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Just letting you guys know in advance that this might be a bit long. But I needed to provide the details in case anyone is planning to visit.
So it all started on the 9th of March 2017. Our Bhutan trip was coming to an end. It was one heck of an experience to ride in sub zero temperatures, sometimes at night. Travelling always teaches you things that books can never teach. Well, anyway, we were standing in line in front of our bikes for a group photo just before reaching Phuentsholing, wondering where our next trip would take us. With the sun setting right before us, we were in complete awe of nature, filled with bittersweet thoughts of going back home, and also having to leave the beautiful land of the Thunder Dragon behind. That’s when we decided to plan a trip to the North East, we were already in love with the mountains, what would better than to travel to another hilly area. Mir took it upon himself to sketch out a plan for us to follow.
About two weeks after reaching home, we narrowed down the dates for our possible trip. Started filling out leave applications at work. Dates decided were 7th – 17th October. Location – Meghalaya. This trip included 5 people on bikes (Amjad, Nabeel, Sahil, Sohel and me) and a car (Imran, Jeet, Altaf and Mir). As we approached the dates, we started getting our luggage needs sorted. Cameras, saddle bags, a gopro, bike spares and tools, flashlights, and raincoats. Everything was ready. Then the big day came.
7th of October, we started at night, around 9pm from our homes, reached Hindustan Hotel on NH2 and had a superlative dinner. Loads of chatter as everyone was really stoked about the trip. We found a group of people there who were intrigued by our enthusiasm, they also happened to notice all the luggage on the bikes parked in front of us. They asked about our plans, and were thrilled to hear about it. They shared their bit of info about the route as they had travelled through it recently. After this, we headed off.
Day 1 and 2 don’t have much to talk about, we took the NH2-Burdwan-Sh7 route to Alipurduar. Nabeel joined in from Siliguri on his Bullet 500. On day 2 we reached Guwahati. We were greeted by Eric and his friends from xBhp Assam chapter. Thanks for the hospitality guys, even at around 10 at night you were with us. Helped us get to our hotel safe and secure.
Day 3 – Guwahati – Umiam Lake - Shillong (98 kms)
The roads were pretty good, lots of greenery. On the way, it started raining. But we all had decent raincoats, this is a must if you are planning to visit Meghalaya. About 20 kms before reaching Shillong, we saw Umiam lake. As we started late in the morning, we reached Umiam lake at the best possible times, just around sunset. However we were not at the viewpoint yet. Asked a local for directions to it, but apparently he didn’t speak Hindi, so he responded in English.
He said, “You will find Indian tourists taking selfies there, that is the viewpoint”
I was a bit baffled. “What do you mean Indian tourists”, I thought. But figured no point getting into a confrontation.
After spending about half an hour here, taking pictures, having tea and bhutta (corn), we moved towards Shillong. It was evening; the traffic was at its peak. Horrid roads reaching up to the city, we saw lots of bikes with modified exhausts, and off-road tyres. Hero Impulse was a common bike to see here. On our way to hotel Elgin, the roads were confusing due to the one-way situation.
Please note – Book your hotels well in advance. The Hotel Elgin was more of a shack, like one of those from Pursuit of Happyness, or maybe a cabin in the Ghost Ship. Doors were too small for us to enter comfortably. But as we were tired, we slept soundly, and woke up the next morning.
Day 4 – Shillong – Laitlum Valley - Tyrshi falls – Shnongpdeng (131 Kms)
In the morning, we got up, had tea and breakfast and moved towards our 1st destination for the day. The Laitlum Canyons, in the East Khasi hills district. In Khasi Language, Laitlum means the end of the hills. This is true because the view from the cliffs and canyons was breathtaking. The clouds engulfed us where we stood. This is when we realised why Meghalaya is called the Abode of Clouds.
We did our trademark Kamehaamehaa pose. If time had stopped, we would have stayed there a lot longer. Google shows there are various waterfalls and pools in the area, but we didn’t have enough time to explore that.
After spending time here, we moved towards Tyrshi falls, although this was not planned, it came on our way to Shnongpdeng. We decided to have a look anyway. It’s just a kilometer off the main road, so a small 10 min hike and you can reach the spot. It is worth a visit.
Spent a little over an hour here, and then continued towards Shnongpdeng, our final destination for the day. On our way, we bought 10 kgs of chicken to roast on the campfire. The roads were treacherous. Sharp turns with gravel on them, very little light around. It is essential that you have good lights installed as with stock lights, your chances of getting into an accident are very high.
