Re: Bhutan- Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350.Solo

Come on now Tariq, don't keep us waiting for this long, bring out the rest of it.

Re: Bhutan- Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350.Solo

wow ...just wow .. the photographs are just BLISS .. loved each and every one.. Now am so tempted to make a trip to Bhutan

Thanks a tone for sharing it with us .. thank you

Re: Bhutan- Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350.Solo

Excellent clicks-well written log!that u had a great time in Bhutan in clearly visible from the contended smile on ur lips in the clicks.

Re: Bhutan- Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350.Solo



Thanks!.. It's a beautiful country , you must plan a trip , you will not regret

Ping me if you need any help regarding Bhutan trip. I will be happy to help you out.

Cheers !

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I have completed writing down the next part , a little bit of editing is needed to cut it short and make it more readable , too much of anything is bad , It will be up soon .

Thanks !

Tariq.

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My pleasure sir ! Glad you liked it .
Please do plan a trip to Bhutan , it's a country like no other. Must visit place for a biker.

Cheers !

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Thanks Man!

You are right , I had a great time in Bhutan , some of the best days of my life

Bhutan- Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350.Solo


Earlier post - http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/2...ml#post1054011


Day 6

I woke up at around 8:30 am , I had been on the road for 5 straight days , riding for an average of 10 hours a day, I wasn't getting enough sleep, I am not an early riser but I was getting up daily at 5-ish in the morning all because I was trying to avoid riding at night.

This morning I woke up feeling very tired , Taktsang hike took all the juice out of me , my body needs a LOT of calories to function properly and I wasn't consuming enough all because I like to ride for long durations without taking too many breaks, I was carrying dry fruits , there were days when I would eat a hand full of almonds and nuts and rode for the entire day ,my next meal would be the dinner after reaching the destination, this routine was kind of taking a toll on my body . The cold wasn't helping either.But make no mistake, it's not like I was struggling and forcing myself to complete the ride , I was loving each and every moment of it. I wouldn't have done it any other way.


I was lying on my bed covered with thick quilts and having second thoughts about traveling to Bumthang which is like 275 kms from Thimphu, that's a huge distance in the mountains. Bumthang is at a higher altitude compared to Thimphu. So it would only get colder as I approach Bumthang. Locals told me the roads would be narrower in Central and Eastern Bhutan, just a single lane passing through the wilderness. There is very little to no settlements on the way. Trongsa is the only proper town that I would be coming across which is at a distance of 69 kms from Bumthang.

I had left home with my mind made up that I would be traveling till Bumthang no matter what ! I got off the bed , took bath and ate a handful of nuts, my body is a furnace , no matter how much you put into it,it burns everything in no time. It's a high maintenance 'machine' but it performs really well.

I quickly packed my bags, went outside and had a few Aloo Parathas at an indian restaurant.I was nice and full now and looking forward to the ride ahead !After loading my luggage on the bike , I spoke to a few people about the direction to Bumthang, even though I had internet in my phone I knew I couldn't rely on it because the battery of my iphone sucked , it doesn't even last from sunrise to sunset . I had to have some kind of knowledge about the route before leaving.

I started riding towards my destination ,10-12 Kms in and I realised that I didn't have enough gas to last me till Bumthang. I checked with a local if there is any petrol pump on the way , he said there is one 30-40 kms ahead. I took the risk , which I now feel was not needed , I was just being lazy I should have gone back to Thimphu.

I always take two opinions when asking for directions ,just to make sure I was on the road to Bumthang, I checked with a local ,to my surprise he told me that I took a wrong turn and I need to go back and take the other turn that I missed I was now running late for Bumthang . I will have to ride in the dark for atleast a couple of hours , trust me it's really scary at night because it gets PITCH DARK and the roads are not even lined ,it's a weird feeling , it's like riding through a dark tunnel. Your vision is limited to the strenght of your head lamp , you cant see anything beyond the reach of your head lamp.


I needed to reach Bumthang today itself ,so I didn't even consider going back to Thimphu .In few minutes I reached the cross road from where I was supposed to turn for Bumthang , just before making the turn , I decided to verify once again , i didn't want to go in the wrong direction and waste any more time.

