My brother and his pal from Bengaluru was home. Due to Meghalaya bandh, they had to postpone their Umium boat house stay.
So on 25th Jan i told them to sleep early, which was past midnight anyways.
Next morning even i overslept and we could get off only around 8.30.
26 th January in North East has always been unofficial Bandh, so we were prepared to go anyplace possible.
The route chosen was across the Saraighat bridge towards Baihata Chariali with Bornodi Wildlife Sanctury in mind and hopefully any Bhutan border.
The ride within Guwahati seemed normal as compared to the past, roads were filled with vehicles and people. And when we came across trucks after trucks from Jalukbari onwards, thought this Republic Day we were just lucky.
But to our surprise even shops and tea stalls in small hamlets upto Baihata Chariali was open.
So there i confidently took the left turn towards Rangia, for taking my fellow passengers to the Land of the thunder Dragon. PS This is the first time there was someone with me during a drive.
Road condition from Saraighat to Baihata is mixed with four lane and two bridge work in progress but improves after crossing Baihata towards Rangia. There onward the Bhutan roads under BRO is 70 % compleate on both ends. But the middle portion is still terrible where even driving in 40 throws up the back seater for a big bang on the head.
On way we crossed two defense bases apart from SSB and Assam Police battalion base but there was no area coverage or checking, which proved that all was ok and things are changing towards normalcy.
Thus Tamulpur was crossed and we reached the Darranga last border bridge in no time.
This was my third visit to Samdrup, the former being with mixed feelings, I parked my car near the gate got down and spoke to a security official if we could drive into the town. To my surprise he was very polite and just told me to register car and personal details with another gate official. Once write up over, my brother and our Bengaluru guest “Angel Guy” were told to walk through the security check and I had to drive my car to the other side or into Bhutan.
So there I was successful at my third attempt to finally drive into Samdrup Jongkhar township. Must say thank you to the Bhutanese officials on duty there on 26th January for the go ahead this time.
Lunch platter with Ima datchi, Pork fry, Smoked pork, Smoked Beef and good ol coke