When friends meet in a strange country - By Satish

Entry to Bhutan is through Jaigon (Indian Border) and Phuntsholing (the Bhutan border). The stark contrast between the two sides is unbelievable. This particular place has to be seen to be believed. Actually I had reached Jaigon after 1600 Hrs when the permit office closes and was surprised to be told by a pretty lady in the permit office (No Praveen, not the one who made you run around), that one can stay in Phuntsholing only without any permit and if checked by the police one can say that it has been given for processing and it needs to be collected the next day.

The permit formalities were finally completed. I felt the people in Bhutan are friendlier and eager to help, especially if one is seen on a bike from India. Though there is a mad rush to enter Bhutan, guys/gals on huge bikes with carrier and other luggage will tickle the ‘inquisitiveness’ of the simple people.

The ride from Phuntsholing to Thimpu is amazing with fantastic roads and very very courteous people behind the wheels of huge SUVs. The distance is about 150-190 kms. There is a decent eating joint midway, run by the Border Roads Organisation called Dantak Canteen which serves good Idli, Vada, Dosa and Momos. The stuff one gets here is extremely cheap and the place is quite clean.

Since my destination was Thimpu and since i had been clearly told that there is no accommodation in between, I rode on, keeping in mind that I was riding in regions where by 1700 Hrs it becomes dark. And, one rule I had learnt from previous experience was: AVOID RIDING IN THE DARK. Now, about 2-3 kms from Dantak canteen, something was bound to happen. Just when I take a sharp curve downhill, there in the middle of the highway is a huge bike with LOTS of luggage and two riders clicking photographs to glory. I come closer and I see a Bullet with a Delhi registration. I was aware that Praveen Rao and Pady, fellow 60kphers were somewhere in the region. I had checked my mail in Phuntsholing and knew that the two of them were traveling from Delhi to Nepal, probably Bhutan, and then to Assam. With this prior info, I rode up to the rider and stopped my bike. A very very suspicious rider looked at me. And in middle of nowhere in Bhutan, I asked him if he was Praveen Rao.

The expression on his face was worth a million bucks when he said yes. And it was worth even more when I asked him if he was a part of 60kph. Choking, eyes wide open and not able to utter a word, he thought I was a ghost. It was only when I told him that I was Satish Rao from Bangalore, a fellow 60kpher, who was also riding to Thimpu, that Praveen actually started to breathe again.

At this point, three riders meet, two of them coming down from Nepal and one coming down from Gangtok, but with one common agenda: to explore the North East. From this point both the Raos and Pady were inseparable (except for Shillong) till the time I took a connecting flight from Delhi airport to Bangalore.

From then on, the ride was amazing. With another 80-odd kms to go, it was already past 3 p.m. We rode on, with me tailing as usual. After about 20-30 kms, both of us were riding like one bike. By the time we reached Thimpu, it was almost dark and we wanted to check into a hotel and chill out the evening. We stopped on the main road where we were told that there were a lot of hotels and finding a decent room wouldn’t be a problem.

Wrong! Praveen comes back saying he had checked about 10 hotels and not a single room available. It was my turn and the same news everywhere. By this time, the cold was setting in and all the shops were closing down. Almost two hours after checking each and every hotel, we almost decided that the only option available was to ride back to Phuntsholing. Time was running out and with a lady with us, we tried our luck at the very first hotel on the other side of the Main Road (Which Pady had pointed out the moment we entered, but like all guys, we both decided to look in the opposite direction). I went inside the hotel Druk Sherig, expecting the same answer, but was surprised to hear that lone room, which got cancelled half an hour back, was available, but had to be vacated by 10 next morning. The room was 1500 bucks, but, who cared? My only worry was whether Praveen and Pady would want to share a room with somebody they had met only five hours back. But all three of us were from the 60kph Family and, if only for a night, we all stayed at a very very luxurious hotel in Thimpu.

Next morning, we were all ready to leave when my bike didn’t want to roar to life since it was freezing cold. Thunderbirds (at least the ones from the first lot) are the laziest and will take a long time to kick start in cold. On other trips, there had been Gaurav, Histu and Amol. Now Praveen gladly offered to help and after some frustrating moments we were on our way to the Indian Border town of Jaigon.

