Hyderabad to Bhutan Trip

[Tapahasu]

Hyderabad –> Bhutan –> Hyderabad started on 13th may 2018.

Day1:

As I already stated before, this trip was to test my family’s capability of exploring the long drives of distances more than 6000 kms and 20+ days duration, all the time I was alone going on bike expeditions.

 

Started early by 5 am from home located at jalvayu towers, lower tankbund, still kids are in sleeping mode they don’t even have a hint of this trip, just they know someplace traveling, quickly packed the luggage and driven, stopped at Vijayawada for breakfast on road side. One thing i learned a new thing from this trip ( mostly women want to eat street food all the time with neat and clean environment) nothing to say much on this stretch as kids and wiffy sleeping all the time and  road conditions everyone knows, halting place is at APTDC,Baruva Beach. we reached by 3:30 pm in vizag and had lunch at cafe coffee day on the way reaching to vizag. i want to skip the vizag traffic and taken the  truck bypass route, It’s a two lane road some parts wide & some areas narrow, many pot holes in the road but manageable. At 4 to 4:30 rain started heavily, video tells all about it, once crossed vizag. it’s a breeze through srikakulam highway and it’s no more raining and weather is pleasant, reached Baruva by 7 pm, the APTDC cottages are very spacious and AC works well, but poorly maintained the infrastructure, you can have look of sunset and sunrise directly from your room. Booze on order available, but canteen people won't serve, Ordered snacks and food from canteen, food is ok. Sat at the balcony attached and had a long chat and kids are busy with TV.
 

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 850KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 14 hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: APTDC/ double Bed Room -Ac Rs.3000-00 with charges for Extra person

Day2:

Woke up early by 5am thought it was 7 am, quickly refreshed and went on some auto mode beachside photography, shot some sunrise pics, I came back up by 6 am and woke up them, here the horror starts. The time I took them to beach huge crowd from adjacent village to this property is on shitting show all over the beach with 1-3 kms stretch from 6:15 to 7:30 am. Lost interest of going to the beach. Kids got ready and had puri (only thing available) as breakfast. Wiffy had some pics at cottages. Started towards Chilka lake and its a 4 lane road, sun is on his peak still we want to finish the boat ride at Chilka easy to find the way to reach this place, once u take diversion for Rambha straight u will reach to Hotel pant nivas ( most of the people book it online) adjacent lane to pant nivas directly goes to chilka lake. Different tariffs r available from 600 to 5000, depends on whether u r small goat or big goat, both govt and Pvt ferries available, govt one will definitely cost u more and u have to book it from pant nivas built adjacent
to chilka lake, it’s a good one to stay, very spacious (on return journey we stayed here.)
on bargaining they agreed to 1000 bucks for trip to breakfast point, dinosaur island and kingfisher island. Compare to any other parts this is pretty cheap for me for the total ride of 2 hrs. i already posted some pics of it.

Still the kings / queens from Orissa come over here for their breakfast quiet often. Many islands are there with its own story to tell it will cost u more.

 

Boat Ride was good with some luck as dolphins and kingfishers we sited. While traveling on boat one of the guys suggested to take a ride through scenic road instead of NH to reach konark.

*At palur on NH45 before Rambha diversion you have to take diversion for this road called as malud road

It really proves worth listening to him, beautiful roads with lot of water bodies around from small to big to very big, live fishing scenes u may come across many times,  finally reached some point where the road ends and you have to travel by ferry, just missed by 2 mins, it costed 2 hrs, there are many small boats which carries bikes and goods in regular but heavy vehicles like bus, lorry and car has to go through ferry and fees only 300/- so cheap for a life time experience. Entering, exiting and parking in the ferry is a scary part reverse drive and you don’t have choice of roaming freely, all most side door to door and bumper to bumper they will pack, luckily am into one side of the ferry so i can open only one side of door, few pics of it.

Strange and good thing i observe in this trip wiffy didn’t complain about back pain or any pain she started the taste of exploring places.

Safely reached onto the other side of the bank, while taking car out off the ferry one need to be careful in case u drive sedan or suv it hits on back bumper, luckily survived with skills learned from senior ppl like u guys.
The road is a narrow to 2 lane road and 4 lane and it took me 4 hrs on the way to konark, hundreds of cows left on roads and crazy bikers make you upgrade your driving skill set, many speed breakers u will face on this road avoided puri-konark road and took diversion on to jaganath sadak and then to maltatipur-konark road, you can find speed breakers on 4 lane road very crazy, road through the forest is fully packed with many speed breakers, after finishing the drive l was thinking how the tsunami affected konark temple, pretty far from beach. Stayed in Yatrinivas konark, dinner in its attached hotel, very tasty but no room service.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 250KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 7Hrs 20Mins
Tariff for Accommodation: Yatri Nivas/ double Bed Room /Ac Rs.2100-00 with charges for Extra person

Day3:

By 6 am visiting konark temple is best, but we woke up at 7:30 am late and by finishing breakfast by 9am i. e a very bad time to visit konark temple added to this some local person murdered in the night, and police is everywhere, so parking is very far from konark temple. sun is on his peak by 10 am itself somehow managed through, still wondering no complaints from wiffy. Tickets que is very long and no separate lines for men and women somehow got it done very quickly and hired a local guide, he helped us with his umbrella and enormous knowledge he has on this temple even though illiterate, after knowing about brief about konark temple and 12 out of 24 wheels history we tired and guide with age of 60 was very active and he continues his way of explaining things, after making halfway of the temple wiffy starts complaining about scorching heat, she said u guys finish 
and i will wait for u. the guide says “madamji abhi tho asli cheez dekhneka hai, ghore log tho sirf isko dekhnekeliye athe hai”. She pumped up again and ready to walk, guide told the kids to watch at something and took us both to some wheels where it has xxx scenes of ancient mudra. I have to see her face.....burst out of laughing. Guide quickly understand the situation and rushed towards the kids, Very funny it was. Anyhow it charged our mood from sun rays. To save ourselves from heat had some coconut, cucumber, plenty of water and rushed to puri jaganath darshan, heavy traffic buy 2 wheelers, 4 wheelers and cows, everywhere u can see cows and cows. I as usual trapped by some goons who run quick darshan and at the end I couldn't even had darshan of Lord jaganath, but had a bill of 1116/-for annadaanam. At least satisfied that Annadaanam was served to God. Kicked his ass for this but paid him 300\- very shameless fellow, saying mujhe kitnebhi maro lekin paisa dho. Plz plan it earlier in proper time and go directly by urself and have darshan always.
my wife cursed him all the way we reached to our hotel Sonar Bangla motel midway at the outskirts of kolkata. The most horrible place for 5000/-
i never suggest this hotel to anybody, online reviews were good so i booked it but wasted money. It’s a supreme room, AC not working and it’s hardly a 8x10 size room, even after room freshener applied its smelling and owner is so rude and says don’t like then talk to your MMT representative, time was 11pm, no one picks the call, no option left hardly slept as beds are very bad….don’t know how travelers given such a rating to this hotel.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 512.00KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 11 hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Sonar Bangla Motel Midway/ double Bed Room -Non/Ac Rs.5000-00 with charges for Extra person

Day4:

Thought of visiting many places in Kolkata, but a small incident changed my mind, traffic police identify vehicle is not from wb, then tries to loot money from you even we have all documents with us, even though mine is BS-IV vehicle still I carried pollution paper still doesn’t satisfies him, then he started lying u crossed a red signal very funny, arguing for a 30 mins wasted and those idiots settled for 100 bucks after giving their boss names, internet helped me on this, and entire mood was off. First choice is darshan for both the Maatha ji temples. 2 different scenarios one with heavy crowd and poojaris looting people basis of dakshina and other one is serene and calm guarded by military. First time wiffy complains no more kolkatha, thought of going back to Hyderabad, instead she say we will go towards Bhutan, tried to convince her for visiting other places Answer was “when u come by bike dekhlena”. she doesnt even know that i haven’t even planned anything further after this. kids demanded for sundarbans trip but due to elections at sundarban area they stopped the trips. bad luck.
I just rushed into googlemaps and started finalizing the routes at lunch break. Finally decided to go via asansol and it was a bad choice up to asansol roads r 4 lane. We stayed at some hotel named Excellency charged 2.5k and worst rooms and facilities i don’t even pay 500 for it. as we reached late and paid online already no other choice as the 2 nd best hotel is already booked in full. Whole night route plan slept very late.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 302.00KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 6Hrs 20Mins
Tariff for Accommodation: Excellency Hotel/ double Bed Room -Non/Ac Rs.2580-00 with charges for Extra person

Day5:

Asansol to lataguri via Dumka, Bhagalpur, purnea and kishangunj road is all mixed roads, road work is going on, some of them are good, some bad roads, some r horrible roads. But never had a pblm except proper lunch and breakfast, u won’t find any eatables or hotels between, apples and biscuits which in stock were used for this as i said already trip wasnt properly planned, Asansol to Dumka very good roads and No roads, Dumka to Bhagalpur roads are ok with scary drivers 2 & wheelers, Bhagalpur, purnea and kishangunj roads r good to very good. Only trouble truck traffic, long jams for hours, I drove around 30-40 kms in wrong direction to avoid the traffic jam, luckily escaped many accidents on this episode. Kishangunj to lataguri scenic roads one side river and other side forest, some part of the road is very bad. I booked accommodation at The Reserve, GORUMARA, lataguri. Very good hotel with modern amenities, food is very good. south indian Breakfast is an excellent I ever had in northside.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 550 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 13Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: The Reserve, gorumara/ double Bed Room - Ac Rs.5800-00 with charges for Extra person

Day6:

Woke up early 5am for jeep safari which starts at 6 am, need to buy tickets before one day we tried our luck and we got it on same day, wife still at bed me and kids went through this, we had seen only bison in entire trip missed many wild elephants and leopard very fresh footprints just crossed us, it’s a 2:30 hrs trip covering around 28 kms, kids very disappointed, told them we go again in different place where they do Elephant ride and they also can see Rhynos. Both agreed and back to hotel for Breakfast, after breakfast went to Forest Department office where we need to book accommodation, luckily I got one at Kalipur, but I need it in other location which I saw it on jeep safari. Settled with kalipur, as forest ranger said same accommodation will not be available in case we try to book it online even 6 months before. Paid instantly 6000\- including food and snacks which is ok, Actually we want to stay one more day but it’s already reserved long back. Back to Hotel for packing, staff and manager at THE RESERVE Gorumara is very cooperative and agreed to check out by 2 pm. Drive from hotel to kalipur is @ 45 kms. Thought of 1 hr but it took us 2 hrs, scenic roads through tea gardens.

There are only 4 cottages all are NON-AC, 2 already occupied next to canteen by forest dept people, out of 12345, 1&5 are ours, kids demanded mobiles in case they stay separated, my wife drama all the time, kids blab bla bla…..many flies if u put the lights on…..Entire camp is fenced properly, You can find a buffalo ride, 150/person kind of experience went to the rhino tower where we can see them bit faraway, tried our luck, got them only where I can see through binoculars or though camera, reached back on buffalo ride, it’s very different, snacks in the evening is the best food with coffee, after snacks by 7 pm they arranged bonfire and tribal dance with their traditional dress, same night wild elephants have come very near to the camp, we missed it can’t see anything in deadly night vision, understand the value of torch light. Somehow slowly we went to sleep after a remarkable day. BSNL and JIO both works at this place.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 50 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 2Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Kalipur Eco Village, / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.6000-00 with charges for 2 cottages

Day 7:

 

Woke up early by 6 am for elephant ride, it’s my first ride too on an elephant, every one excited, me and my life is into one elephant and kids into another one, crossed small river on the ride, saw a lone Rhyno enjoying its mud Bath, eagerly watching at us, might be saying f…k’ff from here. Saw some deers racing like a bullet, and then come across an entire family of rhynos 8-10 with various sizes, couldn’t got a clear shot as grass is almost 8 feet high. After a watchful sight at elephant ride we were on full charge, wife want to stay a day more but no vacancy has to move, started at 12:15 pm towards Darjeeling until silluguri it’s a mixed roads, after that National Highway only 2 lane up and only up never faced such roads before, experience on leh- ladakh has come in handy, given all assurance to my wiffy nothing will happen, just enjoy the beauty of hills, many kids with school uniforms are everywhere throughout the drive. Without any trouble from car we reached darjeeling, whatever I imagined from my childhood watching in movies is not there, heavy traffic of tourists and pretty child environment is encouraging, my kids started getting effected by high altitude sickness, reached hotel, very cozy, but not spacious, In summer temperature is 3-5*C, washroom tiles r so chilled we can’t use without slippers. Different experience to kids and wiffy, enjoyed the food and went to bed thinking about the morning view of the Mighty Kanchanjunga.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 150 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 5Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Don’t remember / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.2500-00 with charges for Extra person

Day 8:

I decided not to drive in Darjeeling from the experience of previous day drive from siliguri. Hired a local taxi guy, @2000/day. Went to Padmaja Naidu Zoo Park, Rock climbing point, Tea Gardens point where we will be again small and big goats depends on individuals. My suggestion better u guys drive all these points on your own car, waste of money, overall kids got entertained. Already took the famous steam engine train ticket while going to the zoo park in the morning, Frankly speaking I said its just chut….appa to buy tickets for taking a picture with steam engine….Manthera Train ride is far better than this. But its up to the individuals how they feel. We got some good pictures on this train ride.

