Epilouge:
1.
This is E-P-I-C. Till the time of publishing this travelogue, T-Rex is apparently the FIRST & ONLY All New Endeavour from TBHP and/or Mumbai to make it to Sikkim, Silk route and Bhutan all as part of one trip! Happy to be proven wrong on this one!
2. Most of the places in Sikkim are no plastic zones. You are not allowed to take polythene bags or plastic water bottles. Not only will the bottles/bags be confiscated, you would be fined as well.
3. Our two SUV's came to be known as 'MH ke gaadiyan' in Gangtok amongst the tourist drivers.
4. Some of the local tourist drivers who advised/cautioned us against taking our own vehicles to Gurudongmar/Zero point had to eat their words later. Almost all of them had discouraged against taking our vehicles to in the snow/ice to zero point/Gurudongmar. They also started admiring/envying us later and in general became more friendlier. On the flip side, these tourist drivers faced flak from the tourists as they also wanted to be taken to all the places our two SUV's went.
5. Ours were officially the ONLY two vehicles which went to Gurudongmar on 10 Jan 2018. No other cars/bikes managed to cross over through the snow/ice en route that day! As a matter of fact we got a call from the person at Mangan in charge of the permits who inquired about our status so that he could release other permits!!
6. One common question was why we took two vehicles when all four could have managed with one SUV?
7. Another common question - "Did you drive all the way from Mumbai???" This question was popped to us as early as Jhansi and at many other places on the way.
8. As seen from the last Odo image T-Rex spent a whopping 151 hours with the engine on!
9. On one occasion at Nathula, when I emerged out of the Sunroof of the T-Rex, a surprised driver remarked - "Accha! Iska chatt bhi khulta hai?" (Oh! Does the roof of this car also open?)
10. Its not required to go to Gangtok directly. People can do Mangan first and then reach Gangtok
11. People going to Gurudongmar, please ensure you take smallish oxygen cans (1 can per two people) as a precaution.
12. Not a single hotel was booked in advance. Each and every place we stayed in was booked on the fly. Aggregation sites did help (where data connectivity was available) in knowing the reviews of the hotel.
13. The main driving force for writing this long travelogue is to inspire and help other fellow travelers mainly from Mumbai to go to these wonderful locations and explore the beauty of India and its neighbours.
14. Both the SUV's performed well in the hostile conditions in terms of roads (or lack of roads rather) and temperature. My main worry regarding the T-Rex was the Wanderers but they managed to come out unscathed without a single flat or a blowout! Furteela had relatively good rubbers and it was a walk in the park for those Yokos.
15. A
B-I-G thank you to the families of us four without whose support this trip would have been un-achievable. Thanks also go out to all those who helped us plan the itinerary and secure the permits where applicable. Special thanks to Piyal Pathak-da who helped us at various places in West Bengal and Bhutan.
Last and definitely not the least lots of lots of gratitude to Vaibhav Satpotdar(VS) who provided me the initial walkthrough of the routes, permits at a time when I had zero knowledge of Sikkim and Bhutan which were all of utmost use!
16. How important was the plan/proposed itinerary? Yes, It was important. But more important for me was the process of planning (and once again thanks to VS for that) which helped me learn about Sikkim and Bhutan and the route even before going there. And eventually - out in the field when we couldn't stick to the original plan, changing the plan and adapting to the new plan was a piece of cake.
17. A picture is worth more than a thousand words - and hence I have kept my comments to the minimum throughout the travelogue and let pictures do the talking.
18. As always we have decided the next trip, which as of now appears challenging not from a location perspective but from an availability of participants perspective. If that trip materialises, a travelogue may follow.
19. Of all the hotels that we stayed in - the best hotel was undoubtedly Orange Village at Gangtok. The worst of the pack was Himalayan Residency in Lachen.
20. Google maps worked fine all over the way with one exception. They stopped working as soon as we crossed the Indo-Bhutan gate. So did the inbuilt Ford and Toyota maps. We could find out the route through Gmpas, but turn by turn navigation just did not work.
21. Mobile connectivity Sikkim: All providers provide lovely connectivity at Gangtok and poor/scrappy connectivity in the rest of the hills. On the contrary, in Bhutan we had good connectivity (including data) for 95% of the time.
This travelogue has been published by me with extremely valuable inputs from Bhushan, Mahesh and RK. The pictures/videos posted in this travelogue have been clicked by us using a combination of mobile phones, a point n shoot, a DSLR and a dashcam. Credits to individual photographers/videographers where applicable. Special thanks to RK who was always game to click 'one more pic' of me posing with the T-Rex!
We hope everyone enjoys reading this travelogue as much as we have enjoyed compiling and presenting it to you.
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