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Destination Himalaya:
The Land of the Thunder Dragon

 A motorbike tour to Sikkim and Bhutan

  reported by Katrin Hockemeyer

The tour operator labelled his own tour as of “expeditional character” That was no understatement...
I met the group at the airport of a city in India called “Bagdogra”that I had never heard of before.  We were 13 people, all germans but one was japanese, a 74 year old guy from Saitama. Since I never took a group tour in my life before I was curious what kind of people would book a trip like that. Mostly men, I suspected, and since it was not really cheap I expected to see rather older people who had the money. At first sight I was right, but to my surprise there were 4 other women on the tour, two of them even riding by themselves. So lucky me, I was not alone... 

And even luckier for the girls was the sight of the tour guide, an exceptionally tall and very handsome bhutanese man called Tenzin. 

We didn't waste much time at the airport. There were three jeeps waiting for us to take us to Mirik, a  small town in the mountains south of Darjeeling. It was a 2 hour drive and when we arrived it was already dark. But we got a look at our bikes parked in front of the hotel.

The Royal Enfield Bullet is a classic bike, 500cc, pretty easy to ride I thought, when we got to test them in the morning on the streets of Mirik. That was good because my bike riding experience was only about 7500km on very nice japanese roads around Tokyo before the trip.
Some of the Enfields had the gear shift on the right foot side and the other way around, so first gear up and then down. But since I wasn't sure I could handle it I asked to ride one with “normal”layout.
My electrial starter woulnd't work, but what do you need it for if you got your own mechanic on the tour who is just too happy to get it started for you??? But certainly I can do kickstarting now :-) 

After getting accustomed to the bikes for a bit we hit the road towards Darjeeling, only a 50km drive on mountain roads. Mostly we were going rather slowly and the roads were not too bad until we got close to Darjeeling. From 10km before the city it got quite challenging for me, the traffic got denser, the road had big, deep holes and we had to cross train tracks many times. I had no chance to enjoy the view of the hill station yet, I was too concentrated on the street.

In Darjeeling we had some time for sightseeing, so we went to the market and to the famous toy train's station. That were the tracks we were crossing all the time...
And of course I bought my first souvenir: some original Darjeeling tea. 

Another attraction in Darjeeling is to see the sunrise over the mountains on Tiger Hill. We had to get up at 4 a.m. to get there in time and to reserve good viewing spots. Unfortunately it was cloudy and at first you couldn't see the mountains. But the sight of  the other 500 people of all nationalities standing there in the cold, waiting and freezing was very colorful and entertaining.
In the end the sun came up and there was even a hole in the clouds just in time to see the light on “Kanchenjunga” the third highest mountain in the world. A great reward for getting up so early.

The second riding day started with traffic jam. And what was worse: we had to go back the same way and cross over all those tracks again!
But the worst was what came then: approximately 50km of steep downhill road. Normally I thought you build the roads in serpentines on a flank of the hill but not there... My hands hurt so much I could barely clutch or break after only 10km.
It was all tea plantations on the mountains, incredible green colours and blue sky.
We had to go down to a river, then ride along the river for a while and cross a bridge. That bridge was the border to Sikkim, a former himalayan kingdom that nowadays belongs to India.
Our hotel was very nice, a mountain resort with a beatiful garden and another great view of the Kanchenjunga. But after getting up so early in the morning everybody was too tired and went to bed early.

Tenzin- the guide

The hotel was near the Pemayangtse monastery that we visited first thing in the morning. During the 160km ride of the day we stopped at waterfalls and a holy lake with lots of prayer wheels and flags.
The next hotel was in Yuksom, the legend calls it the birth place of Sikkim. It is a nice little town and there is a beautiful white stupa in a  park with impressing old trees.
And another great view of Kanchenjunga from the garden of the hotel..

The next day was mostly riding, but since we only had 120 km to go we had plenty of time and didn't have to leave that early. Most of the other days, especially later in Bhutan, we started around 7.30h.
The final 3 km on that day, the way up to the hotel, was the worst street I had ever ridden on a bike. Especially because it had this 180 degree steep and narrow gravel stone curve at the end. Before we sometimes had road construction sites with gravel and deep sand. Or we went through deep water and gravel when waterfalls ran over the roads. Although I had never done that before I managed these situatiuons very well and got through those sites even without touching my foot on the ground once. I was pretty astonished and impressed myself...
But then we had to go up the hotel on this bumpiest street ever. And I could do it! I was very proud.. and everybody was impressed since I was by far the one with the least experience. Of course I didn't tell them that my t-shirt was totally wet afterwards... ;-)

It was a very cute little bungalow-style hotel and garden close to Rumtek monastery. It is run by a family and the mother showed us around their vegetable garden and the buildings where they keep their animals like cows and sheep to produce the guest's and their own food.

First thing in the morning of course: We went to see the monastery which is a very important one because it is the home of a famous Lama. Beautiful colours and paintings.
From Rumtek we left Sikkim and it was a more short ride of 80 km to Kalimpong, a very dusty and chaotic city with a lot of atmosphere in its own way. 

From Kalimpong we had to go a bit more to the south to ride through the hot plains of Assam  to the east before making our way north again and across the border into Bhutan.
In Assam we saw women in the heat picking tea leaves on plantations till the horizon. And so green, incredible colours... and very hot.
This day was the worst day of the tour in my opinion. I just had no fun at all riding 80 km on a road that was very straight but full of really deep and big holes. Sometimes as deep as 20cm! And even worse: you just couln'd see them coming... I was totally exhausted and angry, a feeling I had not experienced when riding a bike up to now.
But finally we made it and entered Bhutan to see a totally different world just 300m from India: So clean and so organized, no chaotic traffic and much better roads. 

