It all started with a book. This one:
http://www.himalayabybike.com/Himalaya_by_Bike/HBB_Home.html
It's a wonderful book which describes 8 cycling routes in the Himalayas.
TL;DR: Cycling in Bhutan is challenging but doable.
In November 2016, Ajay, Bhaskar and I cycled across the whole country of Bhutan.
We started from Phuentsholing and exited out via Samdrup Jonghkar.
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| Our route. Unfortunately, google maps is not 'aware' of the road from Trashigang to Samdrup Jongkhar. |
It would have been a whole lot easier had we decided to start from Thimphu or Paro instead of starting from Phuentsholing. That would have been a logical and practically sound decision. But then the idea of cycling across an entire nation was tempting and we were keen on doing it.
Schedule:
| Day# | From | To |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phuentsholing | Gedu |
| 2 | Gedu | Tsimasham |
| 3 | Tshimasham | Thimphu |
| 4 | Thimphu | Wangdue Phodrang |
| 5 | Wangdue | Dung Dung Nysa |
| 6 | Dung Dung Nysa | Trongsa |
| 7 | Trongsa | Jakar |
| 8 | Jakar | Ura |
| 9 | Ura | Lingmethang |
| 10 | Lingmethang | Mongar |
| 11 | Mongar | Trashigang |
| 12 | Trashigang | Khaling |
| 13 | Khaling | Wamrong |
| 14 | Wamrong | Samdrup Jongkhar |
Let's cut to to the chase.
Day#1 : What, exactly, were we thinking?
Nov 3rd : Phuentsholing to Gedu - 46km
Frankly, we did not really know how much of a climb we were in for on the very first day.
On the very first day of cycling it was not such a good idea to start with a day with relentless uphill of about 42km.
We started from our hotel in Phuentsholing at about 6:15AM and it was a nice cool morning. The roads are beautifully paved. A few people at the permit office had tried to dissuade us from doing this cycling trip. One of them described india as a chapathi. We were mildly annoyed and held our noses up in pride. But on the initial climb we realized that those guys were right!
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| Day#1: Panaromic view of India as we ascended into the mountains of Bhutan. |
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| Day#1 After merely 3-4km of climb, India indeed appeared like a chapathi |
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| Day#1 With Tandin (third from left) and his family |
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| Checked out the altitude profile for the first three days of cycling after we came back from the trip. 0km is Phuentsholing . 46km is Gedu . 100km is Tsimasham 164km - Thimphu |
Day#2: Is there a town with hotels and google maps does even show the town?
Nov 4th: Gedu to Tsimasham - 54km
Bhaskar and I were reasonably sure that Ajay was in no shape to cycle today. But at about 8:30AM, against all odds, Ajay declared he is all fine and is ready to cycle. At a royal time of 9:15AM we started cycling.
Not many people cycle in Bhutan. Certainly not many do it self supported. And an even smaller number of those are Indians. A thought crossed our minds that we might be only among a handful of people to do it till date. A direct implication of this was the lack of useful information on the internet for a cyclist.
We needed two days to get to Thimphu from Gedu. We needed a place of stay and could not identify where we could stay that night. So naturally we resorted to asking locals. But much to our surprise the folks were not sure themselves and each gave a different opinion. We resorted to a majority-wins approach. Typically we would ask about 5-6 people (or groups of people) and get to know where we could find accomodation. As we approached a tentative place of stay the information we received became more and more accurate.
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| Day#2: On the way to Chukkha. Bhutan has plenty of waterfalls. |
Wikitravels describes Tsimasham quite cruelly:
Tsimasham is the headquarters of Chukka district and is located on the main Thimphu to Phuentsholing highway. The town is somewhat barren and lacks any kind of charm or even cohesion. There is no reason to stop here, except perhaps to take a refreshment break.But we were delighted to find that there were atleast two place for accomodation. Hotel Karma had been booked, while hotel Zangmo had room. We took it without much ado. We had an interesting conversation with a hospice and the host. We were warned that we might be in for some ice-skating in Bumthang. Tsimasham is a cold place but the host was a warm person who took it upon himself to make sure we had delicious roti -sabji for breakfast the next morning.
On the climb to Tsimasham, I developed knee pain. Bhaskar declared that it was joint pain and only rest can heal it. This remained with me for rest of the tour and certainly made me more empathetic to all old men and women with a bad knee.