We reached Shnongpdeng about 09:00 at night, we had booked our tents at “Bright Star Tents”, it is located on the other side of the river, away from all the noise. We had to cross the bridge to get there. Please note – If you have a lot of luggage, you might struggle as the suspension bridge tends to sway a lot. Plus, it is a 15 mins walk to the campsite. Better idea would be to book tents on the same side of the river where you park your vehicle.
The roasted chicken was the highlight of the day.
Day 5 – Krang Shuri – Dawki – Shnongpdgeng (50 kms)
The next morning, the first thing we did was change tents to the other side. Just to keep it convenient and not having to cross the bridge with luggage.
After some tea and snacks, we headed out to what would be the best part of the Meghalaya trip – Krang Shuri waterfalls. Situated in the Jaintia Hills district, this is a relatively new and considerably accessible waterfall in Meghalaya.
Hike down from the main road is approximately 20-25 mins. The entry fee is Rs 40 and the life jackets can be rented for Rs 30. Mandatory if you want to enter the water. Advisable as well because the water is deep. The turquoise blue water was better than any pictures we had seen on the internet. We had planned to spend an hour here too but ended up spending close to four hours with how epic this was. We jumped from the rocks, although wanted to jump from the top of the falls, but it is prohibited now due to a recent death.
Next up – Dawki – The most hyped place of Meghalaya. Did it do justice to what we had heard about it? Not really. It was very crowded, filled with a lot of Bangladeshi tourists, the water was not crystal clear like in the photos on Google. Litter everywhere. Probably because this was not the best time to visit. We came to know from locals that it becomes crystal clear in the months of Dec-Jan as the suspended particles from the monsoon rain get settled by then. Boat rides can cost about 500 per boat for 4 people.
The sunset here was heavenly though. I think Dawki’s sunset redeemed the otherwise average experience. We returned to Shnongpdeng after this thoroughly enjoyable day.
To end it on an even better note, we were sitting by the river, listening to the gushing sound of it passing over rocks, listening to music, eating another feast of roasted chicken, and smoked hookah. We had our feet suspended in the water, little fishies came and nibbled our toes.
Day 6 – Shnongpdeng – Mawlynnong – Cherrapunji – Nongriat (132 kms)
We were greeted with happy faces from the locals. They made us tea and Maggi in the morning. Amjad, Nabeel, Mir and I decided to take a little dip in the nearby stream before leaving Shnongpdeng.
We had plans to visit the single root bridge before continuing to Cherrapunji and spending the night there. We had decided to skip the double-decker root bridge because it would take a whole day. But as luck would have it, while in Shnongpdeng, we met an American couple who shared their travel experiences in India so far. They claimed the double-decker living root bridge was the best place they have found in India. This was just about making it easier for us to decide. Then they said, “There are no people there at all. It was completely empty. You Indians don’t like to walk.”
That was it; we had decided to prove him wrong. Our plans changed to staying over in Nongriat instead of Cherrapunji. First stop was Mawlynnong, Asia’s cleanest village, which is about 40 kms from Shnongpdeng. The place was highly commercialised. Shops of all kinds of local articles were commonplace. Amjad and I bought a couple of knives from here. It had been a while since we got decent food, and in Mawlynnong we found simple Bengali food which we ate to our heart’s content.
Then it was the turn of the Single Root Bridge.
It was magnificent.
We had a lot of fun here, trolling each other.
From here, we moved towards Nongriat, which was about 92 kms. Route included SH5 and NH206.
We reached Tyrna around 10pm. This is where we had to park our vehicles, beyond this was a 3 km trek down the mountain to reach Nongriat. We had Maggi and tea from a shop in the area. There was torrential downpour. We were lucky to have a car with us, for without it, we would have struggled with our luggage.
The trek down started around 10:30, stairs were in relatively decent shape. Most of the times they were equal sized, but sometimes, they became excessively narrow and steep. Best be careful if going down there at night. On our way, Imran got kissed by some leeches, and Jeet encountered a snake. We were split into two groups and had a guide for each group. This was necessary as we wouldn’t have made it on our own in complete darkness. Cost us 700 bucks for both of them. We made multiple stops on our way down as our knees took a beating, you wouldn’t have guessed that climbing down some stairs would be this challenging. There was also a suspension bridge ahead of us. You could hear the river roaring down under you, crushing against the massive boulders in the middle of the waters. There was thunder and lightning while we passed this bridge, the light shined on the water and it was a sight to behold.