From the border town of Puntsholing we rode about 100 km to the famous Paro valley, the location of Bhutan's most important attraction, the Tiger Nest Monastery. It consist of a few small buildings set on a steep mountain rock wall and looks as if it falls down any minute. We took the steep climb up to the monastery the next morning and enjoyed the scenerie.

In the afternoon we went on to Thimphu, Bhutan's capital city and the smallest capital in the world. And  there I saw the King! He was shopping in the main street paying a visit to every single shop there is. A huge crowd of spectators was following him around, security personnel in traditional bhutanese “kho”was kept very busy. Obviously this was not a normal activity of the King. 

The next day was supposed to be very tough. And it was. We had to start as early as 7 a.m. because we had to ride 220 km on mountainous curvy road with lots of opportunities for sightseeing. First we stopped at a pass with a very scenic view of the himalaya mountains to the north.
Then we went on to Punakha Dzong, a very beautiful castle building set on a river island.
We had lunch on the way but then it was already later afternoon and there was still a long way to go. The road was ok but I was a bit afraid to have to ride in the dark. Of course it got darker and darker and colder and colder and then night before we could see the lights of Trongsa, the final destination. We found out that quite some of the bike's lights were broken but luckily we all got to the hotel safely.

The Trogsa Dzong is even bigger and more beautiful than the one in Punakha, especially because it is not only used as the district's administration headquater but also as a monastery and lots of monks in their red robes run around the grounds. Great photo opportunities!

We rode on to Jakar in Bumthang district. There we stayed for two nights because of a local festival that was held the next day. To be honest I was also happy at the prospect of a day without riding.
Unfortunately in Bumthang we got the worst hotel of the entire tour. The towns are experiencing lots of power cuts and there was no heating in the rooms. It was cold and the food at that hotel was the worst, too. Bad luck, but there was nothing we or the guide could do because the whole town was booked out because of the festival. So we had to drink heavily till very late at night to easy the pain... :-) 

The next morning we were hung over of course, but the festival was very nice. They had costume dances at the main temple and virtually everybody from the villages in the area came to watch. Whole families in their best dresses, lots of food stands and shopping pavillions had set up.

Most tourists to Bhutan hardly get farther to the east then Trongsa or Bumthang, so when we left the next morning we knew it would get even more rural.
First we had to go over the highest mountain pass on the trip at 4100m.

At lunch break there was a bunch of school kids in their traditional dresses who were very interested in our digital cameras.

The road got worse and then it happened: On a curvy downhill part I obviously was breaking too much with the front break in a curve with stones on the asphalt. The back wheel slipped and I fell. Fortunately I was wearing protetion gear and since I wasn't going fast nothing happened, no injuries or anything with the bike. But I was shocked. Especially because I was riding this bike for 10 days already on the worst roads and so far I did manage so well...

The only solace I had was the fact that I was not the first one to fall. Even some of the very experienced riders fell. But nobody in the group was hurt, no bigger accidents.
But I was getting tired. It was another 200km-day on a mountain road with still 50 km to go and I felt exhausted. On average we only went 30km/h due to road curves and condition. I hardly made it to third gear during the whole trip. 

The last stop in Bhutan was Trashigang in the far east of the country. The landscape totally changed, no more green woods all over the mountains. It became warmer, more dry and brown, with only grass and bushes covering the hills.
We spent the night at a monastery's guesthouse with a great view and even better sunset.

The next day we went 200 km south to Somdrup Jongkhar, the busy border town to Assam in India. Just before we got there, we had to pass a 25 km (!) stretch of road construction. Basically there was no road yet... it was all gravel, sand and water, incredible dust, trucks approaching that we had to pass on narrow strips and to overtake in deep sand. The sun was so low already that it blinded us and I couldn't see a thing with all the dust in the air. When we finally got to the town's checkpoint, I just felt relief. I guess everybody did... So much for the “expeditional character” of the tour ;-)

On the last day we had to make our way across the border to the city of Guwahati. The main obstacle here was the heavy indian traffic. For me normally riding a bike in Tokyo that was pretty easy compared to 25 km of road construction...

Since most people like me were booked on a flight back to Delhi on the same day there was unfortunately not much time for goodbyes. I felt sad that I suddenly had to leave the people I spend the last two weeks with. That was a great tour for a first ever group tour of my life. Now I am thinking of booking a tour to Ladakh with the highest drivable road for cars (and bikes) in the world...

Information:
total distance: approximately 1700 km
tour operator: Asia Bike Tours, owned by an Austrian guy, very reliable
http://www.asiabiketours.com/
Tours are in german and english, but I guess they are mostly booked by austrian and german nationals price of Bhutan tour: 2777 Euros for rider, not including flights.
Bhutan is a very expensive destination, because tourists have to pay 200 US$ per day, no matter what, that is including accomodation and food
accomodation was ok -good, hot water mostly available.

【A message from member】
Katrin is from Germany and living and working in Japan for 6 years now. A flyer of WIMA 2010 Japan Rally she got at a service station brought her to WIMA and joined us in September 2009. We are happy to have Katrin in WIMA Japan as she is such an energetic woman enjoying her life.

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