Day#3: To Thimphu
Nov 5th: Tsimasham to Thimphu - 66km
It was a chilly morning. We started at about 7:30AM (Thanks to the hotel owner who insisted on making us breakfast fresh and hot in the morning although we're ready to get it packed the night before).Initial part of the road was a climb to Chapcha. The road was mostly single lane road and with Thimphu getting ever closer traffic was a little more than what we would have liked. At Chapcha there is a GREF canteen which served hot samosa and tea. We had it and moved on. There's no place to stay in Chapcha.
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| Day#2: There were a whole lot of things to photograph, but what do we do? Seflie, of course. With a sign board for company. :) |
After the downhill from Chapcha we reached Chuzzom. From here Paro can be reached by crossing the bridge, for thimphu we had to head straight. After a brief snacks break, we moved onto Thimphu. It's a gradual climb and roads are excellently paved, we cycled alongside Thimphu Chu river. Given my knee pain we briefly considered halting at Semtokha, which is about 15km from Thimphu. But decided to move on and reached Thimphu by about 5:00 - 5:30 PM.
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| Day#2: The famous Traffic circle in Thimphu |
Thimphu is a beautiful city. Just the kind of city that one might want to live in post retirement. It has all the facilities of a big city. But it is still sufficiently peaceful.
In Thimphu, we stayed in hotel Zeyzang. It cost us 1000/-. Located in Norzin Lam road, it is sufficiently comfortable and good VFM.
One restaurant that serves delicious food is Zombola (it is near the traffic circle).
Non-cycling-Day#1: Trek to Bhutan's most recognizable monument - Tiger monastery
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| Non-cycling day#1: Lovely morning in Thimphu |
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| Non-cycling day#1: Mandatory photo in front of the monastery |
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| Non-cycling day#1: There's actually a monastery that is higher than Tiger monastery on the hill just adjacent to the Tiger monastery. But nobody seemed to be going there. Not holy enough? |
Non-cycling-Day#2: Visit to the Buddha point and extending our travel permit
Our initial permits were only till Thimphu and a new permit was required to visit the eastern parts of Bhutan. We headed to the immigration service center. Initially we were granted a permit for 10days, but on requesting we got it for 14 days without much fuss. |
| Non-cycling day#2: At Buddha point. |
Visited Buddha point in Thimphu. It can be skipped without much heart burn later on. Not much here at least IMO.
In the evening we got our cycles ready for the coming part of the trip.
Day#4: Thimphu to Wangdue Phodrang - over Dochu La
Nov 8th - Thimphu to Wangde - 67km
We woke up to a cold morning. About 20km from Thimphu is Dochu La. It's a gradual climb. The pass has wonderful view of the Bhutan Himalayas.
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| Day#4: Wonderful panaromic view. It was a delightfully clear day! |
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| Day#4 Bhaskar looking happy with the climb. The Chortens in the background are in memory of Bhutanese army martyrs in war against Assamese insurgents. |
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| Day#4: Zongphu Gang (table top mountain) at 7190m was the highest peak in view |
Downhill from Dochu La marked the beginning of bad roads. Bad roads lasted till Yothong La, the border of Bumthang.
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| Day#4: Bajo Wangde - Just the kind of town where Shah Rukh Khan and co might go for film shooting! Picturesque town, torquoise blue river, green mountain. |
After Dochu La the road had been terrible and we were worried as nearly everyone had told us that it would continue be so for a long distance from here. The book recommended cycling to Phobjika (about 60km from Wangde). But given the road conditions and also Phobjika is actually a slight detour, we decided to stay at Dung Dung Nysa. Thanks to the hotel owner who confirmed that Dung Dung had a hotel.
Day#5: To a place called Dung Dung Nysa.
Nov 9th - Wangde to Dung Dung Nysa - 44 km
Ajay had developed a flair for giving us one bad news or the other ;). This time it was the demonetization of 500 and 1000 rupee notes. Here we were stuck in a place with most of our money in 500s and 1000s. And as we discovered later, the ATM machines in Bhutan didn't accept our ATM cards. But if this tour was not about just living in the moment then it was nothing.
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| Day#5 It was all uphill to Dung Dung Nysa . Bhaskar didn't look bothered, while Ajay carefully calculated the remaining switchbacks. |
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| Day#5 : Did I mention the roads were dusty? |
Wangde to Dung Dung is a climb of about 1600m over 43 km. Only made hard by the terrible roads and a not too weak sun.