We reached Serene Homestay at around 10 minutes to midnight. They had prepared a decent meal for us – Dal, rice, and some veggies. The rooms were 1200 a night, for 3 people. The dorm was 250 per head. We slept like babies without a care in the world. It was the end of a long, eventful day.
Day 7 – Nongriat to Shillong
Nabeel woke up early and took some pics of the nearby locales.
As for the rest of us, we woke up at 9am, although should have gotten up a lot earlier. We could not visit the Rainbow falls due to this reason, we had a lot of distance to cover in the next few days and did not have any time to waste. We were content with just spending time at the root bridge for this day.
There was a 3-4 min hike to the double-decker root bridge from where we stayed. Entry is 10 bucks per head. We bathed and swam in the pools for around 3 hours. The water was cool and relaxing. We took it easy because we had a climb ahead of us. Well at least for the first 30 mins. Then we climbed 6 levels of the waterfall, each level greeted us with a nice little Jacuzzi-like pool, bubbling water from the quick flowing stream, cutting through the rocks and onto our backs, was pretty relaxing. We found a cave under the waterfall, our voices echoed in it. We were like kids.
It was 1 o’clock, time to get going. We reached the home stay, had another Maggi and then got ready to move up the stairs; all 3775 of them.
The climb was tough, we planned our ascent, took 200 stairs at a time, then down to 100 stairs at a time, then down to 50 stairs at a time, then lost the will to live.
I guess it helps being fit. We stopped multiple times for refreshments which were absent while we were descending at night. Amjad and Jeet reached the top the quickest, in about 1 hour 45 mins, then most of us followed in another 15-20 mins. The sigh of relieve that everyone heaved out as we reached the top is something worth remembering from the trip.
We reached the top close to 3:30pm, and after resting for a bit, we headed towards Shillong. We knew this will be a tough journey since our bodies were tired, and the road was about to get dark real quick. We soon found ourselves amidst dense clouds on the notorious NH206. Visibility was no more than 20 feet, our speeds stayed below 35-40 at all times. However, slow and steady wins the race.
We reached Shillong around 10:00 pm, City hotel treated us with extremely delicious food. This was a blessing after a long, tiresome day. 2 kms uphill was hotel Red Cross where we managed to get shelter for the night.
Day 8 – Shillong to Bongaigaon
As we woke up, we headed out to Elephant falls, which is one of the tourist destinations in Shillong. Imran bought a Kukri from one of the shops there. The waterfall was okayish at best compared to the wonders of Krang Shuri. After taking a few pictures here, we headed back to the city. We did a bit of shopping from the local markets. Around 3pm, after lunch, we made a move towards Bongaigaon. We reached Bongaigaon close to 11pm. I don’t have any clue how we manage to mess us our timing so much each time.
Pro tip – If you are planning this trip, try to avoid Bongaigaon, as locals warned us about the lingering presence of Naxals and Maoists. Also keep your maps updated, we almost got lost trying to find one of the hotels. The road less travelled is sometimes scary as hell.
We reached the hotel and got into a bit of an argument with the reception there, we were tired but they needed all of our Ids, due to the issue with the Naxals and Maoists. Eventually we obliged, handed our Ids and moved into our rooms.
Day 9&10 – Bongaigaon – Raiganj – Kolkata
Bags were all ready; we were on the last leg of our journey. No major hiccups so far. I noticed my engine drain bolt broken, which I got fixed by a local mechanic. We got the car cleaned, had breakfast of alu paratha and puri sabji and set off for Raiganj. Nabeel had set off earlier as he was headed to Siliguri.
We had the “xhp bike exchange program” among ourselves. This is where we interchange bikes and have a little cruise. We made good time, and maintained good speeds. Road conditions were pretty good, until we encountered Dalkhola. This is what nightmares are made of. Bikes are okay to take through here, albeit the roads are damaged. But a car will not pass through here at all. Imran and the ones in the car were stuck in the jam for about 4 hours. (A good alternate to this route is through a village after Islampur, the road is called Botolbari road.)
The bikes had trudged along and halted at a dhaba after Dalkhola. It was now close to morning on Day 10. Imran, Amjad, Altaf decided to stay at Raiganj. Mir, Jeet, Sohel, Sahil and I moved ahead early morning on Day 10. While the car was stuck in traffic, we had sneaked in a little nap at the dhaba, this gave us the edge.
The road after Raiganj was not to be envied. We were used to seeing SH7 in a better condition, but recently, a lot of speed breakers have been added, this makes it difficult to traverse through the night. It was a good decision for the bikes to move early, as it would have been risky to ride here at night.
