[Rudra Sen]

With a sleep deprived body and groggy eyes, catching an early morning flight to Kolkata from Bangalore was not essentially my idea of fun. I could only hope for a non-bumpy 2 hours 20 minutes to get some sleep. I missed that completely, thanks to the wailing child behind me. To deviate from my disturbed mind, I pulled out my phone to get a glimpse of eastern coastline of India.

The connecting flight to Bagdogra was somehow peaceful. I could manage half an hour of sleep. It felt heavenly because within a few hours, we had to drive out for Phuntsholing – the gateway of a small peaceful country tucked in between India and China - Bhutan.

What you see here, is the Orissa coastline:

[Rudra Sen]

Here’s the list below of the previous Team-BHP drives to connect.

• bensb29 drove the Brio across Kerala in the D2D-3. Read more. (In a Honda Brio : Kochi - Munnar - Thiruvananthapuram)
• I drove the Amaze up the east coast to Chennai. Read More. (Amazing Discovery Drive: Thiruvananthapuram to Chennai in a Honda Amaze)
• bblost drove the Mobilio across the forests and hills around Bandipur and Coorg. Read More. (Honda Mobilio Drive: 36 Hairpins, Bandipur Tiger Reserve & Namdroling Monastery)
• bblost drove to Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Longewala and Tanot last year. Read more. (Honda Drive to Discover: To Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Longewala and Tanot)
• .anshuman drove across Madhya Pradesh and Khajuraho. Read More.

DAY 1

Right after the lunch at a dhaba outside city limits, we started the annual pilgrimage of Honda Drive to Discover 8. For this trip, Honda had lined up their diesel models of the Honda City, Amaze, BR-V, Jazz and the WR-V. There were 2 petrol siblings also in the team - Honda Accord Hybrid and a CR-V.

This was Honda’s eighth drive, and I went for their Drive to Discover 4 where for the first time we experienced Honda diesel engine with the Amaze. Honda Drive to Discover 8 was essentially significant for two reasons. First, this trip was to announce their sales milestone of 3 lakh i-DTEC diesel engine models in India and the second – their first ever drive outside the country.

Phuntsholing, also spelled as Phuentsholing is a border town in southern Bhutan and is the administrative seat of Chukha District. Phuntsholing adjoins Indian town of Jaigaon. The distance as we knew was roughly 170 km.

After a hearty lunch I got my car for the day – A Honda Amaze. Every car had at least two members from various media groups but I was the only one in Amaze. Why? My wisdom told me that nobody wanted to spend time with this old man after that nice lunch and tiring flights!

There are few routes to reach Phuntsholing and we took the route via Nagrakata (Malbazar subdivision of Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal, India). The single lane route through lush greenery and tea gardens called for some possible clicks but I didn’t stop. It was raining occasionally and me being me, felt too lazy to stop and pull out my camera. We felt for hot chai and stopped for a while.

The sky was patches of dark clouds:


And those intermittent spells of rain and humidity:




After some contemplation, I decided not to use the camera. I’m way too sceptical about few things and using the camera without rain protection is surely one of them, especially when a phone camera does the job well. Well, most of the time at least.

Sometime in the evening (I didn’t check the time) and swimming through Hashimara’s innumerable unruly autos, bikes, cars and broken roads we reached a large gate. At that very moment, it felt like entering heaven from whatever we had left behind. Night halt in Phuntsholing was in a hotel named Druk. Druk means ‘thunder dragon’ of Bhutanese mythology and their national symbol.

[Rudra Sen]

DAY 2

Next morning after completing the immigration and vehicle permit formalities, we headed toward the valley town of Paro which was 160 km from Phuntsholing. Honda had given us the local mobile sim (Tashicell) card to use here. Tashicell is the preferred mobile network in Bhutan. Other two providers are B-Mobile and Airtel Bhutan.


People in Bhutan are extremely courteous. They follow the rules. They look happy and positive. Spending few days there we all felt the same. Here I felt people behave like this because they like to. No wonder posters on the wall said Welcome to the Land of GNH. In Bhutan, Gross National Happiness is the key for Bhutan’s development and planning.

