Bhutan Bike Trip : Day 3 Phuenstoling to Paro : Birth Day on the roads of Bhutan

For the past two days , visit the links below

Day 1 : http://mriganksks.blogspot.in/2015/06/bhutan-bike-trip-ride-to-last-sangre-la.html

Day 2 : http://mriganksks.blogspot.in/2015/06/a-night-on-bank-of-river-torsa-day-2.html

अधोलोक में?
चलो, वहीं जाना होगा तो वहीं सही।
जितनी तेज़ चलेंगे,
यह राह बचेगी उतनी थोड़ी।
जो विलमते, पड़ाव करते पैदल जाएँगे
जाएँ-हम-तुम क्यों न कर लें सवारी के लिए घोड़ी?

 -  अज्ञेय

Third day from Phuenstoling started late as we all were in the hangover of last night . Idea was to reach Paro safe and yes it was my birthday .... A journey that is unknown , unpredictable and with challenges that we have all seen. Everyone started the day with a prayer ... prayer to see more and more adventure given the same kind of team effort that we had shown last night. 

Phuenstoling to Paro is about 175 kms ..... and we kick started around 1 PM and we planned to reach Paro by 7 PM. Well this was the day every body was waiting for, best views of Bhutan , best of the forests, no honking, no traffic and best part from our side was that we synchronized in the best possible way. One Hutchback followed by 7 bikes and then an SUV. We took breaks had lunch , snacks and lot of selfies....... I cannot forget Priyanka and Murari for their ,maiden efforts to take selfies at almost all stops. Our team had a lot of photographers to capture the moments .... so a stop resulted in a prolonged photo shoot and modeling event .... GBs of clicks and with 1000s of poses by almost everyone .... We saw some beautiful waterfalls and lush green mountains. 

I was sitting in the SUV behind with Ekta Shoubhik and Ishan.... I was lost for more than few hours thinking about the the travel... I wanted the same life were I worry more about the travel than destination, care less about the traffic than ride, worry more about the team than myself , respect time more than anything else ..... yes I was been taught by the nature and suddenly I started a second journey .... Journey to know oneself .... "यात्रा ही यात्री का मोक्ष होता हॅ"

The Journey was long and our all experienced drives showed their best talent on the turning mountains and we reached Paro around 7 PM . After a bit of struggle to find rooms we continued in a hotel were we took our evening snacks at a very affordable rate. So done a day gone in journey we reached paro so lets go to sleep ???

How can it be possible .... It was my birthday and the same week we had two more birthdays "Priti" and "Abheek".

So the party was planned and we all enjoyed like anything ...birthday celebration with friends and that too 20 in numbers ... I couldnt have asked for anything more ... Thank u God !!!

Lets go to sleep and Murari bhai will continue playing Mafia in a room .... One skill set that was added in everyone's resume.

A Night on the Bank of River Torsa : Day 2 Bhutan Bike Trip

Whenever you will pass through

river Torsa again in your life....

you will remember that night....

Tears will fall...

a lot ... 

because nothing will remain same ..

things will change and are... 

but not the memories....  

whenever u will pass the river torsa.... 

u will recall what went 

in moments 

and made a life time... 

a memory for life time 

stories when we grow old... 

along the golf ground 

in an arm chair some evening 

we will remember.... 

when we crossed river torsa that night

A Night that changed all of ours life for ever .... It all started from Phuenstoling , We sat for more than 6 hrs at a single place because our papers were not cleared by the immigration department. I still remember my first heated discussion ....with Ishan over others getting late and not coming to the immigration office on time. I think the day was made in such a way that nothing was going right for us. Paper work for 20 people, keeping 20 people together , keeping bikes in a good condition, Looking for a good camping spot ... finalizing the camping spot , putting up the tents , exploring Bhutan. I never saw that much lack of coordination in my life and still it seemed everything was OK .... not out of intention but I think our fate made our execution so complex that finally we decided to put a tent between two streams of River Torsa @ Phuenstoling. Credit should go to Abhishek and Preeti for their quest. Meanwhile me battling out with Priyanka on the issue of when will we leave that place where we were sitting for more than 5 hrs.... 

Finally a team was send to the river spot to fix uo the tent .... whoever came back gave an awesome feedback about the place and we all were happy .... 7 Bikes and two cars helped people reach there and of course the efforts made by Abhishek to commute so well in that terrine was commendable. We can see how much ishan was exhausted after he helped us out in complete paper work. Team helping mechanics near the Phuenstoling gate were burned out and were looking for a place to sit and relax. 

Till now everything was fine. Tent on place , river near by , mountain in the background, drizzling and we alll full with emotions and excitement for our first wild camping. When emotions flow ... Indians have a common game to play. "Antakshari" ....Murari and his songs in a peculiar ascent was one of the outcomes of the trip. And now it begins..... We got confirmation that the car that we brought from India cannot go inside Bhutan because the paper work was incomplete ... Lets find a new car in a new place keeping expenses in mind. Anyways again thanks to Ishan and Abheek for managing that. 

It started raining and people started to go inside their tents. It was not only raining , the chilling wind and the water current increasing in both the streams was creating the moment. Marines were busy in setting up tent again and again. To mention we had Shoubhik, Shreyas and Ishan as Marine in the crew :) . Now the food came .. biriyani from Phuenstoling. Its raining, too much humidity inside tents, no light, raining heavily, wind how can someone eat ? We gathered around a car and started distributing and eating whatever was possible. I had seen fear in many eyes till then. I was drenched and i dun know how many times. I have played those mind games with situations a lot in my life but this was new .... tents were flying, no place to sit all cloths saw that rain as well.  I was , as usual in my too and fro motion from 1st tent to last and can only hear uncomfortable emotions across them. Only first marine tent.. Shoubhik and shreyas because of an exhaustive day were trying to sleep. Rain continued and the water level was rising no light no regular mobile connections, new place , less idea about local place and yes ... flying tents. No one was in the mood of eating and all eyes were on increasing level of river Torsa. 