We all reached home safe, close to 8pm.
P.S. – Plans for next trips are already underway. Let us know if you’d like to join us someday.
So it all started on the 9th of March 2017. Our Bhutan trip was coming to an end. It was one heck of an experience to ride in sub zero temperatures, sometimes at night. Travelling always teaches you things that books can never teach. Well, anyway, we were standing in line in front of our bikes for a group photo just before reaching Phuentsholing, wondering where our next trip would take us. With the sun setting right before us, we were in complete awe of nature, filled with bittersweet thoughts of going back home, and also having to leave the beautiful land of the Thunder Dragon behind. That’s when we decided to plan a trip to the North East, we were already in love with the mountains, what would better than to travel to another hilly area. Mir took it upon himself to sketch out a plan for us to follow.
About two weeks after reaching home, we narrowed down the dates for our possible trip. Started filling out leave applications at work. Dates decided were 7th – 17th October. Location – Meghalaya. This trip included 5 people on bikes (Amjad, Nabeel, Sahil, Sohel and me) and a car (Imran, Jeet, Altaf and Mir). As we approached the dates, we started getting our luggage needs sorted. Cameras, saddle bags, a gopro, bike spares and tools, flashlights, and raincoats. Everything was ready. Then the big day came.
7th of October, we started at night, around 9pm from our homes, reached Hindustan Hotel on NH2 and had a superlative dinner. Loads of chatter as everyone was really stoked about the trip. We found a group of people there who were intrigued by our enthusiasm, they also happened to notice all the luggage on the bikes parked in front of us. They asked about our plans, and were thrilled to hear about it. They shared their bit of info about the route as they had travelled through it recently. After this, we headed off.
Day 1 and 2 don’t have much to talk about, we took the NH2-Burdwan-Sh7 route to Alipurduar. Nabeel joined in from Siliguri on his Bullet 500. On day 2 we reached Guwahati. We were greeted by Eric and his friends from xBhp Assam chapter. Thanks for the hospitality guys, even at around 10 at night you were with us. Helped us get to our hotel safe and secure.
Day 3 – Guwahati – Umiam Lake - Shillong (98 kms)
The roads were pretty good, lots of greenery. On the way, it started raining. But we all had decent raincoats, this is a must if you are planning to visit Meghalaya. About 20 kms before reaching Shillong, we saw Umiam lake. As we started late in the morning, we reached Umiam lake at the best possible times, just around sunset. However we were not at the viewpoint yet. Asked a local for directions to it, but apparently he didn’t speak Hindi, so he responded in English.
He said, “You will find Indian tourists taking selfies there, that is the viewpoint”
I was a bit baffled. “What do you mean Indian tourists”, I thought. But figured no point getting into a confrontation.
After spending about half an hour here, taking pictures, having tea and bhutta (corn), we moved towards Shillong. It was evening; the traffic was at its peak. Horrid roads reaching up to the city, we saw lots of bikes with modified exhausts, and off-road tyres. Hero Impulse was a common bike to see here. On our way to hotel Elgin, the roads were confusing due to the one-way situation.
Please note – Book your hotels well in advance. The Hotel Elgin was more of a shack, like one of those from Pursuit of Happyness, or maybe a cabin in the Ghost Ship. Doors were too small for us to enter comfortably. But as we were tired, we slept soundly, and woke up the next morning.
Day 4 – Shillong – Laitlum Valley - Tyrshi falls – Shnongpdeng (131 Kms)
In the morning, we got up, had tea and breakfast and moved towards our 1st destination for the day. The Laitlum Canyons, in the East Khasi hills district. In Khasi Language, Laitlum means the end of the hills. This is true because the view from the cliffs and canyons was breathtaking. The clouds engulfed us where we stood. This is when we realised why Meghalaya is called the Abode of Clouds.
We did our trademark Kamehaamehaa pose. If time had stopped, we would have stayed there a lot longer. Google shows there are various waterfalls and pools in the area, but we didn’t have enough time to explore that.
After spending time here, we moved towards Tyrshi falls, although this was not planned, it came on our way to Shnongpdeng. We decided to have a look anyway. It’s just a kilometer off the main road, so a small 10 min hike and you can reach the spot. It is worth a visit.
Spent a little over an hour here, and then continued towards Shnongpdeng, our final destination for the day. On our way, we bought 10 kgs of chicken to roast on the campfire. The roads were treacherous. Sharp turns with gravel on them, very little light around. It is essential that you have good lights installed as with stock lights, your chances of getting into an accident are very high.
