 2015

Druk Diaries: Day 15 - Chele La, Haa, Paro Market

24-April-2015
Today was the last day of the sightseeing in our trip, after this it was drive back to home. We decided to keep it light. We had planned a drive to Chele La, the highest Motorable pass of Bhutan. While talking to some of the drivers in Tiger's Nest, they mentioned that there are two ways to reach Chele La and it is better to do the circular trip. So that was the plan.

11:00 AM We got up leisurely, had breakfast and got ready and the we were ready to go. We started from our resort. We had to withdraw some money. Till now I was not able to figure out the algorithm of ATMs in Bhutan. In some places, I was able to get money using my ATM card, in some other places my credit card worked while in some other places nothing worked. Here is my final understanding.

Bank of Bhutan accepts most Indian ATM/Debit cards. You can withdraw cash with Rs. 20/- surcharge
Bhutan National Bank, most ATMs would reject Indian cards (both debit and credit) saying that this machine does not accept this card
There is a development bank of Bhutan(don't remember exact name), I had mixed success with this. I think I was able to withdraw using my credit card with an ATM that has VISA and Mastercard markings.

12:20 PM Crossed the Chuzom and continued straight on road to Haa.

The drive was great, it was raining with drizzle alongwith heaving rain at times. As we climbed mountains, the clouds were right on the road.

We continued driving and soon reached close to Haa valley. By mistake we entered into the military township there.

From the Haa valley, the chele la is 25 kilometers as mentioned on milestones. But there seem to be something wrong with milestone markings there. We saw number decrease and then increase and then decrease again. Finally we had reached Chele La.

We dropped in at Champaca Cafe in Paro main market street. The coffee and food were great, Here is my review of the place.

Druk Diaries: Day 14 - Tiger's Nest or more accurately Taktsang Lhakhang

23-April-2015
This was a special day, it was reserved for a trek to Taktsang Lhakhang. We were appropriately warned by everybody that it is going to be a hard trek and hard it was. Following is the GPS log of the trek.

8:15 AM We left the resort. The main road turns towards the Tiger's Nest and continues for almost 3 kilometers before you see the parking. Unfortunately for us the entry to this road was jammed because of some religious function and we mistook it for the fact that may be this is the parking and we are not allowed to drive any further. So we parked the car on main road and started walking. We even asked couple of locals about directions and nobody mentioned that we can take car further. So our trek was longer by almost 3 kilometers compared to others.
In the map above the blue star is where the parking is and green pin is where we parked. Anyway, not a big issue.
In the evening, I took a taxi to drop me to the main road and brought my car.

Hotel

View of the Lhakhang from Hotel

Anyway, a blurb about the place. According to the legend related to this Taktsang which literally means "Tiger's lair", it is believed that Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) flew to this location from Tibet on the back of a tigress from Khenpajong. This place was consecrated to tame the Tiger demon.
An alternative legend holds that a former wife of an emperor, known as Yeshe Tsogyal, willingly became a disciple of Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambahva) in Tibet. She transformed herself into a tigress and carried the Guru on her back from Tibet to the present location of the Taktsang in Bhutan. In one of the caves here, the Guru then performed meditation and emerged in eight incarnated forms (manifestations) and the place became holy. Subsequently, the place came to be known as the “Tiger's Nest”.
10:00 AM We walked up to the parking and started the trek. There are many people selling souvenirs at the start of the trek. One of them convinced us of buying some walking sticks. At the end we realized that it was a good idea, it is very hard to continue the trek if you don't have a support of a walking stick.
One should be very careful with what you carry with you on this trek. Very quickly one gets tired and the luggage starts looking like too much weight. Carry a single bottle of water. There are many taps on the way and one can refill the bottle. There is a cafeteria at approximately half the distance. Don't rush, this trek (for that matter any trek) is not a place to show bravado. Pace yourself.

View from the above

11:30 AM We reached cafeteria. It is prudent to stop at the cafeteria.It gives you much needed rest and you can have something to eat or tea. There are toilets there as well. We did not see toilets in any other place. There are some very good views of Tiger's Nest from cafeteria.

Photos taken from Cafeteria

Another shot from cafeteria

The trek gets steeper from cafeteria. But there are places to sit along the way.

12:15 PM We reached the last stretch. The last stretch consists of steep downwards stairs followed

Me and Tiger's Nest

by steep upwards stairs. This is specifically harder for people who may have knee problems.
Just before you reach the stairs, there is a signage for a hotel on adjacent peak. You can call them and book the place and while returning you can drop in for lunch. We decided to take our chances with the cafeteria. If the cafeteria was open while we reached, then we will have lunch there otherwise we will figure something out, that was the plan.
Anyway, we continue with the stairs. Actually the most magnificent views of Tiger's Nest are just where the stairs start. You are on the top of adjacent hill and you get most Tiger's Nest just in front of your eyes.

