The Travelling Life of Silvan Colani
November 2007 - India/Bhutan (cont.)
After an extensive lunch at the Elgin (best Crème Caramel ever!!!) we saddled up and rode out of this ramshackle town. We ride in a convoy with Rob at the front and one of the mechanics as sweeper at the back with the support truck carrying our luggage at the rear. On the map we only covered a small stretch today – some 40kms to the next hill station, Kalimpong – but it took us some four hours to cover. The route went down a steep valley, probably some 1600meters in terms of altitude, to the Tista river and then up the other side. The ride down was steep and challenging – breaking and shifting through tight corners requiring plenty of concentration –but equally spectacular! The fog eventually gave way to what I would describe as the quintessential “foothills of the Himalaya”: steep valleys full of tea plantations with lots of colorful people dotted along the landscape.
Two of our guys fell off their bikes on a slippery stretch but no major damage done. At another point the traffic was queued up because of a rock fall over the road. Fortunately this posed not much of an obstacle for our sturdy Enfields and helped me convince Mei to switch from the support jeep to my bike!
Kalimpong was everything that Darjeeling should have been (but wasn’t): sunny, quaint and cheerful. We stayed at the Park Hotel, an old hunting lodge full of charm and character with a lovely porch on which we drank ‘tongba’, locally brewed fermented millet booze.
| Moment of the Day:
When overtaking a bus in a busy town along the way, a female passenger leaned out of the window and puked the colorful remains of her lunch onto the road, barely missing the rider ahead of me and leaving bits of curry on the side of the bus. Yum!
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On Friday we woke up to an incredible sunrise and an amazing view of Kanchenjunga through our bed room window! Today would be a long, hard – but extremely scenic – drive through the back roads of West Bengal to the Bhutanese border. We initially traversed several mountain ridges in cool morning temperatures before descending into the tea plantations at the warmer lower altitudes in the so-called ‘duars’ before eventually meeting Highway 31, the main thoroughfare into Assam. The mountain roads were well-paved and light on traffic, but the highway was a bit hit and miss, with plenty of potholes and lots of stinky buses and Tata trucks. Some parts were freshly paved however, allowing me finally to use fourth gear on the Enfield and pushing the speed limit to 100km/h. Lunch was in “heaven” (see picture) and we reached the border town of Phuentsholing at about 4pm in the most dusty and grubby state I’ve been in for a long time.
Leaving India at Phuentsholing was not as straight forward as we had hoped. Mei and I had single entry visas which, given that we only entered India once at Delhi, should have been sufficient. However, the overzealous yet mildly embarrassed immigration official claimed that with a single entry visa you are supposed to leave the country at your port of entry and are not allowed to travel to a third country, i.e. we should return to Delhi and fly off to Hong Kong. This was of course not our plan and after some patient negotiating with the young man he finally relented and hammered the “departed” stamp into our passports. No money changed hands, I would like to add. He did point out however that we would not be allowed to re-enter India on this visa, meaning that if Bhutan rejected our entry, we would be stuck in no-man’s land!
Fortunately, our entry visa into Bhutan posed no problems and we were set for another long day of riding – 172kms into the capital Thimphu. And what a ride it was! The chaos and dust of India gave way to empty winding roads through endless pine forests, dotted with picturesque Bhutanese houses. Kids were waving along the way as our motley convoy rattled past and curious villagers in the national dress came out wherever we stopped. Lunch was at a rustic cottage that could as well have been somewhere in the Alps. The drive after lunch was breathtakingly beautiful in the afternoon sunshine on excellent tarmac. Conditions slowly deteriorated however as we encountered more and more road works and spent increasing time on mud and dust. About on hour out from Thimphu we hit the shiniest black asphalt yet, but the pleasure only lasted for about a kilometer before we hit the rough again and got stuck in traffic.
With a population of just under 100,000 and not a single traffic light (they used to have one but it was removed after complaints from residents), Thimphu is not exactly a bustling metropolis. But at an altitude of 2320m it features plenty of fresh air and a unique local style in terms of its architecture. Arriving on a Saturday night we obviously had to check out the nightlife, mingling with the locals at the bar of Benez Restaurant. Eric and Robert went on to the Om Bar where apparently they bumped into the 27-year old crown prince on the dance floor and were told by his bodyguards to erase the picture from their camera. Small town!
Next morning we did a little tour of the capital, which seems in a hive of construction activity ahead of next year’s centenary of Bhutan’s monarchy. We also enjoyed watching the locals at their favorite sport, archery, a highly entertaining spectacle with lots of heckling, singing and dancing.
Before lunch we cruised out of Thimphu and back into the autumn-colored forests towards the Dochu La pass (3140m) and down into the lower altitudes of the Punakha valley until coming to a halt at the very impressive Punakha Dzong at the confluence of two rivers. This used to be Bhutan’s seat of government until the capital was moved to Thimphu in 1961 and still serves as the winter residence for Bhutan’s chief abbot. Dzongs (Tibetan for ‘fortress') were built both as military fortresses and as administrative centers as well as monk’s quarters. At a length of 180m, Punakha Dzong is a prime example of Bhutan’s visibly striking architecture.
We stayed at the splendid Zangto Pelri Hotel which has cozy bungalows with balconies that overlook the Punahka valley. For dinner, Mei and I met up with a friend who stayed at the Amankora further up the valley. There are only eight rooms here and at US$1000 per night they are somewhat above my budget but I greatly enjoyed the authentic Bhutanese meal, especially the cheese and chilly curry – like fondue with chilies!
| Thinking Outside the Box:
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Bhutan’s government – or more likely its king – seems extremely enlightened in many respects. It’s policy of requiring buildings to conform to traditional architecture and mandating its population to forego jeans and t-shirts in favor of the local dress has helped to preserve Bhutan’s unique identity while its policy to focus on high-end tourism with a minimum spend of US$200 per day keeps out the back-packing riff-raff (other than a couple of grubby bikers). The money earned from tourism finances free education and health care, including wooden ‘condom boxes’ in public squares and toilets. The locals usually had a good laugh when I asked them why their particular box was already empty…
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