A 350 km roadtrip to Bhutan in my 38 year old Maruti 800 SS80

Total distance travelled was 375 km.

BHPian Hirohito recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

A freak opportunity came my way to take Hirohito on its very first international trip to Bhutan, albeit a very short one, to the border town of Gelephu.

I have been getting calls from Nagra and Sanmoni, both riders from Assam and friends of Bhutan Dragons MC. They had tagged along assisting the Bhutan Dragons Motorcycle Club on their ride to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.
The team had completed their tour of Arunachal and were in Gelephu now. Since I am the new office bearer of our club i.e. Bulls of Assam MC, the team from Bhutan Dragons extended their invitation and asked if I could join.

Since Kokrajhar (a town in western Assam), falls on the way to Gelephu, I thought it might be a good idea to bring my wife along, as Kokrajhar happens to be her hometown.

My SS80 hasn’t been serviced since our return from Sela pass in Arunachal Pradesh last month. Here is a link to my travelogue from that trip

I decided to get my hands dirty, cleaning the contact point, spark plugs and the air filter, followed by a quick wash at home.

7.49 am. Our journey starts at 53801 kms.

Filled up the tank and we were cruising on NH17 heading towards the Naranarayan Setu over the Brahmaputra. It was still morning and the highway was comparatively empty and the air still fresh.

Railway crossing at Deohati. Our plan is to stop at Kokrajhar, grab lunch at my wife’s home and then drive to Gelephu.

Flaunting the newly arrived team bhp sticker!

I’ve been a regular on this route especially after I got married last year. But today is the first time that I was stopping here to take a photo.

Got off NH17 and took the scenic route from Bahalpur towards Kokrajhar.

Reached Kokrajhar, grabbed lunch followed by a quick afternoon siesta. Although I’ve been to Gelephu a decade ago, I cross checked the route once more.

Route from Kokrajhar to Gelephu.

At 2.30 we left for Gelephu. Another friend was also heading from Kokrajhar and he invited us to join in his car. He was keen on taking his car as the road is dusty and he needed AC. But I couldn’t drop the idea of Hirohito making its maiden road trip across an ‘international border’. So we decided to catch up on the road somewhere, while taking separate cars.

Compensating for travelling non AC. Roadside sugarcane juice, in the outskirts of Kokrajhar.

Gelephu another 40 kms. Nagra who is in Gelephu, had given a fair warning that the road in the last 20 kms after Shantipur were going to be anything but smooth.

Gelephu 10 kms

Dusty. We are doing Ladakh later this year in the same car, sans AC.

5 pm, we arrived at the Bhutan gate. Sanmoni and Nagra who had arrived yesterday, had exited Bhutan and we found them waiting for us on the Indian side at Dadgiri on their bikes.

According to a new rule that came in recently, Indians have been exempted from the mandatory fee, for the first 24 hours of their stay in Bhutan. So they both had to exit and re-enter in order to avoid paying the fee. At the foreign entry counter, we deposited our Indian voter IDs and we’re given a temporary visitor’s card each.

While looking at Google map at Kokrajhar, I was astonished at how big Gelephu looked even on a map. I had been here in 2011 and it was a small town at best. Now as we drove through semi-empty roads, we crossed one imposing structure after another, all well engineered hotels and offices. I am later told that Gelephu is a work-in-progress, a special economic zone, a planned city in the becoming.

Continue reading BHPian Hirohitio's travelogue on his short hop to Bhutan in his Maruti 800 for more insights and information.