Tiger's Nest

Stairs that you need to climb

The cave

By the time we reached the place, it was closed. It closes between 1 PM and 2 PM. We had to wait for some 20 minutes before you can go in. There is nothing allowed inside. There are lockers and you have to deposit everything, camera, mobile phone, any large bags etc.

A flavor of landscape that you need to trek

My Car with Tiger's Nest in background

2:30 PM We started our trek back. By now we were tired and hungry. We were just hoping that the cafeteria would still have some of that lunch left. While coming up they told us that they would close lunch service at 3 PM. We were sure that we won't reach by 3 PM.
3:15 PM We reached cafeteria, the lunch was still available. It was probably the most simple but most fulfilling meal that we ate in a long time. Rice, Dal, Some vegetables and tea. Anyways, we had lunch lied down on the benches for few minutes and started back.
4:45 PM We reached the parking area. At this time,
we were kicking ourselves for leaving our car on the main road. The thought of walking another 3 kilometers was just very depressing. While my family was doing some souvenir shopping, I requested a taxi driver who was waiting for his guests to drop me till main road. He dropped me to the main road for Rs. 200/-. I brought my car in.
This was the most tiring and fulfilling day in this drive. We headed back to the hotel for a well deserved dinner and sleep.

Druk Diaries: Day 13 - Thimphu to Paro

22-April-2015
Finally the trip was entering the last phase. We had to move to our last destination, i.e. Paro. Five star luxury coupled with the fact that we were on the road for more than 10 days now, we decided to take it easy.

11:30 AM Checked out and left the hotel and straight away we were on Thimphu-Paro highway. This is probably the best road in Bhutan and drive is both scenic and pleasurable.

The speed limits on this highway, for that matter any highway in Bhutan, is 50Kph. You can see others driving really fast.
12:30 PM Reached Chuzom and crossed the bridge to go towards paro.

We had booked ourselves in Tiger Nest Resort near Tiger Nest Monastery. The hotel is little outside the town so we decided to visit the Dzong and then go to hotel so that we don't have to travel back the same day.
1:00 PM We stopped near Dzong. We stopped near the market. We later realized that there is another road right till the top which is near the Dzong. We had to trek-up the hill to reach the Dzong. While climbing the hill, we struck conversation with a gentleman who mentions that he travels regularly to Bangalore.
On reaching the Dzong, the security asked us for permits, we had left the permits in the car. The gentleman that was walking with us, requested them to let us go, so they noted down the license number and let us go inside. Saved us a trek back down to the parking.

Views: Paro, Bhutan by Gayatri Avasthi

Here is a photosphere of Paro Dzong.

River

Dzong

Mermaids, I guess

Dzong entrance

Courtyard of Dzong

View of town and market

Parking

View of market and town

View of river and town from Dzong

The four harmonious friends

Story of four harmonious friends

At first, there was just the bird, and the tree was just a little sprout. The bird could scratch around on the ground and find little bits of plant to eat. The bird was unable to fly, so the bird could only eat what it could find near to the ground. As the tree grew, it became difficult for the bird to get enough food to eat.

Then, the rabbit came. The rabbit would eat what was on the ground and would lift the bird up on his back so that the bird could reach the growing tree. In this way, they both had enough to eat. However, as the tree continued to grow, it started to become too high for the bird, even on the back of the rabbit.

Then, the monkey came. The monkey could climb up into the tree and drop the fruit from the tree onto the ground for the rabbit and the bird. However, it was difficult to get to the fruit at the very top of the tree.

Then, the elephant came. With the elephant, if all the animals helped each other, they could reach the fruit at the top of the tree; and, in this way, there was plenty for all of them to eat.

The reason the four animals worked so harmoniously together and the reason they were successful is that none of them was primarily concerned with getting enough food for themselves. Each of them was concerned with trying to help the others to get what they needed. Rather than being dominated by selfish concern, they were dominated by cherishing others.

Also, the reason they were successful is that they were willing to ask for help and to receive help. In this way, the bird is considered the hero of the story. The bird was the most fragile and needed the most help.

Because the bird was willing to ask for help and because the others were happy to help the bird, everything worked out very nicely.

View of the river from Dzong

Me climbing down from Paro Dzong

After a tour through the Dzong, we left towards our resort. We stopped by in the market for customary shopping by family.

Paro market main street

4:30 PM We left from market towards the hotel and reached in 15 minutes. Paro was significantly more chilly compared to Thimphu.

We had planned on staying at Tiger Nest Resort. Here is my review of the place.