Ajay had developed back pain of some sort. He was in discomfort while cycling. But he pushed on anyways.
Whole of Dung Dung has just one hotel. Hotel Khandu. The owner gave us a room at the top for 1000/- a night. As we typically leave early in the morning, we made the payment for the room and food before we went to bed. We tried to put an innocent face and tried to use our 500s and 1000s to make the payment. But much to our shock everyone knew about the news. EVERYONE..really. Thanks to Whatsapp. Then we resorted to the much more straightforward way of explaining our predicament and requesting them to help us out. Fortunately the lady was stern looking but helped us out by accepting payment in 500s and a gentleman went out of his way to get us 3000. Wonder what we would have done without their help!
Day#6: Three setbacks and a lift in a mini truck
Nov 10 - Dung Dung Nysa to Trongsa - 76km
Strike#1 One of the most dreaded sights for a cyclist is that of a flat tyre. We woke up to a cold morning in Dung Dung and found my tyre was flat. As we were unsure of the cause of puncture, we changed to the spare tyre we had. After some expert searching of the cause, Ajay found a tiny little metal piece embedded in the tyre. This would prove crucial in the days to come. |
| Day#6 : There was frost on the ground. Really cold that day. |
Since we didn't take the turn to Phobjika, we didn't pass over Yele La, instead we passed over Pele la only. Pele La is a nondescript pass with some folks selling woolen wear.
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| Day#7: Plenty of water falls all along. |
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| Day#6: Scenic little village on the way down from Pele La |
Strike #2 - After lunch, at about 3:15PM, on the way to Trongsa we encountered a roadblock that was due to an ongoing road expansion. Huge Earthmovers were blocking the way. We lost a crucial 45min here.
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| Day#6 - Strike #2 |
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| Day#6 : Strike #3 -- Another road block |
But some people are made of different stuff. Bhaskar decided to carry on cycling till Trongsa, which he did in great style! Bhaskar went to a whole new level in our eyes.
In Trongsa, every other guy suggested the Hotel Norling. Room cost us about 1300/- and was cozy with hot water supply. But the best of hotels are not made just with great rooms. It is also about having genuine interest in serving the customers. Sadly the host at Hotel Nording lacked in this department. When we explained our predicament due to 500s and 1000s, he absolutely refused to help us. This left us disappointed. Trongsa had a couple of ATMs, but they didn't like our debit cards very much.
Trongsa is a nice town with enough number of shops/restaurants. It has a main Dzong
Day#7: The most beautiful region in Bhutan - Bumthang
Nov 11th - Trongsa to Jakar - 64km
We woke up to a cold morning with a steady climb of 30km awaiting us. Yothong La marks the boundary between Bumthang and Trongsa districts. The downhill from Yothong La provided us much relief from bad roads as the roads were nicely paved. Lots of Pine trees were seen as far as the eyes could see. |
| Day#7 : For a country with 72% under forest cover, it does take afforestation seriously. A role model for rest of the nations. |
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| Day #7 Just a few moments after clicking this photo, a fairly big sized (about 3 times a regular football) fell rolling down the hill. Fortunately, it didn't have my name on it! Die another day ? |
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| Day#7 Yothong La in itself was quite unremarkable. Just a dusty mountain pass with a Stupa. |
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| Day#7 On descending from Yothong La, we came to Chumey valley. A beautiful valley! What a shame we did not take more photos (or at least a better one). |
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| Day#7 On top of Kiki La |
Our search for exchanging 500 and 1000 Rupee notes finally ended. Thanks to some luck and initiative by Ajay. Ajay went to a store to see if we could swipe our cards and get some Ngultrum (bhutanese currency) in exchange. There he found a couple of Indians who were headed back to India and had sufficient Bhutanese currency with them and were looking to exchange it with INR. They were more than eager to get it exchanged (Bhutanese currency has little value outside Bhutan). We exchanged about 15000INR for equal amount in Ngultrum.
There is a Bumthang Pizza in Jakar where we ate a pizza to our heart's content. We stayed at a hotel called four seasons for about 1100/-. Being made of wood entirely, it had a very authentic feel to it.
As was our routine we packed our next day's breakfast in the night, so that leaving early in the morning we can stop wherever we wish to for the breakfast.