Off we went, stopping at the hotel U-Tshang for a good breakfast of omelettes and bread after which we were all ready for a good ride till the Indian border. Soon enough, we got to a road clearing operation which initially was expected to last not more than half an hour. But it ate up 2-3 hours of good daylight and scenic views. Even though we met Dr. Sonam and Mr. Tattoo (!), nothing much else was interesting and a huge sandstorm was blowing towards us, since they were blasting some huge rocks in the hillside to reduce landslides. Finally, we made it through the dirt and impatient drivers to go through some of the most beautiful scenic stretches I had ever ridden. Even though seeing Ladakh twice was something else, the scenic stretches from Thimpu to Jaigon is a must for riders. There are stretches here that make the phrase “Walking in the Clouds” truer than the sound of it! With a carpet of clouds to walk and ride through, the sheer beauty of it could drive anyone crazy!

On reaching Phuntsholing, we were again taken aback with ‘No Rooms Available’ stories but then Lady Luck seemed to be on our side and we managed one room and crashed after some good food and Chilled Beeeeeeer/ Vodka.

West Bengal - Assam, India

Next, the destination for which we had come from different corners of the country, Assam.

After collecting Pady's bike from across the border we set off, with Praveen leading, Pady next and me tailing as usual. Roads in Assam were pathetic with trucks everywhere. Even though it was one hell of a ride on this stretch, the heat and humidity were taking a toll on all of us.

At Nagaon we were lucky to find a Government circuit house, a palatial place with huge rooms. Since we managed to work this out for 300 bucks for two rooms, we decided it was better to park ourselves than push any further. The place was decent and the best part was, it was not necessary to remove our entire luggage since there was a guard with a gun to watch the place, errr... our bikes, literally.

The Circuit house was somewhat creepy and it reminded me of the fort we all stayed in Bekal (60kph Kerala Ride) where, at any point of time, one had an eerie feeling that somebody was watching you. And with mosquitoes as big as a housefly to give us company in a huge room, the whole night was spent tossing and turning and listening to music.

Next day, our destination was Guwahati but on the way we took a detour to see some waterfalls which turned out to be a damp squib since at the end of the road we were told that to reach the waterfalls, one had to trek 2-3 hours through a forest infested with wild animals. Praveen’s eyes lit up and before he could decide on the trek I had to pull him off since it was a long ride to Guwahati. We carried on with a kid (Praveen) who seemed to have lost his toffee and was reluctant to leave the place. Finally we hit the highway and boy we were hungry. Came across a nice place called Down Town Food court on the highway where we had our brunch. The place was decent and quite reasonable with clean toilets and friendly service.

We reached Guwahati late in the evening and managed to find our way in the city through the maddening traffic and dust. Praveen was keen to stay put in Hotel Tibet where 60kphers had stayed in the past. Me and Pady stayed near the railway station while Praveen went in search of Tibet. Finally we didn’t stay in Hotel Tibet but managed to find decent rooms in Hotel Kings court. The next day was consumed in running around for Inner Line Permits for me since Praveen and Pady had already got permits from Delhi for the state of Arunachal Pradesh. Got my permit in the evening and by that time Praveen managed to find a place to park Pady’s bike. Mr. Lashkar, who owns the Enfield showroom in Guwahati, was quite accommodative and here we also got our bikes checked for the long journey ahead.

We finally bid adieu to Guwahati and rode through Tezpur and then the climb to the hills began at Balukpong at the Assam – Arunachal border. At the Checkpost, we were told about 10 bikers on a similar expedition who had passed through a few days earlier. They were none other than 60kphers on the “One Crazy Ride” Expedition traversing the state of Arunachal. The police and Army personnel were thrilled to the bone that a lady was riding a bullet in that group and were more Inquisitive of Nicky than us. While at the border check post I checked the register, I and Praveen had a good laugh seeing Saurab entering and signing in twice.

The road towards Tawang was again scenic and beautiful with lots of green forest and banana trees. While climbing towards Tenga, for a change I thought I'll lead the way and started at a fast pace. However, after some time I realized that Praveen and Pady were not to be seen. I waited for quite some time and started riding back. About 10 minutes of riding and I saw Praveen riding alone trying to navigate one steep curve. His 500 was was not able to climb with all the luggage and Pady along. Since I was traveling light and my rear seat was empty, we decided to transfer all extra luggage on to my bike and Pady decided to ride pillion with me. Now my worst nightmare became real. I am never comfortable riding with a pillion. But we managed to chug along and I could see Praveen really struggling along to climb up. It was getting pretty dark and we decided to reach and camp in Tenga where we were told that there was bound to be some mechanic who can help us out. About 20 Kms to Tenga, while navigating a curve, I yanked at my clutch and the sickening feeling one gets when it gives way came true. The cable snapped, it was dark and the last thing I wanted was to ride without my clutch so I kept quite and rode on for another half an hour with Pady thinking what a lousy rider I was. Finally I told Pady about my clutch and thank god I could't see her expression in the dark.