"Let's go from here" , I said to my self and then to the team .. we all gathered at a place and decided to leave the place. But where and how... stream in the water has raised to a level that its difficult to pass. Ankush and tanuj had a number of a dormitory near Phuenstoling - India gate . We called and booked the place. But the question was how to go there and all stuff lying on ground. As I mentioned because of clearance issue, driver was missing and only car was there . Who will drive that SUV full of people , luggage and mixed emotions across that stream. And a marine came to the rescue. Shreyas took the challenge to take girls across the river and bikers took their bikes across the stream.. Our next hero Mr. Putin Da ... What we call him ( Prateek Da ) took the challenge of packing and clearing the camping site with the team and in half an hour place was clear. Now a new problem, how to start a 220 as we had to push it and start, but in that terrine how will it be possible, another man of the moment Mr Akshay pushed the 220 for more than 20+ times at that place and we were amazed by the effort he was putting in each push. Finally it started and all left the place. A new problem, key for a bike was missing , we searched but didn't get in the car. We searched and searched and searched and the water level was rising ... We decided to leave the bike. and go to Phuenstoling. 

So we crossed the stream on our foot and came to safer side of the river leaving one of the bikes in the middle of two rising streams. But when we all reached Phuenstoling, finnaly we got our key exact at the moment when I grew an year older... Yessssss it was my "Happy Birthday ... 1st June 2015" . I couldn't have got better memories on my birthday ... 

A team went to collect the bike and we inside the hotel, unpacking our emotions and drenched luggage . I have just written and I am failing with each word to describe the situation we had at the river side... but as we said we were a team and we executed the task in the best possible way .... I have summarized a night that will be in our memories for ever ..... for ever .

ENJOY SOME RANDOM PICS....

Bhutan Bike Trip : Ride to last Sangre La : Part 1 : Darjeeling to Phuenstoling

It all started from a dinner table almost seven months back around 1st week of December at Suncity Apartments Bangalore. #FridayNight discussions .... Where to go next year as we all were going on a long exhaustive trip every year .... Is it Nepal ? Laddkah again ? .... finally after a lot of discussion we came up with and idea of going to Bhutan. Bhutan ? Seriously ? we searched on internet and information available were not enough to design a planned trip.

Finally whatever info we had we planned to tour around 26th may and return back on 6th June. As a first step we created the most awaited whatsapp group " Bhutan Trip ". From 27th Members it reduced to 20 and finally 20 members started their journey towards a common destination " Bagdogra" on 28th June 2015.

Bangalore - 8
Chennai - 5
Delhi - 1
Mumbai - 2
Muzaffarpur - 2
Kolkata - 3

What best start you can ask for ... Our Delhi team mate Prateek Gautam faced the first challange as his train got cancelled and at the last moment we booked a flight for him to Bagdogra. Second team at Kolkata waited for very long at the station for a journey to NJP that was estimated for 7 hrs but train was late for almost the same time .

Anyways, Me and my friend Abhishek started our Journey from Muzaffarpur as I was in my home town enjoying my holidays. We reached bagdogra on time @ 0400 hrs 29th Morning and took a guest house to relax and get fresh at Bihar Mod Bagdogra. Other teams arrived as  per schedule and we started our journey to Darjeeling and we all reached  there by night 8 PM via three SUVs that we booked from Bagdogra to a hotel / Guest House in Darjeeling.

And the fun begins ..... Half of the hotel was black out half of the team was enjoying playing Mafia and we had a hectic task to reach Phuenstoling on 30th June after driving 176 kms .....

30th Morning went in packing and adjusting luggage on a SUV ... luggage of 20 ppl and there came our first expert " Priti". She arranged the stuff in a manner that even driver was amazed. Struggling to clear papers and pay deposits ... we managed and fought a lot with vendors but managed to leave Darjeeling by 2 PM .

Our Plan was to reach Rambi and wait ..... post we reached 3rd Mile we discussed and started. Ankush Bhai riding a bullet 350 faced first major challenge and Bike got punctured while we were 12 kms from mangpu and around 30 kms from rambi ... Me Abheek Shoubhik Suren and Sajal lost in a dense forest with ideas ... what to do ... fog and falling darkness ... two major issues.... people who have seen Raaz hindi movie can recall the moment. Anyways Sajal and Abheek went on second bike and me and Shoubhik with the help of Ankush and suren pushed 350 cc engined bullet for 6 kms when Sajal and Abheek came with the help ... ray of hope. Middle of road in the light of mobile torch the mechanic managed to repair the bike but the Journey til Rambi through the dense forest and the fog present made so thrilling that for a moment we thought to stay at Mangpho in a hotel and start our journey early next morning. Others had put our tents near a dhaba 14 kms before maal bazar. Our first night in the tent .

How we reached that place ... All three bikes , busy Siliguri Gangtok road and turning roads cannot be explained.

Next morning we took bath in the near by river and started on time towards Phuenstoling and reached there around 11 AM .

What happened a day before were fresh in our minds , lot of discussion, anxiety , planning but with a aim to enjoy the trip. 20 people , 20 different hopes from the trip , 20 different outcomes for what happened a day before. We lagged for almost 8 hrs .....

Enjoy some random pics