Only fun thing on this ride is the train has seats where only 2+2 can sit, think about 120-140KG ppl settled in our seats entire family of 8 ppl same sizes with different age groups, the moment I entered the coach, I said wtf where we gonna sit, and their faces like adjust or f…off, crazy that these idiots didn’t take seats in regular numbers instead they were booking 1,3,5,7 etc like that….I said firmly to the head of family if u give us window seats we can adjust else I will call TC and no one ride the train, without any question with smile they agreed. All r happy at the end.

After all these when we reached back it tiresome, quickly back to Hotel with same taxi guy who picked us in the morning, had some dinner and back to sleep.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 0 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 0Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Don’t remember same hotel / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.2500-00 with charges for Extra person.

Day 9:

Woke up bit late by 10 am started towards gangtok, distance 110kms time taken to trave is 5:30 hrs very hectic, uploaded a video, jho bhi keeda tha driving ki nikhalgaya hai….I prayed god I don’t need any more curves….on the other side kids started vomiting…..every one hour….5 mins break…finally reached Hotel.

Its day rest and paper work for ILP’s for next morning and its Monday no permission for Nathula Pass, so only changu lake and Baba mandir.

We met some more telugu people in the same hotel traveling in and around Sikkim. Kids had lot of chat and play with them, I just get into bed for whole day to get rested…..I got slight fever due to hectic drive with high altitude sickness, my wife who troubles for 200kms drive, doesn’t show any sign off sickness or pain. Its good sign for the trip to go further.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 120 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 5:30Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Don’t remember same hotel / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.5000-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

Day 10:

Woke up early and ready by 7 am waiting for the tour operator from the hotel, but the tour operator didn’t turned up, waited and waited at 10:30 am that idiot has come with taxi, saying sorry yesterday he hasn’t do the permit process and he did it in the morning, this trip costed us Rs 5000/-including all.

Huge crowd on the roads till we cross the city, again it started curves, hair pin bends, etc. this time I am enjoying the nature as am not driving, gone through many fog, mist and rain combinations, and the hell of traffic jam for 2 hrs, hired shoes and hand gloves, never thought we face ICE in summer didn’t carry any except jackets. Had some snaps passing through many military camps, finally reached the Changu Lake (Tsomogo lake) beautiful with less crowd as most of them were in return journey, Buffalo ride is over and now its sibling Yak ride is on, As usual I prefer to walk and wife and kids on Yaks, got some beautiful pics cost depends on your bargains 500-1500. It has car cable ride which take you to the top of the hill, temp -2 to 1*C, played a lot had some good pics, came back for journey to Baba Mandir, Taxi driver says its late we have to go back, as everyone is returning back and weather changing drastically, I argued and finally said ok. On return journey my health went down and vomited same as my kids, appreciated the driver for not going to baba mandir. Reached back hotel, Actual plan is to drive in the night to phuentshilong, Due to the health issue continued for one more night, in case health get better we drove early in the morning else we rest as am the only driver for this entire trip. Wife want to do shopping and took local cab guy went to MG Road only place where u can get costly items for more cost, better to buy in some roadside shops, Here shop keepers are more clever than Hyderabad ones, as they make u comfortable that u will never refuse to buy and prepare you for Halal. You will come to know this when u visit some other shop. As usual she is some kind of Maniac (Unique) who doesn’t want gold but all these nonsense, excuse for it I can buy 10-20 items for the same price in comparison to gold. I can’t argue with her on this so I stopped bothering it, finally went back to hotel. View from the balcony of hotel was good but haven’t had any pics everywhere its fog or mist. Can’t see any.

Note: You can also do self-driving to these places on Bikes and with good local person cars too, and these taxi drivers and shop owners are all family bros and sis, all most all of them it’s the main source of income.

 

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 0 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 0Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Don’t remember same hotel / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.4000-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

Day 11:

As my health recovered due to the proper night sleep, Woke up at 6am and we were ready to move to Phuentoshilong had hot coffee and drove towards phuentosholing, Same story again repeats, hills, curves, vomiting and new to this is speed breakers very unique can’t explain ( they are like water passages) better u understand when u drove. As I passed through the Dooars again I understood that I made a wrong booking earlier, could have been done Darjeeling and gangtok, then to dooars could have been a good option as its on the way, reached Phuentoshilong by 1:30 pm. You can find 2 different worlds here at Indian border with Bhutan, one side sounds, pollution, chaos etc on other side strict rules and regulations with peace of mind eg: pedestrian importance, no horns, you can find everywhere a Bangladeshi / Nepal origin as parking ticket collector, you can’t escape from him till you are in Bhutan. You can ask anyone for the directions to Visa permit counter they will help, you won’t get parking easily have to roam around the shops nearby to get one.

You can directly enter Bhutan side (Visa Counter) without any permission, first thing is to finish the Car permit as the counter for cash closes by 3 PM, You can get even directions for this through google maps, I was using JIO sim working well, paid Rs 500/- for permit for 7 days after finishing the paper work ( you will be paying vehicle permit amount depends on number of days you will be staying in Bhutan better to go always more than 12-15 days, as this won’t be done again anywhere even in thimphu) and straight drove to Visa Permit counter, There are 2 lines one for people who’s applying for work permit under the BRO in Bhutan and the other line for Tourists and etc, Everyone who reaches the Visa Office will first afraid of seeing the other line….You can also avail the services of brokers in the office, but u don’t need one. They will give you an application form where u will fill details individually and in separate form along with your details along with supporting documents like, id proof, photos-2, and hotel booking confirmation for one day. once you submit these to the 2 operators working at the counter, they check it and your number or name will be called, where we need to go for biometric in 1^st floor, all this process will take only an hour, after getting the permit we have to go back to Vehicle permit and show this to them and they issue vehicle permit, while taking vehicle permit they will ask you for how many days, incase u want to explore entire Bhutan then go for 15 days else tell them 7 days accordingly they charge you ones it done will not be redone even at Thimpu, Thimpu is only for an extension of Individual VISA permit but not vehicle permit. After all this had some lunch at 4 pm and started towards Thimpu, Roads are mixed conditions with 4 lane, 2 lane with pot holes, here people putting a right indicator means they are giving way to cross, initially confused later acquainted, reached hotel by 10:30am will upload some pics of it.

Note: Your accommodation receipt in Bhutan for day 1 should be mandatory, rest they won’t even bother; same we need to submit our Itenary for entire tour. You can avail all the Xerox and online facilities just next door, you can avail the SIM cards by submitting the permit and aadhar card, money exchange is almost same buy as much as u want, 2000 notes only valid in Phuentoshilong and thimpu rest of the places strictly no and 500, 100, 50, 20 and 10 notes of Indian currency works in all places.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 410 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 15:30Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Hotel Bhutan / 2 double Bed Room - Ac Rs.7000-00 with all charges.

 

Day 12:

Woke up bit late by 8 am started the paper work for further travel in Bhutan same process need to apply for the places to visit and same as going to the vehicle permit. You can easily get these locations, application center is right opposite to my hotel room. Done things by 9 am started towards Punakha, Roads are good, My younger one got fever due to vomiting continuously and he is dehydrated, did what ever I can do as a father to make him calm down and get him back in to travel mood. Dachula pass is very nice one for pics, weather is cold and foggy, didn’t gone through the history of it, Canteen is available, Next thing is to reach our stay i.e homestay thought of little different from India will be nice and enjoyable living in nature and enjoying nature, Homestay is little away from the regular road to Punakha, missed it and drove 5kms realized google showing some other location in back, somehow reached it, off roading to destination, the entire stretch is very scenic, we were in dreams, how the stay could be….same thing crossed the stay and moved further thinking it will be further down as we crossed a small village with very old buildings cant even think about is our stay as it costed my 5000 bucks, reached some place where all people get down for sightseeing it’s the place where all Bhutan art is founded, live art and lot of portraits and landscapes even some are very old on exhibits, called the ladylord, asked to us to come back to village, start the scary part watching my wife’s face…..LOL.. couldn’t even dared to see her eyes, surprisingly see said in calm manner, lets try…….Relief…..the moment we reached and called her she said only 1 room is there, get adjusted in that….before taking any decision I want to see that stay….went along with my elder one….The moment I entered the house understood I made a big mistake booking here, Irooms are in first floor, vertical steps almost like a ladder kept all my fears and dared to enter……Its just a 8x12 room, no bed only beds old type on ground…..no attached bathroom. What else u need to become ussain bolt……LOL. Begged my son not to tell anything about stay and bribed a lego toy, rushed back to car, not a single word with my wife asking normal questions to crying questions, my elder one had his best laughs all the time. Stopped for a Tea, before I told the story I offered her shopping at Paro unlimited, she surprisingly seeing at me and agreed heard the story just laughed, all the things got into normal, booked a hotel at Khuruthang before Punakha reached hotel with a lot of relief.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 90 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 6:30Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Don’t remember same hotel / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.3000-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

Day 13:

Started by 10am towards Punakha Dzong, reached in 30 mins, separate parking available for private vehicles, Most Beautiful and the best Dzong in entire Bhutan, River flows adjacent to the dzong, entrance is a crossover bridge, Purple flowers on entire path way, Its properly guarded by police, Main temple is not allowed for visitors, we were at prayer time, saw people carrying food for god and idols….it’s a very high on spiritual time, somehow I get into the main temple as no guard was there, its 5 storey bldg, all rooms are locked, only option peep through, very old paintings of Buddha, they were so beautiful time permitted it takes me a day to stare them, somehow remembered I have family to take care of went down saw a police guard right in front and starring me, I went to him and ask very innocently why they locked rooms, his reply to me how you get in, said no one was here and instruction written just went 1 up by one floor, he called his senior and they discussed some in their language and told its restricted entry for visitors and they pardoned me. Left from there with lot of relief. Went back to hotel telling all stories about the dzong I have seen, kids disappoint of not seeing the Paintings. Packed our bags started back to Paro after 5 hrs leisure drive reached paro, watching the airport and flights landing.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 130 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 5:30Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Hotel Tiger Nest / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.4500-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

Day 14:

Woke up early by 6 pm got ready by 7 am, wife and younger one dropped out for tigers nest trekking, Fully charged from the stories written online, drove to the parking area, and hired horse for my son and bought the stick for me, at the starting it was nice and easy took shortcut where nasty route, two of the idiots almost fall onto me of un balancing, my son reached nicely with horse to the dropping point, I started going back to the regular route which is little bit longer but easy to trek, Met haggy and reached the canteen sipped coffee for 200INR, we met with a French lady on the way to tigers nest aged about 62yrs, but walking like just into 30s and my son asusual with his queries made our journey painless, we need to get a ticket and belongings for free. Nice views of waterfall and some snaps, entered the Tigers Nest, went to many temples, Lighten the butter lamp with prayers all is well. While returning I usually lost myself like a child mesmerized with the live makings of butter ornaments as offering to GOD, my son went to some other place and he sat relaxly, I went on searching for him 3 times in and out of tigers nest and trek halfway to the other side asked many ppl coming towards the tigers nest, every one said no with the identifications I said, went back to tigers nest again and find this guy chatting happily with French lady. Anger and happy both at same time….said sorry to him and trekked back to parking with lot of memories, bought some souvenirs to ppl at Hyderabad. It took us 6 hrs up and down. Reached hotel refreshed and moved back to thimpu, between shopping at Paro….as usual girl thing….met some of our jalvayu towers society residents there, they are surprised to see we drove all the way by car. Moved to hotel Kichu at thimpu, nice view from hotel watched football match and boxing match in the night, went for some more shopping at thimpu as I promised.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 60 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 2:30Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Hotel Kichu/ double Bed Room - Ac Rs.4000-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

Day 15:

Woke up bit late by 9 am started towards Phuentshilong, distance 200kms for the destination a tea garden resort. Same route back with many memories and again lot of foggy stretches zero visibility. Reached the last checkpost before phuentsholing and given the original permit back to them, had copies of permits as memories of Bhutan. Had lunch at phuentsholing converted etc currency back to INR. Started back to chaos the moment I left the gateway arch started hearing horns , dust blab la…welcome back to India. Reached the destination tea garden resorts, nothing much there to say just got bluffed with name waste of money.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 200 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 7:30Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Mystic Tea garden resort / 2double Bed Room - Ac Rs.2000-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

Day 16 & 17:

Woke up early but settling bill was made very late by 10 am started towards Siliguri, thinking to reach Hyderabad via Varanasi, want to check the car condition at siliguri and then move. Reached siliguri but finding the VW service center costed me 2 hrs, they took the work to clean the car and topping up the engine oil wasted another 2 hrs, its 4 pm and thought staying at siliguri itself as its dangerous go in night at muzzaffarapur, meanwhile kids demanded especially younger one for sundarbans, after long chat agreed to them and decided to drove further and halt at malda. Horrible decision that become later, it started raining almos reaching to malda time was 1 am lot of truck traffic horrible roads and speed breakers, couldn’t find any accommodation at that time….slept in car for 3 hrs. started back to kolkatha to my horrific thing, the sundarban tour operators given me a bomb they were in bandh due to some pay raise and blab la. No trips for 2 more days….dont know what to do reached bardhaman and find the café coffee day for refreshings. Discussed with wife to see explore all places in kolkatha, she is no more interested to stay or explore any places wanted to back home, agreed and booked hotel at rambha, pant nivas, drove with breaks at café coffee days favorite refreshments on highways. It looks very easy driving 1250 kms in 20 Hrs, but the pain I took in driving those conditions was a lesson and understand what kind of Maniac I am. I put my family into lot of uncomfortable in this journey.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 1250 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 20 Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Pant Nivas, Rambha / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.2500-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

Day 18:

started journey by 9 am towards Hyderabad, Initially decided to take break at vizag, but on the journey no one is interested to stay at vizag everyone want to be at home, same as usual café coffee days it becomes favourite for us chicken somked sandwich, latte is for us and cold coffee for kids.