We reached Tenga in one piece and got a decent hotel and crashed after going through the day's adventure over Vodka shots. I was sick of all the weird beer brand names which tasted like ^%&*#@. Next day we were lucky to find a mechanic even though he seemed like he had never seen a bullet but he did a decent job replacing my cable and Praveen’s clutch plates. Now none of us were carrying extra clutch plates so we went knocking on the door of the Army workshop hunting for one. After some agonizing hours we were taken into the stores to be shown only one piece and the Army was not ready to part with it. So Praveen decided to ride back to Tezpur and come back on the same day but, to our surprise, one spare part shop in the small Bazaar actually had a set of clutch plates.

By the time we got our bikes done and vacated our room it was 1400 Hrs with only three hours of daylight left. We knew we would not cover much distance so we reached Bomdilla and again after going through a zillion hotels we found a hotel, Potala Lodging, at Bomdila where we camped for the night. The place was pretty sad but the situation we were in, it was luxury.

The next day we left Bomdila. Our destination was Tawang, through the Sela Pass. We left very early, by six in the morning to reach Tawang, with one stop for breakfast midway. The stretch as usual had amazing scenic beauty. We reached Sela Pass at 1400 Hrs. Sela pass was nothing compared to the mighty passes I had crossed in Ladakh but the scenic mountains and trail was breathtaking.

We reached Tawang late in the evening when it was getting dark. We checked a few places to stay. Rooms were available but were extremely overpriced, so Praveen tried to go to the guest house of Tawang gompa, called Dron Khung Guest House, to check if accommodation was available and I parked myself in Tawang main road. After some time Praveen rides up to me and says the place was out of the world costing just 100 bucks per day and that he had managed to find two rooms.

The Dron Khung Guest House was out of the world. It is at a cliff’s end. Since the location was amazing we decided to stay put for one more day. If given a choice I would rather have stayed there for a week. As usual we were extremely tired and exhausted so had a good home-made dinner and couple of vodka shots and slept through the night. Next morning we woke up mesmerized by the beauty of our surrounding, the view of the mighty mountains surrounding the Guest House.

Finally we went for our Inner Line permits and as usual there were people asking a zillion questions. They refused us permits for bikes. Permits would be issued only if we agreed to go in a four wheeler. Well we didn’t come so far to go in a taxi. Hence me and Praveen decided to talk to the Deputy commissioner directly and approached him, telling him why it was so important for us to travel on motorcycles. He seemed to match our wavelength. Finally, with inner line permits available, we decided to immediately go to Y junction and if possible to Madhuri Lake.

We started on two bikes: me with Gopal as pillion and Praveen and Pady. The ride was pretty good till midway but just about before the Y junction, suddenly the road became one uphill journey and even with no luggage we found it extremely difficult to navigate and the weather started to worsen and it started snowing. However good sense prevailed on us and we decided to turn back towards Tawang, which, at the end of the day, was the right decision since we just about reached the check post when it become completely dark and cold as hell.

We planned to celebrate the snow fall over Vodka shots and a nice bonfire at our guest house and leave for Kaziranga National Park in Assam the next day but lady luck had different ideas for us. After picking up some additional booze and lots of snacks we headed to our secluded guest house amidst thick fog. We had already told the caretaker to purchase firewood for about 100 bucks which we were told would last the whole night. When we reached the gates of the Guest house, we were surprised to hear loud music. Hmmm.... the local MLA’s son had come with his buddies to have a party and since they cannot be questioned nor denied entry to the guest house, we were requested not to rub them on the wrong side as they would fade off after some time. Well the time didn’t come so the three of us decided not to let this dampen our spirit. So we got ourselves prepared and stepped out in the freezing cold, climbed up a small hill and sat under the open sky with a million stars above us for company (I personally have never seen so many stars before.) We had a whale of a time and the only thing missing was a bonfire. In case we had lit one then all the flies (MLA’s son) would have come, so that was a small price to pay.

Next morning it was time to leave early for Kaziranga, but before that we took a quick visit to the Tawang Monastery.

The weather when we left was pretty cloudy and there we feared it might turn worse at Sela Pass. But with not much difficulty while coming our spirits were pretty high. The journey started off with scanty rainfall but the stretches where it had rained the previous night were bad. The rain came down heavily about 20-25 kms before Sela. On our ascent to Sela we could see that it was snowing at the pass and with no alternative we pushed along. The temperature on Sela was bone-chilling and on top of that the rain had seeped in through our rain gear. My hands had become numb. Luckily we managed to find some hot tea and biscuits in a small chai shop at the Pass and warmed ourselves. Praveen, for whatever reason, didn’t get down from the bike and said he would wait for us outside. I did not question him but went out to check on him. It was snowing pretty heavily now and I just didn’t have the energy to walk up to him and get him inside. Well, after coming back to Bangalore he told me that he was too frozen to get up from his bike! But he did brave the weather.