Day#8: Dinner with a Lama
Nov 12th : Jakar to Ura - 45km - Over Ura La
There was chill in the air. With a cold river passing under the bridge, it was a perfect day for a cycle ride. |
| Day#8 : On the way out from Jakar. Just the day for a nice cycle ride. |
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| Day#8 : After several attempts to capture this busy little bird, got him! Wonder what bird it is though.. Bumthang is rich with biodiversity. A place for bird watchers. |
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| Day#8 Did I mention that Bumthang was beautiful? Early morning with the clouds just waking up from their sleep in the mountains? |
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| Day#8 Could not resist the opportunity to take a quick nap on pine needles on the way to the mini pass from Jakar |
There was a tiny pass that we encountered about 8km from Jakar. We had our breakfast here and moved on. Enjoyed the rotis made by Nepalis in the hotel the previous night.
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| Day#8 : The pass after Jakar |
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| Day#8 : Bhaskar's cycle parked in Tangsibi. |
Bhutan has clean streams. Maybe the people deserve some credit for keeping it that way. In the tour we drank water from the streams all through. All we did was filter out particulate matter. It was sweet water. Just the way water was supposed to be perhaps.
Ura La is a non-descript pass that was on the way to Ura. Ura is a tiny village/town with about 60 houses.
On arriving at Ura, we were shocked to find out that the three hotels in Ura were all booked. How on Earth could that happen? I mean, a remote location like Ura has all its hotels occupied? Was someone playing tricks here? Perhaps some trekking group that decided to come to this remote place, somewhere in the heart of a mountainous country like Bhutan. Although it was still about 2:30PM, it had started getting cold and windy. We were desperate to find a place to stay. We enquired at the forest department guest house, but were, summarily, turned away. Fortunately, someone at the hotel gave us the number of a one Mr Gedhen Lama, who was running a lodge for visitors. We called him up and requested him to give us a room to stay. Luckily, he said yes and asked us to wait near his guest house.
Ura La is a non-descript pass that was on the way to Ura. Ura is a tiny village/town with about 60 houses.
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| Day#8 Ajay on the way to Ura La |
On arriving at Ura, we were shocked to find out that the three hotels in Ura were all booked. How on Earth could that happen? I mean, a remote location like Ura has all its hotels occupied? Was someone playing tricks here? Perhaps some trekking group that decided to come to this remote place, somewhere in the heart of a mountainous country like Bhutan. Although it was still about 2:30PM, it had started getting cold and windy. We were desperate to find a place to stay. We enquired at the forest department guest house, but were, summarily, turned away. Fortunately, someone at the hotel gave us the number of a one Mr Gedhen Lama, who was running a lodge for visitors. We called him up and requested him to give us a room to stay. Luckily, he said yes and asked us to wait near his guest house.
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| Day#8 Archery is Bhutan's national game. Bhaskar trying his hand at it while we waited for the Lama to arrive. |
Gedhen Lama comes from a prominent family in Ura. We could sense that he was an important person with people respecting him. He even had a private temple in his premises.
Lama turned out to be quite a warm personality. Being thoroughly knowledgeable in Buddhism, he readily answered all our questions about Buddhism vs Hinduism vs Islam, Political organization of Bhutan, History of Bhutan, Ura's proud history etc., The history of Bhutan, it seemed to me, was deeply intertwined with mythology. In hindsight, not getting rooms in any of the hotels in Ura was probably a good thing. Otherwise we would not have had the opportunity for such discussions with a Buddhism expert.Not only was there food for our thought, but importantly Lama ensured that we had sufficient food in the night and also got us some fried rice packed for breakfast on the next morning.
About 8 years back, Lama had met with a tragic road accident that had made him paraplegic. He is being taken care by his adopted son and a neighbour's son. He was hoping to get treatment at a hospital in Mumbai. Our best wishes are with him!
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| Day#8 With Gedhen Lama, at his guest house. |
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| Day#8: Building on the right was the guest house. On the left was the temple. |
Day#9: Ura to Lingmethang - Through a beautiful reserve forest
Nov 13th: Ura to Lingmethang -over Thrumshing La - 114km
We woke up to a cold morning in Ura. And as we negotiated the twists and turns that only mountain roads can present, one would have to wonder what is the point of all this? Getting up early each morning, packing all our stuff in a pannier bag. Putting >20kgs of load on our cycle carriers and pedalling steep uphills and braking on treacherous downhills, through sun, dust, flowing streams, and strong winds. Why not stay at home and sit back and relax. Why not eat all the wonderful home food and why settle for an insipid dal-rice combination?