There was a Zen estillo parked on the road side , the bonnet was open and I saw a monk working on the engine.
I went close to him and asked if this is the turn for Dochula pass , Dochula lies on the way to Bumthang , he said yes , then asked me where I was going, I told him I want to go to Bumthang , turns out the monk and his sister were travelling to Trashigang and Bumthang lies on the way . The monk told me that we could travel together and he offered to guide me and help me in whichever way possible, it was overwhelming , I had a few companions now which felt kind of good.

Kinley -3

The Monk's name was Kinley , so that's how I met the 3rd Kinley in Bhutan.

First and foremost I asked him about the petrol pump , he said he has got enough petrol in his car and if I am running short we could take some out from his car and put in my motorcycle , it was so nice of him to even say that , I asked him if there is any petrol pump on the way he said there is one areound 60 kms ahead , with my calculations I knew my bike would make it , so we started Riding.

Our first stop was Dochula pass. The view from Dochula is spectacular if you are lucky enough to get clear skies and a good weather you could see the entire North eastern part of Bhutan most of the mountain ranges are visible ,even the snow covered peaks of the mountains that are at the border of Bhutan and Tibet are visible from this point. I was lucky enough to get a good weather with nice clear skies.Later on I was told by a tour guide that in his short carreer of 4 years he never got such clear blue skies at dochula pass , he said I was lucky enough to see all the mountain ranges.

We took a few pictures at Dochula , I got myself clicked with Kinley and his sister.




That's Kinley for you.





Kinley's Sister .




The Dochula is made up of 108 chortens to honor the victory of the Bhutanese army in the 2003 war of Southern Bhutan.







Kinley said "whenever you want to get clicked just let me know" , he would get out of his car take a few pictures of me and then we start riding again , they bought apples at Dochula, they kept offering me to eat at regular intervals, I couldnt say no for too long , I was soo overwhelmed by the treatment I was getting from them it was just unbelievable, such amazing people , Kinley would say that it's his duty as a monk to serve me . I couldnt thank him enough, he was definitiely God sent .If he wasn't there I would have had a tough time reaching Bumthang.


This is one of my favorites pictures of the trip . Picture courtesy Kinley





Just before we left Dochula , I took a picture of my motorcycle withe the Himalayas in the background.







Initially I was following Kinley but it was getting too broing , he was riding too slow which was understandable ,single lane twisty curvy roads , 4 wheels can't maintain a good speed , you have to completly halt at the blinding turns , because you dont know if there is a car coming from the opposite side , motorcyles can get right inside the turn even if there is a car coming you could safely pass through, ofcourse if the driver is an idiot then you are as 'good' as dead.

After half an hour of following , I decided to lead Kinley , I would stop at turns and wait for Kinley to come , make the turn and then I start leading again , I was riding fast , soo many corners , twists and curves , it was amazing riding through wallpaper scenes , I left Kinley far behind. I decided I wouldn't stop untill I reach the petrol pump , finally the petrol pump came and I got the tank full till the brim , Kinley was still far behind, I got off the bike took off my helmet , took a breather ,spoke to Kinley , he said he is on the way, the fuel guy was playing carrom board with another guy , I started chit chatting with them. Half an hour went by and kinley was still not there.

I decided to start moving at a slow speed so that Kinley would eventually catch up, I crossed a river and saw a car parked on the other side which had some cute little kids in school dress , I decided to shoot them ( with the camera ) .













I started moving again and stopped at a tiny little shop , ate a couple of packets of chips and a few bottles of juice, in few minutes Kinley was also there , he got down and gave me an apple for the road , I took it and we started moving again.

Central Bhutan is absolutely amazing because it's so wild , only sign of Human existence was the road that I was riding on, it was beautiful , rivers flowing through , lush green mountains all around and sound of birds, waterfalls and rivers making me feel like a character in a fairy tale riding through this magical mystical land .I have the stock silencer on my bike and it was sounding like a goldie or something because of the stillness and quietness of the place.





Another picture of me , taken by Kinley. This particular spot was amazing , a picture can never do justice to the place.





Landslide prone area.