By the time we reached Sela we were pretty drenched and both the brakes of my bike were behaving funny. The usual problem of the front disk brake making a lot of noise and the rear brake not functioning, so the whole downhill ride had to be done by controlling the gears. The ride from Sela was one hell of a ride and i did the whole stretch, about 25 Kms, in 1st and 2nd gear since each and every part of the body was trying to give up but the mind was determined. Luckily we made the descent without any fall or without losing control of the bike. Anyway the rain was relentless and kept coming on to us very hard. By the time we stopped at a dhaba, all of us were literally drenched.

Now a place to park ourselves was a nightmare since we were now already aware of too many tourist on this stretch. Our best option was to reach Bomdila and stay put but when we got there nothing much was available and Praveen wanted to continue till Tenga. It was already five p.m and I was not comfortable pushing our luck any further. We were told that there would be some accommodation available in Rupa which is a little off the main road and Praveen thought it made sense to go there directly than go to Tenga. So we headed out to Rupa, a small hamlet (but military presence is large) and after running around we managed to find accommodation in an Inspection Bungalow where we got to change over to dry clothes and got ourselves some hot food. We were too tired to even think of having a drink so we all crashed pretty early.

Well, to be frank, the stretch towards Sela took the wind out of me in spite of doing lot of rides in high altitude conditions. I am not sure about Praveen but I feel it did take its toll on him too. I feel the persistent rain more than the cold and the road conditions had made the stretch tough. But in all my rides, this was the first time the thought came to my mind to just give up. Why go through all this? Get into a taxi, reach the nearest airport and get back to civilization. Even now, looking back, I am not sure why that thought raced through my mind.

However, we continued our journey and hit the plains at Assam and discussed staying at Nameri National park’s Eco Camp but soon gave up on the idea and decided to hit Kaziranga National Park since it was another 2-3 hours' ride. Getting out of Arunachal border was very nostalgic, especially for me since the dream ride which we (Gaurav and me) had literally conceived in Ladakh actually was coming to an end. However I thought we were leaving this beautiful place with loads of memories and the place actually requires more days to explore, which we decided would be another ride with many new riders, hopefully.

With this thought, we crossed the borders of Arunachal into the land of strikes, hartals and bandhs. By the way, we were welcomed into Assam by a student union bandh and no vehicles were supposed to ply on the highways. I was skeptical of this and to be frank a little apprehensive but since we had to hit Rhino land I decided to scamper through with the pilot.

The roads as warned were completely deserted and since I did not want to invite unnecessary attention I decided to ride my bike without my headlight at which Praveen was literally pissed since he could not make out whether I was tailing him. Actually I feel this was the only instance where he felt like screaming at me but somehow managed to swallow it. However after doing some distance in Assam there was hardly any signs of road blocks or groups of people so I decided to switch on my headlight to my buddy’s relief and a joyous expression of a kid finally getting his toffee back came about on his face.

The ride on the straight highway was uneventful and there was hardly any traffic so we covered the distance of about 150 Kms within 3-4 hours in the daylight. However seeing straight roads and hardly any traffic, Praveen decided to give his bike to Pady and she actually rode the fully loaded Bullet with a pillion and a huge guy tailing her for 2-3 kms. But with one of the trucks blazing in at full speed, I suppose she decided it was better to sit pillion. The last 30-45 kms, it became dark and soon enough a million insects came from everywhere to hitch a ride on/inside/over, basically all over, our helmets. The only thing which saved me from having an early dinner of high protein insects was my balaclava which incidentally had a mouth mesh also. The last leg of about 30 kms was hell, riding with glaring headlights from oncoming trucks and insects hitting the eyes. In fact it was impossible for me to ride without washing my eyes every 15-20 minutes.

Finally we reached the World heritage site, Kaziranga National Park and Praveen, like a good rider, had booked two rooms in advance in Kaziranga. This was a decent place run by Assam Tourism and with a decent bar and restaurant. We gleefully parked our bikes. The bikes and the riders had more people around than the rhinos they had come to see. The same set of questions would come rattling out. I feel it would be a good idea to come out with a set of FAQ (Frequently asked questions) and just distribute it to people around, as, by now I am aware of the questions before they are asked. How I wish I had this gift during my exam days.