To recall the words of a great man..
... If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won't see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to live. That is what life means and what life is for. -- George Mallory
Our trip was nowhere near as hard or legendary as Mr. Mallory's. But who's to stop us from getting inspired?
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| Day#9: A stream with blocks of ice in it! On the way up to Thrumshing La. |
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| Day#9: Clouds seemed to love the national park |
We made it to Thrumshing La without much fuss. From Thrumshing La it was about 80km downhill to Lingmethang. We had our lunch at Sengor and then entered a national park - Phrumsengla National Park. It was downhill all the way! Probably the biggest downhill that I have ever seen.
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| Day#9 On Top of Thrumshing La. Clouds robbed us of any chance of panaromic views that are generally to be had from a mountain pass. |
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| Day#9 My favourite waterfall in this route. |
We reached Lingmethang by about 5:30PM. The town was close to a power plant and one of the shop keepers mistook us to be one of the engineers :)
Interestingly, a few people while talking to us said: "Bike mein aana tha na?" ("You could have come on a motorbike"). :) Yeah, somehow it never crossed our brains that we can use a motorbike to do a road trip.
Nov14th: Lingmethang to Mongar - 27km
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| Day#10: Our accomodation: "Dorjee Hotel Cum Bar". The guy in green is Vidur. He works for Hazelnut ventures. He is delightful personal with whom we chatted a bit more on reaching Mongar. |
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| Day#10: I guess Winston Churchill never visited Bhutan. From Bhutanese point of view it was probably was a good thing that he didn't!! |
There are a LOT of dogs in Bhutan. And they all seem more active in the nights. The dogs in Lingmethang just did not shut up the whole night. We were all sufficiently tired physically to not let this bother us too much. But still..
Cycling - long distance cycling trips in particular - requires that you not only have fairly good fitness levels, but it is also important to have a clear mind. You don't want a tired mind when you are cycling in the mountains. We had been cycling a LOT. We decided to have a slightly easy day. We cycled just 27km. The shortest day we had on this tour!
After some delicious roti-curry we started off at about 7:30 AM and after the immediate downhill to the bridge it was pretty much all the way uphill to Mongar. We slogged our way through some dusty roads and reached Mongar by 1PM.
Mongar is a reasonably big town with enough number of hotels, a bank, shops etc.,
Day#11 Trial by fire, man!
Nov 15th: Mongar to Trashigang - Over Kori La - 87km
We started off early morning from Mongar. It was a steady climb to Kori La.
Day#11 Quick video on top of Kori La.
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| Day#11 On top of Kori La. There is a shop selling coffee/tea/snacks. |
From Kori La it was downhill for the next ~35km. On the way there are the Yadi loops. These are 11 switchbacks. Unfortunately the road there had been dug up and it was super dusty.
Here Bhaskar's cycle carrier broke. We did some jugaad by tying a bolt to the broken part of the carrier. This turned out to be sturdy enough to carry on.
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| Day#11: Yadi loops seen from a distance |
After descending from Yadi loops, somewhere near Sherichu there was a bridge.
We heard a mini explosion. Ajay's rear wheel had a puncture. Fortunately, the tiny metal particle in the spare tyre that we used had been removed in Dung Dung. Otherwise it was just another puncture waiting to happen.
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| Day#11: Ajay giving a master class on replacing tyre and tube to an audience of BRO workers. |
Here we encountered the only other cyclist other that us who was doing the same route. A swiss lady was doing the same route but in the opposite direction.We had our packed lunch and started moving. We were short on time thanks to carrier break and tyre puncture. But this time we were determined to complete the ride no matter what.
By about 4:30 we reached a checkpost where they checked our permits and let us through. From this point, it was 8kms uphill to Trashigang. With about 1hr of sunlight left for the day, it was trial by fire! We put our heads down and pedalled hard. The satisfaction of pushing oneself to the boundaries of physical exertion is something to be experienced. We were all tired with all muscles in the body aching, but made it through due to sheer will power. We all made it in due time to Trashigang.
Stayed at hotel Nyurlam. At 800/- a night, it was a great deal.
Day#12 Kanglung or Khaling?
