[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by Sudipto-S-Team

As per SMS exchange with HVK last night, he was in Tashigang in eastern Bhutan yesterday, having traversed Bhutan from west to east. He goes to Guwahati today from Tashigang. The first 180 kms would be down the mountains upto the border town of Samdrup Jhonkar.
Can't wait to go back to those lofty heights and serene mountains. I leave Calcutta for eastern Bhutan on 9th May.

Hai Sudipto,

Nice to hear you're headin that way, I am sure you'd keep posting story and pictures as you go.

Love your line from Coward of the Country in your profile, one of Kenny's best ballards.

---

[Sudipto-S-Team]

Hi Ramky
Yes, my toes are itching to hit the pedal. I used to live in eastern Bhutan between 1990 and 1992. A part of my heart/consciousness still lives there. I just hope I can cope with the changes that I will see after so long.
Nice that you like the song that's my signature. It's from the lyrics of Gambler actually. Not Coward of the County, which is also similar and good but not this one.
I added this to my signaturewrote after a discussion on the stock market here in the forum !!
Sudipto

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by Sudipto-S-Team

Hi Ramky
Yes, my toes are itching to hit the pedal. I used to live in eastern Bhutan between 1990 and 1992. A part of my heart/consciousness still lives there. I just hope I can cope with the changes that I will see after so long.
Nice that you like the song that's my signature. It's from the lyrics of Gambler actually. Not Coward of the County, which is also similar and good but not this one.
I added this to my signaturewrote after a discussion on the stock market here in the forum !!
Sudipto

Yes, you're right....... used to listen to in college days, haven't heard for a long long time, loved the entire album.

The East is one part I haven't driven through properly, though we covered the GQ part in the run in December, 08. A little apprehensive of safety, facilities when driving with family. I guess it needs more planning and research..... someday soon... awaiting your trip reports.

=======

[Sudipto-S-Team]

Ramky
Welcome to the east and north-east in advance. There are many team-bhpians in different small towns of the north-east and I am sure they will be of help if and when you need. My American friend Mitch who is now a member here and is travelling in the N-E, for example, stayed with member Lifewater in a tea garden near Dibrugarh.
I think that's fantastic and the spirit of team-bhp. This will expand as we grow more and more in numbers.
Sudipto

[kesri]

Copying following SMS, received from HVKumar today:

Apr 25 9:00am Kibithu AR, eastmost
Apr 29 11:15am Koteswar GJ, westmost - 4130 Kms

Congrats HVKumar!

[Meer]

Congratulations HVKumar. All the best for the rest of the trip. I think it would take you weeks to put this travelogue on the forum!

[rkbharat]

Kumar Saab, have a safe and fun journey. will keep an eye for your log. will be best as usual

[shabahmad]

Congratulations to HVKumar Sir on completion of "East to west" of india
I am waiting for him to come to home and start his travelogue

[kaushik_s]

HVK has reached his home today morning 10.45am as per his SMS. He did 40Hr non-stop from Dibrugarh to Kanpur.
Sorry HVK for not being able to reply back last few days. Accessing internet after a long time. Waiting for the triplog.

[a_mukherji]

kumar saab waiting for your travelogue !!

[kesri]

While HVKumar is organising all his GPS-data and Road Logs etc. I thought post a quick Day-summary and Picture-links to my albums of this tour at the Flickr Site.

I am sure HVK will soon post all kind of details that you Roadies on T-BHP are looking forward too. Below is only from a Tourist perspective!


Pictures of Arunachal, Bhutan, Sikkim
Finally, I managed to select 927 pictures to upload to Flickr, from the over 1600 pictures I had shot!

Sorry for the overload; I am constrained to select all pictures that I need to document every important milestone and scenery of the journey (for myself) ... not just the best looking pictures!