We checked into our rooms and met in the bar for a drink and ordered dinner. We were met by one hell of a character, Punen Gogoi, who offerd to take us inside Kaziranga on a safari and we negotiated and decided we shall meet him at seven in the morning. But we left the next day at nine a.m. since our guide Punen Gogoi overslept and made us wait for almost one hour in the reception.

Kaziranga National Park - by Praveen

Welcome back ... This is your pilot-rider Praveen Rao, taking you on another flight. Today’s would be a low-altitude flight, skimming and brushing Elephant grass, as we maneuver the glider for a vantage view of our three riders entering the Kaziranga National Park, through the gates, on a Maruti Gypsy, chauffeured by the very efficient home keeper cum guide cum driver cum President of the Gypsy Owners Association of Kaziranga - Punen Gogoi.

OK... enough of the corny. Let’s get down and dirty back on land -- this time at the Kaziranga National park, famous for its population of the Great Indian One Horned Rhinos. Cornering a sizeable populace of the Rhino population, it’s acquired the rather enviable position of being a UNESCO World Heritage Site. What this label brings to the table is, supposed flush of funds, definitely a clean, well laid out National Highway also doubling up as the virtual periphery of the National Park, and a mention in the National Parks Hall of Fame. Take a bow Kazi – y’r a Rock Star ;) “Bhotaanical name ….” I can almost hear Punen and his North-East-meets-Texan-truck-driver-crossed-with-a-duck twang rushing in to give his valuable insight into what the Botanical name for just about every thing under the sun is.

OK, I’m just being harsh here. The dude really was rocking and to his credit knew a hell of a lot more than the duck guides which were to be found there. Since the Elephant safari hadn’t yet opened for the season, we had to content ourselves with the Jeep safari.

Kaziranga is also home to elephants, sloth bears, tigers, leopards, jungle cats, hog badgers, capped langurs, hoolock gibbons, pigs, jackals, porcupines, pythons, wild buffaloes, Indian bison, swamp deer, sambhars and hog deer. Besides these, the park has a respectable avian population, which increases considerably in the winter, when migrating birds visit the park.

Entering the Park from the main Kohaara Gate, which lies to the centre of the park, and the usual deers, birds and wild elephants later, only one solitary Rhino was spotted at a distance. It seemed more a joyride in four-wheel country than anything else for the most part. Along the way, plans firmed up between the three of us, initiated by Satish, of giving the park another go, this time through the Western Gate, in the evening. Hopefully our luck would shine and we’d spot something substantial.

The gamble paid off to an extent. Within a couple of kilometers of entering the park the second time, Satish pointed next to the road in the Elephant grass. It was there only for a few seconds. But there it was ... a fully grown one horned Rhino, right next to us (within spitting distance). Too shy for a photo op, it scooted out of sight immediately.

Then on, a couple of more Rhinos were seen, but at a distance.

What we did gain in the process was a much-needed break and rest day. The bar at the hotel had some amazing Bloody Marys rolling out and all three of us tripped out on the brew till late into the night. Knowing well the end of the ride was closing in, the idea was to start chilling out and relaxing before we hit the end.

The Dusk of the Ride - By Satish

The next day was our ride back to Guwahati and then probably to Shillong. We started early in the morning. The weather was pretty bad and it rained quite heavily outside our hotel. With a sigh we started our bikes, knowing very well that for most of the day we would be riding in the rain. It was raining, raining and only raining during the whole journey and we could see that we were actually riding with a thick cloud cover following us. Some stretches were very slippery and in the plains the wind would actually sway the bike. The wind did it a few times to me and I could only imagine the plight of lesser mortals who were riding their cycles. However, we rode through the rain and stopped at a dhaba after Nagaon and with a hearty brunch of Aloo Parathas, we decided to head back and ride through the rain. We stopped at the junction where a deviation takes us to Shillong but decided to head towards Guwahati instead and decide about Shillong the next day. We reached Lashkar (Enfield Guwahati Dealer) and thanked him for his inputs on Praveen’s clutch plates and managed to get two rooms in Hotel Tibet and parked ourselves for the evening. However, Praveen and Pady decided to immediately leave for Shillong and I decided to stay in Guwahati, since I had not booked my return tickets back to Bangalore. I decided to do that the next day and hence curtailed my trip by two weeks.

The next day, with Praveen and Pady returning from Shillong and meeting me in the afternoon, we decided to have a small party in the evening and finally bid adieu to each other.

And just like that, just the way it started, It all ended.

Till the next ride…

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