Nov 16th: Trashigang to Khaling - Over Yongphu La - 52km
From Trashigang, after the initial downhill to the Trashigang gate, it is mostly uphill to Yongphu La. The pass is ~30km from Trashigang.
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| Day#12: Trashigang's dzong in the early morning. |
We were unsure of finding accomodation in Khaling. As we did not carry any tents it was important to find accomodation each night. As was our routine, we started talking to people along the way. But we could not get any conclusive information. We briefly considered staying in Kanglung where there was a Forest guest house. But then we met Pradeep. Pradeep was on his break-from-work stroll. He talked to us with great interest in our trip. He told us that his friend was in Khaling and that he ran a hotel. Aha! He even gave us contact number of his friend. We thanked him and went ahead a lot more sure of finding roof on our heads for the night.
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| Day#12 Place where I got super hungry. Finished a pack of dry fruits before proceeding |
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| Day#12: On the way to Yongphu La |
We reached Khaling by about 3:30 PM. We found Pradeep's friend by calling him. He was renting his home out to travellers/tourists. At 600/- a night, we were quite happy with the deal.
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| Day#12: Our homestay in Khaling. We took one room. But practically had the whole house to ourselves! |
While we were having dinner at a Nepali hotel, we met Kamal. He runs a liquor business. It was a pleasure talking to him and also listening to his singing!
Day#13 Onto Wamrong
Nov 17th: Khaling to Wamrong - 34km
The book suggested that we go from Khaling to Pemagatshel. Pemagatshel was a deviation from the route towards India. We decided to skip it and stay in Wamrong.We crossed the last of mountain passes in this East-West highway of Bhutan. Called Khardung la. Thankfully it is nowhere near as high as the one in Ladakh.
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| Day#13 : with the guy who had done Tour of Dragon. |
Day#14 Jammed disc brakes and our first view of India (in more than 2 weeks)!
Nov18th : Wamrong to Samdrup Jonghkar - 95km
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| Day#14: Hotel Dhan Maya |
After the initial downhill to Moshi, we climbed to "the Gateway to Pemagatshel". This is the point from where one road leads to Pemagatshel (another Dzongkhag). We went on our way towards Samdrup Jonghkar.
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| Day#14: Mountain after mountain |
The road here was all broken and under construction.
On the downhill to Narphu, we had an unexpected brake failure. Bhaskar's front wheel got jammed. It's brand new cycle (cannondale trail 6). We were disappointed that a new bike developed a problem in such an important part. Since Ajay and my cycle used V-brakes, we didn't really know how to repair it. Luckily we had some offline videos saved in youtube on how to repair it. Although we could not repair it fully, we got it working just enough to get us through to the end. The brakes work on a spring mechanism. This seemed to be jammed as the brake pads were not going back on releasing the brakes.
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| Day#14 : Bhaskar trying to un-jam the brakes |
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| Day#14: Clouds veiled India from us |
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| Day#14: Somewhere near Deothang |
So there ended what was easily the toughest trip of my life so far. We had cycled across an entire country. A country that is full of mountains. There are hardly any roads that are flat in Bhutan.
Epilogue
We took our cycles back to the market place in Darang Mela (the town on the India side). We paid a small amount to have our cycles loaded on top of a bus and went to Guwahati. In Guwahati, we went to Track and Trail and got our cycles packed and couriered it to Bangalore through DTDC.
If we had to do it all over again...??
Ajay and I had cycled from manali to Leh in 2012. We had largely relied on the plan given in the book. It had worked out very nicely. No point using a good idea only once, right? So we decided to go by the plan in the book again for this tour. But we missed a crucial point. The author had most probably done her cycling with the help of a support vehicle. This enabled her to cycle longer distances with lesser difficulty. But we didn’t have a support vehicle. Also the road conditions were not good in many areas which made it harder. Maybe getting to know the road conditions in advance would be a good idea. Easier said than done though.So, probably we could have started the trip from Thimphu instead of starting from Phuentsholing. This would have cut 165km and 3 days of cycling effort. This would have given us 3 rest days, potentially. But we would have lost bragging rights of having cycled from one end of the country to the other.
Another thing we might want to consider in the strictly hypothetical scenario of doing this cycling trip again is transportation of our cycles from Guwahati to Bangalore. We got it packed by “Track and Trail” stores in Guwahati and were disappointed to see the quality of boxes provided. Maybe calling them up before the trip and requesting to keep good quality boxes ready could have done the trick.
