Re: Achievement Unlocked: North East and Bhutan explored over 18 days

Travelogue Approved

Awesome stuff, waiting for the rest

Re: Achievement Unlocked: North East and Bhutan explored over 18 days

Nice start. Bring on the rest!

Re: Achievement Unlocked: North East and Bhutan explored over 18 days

Everytime i read a trip log, i always feel so frustrated solely because of the lack of such like minded people around me. The moment i tell lets do a bike ride, everybody goes silent. Anyway i have decided solo is the best for me. I dont have to wait for anyone and i can plan my entire trip without having to worry about anyone. Great going there guys. keep it coming.

Re: Achievement Unlocked: North East and Bhutan explored over 18 days

Good going there. Awaiting to read the rest of this travelogue which has got off to a super beginning. My riding friend from Pune, JP Singh is also just back from Bhutan and I eagerly await to meet him this weekend and catch up on his experience. He is a partner of motomonks which specialises in motorcycle touring.

Re: Achievement Unlocked: North East and Bhutan explored over 18 days

Hooked on....keep it flowing mate

Re: Achievement Unlocked: North East and Bhutan explored over 18 days

Day one: Jamshedpur to Bhagalpur



We set off from XLRI at 7 AM, with KJ and PD in the car, leading, me following and Matt and Glo sweeping. Immediately I sensed the bike stuttering and then realised that I had forgotten to set the fuel cock to Mains

Half of those were Glo's

The one thing that struck us was the sheer number of level crossings on this stretch. It was almost as if every curve on the road had a railway line bisecting it. As luck would have it, we got caught at almost all of these level crossings, that were mainly closed to allow shunting of solitary Locos.
These frequent breaks were quite irritating but helped squeeze in another quick chai break.


Fresh samosas too!

We eventually arrived at the Asansol bypass and we stopped at a petrol pump for bio breaks, while KJ went ahead and gathered local intelligence on road conditions and which route to take to get into Bhagalpur smoothly.



We decided to trust Google instead, which has confused dried river beds for roads! Having suddenly run out of road, Matt and I had to get off the bikes to go scout ahead to see if the car could make it on that terrain. We also entertained thoughts of crossing a small rivulet for which the bridge was half constructed too...




After fighting our way through more narrow roads, blind corners and passing what looked like abandoned villages, we finally reached the main highway just about 100km from Bhagalpur. We stopped at around 3PM for lunch at a nondescript Dhaba and lost count of the number of Rotis we managed to demolish, accompanied by some excellent Paneer Masala and Dal Tadka.


Insane amounts of food was consumed

Re: Achievement Unlocked: North East and Bhutan explored over 18 days

Fascinating tale of rural India. Waiting for the next installment.

Re: Achievement Unlocked: North East and Bhutan explored over 18 days

Good stuff there, keep it flowin'

Re: Achievement Unlocked: North East and Bhutan explored over 18 days

Day 2 : Bhagalpur to Jalpaiguri
View from Chai stop

I was half way through my first chai when they turned up with cheeky grins on their faces having crossed the first big river and beating the traffic to start off the day where we had to reach Jalpaiguri about 330km away. After another round of chai, we were about to set off when another piece of local intelligence suggested we take a smaller deviation through some villages to connect to the highway.

So we took a right turn into the village road, ignoring the protests of MapMyIndia which kept insisting I take every available turn back onto the main road. Having passed a few villages on the narrow tar road, I got stuck behind an auto carrying approximately the entire population of a small school going at approximately 1km per year. I had to be patient as overtaking was not a possibility, irrespective of the number of native bike riders honking behind me.

We made it out of those roads finally and took the right turn onto the glorious 4 lane highway and we managed to maintain a good pace till we reached Purnea where we stopped to tank up. As there was no sign of a restaurant or dhaba anywhere around, we ended up crossing the road for "breakfast" that consisted of what looked like kachori and a raw salted green chilli as a side dish.




The Chilli had a disagreement with KJ
Batten down the hatches

We were coasting along in a good rhythm until a small incident broke the pace:

At one of the junctions, while waiting for some trucks to cross, we saw one of the motorised handcarts - for lack of better description try and fail to negotiate a pothole at least 4 feet deep. While climbing out of the pothole, the cargo in the back - an unfortunate woman in this case - tumbled off the contraption and subsequently the entire vehicle got stuck in the rut. A truck driver decided to try and cross into our lane at the same time and spotted the pothole mid turn and stopped, effectively blocking the road. To make matters worse, this was under the flyover as well, so space was cramped in the first place. After patiently waiting for a few minutes, we were waved on to the other lane by the trucker. This meant we ended up on the service road on the extreme right side, and having cleared the traffic jam, I had to cut across multiple lanes to get back to my side of the road. Meanwhile, the bikers had sneaked through as well, and we had no idea if they had gone ahead or waiting for us. Phonecalls went unanswered and we were contemplating going back into the jam when they finally turned up behind us.

Lesson in convoy management learnt: Always pre define an upper limit on distance, say 2km after separation, in these cases to stop and wait for the others to catch up.


Having re-joined the formation, we set off again when the skies darkened above us and the heavens opened up. One of the nicest sights in the world is a rainy highway with very less traffic, good music, and the pilot lights of the motorcycles ridden by two of your friends in a beautiful staggered formation.


What a sight!

Our tummies started growling eventually but we kept rolling past meadows and estates without a sign of a dhaba. However, after a while KJ started furiously signalling for us to stop and turn around as he had spotted his famous A1 chain of highway hotels.

BUT:


Operations Terminated

After roundly abusing KJ, A1 and everyone else, we set off again and found a small canteen next to a petrol pump where we were treated to a brilliant lunch of rice and dal while the small TV in a corner played Jaani Dushman.


Horsing around at the border

After saying goodbye to the good soldiers, we set off for the final leg, and the single lane roads were quite empty as we took the less populated Siliguri bypass route to Jalpaiguri.

In the car, a quick search of hotels narrowed us down to "Hotel De'l Pritom" that boasted of safe parking and fell within our budget. The final 20 minutes is always the toughest as we battled the small town traffic, drawing up outside the hotel and waited in the car as PD went in to perform her inspection of the premises and declared it fit. We parked inside a compound and finally dragged ourselves into the rooms. We were starving by this time, and after a quick bath we assembled at the restaurant as we ate a ridiculously overpriced dinner. Feeling excited about the next day's ride, I looked forward to falling asleep dreaming of the North East that we would be entering the next day.

Little did I know what a terrible fate lay ahead.

TO BE CONTINUED.....

Re: Achievement Unlocked: North East and Bhutan explored over 18 days

Awesome stuff