Had our proper dinner after 2 days at raju gari thota. Reached home by 2 am.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 950 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 16Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Home Sweet Home / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.0-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

That’s all……will update soon my Sikkim Trip done 22^Nd Oct -5^Th Nov. See you people soon on Meetups. Any mistakes kindly excuse never thought writing will be this much time taking process.

•  

 

 

 

 

This Trip was actually not meant to drive all the way to Bhutan.

 It is our first long drive which is more than 2000 kilometers (one way).

 

I thought my wife will give up after reaching to Kolkata,

she hates long drives, always prefer flights.

To be cautious, I had booked hotels till Kolkata.

 

But we managed to drive till Bhutan. 

 

My sons aged about 9 and 12 years, were ok with long drives,

As long as get electronic gadgets,

On this trip I did not allow, some how they managed and adjusted. 

 

Route Taken

Hyderabad - Rambha - Konark - Kolkata - Asansol - Lataguri - Darjeeling - Gangtok - Phuentsholing - Thimpu - Punakha - Paro - Phuentsholing - siliguri - kolkata - rambha - Hyderabad

 

Total trip : 6300 kilometers

Time taken : 20 Days

 

We couldn't explored inner parts of sikkim and Bhutan, I targeted those places for Bike expeditions in which sikkim will be covered in 2018 NERM.

 

We have covered Bhutan along with NE states.

From our experience, 

Dooars in west Bengal and Sikkim is more beautiful than Bhutan(except Tigers Nest)

 

Will share more Pictures/Details when and done with my monsoon trip.

 

Sharing few pictures for now:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sahil]

Very nice!
This must be an amazing trip and once in life time trip

[Gowtham]

Beautiful pictures.
Can you share road condition details.

Hyderabad to Kolkata : ?

Kolkata to Bhutan : ?

 

Did Ameo face any GC(Ground clearance) issues? 

[karthik]

Fantastic drive.

What is the most difficult road in your trip?
What is the most beautiful place in your trip?

[Naveen1]

Wow you drove Ameo all the way from Hyderabad to Bhutan. ?

You pictures are very good.

Which lens did you use? 

 

 

[Tapahasu]

1 hour ago, driveking said:

Wow you drove Ameo all the way from Hyderabad to Bhutan. [emoji41]
You pictures are very good.
Which lens did you use? 
 

 

I don't know much about photography, it's a basic Nikon model.

 

1 hour ago, karthik said:

Fantastic drive.
What is the most difficult road in your trip?
What is the most beautiful place in your trip?

 

I feel every place we been through is beautiful in their own ways.

Personally, I liked Nathula pass from Gangtok route and Changla lake.

Will upload soon those pics.

Difficult part in road trip is with kids vomiting in high altitudes both Sikkim and Bhutan, carried plastic covers, saved the car interiors.

We faced heavy truck traffic at Malda,

luckily I did all tricks to pass through 5-10 kms of truck jam by forgetting the driving rules.

Never had any difficult on ground clearance with Ameo.

Mileage was 25km/l,  on side note my bike gives me around 30km/l.

 

2 hours ago, Ranger said:

Beautiful pictures.
Can you share road condition details.

Hyderabad to Kolkata : ?
Kolkata to Bhutan : ?
 
Did Ameo face any GC(Ground clearance) issues? 

 

Hyderabad to kolkata:

Hderabad to Rambha is my first half, Started at 5 am  and reached by 7 pm.

All 4 lane road. Speed depends on individuals.

Rambha to chilka lake( 4 lane) and from chilka to konark we want to do some adventure, taking the car through boat for crossing islands.

 

Between them, it's a narrow road and 2 lane wide mixed up road.

You can see at least 500 to 1000 cows / buffaloes which stands on middle of road, they never move, we have to adjust.

Except that it's very scenic road.

Konark to Kolkata:

4 lane road.

Kolkata to Asansol :

4 lane road

Asansol to Lataguri :

It's mixed road , narrow , 2 lane, 4 lane and off road.

Even it has truck jams for 5 to 10 kms.

We can see a continuous 1000 trucks stopped bumper to bumper.

 

Lataguri to Darjeeling :

4 lane, 2 lane and narrow roads.
 

Darjeeling to Gangtok :

Narrow roads
(Driving ka keeda will be satisfied/ nikhaljayega)

 

Gangtok to Pheuntsholing :

Narrow and 4 lane.

Pheuntsholing to thimpu:

4 lane and narrow roads.
 

Thimpu to Punakha:

4 lane and narrow roads.

Thimpu to Paro :

4 lane roads.

Came back on same road back to Hyderabad
Will be writing more on the places after the monsoon ride.

[varunc]

Good information, Thank you for the share.

 

@Ranger Set this for our December Drive. ?

No. of days may be an issue, we need to plan it. 

[BORNDRIVER]

Hats off to you and your family for such trip and appreciate your courage .

Normally such long trips are done in a group for more fun and enjoyment and also for safety.

But you did it just with your family.

 

This will now motivate many other members.

My home state is Odisha (Specifically Bhubaneswar).

You gave me some inspiration to drive down. 

 

Could you please provide some more details on the road condition (patchy stretches/pot hole stretches/ghat road/how safe the routes after ASANSOL) ?

 

This could be difficult as it was  a very long trip but if possible share more pictures and updates.

If you can provide some details about your halts and time spent in each halt and the places visited in these halts ,

it will be great helpful for many members. 

[Sridhar Tandra]

Nice pictures and crisp write up buddy @Tapahasu Can you please provide an approximate overall cost of the trip and stay option at the places you halted with costs and inclusions! This will help a lot of our members planning to drive the entire circuit / just few places on the list better!

[sagar]

This must have been one heck of an experience for you and your family @Tapahasu. Wonderful travelogue accompanied by some beautiful pictures  Great attention to details on the roads taken.

I have actually planned to do this in October and my plans changed to do Rajasthan which is now frozen..  

How easy was the access at the immigration point at Pheuntsholing ?

Is passport a requirement or just an Aadhar card would do ?

Could you also throw some light on the immigration centre being opened to cross the border during Saturdays and Sundays..?

 

[sahil]

I can't imagine myself doing this trip. It must be a rocking and adventures trip..salute to you!!

[Sridhar Tandra]

1 hour ago, sagar said:

October and my plans changed to do Rajasthan which is now frozen

? oh wow! this is a news? what's this now? A solo trip or something? You keep talking about December December and never talk about something like this?

[Gowtham]

19 hours ago, Sridhar Tandra said:

December December

 

December == North East

December == Road trip from Hyderabad

December =! Fligh journey

 

Sikkim is on cards in December. 

[sagar]

On ‎9‎/‎18‎/‎2018 at 2:20 PM, Sridhar Tandra said:

? oh wow! this is a news? what's this now? A solo trip or something? You keep talking about December December and never talk about something like this?

 

Haha.. this is a personal trip that I'm doing. Not organising one  

[sagar]

7 hours ago, Ranger said:

 

December == North East

December == Road trip from Hyderabad

December =! Fligh journey

 

Sikkim is on cards in December. 

 

North East would be great.. Meghalaya and Arunachal  Pradesh.. Mostly road trip from Hyderabad .. If in case we fall short of days, Can consider to rent a self drive from Kolkatta atleast  

[SK01]

Awesome pictures @Tapahasu

The cover picture is just awesome, I immediately clicked it without even seeing the title?

 

Now I cant wait doing this trip. Could you please share detailed information of the trip? would be really helpful for our members. 

[vivek]

This must have surely been an epic road trip @Tapahasu . Especially when things happen to fall in a place when it is unplanned, I can imagine the thrill you had undergone  

Kudos to your spirit .. Keep it coming more  

[Guest Manaswi]

Hi @Tapahasu, Awesome road trip.. No words for it. How many days trip was this until you got back to Hyderabad. Could you please share your itinerary ?  

[ksa171983]

@Tapahasuthis is amazing trip and that too with kids around ... kudos to u and of course ur family for having fun through such a drive ..

[Tapahasu]

Sorry, I was bit busy with regular works.

Here I am going day wise schedule with small write up

Hyderabad –Bhutan – Hyderabad

Started on 13^th may 2018.

Day1:

As I already stated before, this trip was to test my family’s capability of exploring the long drives of distances more than 6000 kms and 20+ days duration, all the time I was alone going on bike expeditions.

 

Started early by 5 am from home located at Jalvayu towers, lower tankbund, As kids are still in sleeping mode they don’t even have a hint of this trip, just they know someplace travelling, quickly packed the luggage and driven, stopped at Vijayawada for breakfast on road side nothing to say much on this stretch as kids and wiffy sleeping all the time and  road conditions as everyone knows is fantastic.

 

A new thing i learned from this trip ( mostly women want to eat street food all the time with neat and clean environment) , halting place is at APTDC, Baruva Beach.

We reached by 3:30 pm (vizag) and had lunch at cafe coffee day on the way reaching to vizag.

 

I want to skip the vizag traffic and taken the  truck bypass route,

It’s a two lane road some parts wide & some areas narrow, many pot holes in the road but manageable.

 

At 4 to 4:30 it started torain started heavily, video tells all about it, once we crossed vizag,
it’s a breeze through srikakulam highway and it’s no more raining and weather is pleasant,

Reached Baruva by 7 pm, the APTDC cottages are very spacious and AC works well, but poorly maintained the infrastructure, you can have look of sunset and sunrise directly from your room.

 

Booze on order available, but canteen people won't serve, Ordered snacks and food from canteen, food is average.

Sat at the balcony and had a long chat and kids are busy with TV.

 

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 850KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 14 hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: APTDC/ double Bed Room -Ac Rs.3000-00 with charges for Extra person

 

Pics related to this journey 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tapahasu]

Day2:

Woke up early by 5AM ,

Quickly refreshed and went to beach side photography, shot some sunrise pics,

I came back by to resort by 6 am and started waking up my family, this is when horror starts..

 

Crowd started to pile up and are shitting all over the beach,

Around 2 kilometres of stretch is used as public toilet. 

 

Lost interest of going to the beach.

Kids got ready and had puri (only thing available) as breakfast.

Wiffy took some pics at cottages.

Started towards Chilka lake and its a 4 lane road, sun is on his peak,

We still decided to do a boat ride at Chilka.

Different tariffs are available from 600 to 5000, depends on whether you need a small boat or big boat,

Both govt and Pvt ferries available, govt one will definitely cost you more and you have to book it from pant nivas.

it’s a good stay, very spacious (on return journey we stayed here.)
On bargaining they agreed to 1000 bucks for trip to breakfast point, dinosaur island and kingfisher island.

 

Compare to any other parts this is pretty cheap for me for the total ride of 2 hrs.

I already posted some pics of it.

 

Still the kings / queens from Orissa come over here for their breakfast quiet often.

Many islands are there with their own stories to tell.

 

Boat ride was excellent, we spotted some Dolphins and Kingfishers.

While on boat, we got some information about scenic road to Konark.

 

It really proves worth listening to him, beautiful roads with lot of water bodies around from small to big, live fishing scenes.

Finally reached some point where the road ends and you have to travel by ferry, just missed by 2 mins, it costed 2 hrs, there are many small boats which carries bikes and goods in regular but heavy vehicles like bus, lorry and car has to go through ferry and fees only 300/- so cheap for a life time experience.

 

Entering, exiting and parking in the ferry is a scary part.

You need to drive in reverse and you don’t have a choice of roaming freely,

It is jam packed, very difficult to open doors. Luckily we squeezed some gap and got out. 
 

Strange and good thing i observed in this trip is wiffy didn’t complain about back pain.(Which she regular does)

Looks like she started to understand the love towards exploration. 

Safely reached onto the other side of the bank, while taking car out off the ferry one need to be careful in case u drive sedan or suv it hits on back bumper. I managed to get out without any issue. 

The road is a narrow to 2 lane road and 4 lane and it took me 4 hrs on the way to konark,

hundreds of cows left on roads and crazy bikers make you upgrade your driving skill set,

many speed breakers u will face on this road avoided puri-konark road and took diversion on to jaganath sadak and then to maltatipur-konark road, you can find speed breakers on 4 lane road very crazy, road through the forest is fully packed with many speed breakers, after finishing the drive.

 

l was thinking how the tsunami affected konark temple, pretty far from beach.