We reached Shnongpdeng about 09:00 at night, we had booked our tents at “Bright Star Tents”, it is located on the other side of the river, away from all the noise. We had to cross the bridge to get there. Please note – If you have a lot of luggage, you might struggle as the suspension bridge tends to sway a lot. Plus, it is a 15 mins walk to the campsite. Better idea would be to book tents on the same side of the river where you park your vehicle.
The roasted chicken was the highlight of the day.
Day 5 – Krang Shuri – Dawki – Shnongpdgeng (50 kms)
The next morning, the first thing we did was change tents to the other side. Just to keep it convenient and not having to cross the bridge with luggage.
After some tea and snacks, we headed out to what would be the best part of the Meghalaya trip – Krang Shuri waterfalls. Situated in the Jaintia Hills district, this is a relatively new and considerably accessible waterfall in Meghalaya.
Hike down from the main road is approximately 20-25 mins. The entry fee is Rs 40 and the life jackets can be rented for Rs 30. Mandatory if you want to enter the water. Advisable as well because the water is deep. The turquoise blue water was better than any pictures we had seen on the internet. We had planned to spend an hour here too but ended up spending close to four hours with how epic this was. We jumped from the rocks, although wanted to jump from the top of the falls, but it is prohibited now due to a recent death.
Next up – Dawki – The most hyped place of Meghalaya. Did it do justice to what we had heard about it? Not really. It was very crowded, filled with a lot of Bangladeshi tourists, the water was not crystal clear like in the photos on Google. Litter everywhere. Probably because this was not the best time to visit. We came to know from locals that it becomes crystal clear in the months of Dec-Jan as the suspended particles from the monsoon rain get settled by then. Boat rides can cost about 500 per boat for 4 people.
The sunset here was heavenly though. I think Dawki’s sunset redeemed the otherwise average experience. We returned to Shnongpdeng after this thoroughly enjoyable day.
To end it on an even better note, we were sitting by the river, listening to the gushing sound of it passing over rocks, listening to music, eating another feast of roasted chicken, and smoked hookah. We had our feet suspended in the water, little fishies came and nibbled our toes.
Day 6 – Shnongpdeng – Mawlynnong – Cherrapunji – Nongriat (132 kms)
We were greeted with happy faces from the locals. They made us tea and Maggi in the morning. Amjad, Nabeel, Mir and I decided to take a little dip in the nearby stream before leaving Shnongpdeng.
We had plans to visit the single root bridge before continuing to Cherrapunji and spending the night there. We had decided to skip the double-decker root bridge because it would take a whole day. But as luck would have it, while in Shnongpdeng, we met an American couple who shared their travel experiences in India so far. They claimed the double-decker living root bridge was the best place they have found in India. This was just about making it easier for us to decide. Then they said, “There are no people there at all. It was completely empty. You Indians don’t like to walk.”
That was it; we had decided to prove him wrong. Our plans changed to staying over in Nongriat instead of Cherrapunji. First stop was Mawlynnong, Asia’s cleanest village, which is about 40 kms from Shnongpdeng. The place was highly commercialised. Shops of all kinds of local articles were commonplace. Amjad and I bought a couple of knives from here. It had been a while since we got decent food, and in Mawlynnong we found simple Bengali food which we ate to our heart’s content.
Then it was the turn of the Single Root Bridge.
It was magnificent.
We had a lot of fun here, trolling each other.
From here, we moved towards Nongriat, which was about 92 kms. Route included SH5 and NH206.
We reached Tyrna around 10pm. This is where we had to park our vehicles, beyond this was a 3 km trek down the mountain to reach Nongriat. We had Maggi and tea from a shop in the area. There was torrential downpour. We were lucky to have a car with us, for without it, we would have struggled with our luggage.
The trek down started around 10:30, stairs were in relatively decent shape. Most of the times they were equal sized, but sometimes, they became excessively narrow and steep. Best be careful if going down there at night. On our way, Imran got kissed by some leeches, and Jeet encountered a snake. We were split into two groups and had a guide for each group. This was necessary as we wouldn’t have made it on our own in complete darkness. Cost us 700 bucks for both of them. We made multiple stops on our way down as our knees took a beating, you wouldn’t have guessed that climbing down some stairs would be this challenging. There was also a suspension bridge ahead of us. You could hear the river roaring down under you, crushing against the massive boulders in the middle of the waters. There was thunder and lightning while we passed this bridge, the light shined on the water and it was a sight to behold.