Anyway, here are the links for the albums; for those who have the patience and interest to see them:

1. [COLOR=#800080]Sikkim: Tsongo, Yuksom, Pemayangtse[/COLOR]

2. [COLOR=#800080]Bhutan-1: Phuntsoling & Thimpu[/COLOR]

3. [COLOR=#800080]Bhutan-2: Paro & Drukyel Dzong[/COLOR]

4. [COLOR=#800080]Bhutan-3: DochuLa, Punakha, PeleLa & Trongsa[/COLOR]

5. [COLOR=#800080]Bhutan-4: Jakar, Bumthang[/COLOR]

6. [COLOR=#800080]Bhutan-5: ThrumsingLa, Trashigang & S-Jhonkar[/COLOR]

7. [COLOR=#800080]Arunachal-1: Ziro, Alang & Pasighat[/COLOR]

8. [COLOR=#800080]Arunachal-2: Kibuthu & Parshuramkund[/COLOR]

GHiRT-1 Actual Route-Schedule Summary
While I am still struggling to delete *bad and duplicate* pictures and get to manageable numbers to Upload, let me post a summary of the Actual Route (and schedule in HVK's Scorpio) for GHiRT-1;

Day-00 . 9th-APR: Dep 8:00PM all night drive Via NH-3 and at Dhulia NH-6 heading east towards Kolkata

Day-01 10th-APR: All day long drive across India past Nagpur to Sambalpur, Orissa (N/H)

Day-02 11th-APR: All Day (3Hr halt in Kolkata, to change a bad tyre) to Farkka Barrage and continue thru the night

Day-03 12th-APR: Arrive Gangtok 9:45AM end of long drive - Local Gangtok Sightseeing

Day-04 13th-APR: Tsongo Lake, Ganesh Tok, Himalayan Zoo etc. Could not go to Nathu-La due to snow & permit NA

Day-05 14th-APR: Drive thru S & W Sikkim - Tashiding, Yuksom, Pelling, Pemayangtse, Legship and then exit Sikkim to reach Jaigaon, WB, on Bhutan border

Day-06 15th APR: Phuntsoling - Getting Permits; Leave P/ling 11:00am and arrive Thimpu 5:15pm. Eveing Thimpu Local Sights

Day-07 16th APR: Thimpu Local Sights; and Permits for going to East Bhutan

Day-08 17th APR: Paro, Druk Dzong, Natl Museum etc and back to Thimpu (N/H)

Day-09 18th APR: Thimpu to Jakar via: Dhochu-La, Lobesa, Punakha, Wangdi, Lawala, Pele-La, Trongsa, Bhumthang(Jakar N/H)

Day-10 19th APR: Continue East from Jakar, via: Ura, Mongar to: Trashigang (N/H)

Day-11 20th APR: Trashigang, Wamrong, Deothang, Samdrup-Jhonkar exit Bhutan arrive Guwahati(N/H)

Day-12 21st APR: Scorpio Servicing and A/Noon Guwahati to Itanagar (N/H)

Day-13 22nd APR: Itanagar, Potin, Poosa, Hapoli, Ziro, Daparijo (N/H)

Day-14 23rd APR: Daparijo, Alang, Pasighat, Silapather (Assam) (N/H)

Day-15 24th APR: Silapathar, Bogbill Ghat, Ferry to Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Doom-Dooma, re-enter Arunachal, Parsumram Ghat, Hayoliang (N/H)

Day-16 25th APR: Hayoliang, Kharing, Chang Winti, Yasong, Walang, Tilam, Khibuthu & return sameway to Dibrugarh (N/H)

Day-17 26th APR: Dibruagarh - Guwahati (N/H)

Day-18 27th APR: Guwahati to Mumbai by Jetlite flight 7:45am to Noon


As you can see this was a Hectic tour. Hardly the kind of pace I had in mind, when I dreamed GHiRT; still an enjoyable tour and I got to glimpse some parts of Himalayas (particularly Bhutan) that I had not seen before. And snap all the pictures to my heart's content as I wasn't driving! I did call plenty of extra photo-op halts to stretch my legs

In the end, I was glad I saw these places and got a preview of driving thru the Himalayas! HVK is an expert driver and negotiated the Mountain roads extremely well. The Scorpio too handled some bad roads extremely well. Makes me think if I really can do the same, on my own driving?