Stayed in Yatrinivas konark, dinner in its attached hotel, very tasty but no room service.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 250KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 7Hrs 20Mins
Tariff for Accommodation: Yatri Nivas/ double Bed Room /Ac Rs.2100-00 with charges for Extra person

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tapahasu]

Day3:

By 6 am visiting konark temple is best, but we woke up at 7:30 am late and by finishing breakfast by 9am i. e a very bad time to visit konark temple added to this some local person murdered in the night, and police is everywhere, so parking is very far from konark temple. sun is on his peak by 10 am itself somehow managed through, still wondering no complaints from wiffy. Tickets que is very long and no separate lines for men and women somehow got it done very quickly and hired a local guide, he helped us with his umbrella and enormous knowledge he has on this temple even though illiterate, after knowing about brief about konark temple and 12 out of 24 wheels history we tired and guide with age of 60 was very active and he continues his way of explaining things, after making halfway of the temple wiffy starts complaining about scorching heat, she said u guys finish 
and i will wait for u. the guide says “madamji abhi tho asli cheez dekhneka hai, ghore log tho sirf isko dekhnekeliye athe hai”. She pumped up again and ready to walk, guide told the kids to watch at something and took us both to some wheels where it has xxx scenes of ancient mudra. I have to see her face.....burst out of laughing. Guide quickly understand the situation and rushed towards the kids, Very funny it was. Anyhow it charged our mood from sun rays. To save ourselves from heat had some coconut, cucumber, plenty of water and rushed to puri jaganath darshan, heavy traffic buy 2 wheelers, 4 wheelers and cows, everywhere u can see cows and cows. I as usual trapped by some goons who run quick darshan and at the end I couldn't even had darshan of Lord jaganath, but had a bill of 1116/-for annadaanam. At least satisfied that Annadaanam was served to God. Kicked his ass for this but paid him 300\- very shameless fellow, saying mujhe kitnebhi maro lekin paisa dho. Plz plan it earlier in proper time and go directly by urself and have darshan always.
my wife cursed him all the way we reached to our hotel Sonar Bangla motel midway at the outskirts of kolkata. The most horrible place for 5000/-
i never suggest this hotel to anybody, online reviews were good so i booked it but wasted money. It’s a supreme room, AC not working and it’s hardly a 8x10 size room, even after room freshener applied its smelling and owner is so rude and says don’t like then talk to your MMT representative, time was 11pm, no one picks the call, no option left hardly slept as beds are very bad….don’t know how travelers given such a rating to this hotel.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 512.00KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 11 hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Sonar Bangla Motel Midway/ double Bed Room -Non/Ac Rs.5000-00 with charges for Extra person

[Tapahasu]

Day4:

Thought of visiting many places in Kolkata, but a small incident changed my mind, traffic police identify vehicle is not from wb, then tries to loot money from you even we have all documents with us, even though mine is BS-IV vehicle still I carried pollution paper still doesn’t satisfies him, then he started lying u crossed a red signal very funny, arguing for a 30 mins wasted and those idiots settled for 100 bucks after giving their boss names, internet helped me on this, and entire mood was off. First choice is darshan for both the Maatha ji temples. 2 different scenarios one with heavy crowd and poojaris looting people basis of dakshina and other one is serene and calm guarded by military. First time wiffy complains no more kolkatha, thought of going back to Hyderabad, instead she say we will go towards Bhutan, tried to convince her for visiting other places Answer was “when u come by bike dekhlena”. she doesnt even know that i haven’t even planned anything further after this. kids demanded for sundarbans trip but due to elections at sundarban area they stopped the trips. bad luck.
I just rushed into googlemaps and started finalizing the routes at lunch break. Finally decided to go via asansol and it was a bad choice up to asansol roads r 4 lane. We stayed at some hotel named Excellency charged 2.5k and worst rooms and facilities i don’t even pay 500 for it. as we reached late and paid online already no other choice as the 2 nd best hotel is already booked in full. Whole night route plan slept very late.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 302.00KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 6Hrs 20Mins
Tariff for Accommodation: Excellency Hotel/ double Bed Room -Non/Ac Rs.2580-00 with charges for Extra person

Day5:

Asansol to lataguri via Dumka, Bhagalpur, purnea and kishangunj road is all mixed roads, road work is going on, some of them are good, some bad roads, some r horrible roads. But never had a pblm except proper lunch and breakfast, u won’t find any eatables or hotels between, apples and biscuits which in stock were used for this as i said already trip wasnt properly planned, Asansol to Dumka very good roads and No roads, Dumka to Bhagalpur roads are ok with scary drivers 2 & wheelers, Bhagalpur, purnea and kishangunj roads r good to very good. Only trouble truck traffic, long jams for hours, I drove around 30-40 kms in wrong direction to avoid the traffic jam, luckily escaped many accidents on this episode. Kishangunj to lataguri scenic roads one side river and other side forest, some part of the road is very bad. I booked accommodation at The Reserve, GORUMARA, lataguri. Very good hotel with modern amenities, food is very good. south indian Breakfast is an excellent I ever had in northside.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 550 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 13Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: The Reserve, gorumara/ double Bed Room - Ac Rs.5800-00 with charges for Extra person

[Tapahasu]

Day6:

Woke up early 5am for jeep safari which starts at 6 am, need to buy tickets before one day we tried our luck and we got it on same day, wife still at bed me and kids went through this,

 

we had seen only bison in entire trip missed many wild elephants and leopard very fresh footprints just crossed us, it’s a 2:30 hrs trip covering around 28 kms, kids very disappointed, told them we go again in different place where they do Elephant ride and they also can see Rhynos. Both agreed and back to hotel for Breakfast, after breakfast went to Forest Department office where we need to book accommodation, luckily I got one at Kalipur, but I need it in other location which I saw it on jeep safari. Settled with kalipur, as forest ranger said same accommodation will not be available in case we try to book it online even 6 months before. Paid instantly 6000\- including food and snacks which is ok, Actually we want to stay one more day but it’s already reserved long back. Back to Hotel for packing, staff and manager at THE RESERVE Gorumara is very cooperative and agreed to check out by 2 pm. Drive from hotel to kalipur is @ 45 kms. Thought of 1 hr but it took us 2 hrs, scenic roads through tea gardens.

There are only 4 cottages all are NON-AC, 2 already occupied next to canteen by forest dept people, out of 12345, 1&5 are ours, kids demanded mobiles in case they stay separated, my wife drama all the time, kids blab bla bla…..many flies if u put the lights on…..Entire camp is fenced properly, You can find a buffalo ride, 150/person kind of experience went to the rhino tower where we can see them bit faraway, tried our luck, got them only where I can see through binoculars or though camera, reached back on buffalo ride, it’s very different, snacks in the evening is the best food with coffee, after snacks by 7 pm they arranged bonfire and tribal dance with their traditional dress, same night wild elephants have come very near to the camp, we missed it can’t see anything in deadly night vision, understand the value of torch light. Somehow slowly we went to sleep after a remarkable day. BSNL and JIO both works at this place.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 50 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 2Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Kalipur Eco Village, / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.6000-00 with charges for 2 cottages

Day 7:

Woke up early by 6 am for elephant ride, it’s my first ride too on an elephant, every one excited, me and my life is into one elephant and kids into another one, crossed small river on the ride, saw a lone Rhyno enjoying its mud Bath, eagerly watching at us, might be saying f…k’ff from here. Saw some deers racing like a bullet, and then come across an entire family of rhynos 8-10 with various sizes, couldn’t got a clear shot as grass is almost 8 feet high. After a watchful sight at elephant ride we were on full charge, wife want to stay a day more but no vacancy has to move, started at 12:15 pm towards Darjeeling until silluguri it’s a mixed roads, after that National Highway only 2 lane up and only up never faced such roads before, experience on leh- ladakh has come in handy, given all assurance to my wiffy nothing will happen, just enjoy the beauty of hills, many kids with school uniforms are everywhere throughout the drive. Without any trouble from car we reached darjeeling, whatever I imagined from my childhood watching in movies is not there, heavy traffic of tourists and pretty child environment is encouraging, my kids started getting effected by high altitude sickness, reached hotel, very cozy, but not spacious, In summer temperature is 3-5*C, washroom tiles r so chilled we can’t use without slippers. Different experience to kids and wiffy, enjoyed the food and went to bed thinking about the morning view of the Mighty Kanchanjunga.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 50 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 2Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Kalipur Eco Village, / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.2500-00 with charges for Extra person

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rest will be soon

[sagar]

Brilliant work @Tapahasu. Speechless.. The way you have described about how each and every day spent was so much fun to read. Thanks a lot for sharing your experience.. I've enjoyed reading it through thoroughly  

Waiting for more .. Especially the immigration process at Pheuntsholing

[ksa171983]

@Tapahasuwhat a fun filled reading this was.. loved it Sir .. thrilling and exciting read

[uday]

Fantastic report.
Appreciate you a lot,

One should have lot of road trip experience to take family on such a long road trip, specially in a car like Ameo. 

 

[vivek]

Wow... Amazing travel story @Tapahasu. You are an inspiration to a lot many  Waiting for your next episode to be released  

[Tapahasu]

Hyderabad –Bhutan – Hyderabad started on 13^th may 2018.

Day1:

As I already stated before, this trip was to test my family’s capability of exploring the long drives of distances more than 6000 kms and 20+ days duration, all the time I was alone going on bike expeditions.

Started early by 5 am from home located at jalvayu towers, lower tankbund, still kids r in sleeping mode they don’t even have a hint of this trip, just they know someplace traveling, quickly packed the luggage and driven, stopped at Vijayawada for breakfast on road side. One thing i learned a new thing from this trip ( mostly women want to eat street food all the time with neat and clean environment) nothing to say much on this stretch as kids and wiffy sleeping all the time and  road conditions everyone knows, halting place is at APTDC,Baruva Beach. we reached by 3:30 pm in vizag and had lunch at cafe coffee day on the way reaching to vizag. i want to skip the vizag traffic and taken the  truck bypass route, It’s a two lane road some parts wide & some areas narrow, many pot holes in the road but manageable. At 4 to 4:30 rain started heavily, video tells all about it, once crossed vizag. it’s a breeze through srikakulam highway and it’s no more raining and weather is pleasant, reached Baruva by 7 pm, the APTDC cottages are very spacious and AC works well, but poorly maintained the infrastructure, you can have look of sunset and sunrise directly from your room. Booze on order available, but canteen people won't serve, Ordered snacks and food from canteen, food is ok. Sat at the balcony attached and had a long chat and kids are busy with TV.
 

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 850KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 14 hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: APTDC/ double Bed Room -Ac Rs.3000-00 with charges for Extra person

Day2:

Woke up early by 5am thought it was 7 am, quickly refreshed and went on some auto mode beachside photography, shot some sunrise pics, I came back up by 6 am and woke up them, here the horror starts. The time I took them to beach huge crowd from adjacent village to this property is on shitting show all over the beach with 1-3 kms stretch from 6:15 to 7:30 am. Lost interest of going to the beach. Kids got ready and had puri (only thing available) as breakfast. Wiffy had some pics at cottages. Started towards Chilka lake and its a 4 lane road, sun is on his peak still we want to finish the boat ride at Chilka easy to find the way to reach this place, once u take diversion for Rambha straight u will reach to Hotel pant nivas ( most of the people book it online) adjacent lane to pant nivas directly goes to chilka lake. Different tariffs r available from 600 to 5000, depends on whether u r small goat or big goat, both govt and Pvt ferries available, govt one will definitely cost u more and u have to book it from pant nivas built adjacent
to chilka lake, it’s a good one to stay, very spacious (on return journey we stayed here.)
on bargaining they agreed to 1000 bucks for trip to breakfast point, dinosaur island and kingfisher island. Compare to any other parts this is pretty cheap for me for the total ride of 2 hrs. i already posted some pics of it.

Still the kings / queens from Orissa come over here for their breakfast quiet often. Many islands are there with its own story to tell it will cost u more.

Boat Ride was good with some luck as dolphins and kingfishers we sited. While traveling on boat one of the guys suggested to take a ride through scenic road instead of NH to reach konark.

*At palur on NH45 before Rambha diversion you have to take diversion for this road called as malud road

It really proves worth listening to him, beautiful roads with lot of water bodies around from small to big to very big, live fishing scenes u may come across many times,  finally reached some point where the road ends and you have to travel by ferry, just missed by 2 mins, it costed 2 hrs, there are many small boats which carries bikes and goods in regular but heavy vehicles like bus, lorry and car has to go through ferry and fees only 300/- so cheap for a life time experience. Entering, exiting and parking in the ferry is a scary part reverse drive and you don’t have choice of roaming freely, all most side door to door and bumper to bumper they will pack, luckily am into one side of the ferry so i can open only one side of door, few pics of it.
Strange and good thing i observe in this trip wiffy didn’t complain about back pain or any pain she started the taste of exploring places.
Safely reached onto the other side of the bank, while taking car out off the ferry one need to be careful in case u drive sedan or suv it hits on back bumper, luckily survived with skills learned from senior ppl like u guys.
The road is a narrow to 2 lane road and 4 lane and it took me 4 hrs on the way to konark, hundreds of cows left on roads and crazy bikers make you upgrade your driving skill set, many speed breakers u will face on this road avoided puri-konark road and took diversion on to jaganath sadak and then to maltatipur-konark road, you can find speed breakers on 4 lane road very crazy, road through the forest is fully packed with many speed breakers, after finishing the drive l was thinking how the tsunami affected konark temple, pretty far from beach. Stayed in Yatrinivas konark, dinner in its attached hotel, very tasty but no room service.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 250KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 7Hrs 20Mins
Tariff for Accommodation: Yatri Nivas/ double Bed Room /Ac Rs.2100-00 with charges for Extra person

Day3:

By 6 am visiting konark temple is best, but we woke up at 7:30 am late and by finishing breakfast by 9am i. e a very bad time to visit konark temple added to this some local person murdered in the night, and police is everywhere, so parking is very far from konark temple. sun is on his peak by 10 am itself somehow managed through, still wondering no complaints from wiffy. Tickets que is very long and no separate lines for men and women somehow got it done very quickly and hired a local guide, he helped us with his umbrella and enormous knowledge he has on this temple even though illiterate, after knowing about brief about konark temple and 12 out of 24 wheels history we tired and guide with age of 60 was very active and he continues his way of explaining things, after making halfway of the temple wiffy starts complaining about scorching heat, she said u guys finish 
and i will wait for u. the guide says “madamji abhi tho asli cheez dekhneka hai, ghore log tho sirf isko dekhnekeliye athe hai”. She pumped up again and ready to walk, guide told the kids to watch at something and took us both to some wheels where it has xxx scenes of ancient mudra. I have to see her face.....burst out of laughing. Guide quickly understand the situation and rushed towards the kids, Very funny it was. Anyhow it charged our mood from sun rays. To save ourselves from heat had some coconut, cucumber, plenty of water and rushed to puri jaganath darshan, heavy traffic buy 2 wheelers, 4 wheelers and cows, everywhere u can see cows and cows. I as usual trapped by some goons who run quick darshan and at the end I couldn't even had darshan of Lord jaganath, but had a bill of 1116/-for annadaanam. At least satisfied that Annadaanam was served to God. Kicked his ass for this but paid him 300\- very shameless fellow, saying mujhe kitnebhi maro lekin paisa dho. Plz plan it earlier in proper time and go directly by urself and have darshan always.
my wife cursed him all the way we reached to our hotel Sonar Bangla motel midway at the outskirts of kolkata. The most horrible place for 5000/-
i never suggest this hotel to anybody, online reviews were good so i booked it but wasted money. It’s a supreme room, AC not working and it’s hardly a 8x10 size room, even after room freshener applied its smelling and owner is so rude and says don’t like then talk to your MMT representative, time was 11pm, no one picks the call, no option left hardly slept as beds are very bad….don’t know how travelers given such a rating to this hotel.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 512.00KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 11 hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Sonar Bangla Motel Midway/ double Bed Room -Non/Ac Rs.5000-00 with charges for Extra person

Day4:

Thought of visiting many places in Kolkata, but a small incident changed my mind, traffic police identify vehicle is not from wb, then tries to loot money from you even we have all documents with us, even though mine is BS-IV vehicle still I carried pollution paper still doesn’t satisfies him, then he started lying u crossed a red signal very funny, arguing for a 30 mins wasted and those idiots settled for 100 bucks after giving their boss names, internet helped me on this, and entire mood was off. First choice is darshan for both the Maatha ji temples. 2 different scenarios one with heavy crowd and poojaris looting people basis of dakshina and other one is serene and calm guarded by military. First time wiffy complains no more kolkatha, thought of going back to Hyderabad, instead she say we will go towards Bhutan, tried to convince her for visiting other places Answer was “when u come by bike dekhlena”. she doesnt even know that i haven’t even planned anything further after this. kids demanded for sundarbans trip but due to elections at sundarban area they stopped the trips. bad luck.
I just rushed into googlemaps and started finalizing the routes at lunch break. Finally decided to go via asansol and it was a bad choice up to asansol roads r 4 lane. We stayed at some hotel named Excellency charged 2.5k and worst rooms and facilities i don’t even pay 500 for it. as we reached late and paid online already no other choice as the 2 nd best hotel is already booked in full. Whole night route plan slept very late.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 302.00KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 6Hrs 20Mins
Tariff for Accommodation: Excellency Hotel/ double Bed Room -Non/Ac Rs.2580-00 with charges for Extra person

Day5:

Asansol to lataguri via Dumka, Bhagalpur, purnea and kishangunj road is all mixed roads, road work is going on, some of them are good, some bad roads, some r horrible roads. But never had a pblm except proper lunch and breakfast, u won’t find any eatables or hotels between, apples and biscuits which in stock were used for this as i said already trip wasnt properly planned, Asansol to Dumka very good roads and No roads, Dumka to Bhagalpur roads are ok with scary drivers 2 & wheelers, Bhagalpur, purnea and kishangunj roads r good to very good. Only trouble truck traffic, long jams for hours, I drove around 30-40 kms in wrong direction to avoid the traffic jam, luckily escaped many accidents on this episode. Kishangunj to lataguri scenic roads one side river and other side forest, some part of the road is very bad. I booked accommodation at The Reserve, GORUMARA, lataguri. Very good hotel with modern amenities, food is very good. south indian Breakfast is an excellent I ever had in northside.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 550 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 13Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: The Reserve, gorumara/ double Bed Room - Ac Rs.5800-00 with charges for Extra person

Day6:

Woke up early 5am for jeep safari which starts at 6 am, need to buy tickets before one day we tried our luck and we got it on same day, wife still at bed me and kids went through this, we had seen only bison in entire trip missed many wild elephants and leopard very fresh footprints just crossed us, it’s a 2:30 hrs trip covering around 28 kms, kids very disappointed, told them we go again in different place where they do Elephant ride and they also can see Rhynos. Both agreed and back to hotel for Breakfast, after breakfast went to Forest Department office where we need to book accommodation, luckily I got one at Kalipur, but I need it in other location which I saw it on jeep safari. Settled with kalipur, as forest ranger said same accommodation will not be available in case we try to book it online even 6 months before. Paid instantly 6000\- including food and snacks which is ok, Actually we want to stay one more day but it’s already reserved long back. Back to Hotel for packing, staff and manager at THE RESERVE Gorumara is very cooperative and agreed to check out by 2 pm. Drive from hotel to kalipur is @ 45 kms. Thought of 1 hr but it took us 2 hrs, scenic roads through tea gardens.

There are only 4 cottages all are NON-AC, 2 already occupied next to canteen by forest dept people, out of 12345, 1&5 are ours, kids demanded mobiles in case they stay separated, my wife drama all the time, kids blab bla bla…..many flies if u put the lights on…..Entire camp is fenced properly, You can find a buffalo ride, 150/person kind of experience went to the rhino tower where we can see them bit faraway, tried our luck, got them only where I can see through binoculars or though camera, reached back on buffalo ride, it’s very different, snacks in the evening is the best food with coffee, after snacks by 7 pm they arranged bonfire and tribal dance with their traditional dress, same night wild elephants have come very near to the camp, we missed it can’t see anything in deadly night vision, understand the value of torch light. Somehow slowly we went to sleep after a remarkable day. BSNL and JIO both works at this place.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 50 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 2Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Kalipur Eco Village, / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.6000-00 with charges for 2 cottages

Day 7:

 

Woke up early by 6 am for elephant ride, it’s my first ride too on an elephant, every one excited, me and my life is into one elephant and kids into another one, crossed small river on the ride, saw a lone Rhyno enjoying its mud Bath, eagerly watching at us, might be saying f…k’ff from here. Saw some deers racing like a bullet, and then come across an entire family of rhynos 8-10 with various sizes, couldn’t got a clear shot as grass is almost 8 feet high. After a watchful sight at elephant ride we were on full charge, wife want to stay a day more but no vacancy has to move, started at 12:15 pm towards Darjeeling until silluguri it’s a mixed roads, after that National Highway only 2 lane up and only up never faced such roads before, experience on leh- ladakh has come in handy, given all assurance to my wiffy nothing will happen, just enjoy the beauty of hills, many kids with school uniforms are everywhere throughout the drive. Without any trouble from car we reached darjeeling, whatever I imagined from my childhood watching in movies is not there, heavy traffic of tourists and pretty child environment is encouraging, my kids started getting effected by high altitude sickness, reached hotel, very cozy, but not spacious, In summer temperature is 3-5*C, washroom tiles r so chilled we can’t use without slippers. Different experience to kids and wiffy, enjoyed the food and went to bed thinking about the morning view of the Mighty Kanchanjunga.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 150 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 5Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Don’t remember / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.2500-00 with charges for Extra person

Day 8:

I decided not to drive in Darjeeling from the experience of previous day drive from siliguri. Hired a local taxi guy, @2000/day. Went to Padmaja Naidu Zoo Park, Rock climbing point, Tea Gardens point where we will be again small and big goats depends on individuals. My suggestion better u guys drive all these points on your own car, waste of money, overall kids got entertained. Already took the famous steam engine train ticket while going to the zoo park in the morning, Frankly speaking I said its just chut….appa to buy tickets for taking a picture with steam engine….Manthera Train ride is far better than this. But its up to the individuals how they feel. We got some good pictures on this train ride.

Only fun thing on this ride is the train has seats where only 2+2 can sit, think about 120-140KG ppl settled in our seats entire family of 8 ppl same sizes with different age groups, the moment I entered the coach, I said wtf where we gonna sit, and their faces like adjust or f…off, crazy that these idiots didn’t take seats in regular numbers instead they were booking 1,3,5,7 etc like that….I said firmly to the head of family if u give us window seats we can adjust else I will call TC and no one ride the train, without any question with smile they agreed. All r happy at the end.

After all these when we reached back it tiresome, quickly back to Hotel with same taxi guy who picked us in the morning, had some dinner and back to sleep.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 0 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 0Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Don’t remember same hotel / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.2500-00 with charges for Extra person.

Day 9:

Woke up bit late by 10 am started towards gangtok, distance 110kms time taken to trave is 5:30 hrs very hectic, uploaded a video, jho bhi keeda tha driving ki nikhalgaya hai….I prayed god I don’t need any more curves….on the other side kids started vomiting…..every one hour….5 mins break…finally reached Hotel.

Its day rest and paper work for ILP’s for next morning and its Monday no permission for Nathula Pass, so only changu lake and Baba mandir.

We met some more telugu people in the same hotel traveling in and around Sikkim. Kids had lot of chat and play with them, I just get into bed for whole day to get rested…..I got slight fever due to hectic drive with high altitude sickness, my wife who troubles for 200kms drive, doesn’t show any sign off sickness or pain. Its good sign for the trip to go further.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 120 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 5:30Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Don’t remember same hotel / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.5000-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

Day 10:

Woke up early and ready by 7 am waiting for the tour operator from the hotel, but the tour operator didn’t turned up, waited and waited at 10:30 am that idiot has come with taxi, saying sorry yesterday he hasn’t do the permit process and he did it in the morning, this trip costed us Rs 5000/-including all.

Huge crowd on the roads till we cross the city, again it started curves, hair pin bends, etc. this time I am enjoying the nature as am not driving, gone through many fog, mist and rain combinations, and the hell of traffic jam for 2 hrs, hired shoes and hand gloves, never thought we face ICE in summer didn’t carry any except jackets. Had some snaps passing through many military camps, finally reached the Changu Lake (Tsomogo lake) beautiful with less crowd as most of them were in return journey, Buffalo ride is over and now its sibling Yak ride is on, As usual I prefer to walk and wife and kids on Yaks, got some beautiful pics cost depends on your bargains 500-1500. It has car cable ride which take you to the top of the hill, temp -2 to 1*C, played a lot had some good pics, came back for journey to Baba Mandir, Taxi driver says its late we have to go back, as everyone is returning back and weather changing drastically, I argued and finally said ok. On return journey my health went down and vomited same as my kids, appreciated the driver for not going to baba mandir. Reached back hotel, Actual plan is to drive in the night to phuentshilong, Due to the health issue continued for one more night, in case health get better we drove early in the morning else we rest as am the only driver for this entire trip. Wife want to do shopping and took local cab guy went to MG Road only place where u can get costly items for more cost, better to buy in some roadside shops, Here shop keepers are more clever than Hyderabad ones, as they make u comfortable that u will never refuse to buy and prepare you for Halal. You will come to know this when u visit some other shop. As usual she is some kind of Maniac (Unique) who doesn’t want gold but all these nonsense, excuse for it I can buy 10-20 items for the same price in comparison to gold. I can’t argue with her on this so I stopped bothering it, finally went back to hotel. View from the balcony of hotel was good but haven’t had any pics everywhere its fog or mist. Can’t see any.

Note: You can also do self-driving to these places on Bikes and with good local person cars too, and these taxi drivers and shop owners are all family bros and sis, all most all of them it’s the main source of income.

 

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 0 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 0Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Don’t remember same hotel / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.4000-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

Day 11:

As my health recovered due to the proper night sleep, Woke up at 6am and we were ready to move to Phuentoshilong had hot coffee and drove towards phuentosholing, Same story again repeats, hills, curves, vomiting and new to this is speed breakers very unique can’t explain ( they are like water passages) better u understand when u drove. As I passed through the Dooars again I understood that I made a wrong booking earlier, could have been done Darjeeling and gangtok, then to dooars could have been a good option as its on the way, reached Phuentoshilong by 1:30 pm. You can find 2 different worlds here at Indian border with Bhutan, one side sounds, pollution, chaos etc on other side strict rules and regulations with peace of mind eg: pedestrian importance, no horns, you can find everywhere a Bangladeshi / Nepal origin as parking ticket collector, you can’t escape from him till you are in Bhutan. You can ask anyone for the directions to Visa permit counter they will help, you won’t get parking easily have to roam around the shops nearby to get one.

You can directly enter Bhutan side (Visa Counter) without any permission, first thing is to finish the Car permit as the counter for cash closes by 3 PM, You can get even directions for this through google maps, I was using JIO sim working well, paid Rs 500/- for permit for 7 days after finishing the paper work ( you will be paying vehicle permit amount depends on number of days you will be staying in Bhutan better to go always more than 12-15 days, as this won’t be done again anywhere even in thimphu) and straight drove to Visa Permit counter, There are 2 lines one for people who’s applying for work permit under the BRO in Bhutan and the other line for Tourists and etc, Everyone who reaches the Visa Office will first afraid of seeing the other line….You can also avail the services of brokers in the office, but u don’t need one. They will give you an application form where u will fill details individually and in separate form along with your details along with supporting documents like, id proof, photos-2, and hotel booking confirmation for one day. once you submit these to the 2 operators working at the counter, they check it and your number or name will be called, where we need to go for biometric in 1^st floor, all this process will take only an hour, after getting the permit we have to go back to Vehicle permit and show this to them and they issue vehicle permit, while taking vehicle permit they will ask you for how many days, incase u want to explore entire Bhutan then go for 15 days else tell them 7 days accordingly they charge you ones it done will not be redone even at Thimpu, Thimpu is only for an extension of Individual VISA permit but not vehicle permit. After all this had some lunch at 4 pm and started towards Thimpu, Roads are mixed conditions with 4 lane, 2 lane with pot holes, here people putting a right indicator means they are giving way to cross, initially confused later acquainted, reached hotel by 10:30am will upload some pics of it.