We reached Serene Homestay at around 10 minutes to midnight. They had prepared a decent meal for us – Dal, rice, and some veggies. The rooms were 1200 a night, for 3 people. The dorm was 250 per head. We slept like babies without a care in the world. It was the end of a long, eventful day.
Day 7 – Nongriat to Shillong
Nabeel woke up early and took some pics of the nearby locales.
As for the rest of us, we woke up at 9am, although should have gotten up a lot earlier. We could not visit the Rainbow falls due to this reason, we had a lot of distance to cover in the next few days and did not have any time to waste. We were content with just spending time at the root bridge for this day.
There was a 3-4 min hike to the double-decker root bridge from where we stayed. Entry is 10 bucks per head. We bathed and swam in the pools for around 3 hours. The water was cool and relaxing. We took it easy because we had a climb ahead of us. Well at least for the first 30 mins. Then we climbed 6 levels of the waterfall, each level greeted us with a nice little Jacuzzi-like pool, bubbling water from the quick flowing stream, cutting through the rocks and onto our backs, was pretty relaxing. We found a cave under the waterfall, our voices echoed in it. We were like kids.
It was 1 o’clock, time to get going. We reached the home stay, had another Maggi and then got ready to move up the stairs; all 3775 of them.
The climb was tough, we planned our ascent, took 200 stairs at a time, then down to 100 stairs at a time, then down to 50 stairs at a time, then lost the will to live.
I guess it helps being fit. We stopped multiple times for refreshments which were absent while we were descending at night. Amjad and Jeet reached the top the quickest, in about 1 hour 45 mins, then most of us followed in another 15-20 mins. The sigh of relieve that everyone heaved out as we reached the top is something worth remembering from the trip.
We reached the top close to 3:30pm, and after resting for a bit, we headed towards Shillong. We knew this will be a tough journey since our bodies were tired, and the road was about to get dark real quick. We soon found ourselves amidst dense clouds on the notorious NH206. Visibility was no more than 20 feet, our speeds stayed below 35-40 at all times. However, slow and steady wins the race.
We reached Shillong around 10:00 pm, City hotel treated us with extremely delicious food. This was a blessing after a long, tiresome day. 2 kms uphill was hotel Red Cross where we managed to get shelter for the night.
Day 8 – Shillong to Bongaigaon
As we woke up, we headed out to Elephant falls, which is one of the tourist destinations in Shillong. Imran bought a Kukri from one of the shops there. The waterfall was okayish at best compared to the wonders of Krang Shuri. After taking a few pictures here, we headed back to the city. We did a bit of shopping from the local markets. Around 3pm, after lunch, we made a move towards Bongaigaon. We reached Bongaigaon close to 11pm. I don’t have any clue how we manage to mess us our timing so much each time.
Pro tip – If you are planning this trip, try to avoid Bongaigaon, as locals warned us about the lingering presence of Naxals and Maoists. Also keep your maps updated, we almost got lost trying to find one of the hotels. The road less travelled is sometimes scary as hell.
We reached the hotel and got into a bit of an argum
Day 9&10 – Bongaigaon – Raiganj – Kolkata
Bags were all ready; we were on the last leg of our journey. No major hiccups so far. I noticed my engine drain bolt broken, which I got fixed by a local mechanic. We got the car cleaned, had breakfast of alu paratha and puri sabji and set off for Raiganj. Nabeel had set off earlier as he was headed to Siliguri.
We had the “xhp bike exchange program” among ourselves. This is where we interchange bikes and have a little cruise. We made good time, and maintained good speeds. Road conditions were pretty good, until we encountered Dalkhola. This is what nightmares are made of. Bikes are okay to take through here, albeit the roads are damaged. But a car will not pass through here at all. Imran and the ones in the car were stuck in the jam for about 4 hours. (A good alternate to this route is through a village after Islampur, the road is called Botolbari road.)
The bikes had trudged along and halted at a dhaba after Dalkhola. It was now close to morning on Day 10. Imran, Amjad, Altaf decided to stay at Raiganj. Mir, Jeet, Sohel, Sahil and I moved ahead early morning on Day 10. While the car was stuck in traffic, we had sneaked in a little nap at the dhaba, this gave us the edge.
The road after Raiganj was not to be envied. We were used to seeing SH7 in a better condition, but recently, a lot of speed breakers have been added, this makes it difficult to traverse through the night. It was a good decision for the bikes to move early, as it would have been risky to ride here at night.
We all reached home safe, close to 8pm.
P.S. – Plans for next trips are already underway. Let us know if you’d like to join us someday.
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