I was leading Kinley again, I reached a point where the road was splitting in two , I asked a lady sittng there ,"Bumthang ?" , she looked towards the left , so I turned left, I rode for like 2 kms and suddenly it hit me that the condition of the road doesn't look like people regularly travel on it , lot of debris and plantation on the road , I kept going , the surroundings were getting wilder, forest was getting thicker it was very silent all around just the sound of breeze flowing across my face , I saw some monkeys jumping from one tree to another , I must have traveled 3-4 kms when I realised that I might have taken the wrong turn , I took out my phone and checked my location I was probably on an old road which was ending at a point ,If I had kept moving I would have reached a dead end or something.Even though I was getting a bit panicky I coudn't help but admire the beauty all around me , I was right in the lap of mother nature.

I tried to self start the bike but it wouldn't, so I quickly gave a couple of kicks and the engine started , I turned around and rode back as fast as possible towards the point where the road was splitting and this time I went straight i.e towards my destination, I thought kinley must have gone ahead of me by now , so I didn't bother calling him, I rode very fast and after about 5 minutes I saw Kinley's Zen estillo in the distance ,slowly and gracefully moving ahead on the twisty curvy road. , SUCH a relief ! I cant tell you. I took a BIG Sigh of relief ! Just the mere presence of him made me feel very safe.

It takes time to take out the camera from the bag, take off the helmet and gloves , look for a good composition , shoot and then put the camera back, wear the helmet and gloves and start riding again , since Kinley and his sister were also with me , I was avoiding taking too many photo breaks , I didn't want them to wait for me unnecessarily,there were many good photo opportunities but I let it be .Sometimes I would ride very fast take a healthy lead and use the extra time to shoot. I didn't want them to stop because of me .Since I don't have many pictures of the ride from Thimphu to Trongsa I am trying to make it up with my words.


Sun was almost about to set, We were passing by some village, I saw a lot of kids coming back from school, they would wave at me and offer hands for high fives, since I was on a bike , it was more of a low five :P .Every time my hand touched their hand ,I would have tears in my eyes ( tears of happiness of course) , I don't know why I was getting all emo .. may be because it was a "touching" moment ? I don't know.

I stopped and took a few pictures of a bunch of school kids with my bike and then started riding again.






Since it was already dark , I decided to follow Kinley again , obviously their head light would help me and I wouldn't have to worry about the traffic or the turns , I could simply follow the car.The sun was down,we stopped and Kinley told me that it's not a good idea to travel till Bumthang today itself, since its already dark and we had been on the road since morning, we decided to spend the night at Trongsa and leave early morning for Bumthang.Now the destination was no longer Bumthang but Trongsa.



I was following Kinley's car, his speed was going lower and lower , I looked ahead and realised we were actually tailgating a group of trucks , it was getting a bit irritating for me , I overtook kinley and all the 4-5 trucks ahead of him , it was already PICTH DARK , my vision was limited to the range of my head light , but I was still riding at a decent speed, I had gotten used to riding in the mountains , I reached a point , where I stopped seeing any lights in my rear view mirror, I stopped and decided to wait for Kinley to catch up , 10-15 minutes went by and no body showed up, I thought I took a wrong turn again , this time I almost panicked , it was PITCH DARK I switched off my engine and head lights, Boom ! it was DARKK all around , I couldn't even see my own hands, I switched on the engine and headlight and decided to keep it on till I see any human being, It was scary as hell , imagine stuck in the middle of no where with nothing but the darkness all around you, I was kind of hallucinating ,imagining things that weren't even there ,my phone was almost dead , 7 % battery left , If I opened the maps , it would die immediately I decided to call Kinley , I knew I would only get a few minutes of talk time, he kept asking me about my location.I told him that I didn't make any turn I was still on the same road but I wasn't too sure, there was a possibility that I might have taken a detour in the dark.

As I was talking to Kinley , I saw a strong beam of light , PHEW !!!, It was Kinley's car, I am sure you can guess the amount of relief I would have felt seeing him again .