Few kilometres after the town limit, we had to stop for the first check post. The line of cars with DL registration and big stickers did raise enough eyebrows. So much so that cops there made it very clear that we cannot proceed further without getting an NOC from the higher authority. I was driving the Jazz and it was the last one on the queue. One member from the Honda team and I drove down all the way to town to meet RTO official for permission.

The conversation went like this:

RTO official - Gentlemen, we don’t allow car with sticker in Bhutan.

Honda Team- Sir this is the drive we do every year.

RTO official - Why do you need to put sticker to discover Bhutan? Just remove them and go.

Honda Team - Sir, then the whole purpose of this drive is defeated. Please help us!

RTO official - Listen, I cannot help you in anyway. You should’ve taken an official permission well in advance. You can talk to senior authority about it, I’m sorry.

The efficient team from Honda managed to do that and one senior official drove up with us and gave a clean chit for our drive.
Gross National Happiness for all of us. Yes, in the bargain we had lost a couple of hours of precious time but who’s complaining?

It was me alone and soon, very soon I started gaining heights through clouds and fog. Alone, without any other team cars in sight. I reached a twisty turn and decided to stop for them. The backdrop behind the car described the true feel of light and weather.
Luckily it wasn’t raining and my camera came out of the car:


It was only me and I was feeling a bit left out and super hungry. All the cars had bags full of munchies but I didn’t want to touch those. After about half an hour and 48 km of driving up, we stopped at a roadside restaurant at Gedu.

Gedu, also transliterated as Gaedu, is a town in south-western Bhutan. It is located in Chukha District. It is the location of one of the colleges of the Royal University of Bhutan, Gaedu College of Business Studies. Source - Wikipedia.

Lhamu restaurant is must try for whoever is driving via Gedu. The quality and taste of what you get here is simply put – outstanding. Other than momos, various soups and curries one must try their local delicacy called Ema (chili) datshi (cheese):


After a heavy lunch, I was thinking of driving solo once again but soon I met a young blood from the group who decided (read sacrificed his fun) to join me. As we were driving up, Anosh Khambatta, a hardcore biker from another magazine, kept on mumbling as how much fun it would have been on a bike on this twisty road. It was raining every now and then and we just had to keep driving without any photo stop. Yes, it was another 100 km drive to reach our night stop at Paro.

A small waterfall came on our way and we decided to wait for one more car to capture that. As we were waiting, rain came back all over again and I felt again that I had no reason to carry that heavy camera bag:


Daylight goes down very fast in Bhutan and by the time we reached hotel Le Meridien, it was pitch dark. A quick freshen up and joining the team for a barbeque and dinner seemed just perfect:


But that superbly done up hotel with traditional Bhutanese style called for the camera once again. On the backdrop of a clear night sky hotel building stood like a diamond. Placed next to beautiful Paro river this is one place one should not miss:


Our dinner was with the Honda Cars India CEO, Mr. Yoichiro Ueno, who flew down from Delhi to be with us at Paro. Few members were already excited to go for a long uphill trek to Tiger’s Nest (Taktsang Palphug Monastery) next day and few decided to stay back and explore Paro as much as possible in such short time.

[Rudra Sen]

DAY 3

Paro is the only township in Bhutan with an airport. We came out of the hotel and took a left turn towards the airport. There was a nice viewpoint to see the plane landing and taking off. The airport is the sole international airport of the four airports in the Kingdom of Bhutan. With surrounding peaks as high as 5,500 m, it is considered one of the world's most challenging airports, as a select number of pilots are certified to land at the airport. Flights to and from Paro are allowed under visual meteorological conditions only and are restricted to daylight hours from sunrise to sunset. Paro Airport is accessible by road, 6 km from Paro city, and 54 km from Thimphu by Paro-Thimphu road. Source - Wikipedia