FAQs
1. Why did you do it?
Please read the blog :). This question in its various forms is the most commonly asked question. Routine of daily life beats down all the enthusiasm in people. Travel gives an opportunity to break the rut. To do something out of the ordinary. To see that there is a big world out there which is remarkably different from our very own. And in a way see our own work and life in a different way perhaps.
One might argue that going on a cycle is unnecessary to experience all this; But when you stretch yourself physically and your body is involved in the activity, then it remains ingrained in your minds for a long time. If we had done the same trip by bus/car/motorbike, it probably would not remain with us in the way it remains now.
2. How much did it cost?
45000/- per head. Including flight tickets, cycle courier charges, hotel charges, food, etc. This does not include our cycle cost. In hindsight, we could have done it for a little cheaper. But we didn't really try to.3. What is the level of fitness required?
My guess is that anyone who is capable of cycling 100km in a day has a good chance of finishing it. If you are from Bangalore, suggest trying the Nandi hills. It's a popular ride for cyclists. If you can finish it and end up not being more than half dead then I think you are good to go.
4. How did you plan for this trip?
From the book that I've mentioned right at the top of the blog. Also the internet is an indispensable tool.
5. Do you organize cycle trips? What does "self supported" really mean?
No, I don't organize any cycle trips. "Self supported" means we basically carry our entire luggage on our cycle carriers. There are no vehicles tailing us with our stuff in it. It means we are relying largely on our own. We did not carry our tents, but used accommodation available locally at different placed. It also means that there is more uncertainty in everything. Where do we stay? Where do we eat? What to do in case of medical emergency? etc., etc.,
6. When is the right time to go?
We went in November. March is also another time that is recommended. But I think March might be a lot colder.
7. Did you get sim cards? How was the cell phone coverage?
Yes, you get temporary sim cards (valid for a month). It is inexpensive and can be got from the store near permit office in Pheuntsholing. There are two networks: B-mobile and Tashi Cell. B-mobile is what we took and it had good coverage nearly all through the route.
8. What's the procedure for getting permits?
This is for citizens from SAARC nations: Keep your ID proof (voter ID or Passport) ready. Fill up the form provided in permit office and it should get done fairly quickly. Actually when we mentioned that we will be cycling, they fast forwarded the process :) Took about 2hrs. Some employees in permit office suggested that we get NOC (No Objection Certificate) from RSTA (Road Safety and Transport Authority of Bhutan). This is a couple of km further into Bhutan. In RSTA we were clearly told that it a NOC from their office is unnecessary. It is required only for motorized vehicles, not bicycles.
9. How much weight did you carry?
>20kgs. Fortunately good drinking water was available in streams in Bhutan. So we did not have to carry too much of water.
10. Is camping allowed?
I think, yes.
11. Would you change anything in your schedule?
Please read my Epilogue.
12. How did you manage so many leaves?
Helps to plan early. A manager with a kind heart and also just plain luck.
13. What are your general impressions of Bhutanese?
Bhutanese in general are helpful to tourists. I think they take great pride in their hospitality. Slightly laid back, thanks to the socialistic measures from their govt. like free education, free health care etc. Bhutan is a country blessed by nature. And the Bhutanese seem to have largely kept it intact. Bhutanese are also very well aware of India and its culture. General attitude towards India/Indians came across as a positive one.
Ajay Bharadwaj
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| Ajay |
The 'manager' of the group. Always providing us with reality checks. Ajay is an electronics engineer by profession. Incredible to know all the places he's trekked in ( in the Western Ghats in particular). The most pragmatic guy in the group and was instrumental in planning the trip. Although his philosophical self is threatening to quickly take over his adventurous self, he continues to love travelling. He was the most knowledgeable in medical compositions and used to demonstrate his knowledge by referring to medicines by chemical composition rather than commercial name.
Bhaskar
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| Bhaskar |
Nagaraj
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| Nagaraj |
Yours truly. Yet another guy with a whole lot of completely unoriginal ideas.
Awsome
ReplyDeleteThanks Rathan.
DeleteGreat Nagaraj and team.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sudhakar!
DeleteSuperb Nagraj & team. Hope to join you in future for the short trips.
ReplyDeleteCheers
C.Karthi
Thanks Karthi! Cycle togondya?
Delete