This time I decided to follow him no matter how slow he drives , I tailgated him till Trongsa, it was too cold outside , my lips were bleeding because of the cold wind hitting my face since morning, I was dehydrated as well.Finally we reached Trongsa ,I showed my permit and got the stamp at the check post , the check post was just near a big waterfall , I couldn't see it because of the dark but the water falling was making a loud noise , we parked our vehicles and went looking for a place to sleep.Kinley was talking to them in Dzongkhang language , each and every hotel that we went was full , finally we knocked on a door , Kinley spoke to them , I could make out from the body language that we finally got the rooms,it wasn't actually a hotel ,a family had kept a couple of rooms at their house for renting. So we would be staying with the family in the same house.On the first floor there was a tiny room which had a bathroom attached to it, Kinley immediately offered me to sleep in that room and he would sleep with his sister in the room downstairs which didn't have attached bathroom so they would have to use the common bathroom. It was a great gesture but I tried persuading him to take the room with the attached bathroom but he wouldn't accept it , he was like ,you are the guest you should get the best room. He kept insisting ,finally I took the room , I knew it would make him happy.


I changed my clothes and went downstairs for dinner.It was a beautiful little family they had a few beautiful little kids, the whole place was so warm and the people inside were so welcoming , after the long ride in the cold , the warmth of this palce was exactly what I needed. I spent some time with the kids, then the dinner was served.There weren't too many options just the rice, beef, dal and ofcourse the chillies.

I was too hungry,last time I had beef was 10-15 years back , never liked it , since there was no other option and I wasn't getting any protein ever since I left home, I decided to go for it, Kinley ordered Rice daal and chillies , the monks don't eat non veg, Kinley's sister also ordered beef and rice.

We enjoyed the conversations at the dinner table , these people I hardly knew them but I felt like a part of the family. I felt a great sense of gratitude.
After the dinner , Kinley and his sister went to their room , I decided to spend some more time with the dad and his kids , I took a few pictures of them , loved having them around ,the little girl was too cute. I would pull her cheeks and ask her questions , usually kids dont like to have strangers around but these kids were different


This young man loved getting clicked . Kept asking me to take "One more" picture of him , haha








She loves playing the snake game on her father's cell phone , totally addicted to it . Such a cutie !





Another picture of the young man !







A picture of the dad with the kids !






The father kept asking me questions , I happily answered all of them , he also knew all our Indian film stars and some politicians as well haha .
Just when I was about to leave for my room , Dorji Penden entered the house, I had met him at the Taktsang hike , inside the small little hut , it was great to see him again , we spoke for some time , he told me about a place called Phobjika , showed me some pictures and asked me to visit that place . The black necked cranes travel to Phobjika every year in huge numbers. He spoke very highly about that place.

I spent some time with Penden and went back to my room , set an alarm for 5:45 am and went off to sleep .


Next up Trongsa-Bumthang-URA.

Re: Bhutan- Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350.Solo

So finally, its up - the next part!!
Totally loved it mate, awesome narration, especially the pitch-black scary part. Would have loved to see pictures of the kids and the place you stayed. Nevertheless this was great.
Now, please post the next package at your earliest convenience.

Re: Bhutan- Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350.Solo

Haha yes it's finally up !

Probably you read my post while I was editing it , I have uploaded the pics of the kids , you may check it out.

Re: Bhutan- Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350.Solo

At last the next log.. The pictures definitely do justice to the beautiful country. Please continue with the next parts. We are eagerly waiting

Re: Bhutan- Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350.Solo

Thanks man !

Re: Bhutan- Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350.Solo

Excellent pictures and beautiful narration!

Re: Bhutan- Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350.Solo

I'm glad you liked it !

Re: Bhutan- Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350.Solo

:thumbup:
That was an awesome tlog Bro. eagerly waiting for your next part of the ride. I know it would be very hard to share all your experience, but do get some time for penning it

"No matter, who you are and where you are from, if you are a bulleteer , we are brothers"

Re: Bhutan- Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350.Solo

Totally awesome n super:thumbup:

Sent from my GT-I8262 using xBhp Connect mobile app

Re: Bhutan- Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350.Solo

Tariq its bn a looooooooong time since your last post. Hope all is ok at your end.

Re: Bhutan- Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350.Solo

Dont say you are not a photographer any more..boy these pics are are really amazing..and excellent writeup also...


Respect bro..Respect