Crossing the border and the first feel of the Shangri La!

This morning, we somehow had to figure out the way to Phuentsoling from Bongaigaon. We asked our room boy Krishna, he had little idea but it wasn’t of much help. We called Sen’or and got the list of all the places we have to go through, Sen’or later told us that we just have to ride on NH 31 till Hasimara (West Bengal) and then take a right deviation to Bhutan. That made things easier.

We didn’t have much money, we looked all around Bongaigaon for one ATM which can dispense some money, but found none working (no exaggeration!). We carried on from Bongaigaon, since we knew we can draw money from some town in West Bengal. We decided not to stop until we cross the border of Assam.

After few hours, we crossed the border and we stopped at a small town called Barobisha in West Bengal. We rode into the town to withdraw money. While Jo went to draw money I was waiting by the side of the road. A man comes to me and then asks me ‘Have you come on touring?’ I said ‘Yes’. Then he asked few routine questions which every amused person asks a motorcyclist. His name was Dhiman Roy, After some time Dhiman said, he has the passion to ride too and he wants to ride all across India, by that time Jo joined us and he said ‘one day it’ll happen’. You should have seen the smile on the Dhiman’s face J

By then, we were very hungry. We said bye to Dhiman and went inside a small Hut-hotel nearby. Jo and I are always keen to try out local food, but we don’t speak Bengali! So, I went out and called Dhiman again, he came in and asked the lady at the hotel to serve us rice, dal, local chicken curry, some salad made of leaves called ‘Saakh’. It was very tasty. After the lunch we took pictures with Dhiman Roy and his cousin few helped us in shortening the travel by few kms and left Barobisha.

From Barobisha, Phuentsoling is about one and a half hours ride. We reached Hasimara, where we have to take right turn to go to Phuentsoling. Hasimara is an army town, you find people from all over the country there. Army towns have their own charm, we passed through Hasimara. After crossing Hasimara, roads enter into tea estates. Unlike other tea estates, these are flat. When you pass through these estates sometimes you’ll get to smell strong fragrance of tea in the air. When we were passing through these estates it suddenly became cloudy and dark with slight showers. For the past two days we were riding in the heat and the rain was a welcome gift to us J. Fresh tea fragrance, cool air and slight rains energized us which resulted in twisting the throttles :D For the next half an hour or so the ride was just awesome. We were enjoying the so much that we forgot to take pictures of the beautiful view we had around us, but I managed to find a video clip in youtube which shows what we experienced there. Link is here

We have to cross Buxa tiger reserve to go to Phuentsoling. It was a nice ride through the tiger reserve too. We didn’t get to see no tigers though L While riding in the tiger reserve we got the first look of the mountains! I Showed the mountains to Jo, excitement again, throttle twisting again J That resulted in horn clamp coming off from Jo’s motorcycle. Jo fixed it temperorily and we got it fixed in a garage nearby.

After about an hour’s ride we entered Jaigaon. Jaigaon is Indian side of the twin city, Bhutanese side is called Phuentsoling. It started raining heavily as we entered Jaigaon. We withdrew more money and crossed the border. As we entered Puentsoling, we could feel the difference immediately. Just few hundred meters before, we rode through bad roads, slush. But this side of the town is neat, traditional, Buddhist style buildings people in traditional attire (Gho for men, Kira for women), smiley faces. That was a good start for our Bhutanese expedition.

We pulled over to curb and parked. Next thing to do is to get permits to travel in Bhutan( Paro and Thimphu only from Phuentsoling). I went to the immigration office and there was a long queue and the time was already 3:45. So, we decided to stay in Phuentsoling, get permits in the 24-hour counter later in the evening and start early in the morning tomorrow. But Jo had a smart plan, he suggested to get the RSTA permits for the vehicles first and then get permits for ourselves J. We went to RSTA office, RSTA office is in a beautiful location. As we entered the office, people in Bhutanese offices are always smiling and helpful. They helped us in fillinf the forms and all the procedures and we had our vehicle permits in about 20 mins!

We checked into a hotel, freshened up and stepped out in the evening. Bhutanese people are very friendly. Cops and parking attendants are always ready to help people, few times in Bhutan we had to ask cops about hotels to stay, every time they used to come with us and enquire in each hotel until we got a room. A very kind gesture from them.

Parking attendants are mostly young women in traditional attire. They are always smiling and talk to you in a friendly manner. We made friends with one of the attendants there and she told us where to park in the night and not to worry about thefts or anything of that sort as long as we are in Bhutan :)

We visited a park nearby and took some pictures; we’d already begun to get a hang of Bhutanese lifestyle, a relaxed and a happy way of leading life. People sit in parks quietly and enjoy cool breeze, you can hear Buddhist prayer wheels rolling, bells ringing often which adds to the calmness. We spent some time there. Luckily for us we could get signals from Indian mobile service providers since the park was in an elevated place. We called our near and dear ones and headed to a nice restaurant nearby our experiments with Bhutanese cuisine begin from there :)