The fact that I survived these long drives without a back-ache and could get out of the car each time and stand upright and walk, gives me hope for other parts of GHiRT, yet to come

_KS

[hvkumar]

KS, that was a nice concise account of the trip.

To continue from where he got off at Guwahati,

26/27 Apr - left Dibrugarh in the morning, dropped KS off at Guwahati at 1130 am, continued to Siliguri via Goalpara and Falkata, and drove through the night via Dalkola, Purnea, Begusarai, Barauni, Muzaffurpur and Gopalganj (all in big bad Bihar), then into UP via Kushinagar, Gorakhpur, Ayodhya and Lucknow to finally end the leg in the evening of Apr 27, at Kanpur.

28 Apr - Kanpur (UP) to Palanpur (GJ) via Jhansi, Shivpuri, Kota, Chittorgarh, Udaipur, Pindwara, Abu Road

29 Apr - At last the westernmost point in India Koteshwar (Kutch) at 1115 a,m via Radhanpur, Bhuj, turning back and reaching ahmedabad for the night via Morbi, Sayla and Limbdi

30 Apr - Drive from Ahmedabad to Bombay, reaching home at 1045 am

We had a long bout of radio and internet silense, and I have not accessed internet since I left Thimphu on Apr 17.

But I must express my profound thanks to the tbhp members who have tracked us through the trip and helped us immensely whenever in need. Let me specifically thank some (many have helped, and this is not in any order of priority) - Ramky, planetrocker, tirthankar, sudipto s-team, adc, kaushik, lifewater, KSM-Vtec, and so on.

The total trip over 21 days was for 11,700 kms.
We did 12 States and 1 foreign country.
The East-West Drive was alone 4,130 kms and it was done in 4 days.
We have over 1,500 photos, 4 hours of video.
And the entire drive is shot 24x7 on my car camera, every single km of it.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by a_mukherji

kumar saab waiting for your travelogue !!

Please give me some time - it has been a long trip - 21 days - and I have 2 full notebooks of logs, GPS readings of the entire route, and lots of useful info

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by Sudipto-S-Team

I think that's fantastic and the spirit of team-bhp. This will expand as we grow more and more in numbers.
Sudipto

I entirely agree, this was one trip where i saw the full strength of team-bhp in evidence, starting from GTO himself, all of whom have helped my plan and complete the trip. Their constant interaction was a source of great moral support too.

Thanks to Sudipto, I also conversed with mitchonroad who is on an unbelievable odyssey of adventure and patience all over the North east.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by gd1418

Plant, HVK had only recently shod his truck with new boots. What caused the rip in the sidewalls of these two rear tyres? Very alarming. Was it a manufacturing fault or something else?

My rear left tyre had a small crack, a legacy of the GQ Drive i did in Dec last, must have torn it somewhere en route. Unlikley to be a manufacturing defect since I have already driven it over 50,000 kms since i bought it last May.

I was worried about the crack and pondered if I should have changed it before I left Bombay. I kept tabs on it through the drive starting on Apr 9 night, and discovered to my horror that the crack was widening as the trip progressed. After a final inspection on Apr 11 morning (when I left Sambalpur), I declared an emergency and decided to go in for a tyre change. called up planetrocker and he became God - Sou-mitro was equivalent to a 100 friends and he organised me the tyres in Calcutta. as i drove into Calcutta around 3 pm, he was waiting to escort me to the tyre shop, kept me company throughout, linked up with 1100D on a technical query relating to the tyres and saw me off from Calcutta 2 hours later! This is incredible help and I can't find words to thank planetrocker - THANK YOU!!!!

I changed 2 tyres in the back (to match pairs), although i had to go in for a mismatch - my original tyres in the front were A/Ts, but I could get only H/ts for the back at Calcutta.