Note: Your accommodation receipt in Bhutan for day 1 should be mandatory, rest they won’t even bother; same we need to submit our Itenary for entire tour. You can avail all the Xerox and online facilities just next door, you can avail the SIM cards by submitting the permit and aadhar card, money exchange is almost same buy as much as u want, 2000 notes only valid in Phuentoshilong and thimpu rest of the places strictly no and 500, 100, 50, 20 and 10 notes of Indian currency works in all places.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 410 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 15:30Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Hotel Bhutan / 2 double Bed Room - Ac Rs.7000-00 with all charges.

 

Day 12:

Woke up bit late by 8 am started the paper work for further travel in Bhutan same process need to apply for the places to visit and same as going to the vehicle permit. You can easily get these locations, application center is right opposite to my hotel room. Done things by 9 am started towards Punakha, Roads are good, My younger one got fever due to vomiting continuously and he is dehydrated, did what ever I can do as a father to make him calm down and get him back in to travel mood. Dachula pass is very nice one for pics, weather is cold and foggy, didn’t gone through the history of it, Canteen is available, Next thing is to reach our stay i.e homestay thought of little different from India will be nice and enjoyable living in nature and enjoying nature, Homestay is little away from the regular road to Punakha, missed it and drove 5kms realized google showing some other location in back, somehow reached it, off roading to destination, the entire stretch is very scenic, we were in dreams, how the stay could be….same thing crossed the stay and moved further thinking it will be further down as we crossed a small village with very old buildings cant even think about is our stay as it costed my 5000 bucks, reached some place where all people get down for sightseeing it’s the place where all Bhutan art is founded, live art and lot of portraits and landscapes even some are very old on exhibits, called the ladylord, asked to us to come back to village, start the scary part watching my wife’s face…..LOL.. couldn’t even dared to see her eyes, surprisingly see said in calm manner, lets try…….Relief…..the moment we reached and called her she said only 1 room is there, get adjusted in that….before taking any decision I want to see that stay….went along with my elder one….The moment I entered the house understood I made a big mistake booking here, Irooms are in first floor, vertical steps almost like a ladder kept all my fears and dared to enter……Its just a 8x12 room, no bed only beds old type on ground…..no attached bathroom. What else u need to become ussain bolt……LOL. Begged my son not to tell anything about stay and bribed a lego toy, rushed back to car, not a single word with my wife asking normal questions to crying questions, my elder one had his best laughs all the time. Stopped for a Tea, before I told the story I offered her shopping at Paro unlimited, she surprisingly seeing at me and agreed heard the story just laughed, all the things got into normal, booked a hotel at Khuruthang before Punakha reached hotel with a lot of relief.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 90 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 6:30Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Don’t remember same hotel / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.3000-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

Day 13:

Started by 10am towards Punakha Dzong, reached in 30 mins, separate parking available for private vehicles, Most Beautiful and the best Dzong in entire Bhutan, River flows adjacent to the dzong, entrance is a crossover bridge, Purple flowers on entire path way, Its properly guarded by police, Main temple is not allowed for visitors, we were at prayer time, saw people carrying food for god and idols….it’s a very high on spiritual time, somehow I get into the main temple as no guard was there, its 5 storey bldg, all rooms are locked, only option peep through, very old paintings of Buddha, they were so beautiful time permitted it takes me a day to stare them, somehow remembered I have family to take care of went down saw a police guard right in front and starring me, I went to him and ask very innocently why they locked rooms, his reply to me how you get in, said no one was here and instruction written just went 1 up by one floor, he called his senior and they discussed some in their language and told its restricted entry for visitors and they pardoned me. Left from there with lot of relief. Went back to hotel telling all stories about the dzong I have seen, kids disappoint of not seeing the Paintings. Packed our bags started back to Paro after 5 hrs leisure drive reached paro, watching the airport and flights landing.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 130 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 5:30Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Hotel Tiger Nest / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.4500-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

Day 14:

Woke up early by 6 pm got ready by 7 am, wife and younger one dropped out for tigers nest trekking, Fully charged from the stories written online, drove to the parking area, and hired horse for my son and bought the stick for me, at the starting it was nice and easy took shortcut where nasty route, two of the idiots almost fall onto me of un balancing, my son reached nicely with horse to the dropping point, I started going back to the regular route which is little bit longer but easy to trek, Met haggy and reached the canteen sipped coffee for 200INR, we met with a French lady on the way to tigers nest aged about 62yrs, but walking like just into 30s and my son asusual with his queries made our journey painless, we need to get a ticket and belongings for free. Nice views of waterfall and some snaps, entered the Tigers Nest, went to many temples, Lighten the butter lamp with prayers all is well. While returning I usually lost myself like a child mesmerized with the live makings of butter ornaments as offering to GOD, my son went to some other place and he sat relaxly, I went on searching for him 3 times in and out of tigers nest and trek halfway to the other side asked many ppl coming towards the tigers nest, every one said no with the identifications I said, went back to tigers nest again and find this guy chatting happily with French lady. Anger and happy both at same time….said sorry to him and trekked back to parking with lot of memories, bought some souvenirs to ppl at Hyderabad. It took us 6 hrs up and down. Reached hotel refreshed and moved back to thimpu, between shopping at Paro….as usual girl thing….met some of our jalvayu towers society residents there, they are surprised to see we drove all the way by car. Moved to hotel Kichu at thimpu, nice view from hotel watched football match and boxing match in the night, went for some more shopping at thimpu as I promised.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 60 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 2:30Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Hotel Kichu/ double Bed Room - Ac Rs.4000-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

Day 15:

Woke up bit late by 9 am started towards Phuentshilong, distance 200kms for the destination a tea garden resort. Same route back with many memories and again lot of foggy stretches zero visibility. Reached the last checkpost before phuentsholing and given the original permit back to them, had copies of permits as memories of Bhutan. Had lunch at phuentsholing converted etc currency back to INR. Started back to chaos the moment I left the gateway arch started hearing horns , dust blab la…welcome back to India. Reached the destination tea garden resorts, nothing much there to say just got bluffed with name waste of money.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 200 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 7:30Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Mystic Tea garden resort / 2double Bed Room - Ac Rs.2000-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

Day 16 & 17:

Woke up early but settling bill was made very late by 10 am started towards Siliguri, thinking to reach Hyderabad via Varanasi, want to check the car condition at siliguri and then move. Reached siliguri but finding the VW service center costed me 2 hrs, they took the work to clean the car and topping up the engine oil wasted another 2 hrs, its 4 pm and thought staying at siliguri itself as its dangerous go in night at muzzaffarapur, meanwhile kids demanded especially younger one for sundarbans, after long chat agreed to them and decided to drove further and halt at malda. Horrible decision that become later, it started raining almos reaching to malda time was 1 am lot of truck traffic horrible roads and speed breakers, couldn’t find any accommodation at that time….slept in car for 3 hrs. started back to kolkatha to my horrific thing, the sundarban tour operators given me a bomb they were in bandh due to some pay raise and blab la. No trips for 2 more days….dont know what to do reached bardhaman and find the café coffee day for refreshings. Discussed with wife to see explore all places in kolkatha, she is no more interested to stay or explore any places wanted to back home, agreed and booked hotel at rambha, pant nivas, drove with breaks at café coffee days favorite refreshments on highways. It looks very easy driving 1250 kms in 20 Hrs, but the pain I took in driving those conditions was a lesson and understand what kind of Maniac I am. I put my family into lot of uncomfortable in this journey.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 1250 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 20 Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Pant Nivas, Rambha / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.2500-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

Day 18:

started journey by 9 am towards Hyderabad, Initially decided to take break at vizag, but on the journey no one is interested to stay at vizag everyone want to be at home, same as usual café coffee days it becomes favourite for us chicken somked sandwich, latte is for us and cold coffee for kids.

Had our proper dinner after 2 days at raju gari thota. Reached home by 2 am.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 950 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 16Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Home Sweet Home / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.0-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

That’s all……will update soon my Sikkim Trip done 22^Nd Oct -5^Th Nov. See you people soon on Meetups. Any mistakes kindly excuse never thought writing will be this much time taking process.

[karthik]

4 hours ago, Tapahasu said:

Hyderabad –Bhutan – Hyderabad started on 13^th may 2018.

 

Very helpful and great information.

 

We are planning a similar trip this December. 

I will follow your inputs.

 

Once again, Thank you a lot for sharing the information. 

[sagar]

20 hours ago, Tapahasu said:

Hyderabad –Bhutan – Hyderabad started on 13^th may 2018.

 

That’s all……will update soon my Sikkim Trip done 22^Nd Oct -5^Th Nov. See you people soon on Meetups. Any mistakes kindly excuse never thought writing will be this much time taking process.

 

Excellent report @Tapahasu  Very much informative this is.. Will surely help a lot of people planning their trip to Bhutan  

Waiting for your recent Sikkim Travel report  

[kamal]

Hi @Tapahasu, Beautiful details and pictures of your trip sir, Could you throw some light on the immigration process at Phuntsholing entrance of Bhutan?

[Naveen1]

On 11/15/2018 at 12:23 PM, Tapahasu said:

Hyderabad –Bhutan – Hyderabad started on 13^th may 2018.

 

Super review.

You covered most of the required information. 

hoping to see more logs from your end. 

Keep inspiring fellow members. 

[Gowtham]

On 11/15/2018 at 12:23 PM, Tapahasu said:

Hyderabad –Bhutan – Hyderabad started on 13^th may 2018.

 

Valuable information.
Will format and copy it to the first post.

Thank you for sharing. 

 

[Tapahasu]

On 11/16/2018 at 10:54 AM, kamal said:

Hi @Tapahasu, Beautiful details and pictures of your trip sir, Could you throw some light on the immigration process at Phuntsholing entrance of Bhutan?

I have given elobarated details on day 11 on immigration process, any further details u need u can call me on 8885561777 between 8am to 8 pm

 

On 11/16/2018 at 9:09 AM, sagar said:

 

Excellent report @Tapahasu  Very much informative this is.. Will surely help a lot of people planning their trip to Bhutan  

Waiting for your recent Sikkim Travel report  

Just started will update before hampi trip

 

On 11/16/2018 at 3:20 PM, Ranger said:

 

Valuable information.
Will format and copy it to the first post.

Thank you for sharing. 

 

Plz as I couldn't find any way to edit my old post and add the new content and writing this stupid way need time. My Netflix and Amazon prime doesn't gives me any time.

[Gowtham]

17 hours ago, Tapahasu said:

Plz as I couldn't find any way to edit my old post and add the new content and writing this stupid way need time. My Netflix and Amazon prime doesn't gives me any time.

 

It is locked after an hour.

You can post it again.

I can replace it. 

 

[sahil]

Hyderabad –Bhutan – Hyderabad started on 13^th may 2018.

Day1:

As I already stated before, this trip was to test my family’s capability of exploring the long drives of distances more than 6000 kms and 20+ days duration, all the time I was alone going on bike expeditions.

Started early by 5 am from home located at jalvayu towers, lower tankbund, still kids r in sleeping mode they don’t even have a hint of this trip, just they know someplace traveling, quickly packed the luggage and driven, stopped at Vijayawada for breakfast on road side. One thing i learned a new thing from this trip ( mostly women want to eat street food all the time with neat and clean environment) nothing to say much on this stretch as kids and wiffy sleeping all the time and  road conditions everyone knows, halting place is at APTDC,Baruva Beach. we reached by 3:30 pm in vizag and had lunch at cafe coffee day on the way reaching to vizag. i want to skip the vizag traffic and taken the  truck bypass route, It’s a two lane road some parts wide & some areas narrow, many pot holes in the road but manageable. At 4 to 4:30 rain started heavily, video tells all about it, once crossed vizag. it’s a breeze through srikakulam highway and it’s no more raining and weather is pleasant, reached Baruva by 7 pm, the APTDC cottages are very spacious and AC works well, but poorly maintained the infrastructure, you can have look of sunset and sunrise directly from your room. Booze on order available, but canteen people won't serve, Ordered snacks and food from canteen, food is ok. Sat at the balcony attached and had a long chat and kids are busy with TV.
 

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 850KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 14 hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: APTDC/ double Bed Room -Ac Rs.3000-00 with charges for Extra person

Day2:

Woke up early by 5am thought it was 7 am, quickly refreshed and went on some auto mode beachside photography, shot some sunrise pics, I came back up by 6 am and woke up them, here the horror starts. The time I took them to beach huge crowd from adjacent village to this property is on shitting show all over the beach with 1-3 kms stretch from 6:15 to 7:30 am. Lost interest of going to the beach. Kids got ready and had puri (only thing available) as breakfast. Wiffy had some pics at cottages. Started towards Chilka lake and its a 4 lane road, sun is on his peak still we want to finish the boat ride at Chilka easy to find the way to reach this place, once u take diversion for Rambha straight u will reach to Hotel pant nivas ( most of the people book it online) adjacent lane to pant nivas directly goes to chilka lake. Different tariffs r available from 600 to 5000, depends on whether u r small goat or big goat, both govt and Pvt ferries available, govt one will definitely cost u more and u have to book it from pant nivas built adjacent
to chilka lake, it’s a good one to stay, very spacious (on return journey we stayed here.)
on bargaining they agreed to 1000 bucks for trip to breakfast point, dinosaur island and kingfisher island. Compare to any other parts this is pretty cheap for me for the total ride of 2 hrs. i already posted some pics of it.