For me, looking for local landscape is very important and in a place like this, there was no exception. We drove out further as long as the road continued. Lovely rolling clouds, crisp fresh air and a BR-V with me, the day looked promising:

Spot the ATR 42-500 here :


A mild threat from rain cloud:


To fluffy half-hearted rain clouds:


Looking at the gigantic rock wall nestled Tiger's Nest:



The lush green patches under rain clouds:



To see a proud bunch of students:
[ATT
ACH]1681441[/ATTACH]

And then to hit a point where there was no road after. We were told few km from this point is China border:



To explore, we kept moving through lovely village roads:



And on the twists and turns with beautiful greens:



Before we could head for the other side of Paro, we went to Paro’s market area for a quick lunch. Footpath-widening work was in place without any inconvenience to public. The street was clean and all the cars were parked properly:

[Rudra Sen]

Right after our lunch, we headed out for a spot where we could be next to Paro river. I fell in love with the place as soon as we reached. But the right light for me wasn’t there. Other fellow group member was desperately looking for a place for his video bits. They were looking for the right spot and I was inside the car for the right time to appear:



Finally, they got the angle and mood they were looking for:



And then came that moment I wanted. Sharp patches of light through rain clouds and that moment was now or never:



The light quality improved and lit those raised surfaces of distant hills. Add to that some happy and shy students and BR-V looked just at home:



Darkness came very soon and this is one significant observation I made, especially from natural light photography point. I wouldn’t know if this happens right through the year. From the river bed to main road wasn’t even a km but it became completely dark. As a result, I overshot large Le Meridien entrance and drove ahead at least few km. Desperate call from fellow team member woke me up. But I would like to attribute this as joy of driving on good hill roads.

[Rudra Sen]

DAY 4

The next morning was our day to leave Paro and go back to Phuntsholing. Those who didn’t go to Thimpu could go there for some time before driving back to Phuntsholing. The Honda team told us that come what may we need to hit the last check post before 5.30 pm. This is always the case in a rushed group tour like this.

You could get something at the cost of losing something else. High altitude mountain man, Anosh Khambatta was raring to go after his 9 km trek to Tiger’s Nest. Distance between Paro and Thimpu is about 40 km. We could probably get some decent time there if can be there early enough. We had to leave early after a customary shot at the hotel parking and probably the first one to scoot.

But the saying, man proposes and god disposes is something one shouldn’t forget:



Amazingly clean and well surfaced road maintained by Border Road Organisation India and Bhutan’s local support Dantuk. Speed limit implementation is very strict here and I didn’t see any (I missed them perhaps) speed limit board anywhere:



Road to Thimpu from Paro was the same. After crossing the bridge over Wang Chu river (Raidak River) we took a sharp turn left and reached that huge Thimpu gate first:



Soon other cars joined us one by one:



I told the team before getting into town that we must keep some time for famous Buddha Dordenma statue. Most of them wanted to check out the market for shopping and promised spending no more than few minutes there. I was happy and I was wrong:



After parking on main market road, the team absconded and got back only after 45 minutes! Our guide told us to abandon the plan of visiting the famous Buddha. We had to drive 120 km plus to reach for our favourite lunch joint Lhamu restaurant at Gedu:



It was extremely disappointing for me as I could have planned my Thimpu part better. Every team member went there with different thought and agenda and one had to sync with those to plan properly. After taking a long-distance blessing from Buddha we headed out for Gedu. As we started going down weather started to get cloudy. Traffic on the road was not thick and drivers in Bhutan were excellent. No unnecessary honking, no rash driving and ready to give you way with polite use of indicator. As a result, we reached Gedu well before our stipulated time:



The team was delighted to get their choice of delicious dishes. Distance from Gedu to Phuntsholing hotel was less than 45 km so, nothing really to worry about. Frankly, the food was so good that we didn’t think about the rain or fog:



After lunch, we shifted our luggage in a WR-V. As we started going down, thick fog started to roll down again:



Amidst fog and traces of green, the WR-V looked quite purposeful and we stopped here and there to capture some moments:





Moments later, as the light was going down we stopped for some time to get the last glimpses of Bhutan we left behind:



One could see India’s flat land and river lines from here:



The last night halt on this trip was Tashi Namgay Grand hotel, Phuntsholing. Brightly painted exquisite design greeted us for the final time:

[Rudra Sen]

DAY 5

Next morning, the last leg of our trip started after breakfast. It was a 170+ km drive to the dhaba from where we started our journey. Car for the trip was a Honda City:



After getting exit stamped on our visa, we crossed the huge gate of Phuntsholing and the car went down at least a foot-deep crater. That was a warm welcome back to incredible India. Unruly traffic, wrongly parked vehicles and domestic animals criss-crossing all over. Never thought this nightmare could come back so fast after a series of dreams:



We stopped on our way next to a tea garden (most probably Moraghat) on Shiliguri road:



The Honda team wanted to have some comments from all the participants and they were looking for a scenic backdrop. Surely this location suited them well. Post this there was no stopping. We reached Dhaba for lunch and handed over the cars to local dealers:



Disclaimer: Honda invited Team-BHP for the drive to Bhutan. They covered all the travel expenses for this driving event.

[Aditya]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to Travelogues. Thanks for sharing!

[SmartCat]

During these drives, were there any guidelines from Honda? Like "you should all drive together in a convoy" or "you should not cross 100 kmph" and so on?

And did you get to drive Accord hybrid or CR-V on the trip? 'Who gets to drive what' was managed by Honda?

[Rudra Sen]

Originally Posted by smartcat

During these drives, were there any guidelines from Honda? Like "you should all drive together in a convoy" or "you should not cross 100 kmph" and so on?

And did you get to drive Accord hybrid or CR-V on the trip? 'Who gets to drive what' was managed by Honda?

Yes, guidelines were there and pretty basic. There was no scope for driving at 100 kmph on hill roads except few short stretches in Bengal flat land.

In a trip like this members have their shoot agendas. So no matter how much we try to be together, things change.

All the cars to be shared by all the members and no, I didn’t drive Accord or CRV mainly for two reasons. One - I don’t like autobox and two - I wanted to check all their diesel variants as comfort/NVH/handling. Especially after my experience with their very first model Amaze during previous discover drive.

[dre@ms]

Cool looking pictures and wonderful narration. The climate looks awesome and hope you had a wonderful time with people/culture and mean machines.

Lame question: What was this drive all about? Just a group of Honda cars driven in another country or is there a motive behind this? What is the message passed by this drive?

[Rudra Sen]

Originally Posted by dre@ms

Lame question: What was this drive all about? Just a group of Honda cars driven in another country or is there a motive behind this? What is the message passed by this drive?

Honda is doing this for 8 years now. The message this time was to announce their milestone - 3 Lakh Diesel engines on road. This was Honda’s first trip outside India.

[JediKnight]

Can you compare the ride quality of the Honda's you drove during this event. Just the bump absorption/cushiness of the ride. Not handling. I drive a 2014 city and find the ride over broken surfaces very jarring. I was wondering if this was a common affliction of all the Honda's sold in India.

[Rudra Sen]

Originally Posted by JediKnight

I drive a 2014 city and find the ride over broken surfaces very jarring. I was wondering if this was a common affliction of all the Honda's sold in India.

All the cars behaved well. I drove City on some really bad patches and didn't really find anything to complain about.
In fact 'City' was the one where I felt overall NVH/power delivery/ride was the best of the lot.

[Waspune]

Originally Posted by Rudra Sen

All the cars to be shared by all the members and no, I didn’t drive Accord or CRV mainly for two reasons. One - I don’t like autobox and two - I wanted to check all their diesel variants as comfort/NVH/handling. Especially after my experience with their very first model Amaze during previous discover drive.

Did you notice difference in NVH (mainly engine drone) in Honda's diesel cars you drove viz. Amaze, Jazz, WRV, BRV and City? Just wanted to know if there is better insulation done in the more expensive Hondas or not.

Also, why was Honda Brio given a miss?