Tuesday 12 May 2015

Druk Diaries: Day 12 - Phobjikha to Thimphu

21-April-2015
We were up early and ready to leave the hotel. As usual, the bills were settled in the night. Everything was still closed. We got into our car, got ourselves out of the gate and we were on our way to Thimphu.

As per our original itinerary, we were not planning on going to Thimphu again but after cancelling our trip to towns beyond Bumthang and the fact that we still had unfinished business to take care of in Thimphu required us to come back to town.
Following were the two main items that needed to be taken care of in Thimphu.

We realized that our original permit extensions did not cover Haa Valley. We needed another permit extension for that.
During our earlier stay, we could not get personalized postal stamps done. We had always thought that we will do.

4:30 AM We were out of the compounds of the hotel and on our way.

5:20 AM We crossed the first construction zone at Nobding.

6:30 AM Encountered the first instance of what one could call the road rage in Bhutan. One can see in the video below, why Bhutan is happiest country. The truck driver rear-ended the car. See the conversation, how civil it is.

The only problem was, when I asked them to move their vehicles to side, I was told that we have to wait till police shows up for evidence. Somehow I squeezed my vehicle through the mess.

8:00 AM Just in time, before the construction work started, we were out of construction zone. In that sense the plan of starting early worked. We stopped at the cafe at Dochu La again for breakfast and may be some more photographs.

9:25 AM We were at Hungtsho checkpost. They will take back the stamped original permit extension. So if you want to save it for souvenir, then it is better to take a picture before this.

We drove into thimphu town and straight went to GPO. We thought we can do the personalized stamp business out of our way and then we can check in to our hotel. We has reached Thimphu earlier than the check-in time.

There are many countries that do personalized stamp, even India does it. But in India, you can choose an existing stamp and have your photo affixed to the next to it. Compared to that the Bhutan personalized stamps are just your picture. These are also valid postage.

See on the right, the postage in a letter that we posted to our own address. it was delivered by the time we reached back home and it is duly postmarked.

With that taken care of, we drove to the immigration office. I reconfirmed whether I need permit for Haa valley and I was told yes. So I again went through the process, applied for it and then I was told to come back in hour.

At this time we decided to go back and check in to hotel and freshen up. We stayed in Le Meridien. Here is my review of the hotel.

The rest of the evening was spent in collecting the permit extension, getting RSTA endorsement for new permit extension and leisurely walk across the Thimphu town. I found Thimphu to be a extremely walking friendly town and I enjoyed walking there.

Finally we came back to the hotel for dinner and called it a night.

Monday 11 May 2015

Druk Diaries: Day 11 - Bumthang to Phobjikha

20-April-2015
While our drive from Thimphu to Trongsa, we had encountered several construction zones where traffic was stopped based on a time table. We were not convinced that we can escape the road blockade. So we decided to do the return journey in two stretches. The idea was to reach as close to construction zone as possible and then next day start really early so we can escape all construction activity before it starts.

So we chose Phobjikha valley because we could find a decent hotel there.

5:20 AM We decided to depart really early. Whole staff of the hotel was still asleep. As promised, let left the key in the hotel room, opened the gate and exited the hotel.

We had planned our departure in such a way so that by the time we reach Trongsa, breakfast service in Yangkhil resort would be open and we can do breakfast there.
7:25 AM We reached Yangkhil resort.

8:10 AM We left Yangkhil Resort and in a short span of time, we crossed the Bjeezam checkpost. This is the same checkpost which we had encountered late at night couple of nights back.

As we were driving, we saw this board for Chendeyji Resort. We just thought to check it out and may be have a tea.

9:35 AM The place is really good. When we reached they only had tea ready. So we just had the tea and started our onwards journey. If you are travelling with family, both Yangkhil Resort and Chendeyji resort have clean restrooms.
Now we were all set to continue our journey till the destination.
The next milestone was Pele La. In our eastward journey earlier, we completely missed the Pele La because it was already dark by the time we reached. Also we were so anxious to reach the destination that we pretty much did not pay any attention to anything.

Pele La is another pass at an height of approximately 3400 mts. Just after Pele La, the road to Phobjikha valley forks off.

The road into phobjikha valley is just about a dirt road. The town is a sleepy little town with nothing mapped even on google map. We just drove around and finally found our destination for the night, i.e. Hotel Dewachen. We did not find any other place worth staying. The caretaker almost behaved as if he is doing us a favor by offering us a room. Here is our review of the property.
The view of the valley from the property is amazing. You can see nature in its full glory.

We tool a little walk, rested for a while, had a dinner and called it an early night since we had to start early next day with a hope that we will cross all the construction activity before its start time i.e. 8 AM.

India By The Road

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