Still the kings / queens from Orissa come over here for their breakfast quiet often. Many islands are there with its own story to tell it will cost u more.

Boat Ride was good with some luck as dolphins and kingfishers we sited. While traveling on boat one of the guys suggested to take a ride through scenic road instead of NH to reach konark.

*At palur on NH45 before Rambha diversion you have to take diversion for this road called as malud road

It really proves worth listening to him, beautiful roads with lot of water bodies around from small to big to very big, live fishing scenes u may come across many times,  finally reached some point where the road ends and you have to travel by ferry, just missed by 2 mins, it costed 2 hrs, there are many small boats which carries bikes and goods in regular but heavy vehicles like bus, lorry and car has to go through ferry and fees only 300/- so cheap for a life time experience. Entering, exiting and parking in the ferry is a scary part reverse drive and you don’t have choice of roaming freely, all most side door to door and bumper to bumper they will pack, luckily am into one side of the ferry so i can open only one side of door, few pics of it.
Strange and good thing i observe in this trip wiffy didn’t complain about back pain or any pain she started the taste of exploring places.
Safely reached onto the other side of the bank, while taking car out off the ferry one need to be careful in case u drive sedan or suv it hits on back bumper, luckily survived with skills learned from senior ppl like u guys.
The road is a narrow to 2 lane road and 4 lane and it took me 4 hrs on the way to konark, hundreds of cows left on roads and crazy bikers make you upgrade your driving skill set, many speed breakers u will face on this road avoided puri-konark road and took diversion on to jaganath sadak and then to maltatipur-konark road, you can find speed breakers on 4 lane road very crazy, road through the forest is fully packed with many speed breakers, after finishing the drive l was thinking how the tsunami affected konark temple, pretty far from beach. Stayed in Yatrinivas konark, dinner in its attached hotel, very tasty but no room service.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 250KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 7Hrs 20Mins
Tariff for Accommodation: Yatri Nivas/ double Bed Room /Ac Rs.2100-00 with charges for Extra person

Day3:

By 6 am visiting konark temple is best, but we woke up at 7:30 am late and by finishing breakfast by 9am i. e a very bad time to visit konark temple added to this some local person murdered in the night, and police is everywhere, so parking is very far from konark temple. sun is on his peak by 10 am itself somehow managed through, still wondering no complaints from wiffy. Tickets que is very long and no separate lines for men and women somehow got it done very quickly and hired a local guide, he helped us with his umbrella and enormous knowledge he has on this temple even though illiterate, after knowing about brief about konark temple and 12 out of 24 wheels history we tired and guide with age of 60 was very active and he continues his way of explaining things, after making halfway of the temple wiffy starts complaining about scorching heat, she said u guys finish 
and i will wait for u. the guide says “madamji abhi tho asli cheez dekhneka hai, ghore log tho sirf isko dekhnekeliye athe hai”. She pumped up again and ready to walk, guide told the kids to watch at something and took us both to some wheels where it has xxx scenes of ancient mudra. I have to see her face.....burst out of laughing. Guide quickly understand the situation and rushed towards the kids, Very funny it was. Anyhow it charged our mood from sun rays. To save ourselves from heat had some coconut, cucumber, plenty of water and rushed to puri jaganath darshan, heavy traffic buy 2 wheelers, 4 wheelers and cows, everywhere u can see cows and cows. I as usual trapped by some goons who run quick darshan and at the end I couldn't even had darshan of Lord jaganath, but had a bill of 1116/-for annadaanam. At least satisfied that Annadaanam was served to God. Kicked his ass for this but paid him 300\- very shameless fellow, saying mujhe kitnebhi maro lekin paisa dho. Plz plan it earlier in proper time and go directly by urself and have darshan always.
my wife cursed him all the way we reached to our hotel Sonar Bangla motel midway at the outskirts of kolkata. The most horrible place for 5000/-
i never suggest this hotel to anybody, online reviews were good so i booked it but wasted money. It’s a supreme room, AC not working and it’s hardly a 8x10 size room, even after room freshener applied its smelling and owner is so rude and says don’t like then talk to your MMT representative, time was 11pm, no one picks the call, no option left hardly slept as beds are very bad….don’t know how travelers given such a rating to this hotel.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 512.00KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 11 hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Sonar Bangla Motel Midway/ double Bed Room -Non/Ac Rs.5000-00 with charges for Extra person

Day4:

Thought of visiting many places in Kolkata, but a small incident changed my mind, traffic police identify vehicle is not from wb, then tries to loot money from you even we have all documents with us, even though mine is BS-IV vehicle still I carried pollution paper still doesn’t satisfies him, then he started lying u crossed a red signal very funny, arguing for a 30 mins wasted and those idiots settled for 100 bucks after giving their boss names, internet helped me on this, and entire mood was off. First choice is darshan for both the Maatha ji temples. 2 different scenarios one with heavy crowd and poojaris looting people basis of dakshina and other one is serene and calm guarded by military. First time wiffy complains no more kolkatha, thought of going back to Hyderabad, instead she say we will go towards Bhutan, tried to convince her for visiting other places Answer was “when u come by bike dekhlena”. she doesnt even know that i haven’t even planned anything further after this. kids demanded for sundarbans trip but due to elections at sundarban area they stopped the trips. bad luck.
I just rushed into googlemaps and started finalizing the routes at lunch break. Finally decided to go via asansol and it was a bad choice up to asansol roads r 4 lane. We stayed at some hotel named Excellency charged 2.5k and worst rooms and facilities i don’t even pay 500 for it. as we reached late and paid online already no other choice as the 2 nd best hotel is already booked in full. Whole night route plan slept very late.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 302.00KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 6Hrs 20Mins
Tariff for Accommodation: Excellency Hotel/ double Bed Room -Non/Ac Rs.2580-00 with charges for Extra person

Day5:

Asansol to lataguri via Dumka, Bhagalpur, purnea and kishangunj road is all mixed roads, road work is going on, some of them are good, some bad roads, some r horrible roads. But never had a pblm except proper lunch and breakfast, u won’t find any eatables or hotels between, apples and biscuits which in stock were used for this as i said already trip wasnt properly planned, Asansol to Dumka very good roads and No roads, Dumka to Bhagalpur roads are ok with scary drivers 2 & wheelers, Bhagalpur, purnea and kishangunj roads r good to very good. Only trouble truck traffic, long jams for hours, I drove around 30-40 kms in wrong direction to avoid the traffic jam, luckily escaped many accidents on this episode. Kishangunj to lataguri scenic roads one side river and other side forest, some part of the road is very bad. I booked accommodation at The Reserve, GORUMARA, lataguri. Very good hotel with modern amenities, food is very good. south indian Breakfast is an excellent I ever had in northside.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 550 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 13Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: The Reserve, gorumara/ double Bed Room - Ac Rs.5800-00 with charges for Extra person

Day6:

Woke up early 5am for jeep safari which starts at 6 am, need to buy tickets before one day we tried our luck and we got it on same day, wife still at bed me and kids went through this, we had seen only bison in entire trip missed many wild elephants and leopard very fresh footprints just crossed us, it’s a 2:30 hrs trip covering around 28 kms, kids very disappointed, told them we go again in different place where they do Elephant ride and they also can see Rhynos. Both agreed and back to hotel for Breakfast, after breakfast went to Forest Department office where we need to book accommodation, luckily I got one at Kalipur, but I need it in other location which I saw it on jeep safari. Settled with kalipur, as forest ranger said same accommodation will not be available in case we try to book it online even 6 months before. Paid instantly 6000\- including food and snacks which is ok, Actually we want to stay one more day but it’s already reserved long back. Back to Hotel for packing, staff and manager at THE RESERVE Gorumara is very cooperative and agreed to check out by 2 pm. Drive from hotel to kalipur is @ 45 kms. Thought of 1 hr but it took us 2 hrs, scenic roads through tea gardens.

There are only 4 cottages all are NON-AC, 2 already occupied next to canteen by forest dept people, out of 12345, 1&5 are ours, kids demanded mobiles in case they stay separated, my wife drama all the time, kids blab bla bla…..many flies if u put the lights on…..Entire camp is fenced properly, You can find a buffalo ride, 150/person kind of experience went to the rhino tower where we can see them bit faraway, tried our luck, got them only where I can see through binoculars or though camera, reached back on buffalo ride, it’s very different, snacks in the evening is the best food with coffee, after snacks by 7 pm they arranged bonfire and tribal dance with their traditional dress, same night wild elephants have come very near to the camp, we missed it can’t see anything in deadly night vision, understand the value of torch light. Somehow slowly we went to sleep after a remarkable day. BSNL and JIO both works at this place.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 50 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 2Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Kalipur Eco Village, / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.6000-00 with charges for 2 cottages

Day 7:

 

Woke up early by 6 am for elephant ride, it’s my first ride too on an elephant, every one excited, me and my life is into one elephant and kids into another one, crossed small river on the ride, saw a lone Rhyno enjoying its mud Bath, eagerly watching at us, might be saying f…k’ff from here. Saw some deers racing like a bullet, and then come across an entire family of rhynos 8-10 with various sizes, couldn’t got a clear shot as grass is almost 8 feet high. After a watchful sight at elephant ride we were on full charge, wife want to stay a day more but no vacancy has to move, started at 12:15 pm towards Darjeeling until silluguri it’s a mixed roads, after that National Highway only 2 lane up and only up never faced such roads before, experience on leh- ladakh has come in handy, given all assurance to my wiffy nothing will happen, just enjoy the beauty of hills, many kids with school uniforms are everywhere throughout the drive. Without any trouble from car we reached darjeeling, whatever I imagined from my childhood watching in movies is not there, heavy traffic of tourists and pretty child environment is encouraging, my kids started getting effected by high altitude sickness, reached hotel, very cozy, but not spacious, In summer temperature is 3-5*C, washroom tiles r so chilled we can’t use without slippers. Different experience to kids and wiffy, enjoyed the food and went to bed thinking about the morning view of the Mighty Kanchanjunga.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 150 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 5Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Don’t remember / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.2500-00 with charges for Extra person

Day 8:

I decided not to drive in Darjeeling from the experience of previous day drive from siliguri. Hired a local taxi guy, @2000/day. Went to Padmaja Naidu Zoo Park, Rock climbing point, Tea Gardens point where we will be again small and big goats depends on individuals. My suggestion better u guys drive all these points on your own car, waste of money, overall kids got entertained. Already took the famous steam engine train ticket while going to the zoo park in the morning, Frankly speaking I said its just chut….appa to buy tickets for taking a picture with steam engine….Manthera Train ride is far better than this. But its up to the individuals how they feel. We got some good pictures on this train ride.

Only fun thing on this ride is the train has seats where only 2+2 can sit, think about 120-140KG ppl settled in our seats entire family of 8 ppl same sizes with different age groups, the moment I entered the coach, I said wtf where we gonna sit, and their faces like adjust or f…off, crazy that these idiots didn’t take seats in regular numbers instead they were booking 1,3,5,7 etc like that….I said firmly to the head of family if u give us window seats we can adjust else I will call TC and no one ride the train, without any question with smile they agreed. All r happy at the end.

After all these when we reached back it tiresome, quickly back to Hotel with same taxi guy who picked us in the morning, had some dinner and back to sleep.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 0 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 0Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Don’t remember same hotel / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.2500-00 with charges for Extra person.

Day 9:

Woke up bit late by 10 am started towards gangtok, distance 110kms time taken to trave is 5:30 hrs very hectic, uploaded a video, jho bhi keeda tha driving ki nikhalgaya hai….I prayed god I don’t need any more curves….on the other side kids started vomiting…..every one hour….5 mins break…finally reached Hotel.

Its day rest and paper work for ILP’s for next morning and its Monday no permission for Nathula Pass, so only changu lake and Baba mandir.

We met some more telugu people in the same hotel traveling in and around Sikkim. Kids had lot of chat and play with them, I just get into bed for whole day to get rested…..I got slight fever due to hectic drive with high altitude sickness, my wife who troubles for 200kms drive, doesn’t show any sign off sickness or pain. Its good sign for the trip to go further.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 120 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 5:30Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Don’t remember same hotel / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.5000-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

Day 10:

Woke up early and ready by 7 am waiting for the tour operator from the hotel, but the tour operator didn’t turned up, waited and waited at 10:30 am that idiot has come with taxi, saying sorry yesterday he hasn’t do the permit process and he did it in the morning, this trip costed us Rs 5000/-including all.

Huge crowd on the roads till we cross the city, again it started curves, hair pin bends, etc. this time I am enjoying the nature as am not driving, gone through many fog, mist and rain combinations, and the hell of traffic jam for 2 hrs, hired shoes and hand gloves, never thought we face ICE in summer didn’t carry any except jackets. Had some snaps passing through many military camps, finally reached the Changu Lake (Tsomogo lake) beautiful with less crowd as most of them were in return journey, Buffalo ride is over and now its sibling Yak ride is on, As usual I prefer to walk and wife and kids on Yaks, got some beautiful pics cost depends on your bargains 500-1500. It has car cable ride which take you to the top of the hill, temp -2 to 1*C, played a lot had some good pics, came back for journey to Baba Mandir, Taxi driver says its late we have to go back, as everyone is returning back and weather changing drastically, I argued and finally said ok. On return journey my health went down and vomited same as my kids, appreciated the driver for not going to baba mandir. Reached back hotel, Actual plan is to drive in the night to phuentshilong, Due to the health issue continued for one more night, in case health get better we drove early in the morning else we rest as am the only driver for this entire trip. Wife want to do shopping and took local cab guy went to MG Road only place where u can get costly items for more cost, better to buy in some roadside shops, Here shop keepers are more clever than Hyderabad ones, as they make u comfortable that u will never refuse to buy and prepare you for Halal. You will come to know this when u visit some other shop. As usual she is some kind of Maniac (Unique) who doesn’t want gold but all these nonsense, excuse for it I can buy 10-20 items for the same price in comparison to gold. I can’t argue with her on this so I stopped bothering it, finally went back to hotel. View from the balcony of hotel was good but haven’t had any pics everywhere its fog or mist. Can’t see any.

Note: You can also do self-driving to these places on Bikes and with good local person cars too, and these taxi drivers and shop owners are all family bros and sis, all most all of them it’s the main source of income.

 
TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 0 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 0Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Don’t remember same hotel / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.4000-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

Day 11:

As my health recovered due to the proper night sleep, Woke up at 6am and we were ready to move to Phuentoshilong had hot coffee and drove towards phuentosholing, Same story again repeats, hills, curves, vomiting and new to this is speed breakers very unique can’t explain ( they are like water passages) better u understand when u drove. As I passed through the Dooars again I understood that I made a wrong booking earlier, could have been done Darjeeling and gangtok, then to dooars could have been a good option as its on the way, reached Phuentoshilong by 1:30 pm. You can find 2 different worlds here at Indian border with Bhutan, one side sounds, pollution, chaos etc on other side strict rules and regulations with peace of mind eg: pedestrian importance, no horns, you can find everywhere a Bangladeshi / Nepal origin as parking ticket collector, you can’t escape from him till you are in Bhutan. You can ask anyone for the directions to Visa permit counter they will help, you won’t get parking easily have to roam around the shops nearby to get one.

You can directly enter Bhutan side (Visa Counter) without any permission, first thing is to finish the Car permit as the counter for cash closes by 3 PM, You can get even directions for this through google maps, I was using JIO sim working well, paid Rs 500/- for permit for 7 days after finishing the paper work ( you will be paying vehicle permit amount depends on number of days you will be staying in Bhutan better to go always more than 12-15 days, as this won’t be done again anywhere even in thimphu) and straight drove to Visa Permit counter, There are 2 lines one for people who’s applying for work permit under the BRO in Bhutan and the other line for Tourists and etc, Everyone who reaches the Visa Office will first afraid of seeing the other line….You can also avail the services of brokers in the office, but u don’t need one. They will give you an application form where u will fill details individually and in separate form along with your details along with supporting documents like, id proof, photos-2, and hotel booking confirmation for one day. once you submit these to the 2 operators working at the counter, they check it and your number or name will be called, where we need to go for biometric in 1^st floor, all this process will take only an hour, after getting the permit we have to go back to Vehicle permit and show this to them and they issue vehicle permit, while taking vehicle permit they will ask you for how many days, incase u want to explore entire Bhutan then go for 15 days else tell them 7 days accordingly they charge you ones it done will not be redone even at Thimpu, Thimpu is only for an extension of Individual VISA permit but not vehicle permit. After all this had some lunch at 4 pm and started towards Thimpu, Roads are mixed conditions with 4 lane, 2 lane with pot holes, here people putting a right indicator means they are giving way to cross, initially confused later acquainted, reached hotel by 10:30am will upload some pics of it.

Note: Your accommodation receipt in Bhutan for day 1 should be mandatory, rest they won’t even bother; same we need to submit our Itenary for entire tour. You can avail all the Xerox and online facilities just next door, you can avail the SIM cards by submitting the permit and aadhar card, money exchange is almost same buy as much as u want, 2000 notes only valid in Phuentoshilong and thimpu rest of the places strictly no and 500, 100, 50, 20 and 10 notes of Indian currency works in all places.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 410 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 15:30Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Hotel Bhutan / 2 double Bed Room - Ac Rs.7000-00 with all charges.
 

Day 12:

Woke up bit late by 8 am started the paper work for further travel in Bhutan same process need to apply for the places to visit and same as going to the vehicle permit. You can easily get these locations, application center is right opposite to my hotel room. Done things by 9 am started towards Punakha, Roads are good, My younger one got fever due to vomiting continuously and he is dehydrated, did what ever I can do as a father to make him calm down and get him back in to travel mood. Dachula pass is very nice one for pics, weather is cold and foggy, didn’t gone through the history of it, Canteen is available, Next thing is to reach our stay i.e homestay thought of little different from India will be nice and enjoyable living in nature and enjoying nature, Homestay is little away from the regular road to Punakha, missed it and drove 5kms realized google showing some other location in back, somehow reached it, off roading to destination, the entire stretch is very scenic, we were in dreams, how the stay could be….same thing crossed the stay and moved further thinking it will be further down as we crossed a small village with very old buildings cant even think about is our stay as it costed my 5000 bucks, reached some place where all people get down for sightseeing it’s the place where all Bhutan art is founded, live art and lot of portraits and landscapes even some are very old on exhibits, called the ladylord, asked to us to come back to village, start the scary part watching my wife’s face…..LOL.. couldn’t even dared to see her eyes, surprisingly see said in calm manner, lets try…….Relief…..the moment we reached and called her she said only 1 room is there, get adjusted in that….before taking any decision I want to see that stay….went along with my elder one….The moment I entered the house understood I made a big mistake booking here, Irooms are in first floor, vertical steps almost like a ladder kept all my fears and dared to enter……Its just a 8x12 room, no bed only beds old type on ground…..no attached bathroom. What else u need to become ussain bolt……LOL. Begged my son not to tell anything about stay and bribed a lego toy, rushed back to car, not a single word with my wife asking normal questions to crying questions, my elder one had his best laughs all the time. Stopped for a Tea, before I told the story I offered her shopping at Paro unlimited, she surprisingly seeing at me and agreed heard the story just laughed, all the things got into normal, booked a hotel at Khuruthang before Punakha reached hotel with a lot of relief.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 90 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 6:30Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Don’t remember same hotel / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.3000-00 with charges for Extra person.
 

Day 13:

Started by 10am towards Punakha Dzong, reached in 30 mins, separate parking available for private vehicles, Most Beautiful and the best Dzong in entire Bhutan, River flows adjacent to the dzong, entrance is a crossover bridge, Purple flowers on entire path way, Its properly guarded by police, Main temple is not allowed for visitors, we were at prayer time, saw people carrying food for god and idols….it’s a very high on spiritual time, somehow I get into the main temple as no guard was there, its 5 storey bldg, all rooms are locked, only option peep through, very old paintings of Buddha, they were so beautiful time permitted it takes me a day to stare them, somehow remembered I have family to take care of went down saw a police guard right in front and starring me, I went to him and ask very innocently why they locked rooms, his reply to me how you get in, said no one was here and instruction written just went 1 up by one floor, he called his senior and they discussed some in their language and told its restricted entry for visitors and they pardoned me. Left from there with lot of relief. Went back to hotel telling all stories about the dzong I have seen, kids disappoint of not seeing the Paintings. Packed our bags started back to Paro after 5 hrs leisure drive reached paro, watching the airport and flights landing.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 130 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 5:30Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Hotel Tiger Nest / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.4500-00 with charges for Extra person.
 

Day 14:

Woke up early by 6 pm got ready by 7 am, wife and younger one dropped out for tigers nest trekking, Fully charged from the stories written online, drove to the parking area, and hired horse for my son and bought the stick for me, at the starting it was nice and easy took shortcut where nasty route, two of the idiots almost fall onto me of un balancing, my son reached nicely with horse to the dropping point, I started going back to the regular route which is little bit longer but easy to trek, Met haggy and reached the canteen sipped coffee for 200INR, we met with a French lady on the way to tigers nest aged about 62yrs, but walking like just into 30s and my son asusual with his queries made our journey painless, we need to get a ticket and belongings for free. Nice views of waterfall and some snaps, entered the Tigers Nest, went to many temples, Lighten the butter lamp with prayers all is well. While returning I usually lost myself like a child mesmerized with the live makings of butter ornaments as offering to GOD, my son went to some other place and he sat relaxly, I went on searching for him 3 times in and out of tigers nest and trek halfway to the other side asked many ppl coming towards the tigers nest, every one said no with the identifications I said, went back to tigers nest again and find this guy chatting happily with French lady. Anger and happy both at same time….said sorry to him and trekked back to parking with lot of memories, bought some souvenirs to ppl at Hyderabad. It took us 6 hrs up and down. Reached hotel refreshed and moved back to thimpu, between shopping at Paro….as usual girl thing….met some of our jalvayu towers society residents there, they are surprised to see we drove all the way by car. Moved to hotel Kichu at thimpu, nice view from hotel watched football match and boxing match in the night, went for some more shopping at thimpu as I promised.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 60 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 2:30Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Hotel Kichu/ double Bed Room - Ac Rs.4000-00 with charges for Extra person.
 

Day 15:

Woke up bit late by 9 am started towards Phuentshilong, distance 200kms for the destination a tea garden resort. Same route back with many memories and again lot of foggy stretches zero visibility. Reached the last checkpost before phuentsholing and given the original permit back to them, had copies of permits as memories of Bhutan. Had lunch at phuentsholing converted etc currency back to INR. Started back to chaos the moment I left the gateway arch started hearing horns , dust blab la…welcome back to India. Reached the destination tea garden resorts, nothing much there to say just got bluffed with name waste of money.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 200 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 7:30Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Mystic Tea garden resort / 2double Bed Room - Ac Rs.2000-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

Day 16 & 17:

Woke up early but settling bill was made very late by 10 am started towards Siliguri, thinking to reach Hyderabad via Varanasi, want to check the car condition at siliguri and then move. Reached siliguri but finding the VW service center costed me 2 hrs, they took the work to clean the car and topping up the engine oil wasted another 2 hrs, its 4 pm and thought staying at siliguri itself as its dangerous go in night at muzzaffarapur, meanwhile kids demanded especially younger one for sundarbans, after long chat agreed to them and decided to drove further and halt at malda. Horrible decision that become later, it started raining almos reaching to malda time was 1 am lot of truck traffic horrible roads and speed breakers, couldn’t find any accommodation at that time….slept in car for 3 hrs. started back to kolkatha to my horrific thing, the sundarban tour operators given me a bomb they were in bandh due to some pay raise and blab la. No trips for 2 more days….dont know what to do reached bardhaman and find the café coffee day for refreshings. Discussed with wife to see explore all places in kolkatha, she is no more interested to stay or explore any places wanted to back home, agreed and booked hotel at rambha, pant nivas, drove with breaks at café coffee days favorite refreshments on highways. It looks very easy driving 1250 kms in 20 Hrs, but the pain I took in driving those conditions was a lesson and understand what kind of Maniac I am. I put my family into lot of uncomfortable in this journey.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 1250 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 20 Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Pant Nivas, Rambha / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.2500-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

Day 18:

started journey by 9 am towards Hyderabad, Initially decided to take break at vizag, but on the journey no one is interested to stay at vizag everyone want to be at home, same as usual café coffee days it becomes favourite for us chicken somked sandwich, latte is for us and cold coffee for kids.

Had our proper dinner after 2 days at raju gari thota. Reached home by 2 am.

TOTAL DRIVEN DISTANCE: 950 KMS
TOTAL DRIVEN TIME: 16Hrs
Tariff for Accommodation: Home Sweet Home / double Bed Room - Ac Rs.0-00 with charges for Extra person.

 

That’s all……will update soon my Sikkim Trip done 22^Nd Oct -5^Th Nov. See you people soon on Meetups. Any mistakes kindly excuse never thought writing will be this much time taking process.

Your Bhutan trip is really scary and inspirational..need lot of guts for planning and travel and that to you have to cross Orissa and Bengal with Kids and wife and in single car...

Hats of to you....and your family.
I read your write-up 2 times already....

after Bhutan and Sikkim, your next trip?


Regards,
Rajesh

[Tapahasu]

1 minute ago, sahil said:

Your Bhutan trip is really scary and inspirational..need lot of guts for planning and travel and that to you have to cross Orissa and Bengal with Kids and wife and in single car...

Hats of to you....and your family.
I read your write-up 2 times already....

after Bhutan and Sikkim, your next trip?


Regards,
Rajesh

Wow, read twice feeling high when someone appreciate, next one will be udaipur in February, Hyd - Udaipur- Hyd

[mit1682]

@Tapahasu hats off to your patience for writing such a detail log. Even with few difficulties that you faced, i can still see smiling and happy faces. That is the energy and support needed for such a long drive. I Appreciate your family for such support during trip. Will surely take lesson from your trip for any long drives.  

[Sridhar Tandra]

Speechless!! what a detailed write up @Tapahasu 1) Kudos to you to take family on such a ride 2) Kudos to your spouse for managing kids and all the support provided

 

It is definitely not an easy task to take family with 2 kids on such a ride without planning! ? 

[Shekar]

Really a great drive @Tapahasu. Very detailed narration and good photos. Hats off to your courage to cover these places being single driver with family. Loved reading the log.