[prateekvidya]

Awesome post Chandra ! You took your time but it was worth the wait.

The trip inspires so many of us - the pics are simply stunning - your enthusiasm even after taking the hit is awesome. Very well articulated - it could simply fit into tripadvisor or something

Keep driving !

[@Chaand]

Here is a once glance view of the day-wise itinerary that occurred for this trip.


Seasoned drivers can cut out 3 to 4 days by driving in the night as well.

[ts1506]

Wow, it was a real pleasure reading your adventures. Literally sat here, and read the entire post in one go. Loved the details and attention you put into the travelogue.

Sorry for the damage on your Endy It's disheartening to see that on our cars.

Lovely trip, and amazing pictures. I can't imagine having the energy and zeal to embark on such a trip myself to be honet.

[ShubhamGhute]

Great travelogue! Neatly written and well put together coupled with lovely photos. I liked nicknames of both the Hulks. Sad to hear about the accident, hope she is back to her glory.

What was the overall efficiency for the entire trip?

[Sheel]

Loved reading the travelogue and thanks for taking the effort to compile and share it. Is going to inspire/help a lot of folks.

You got the mirror changed at Bombay or somewhere in between?

And for the benefit of everyone - the EW corridor between Gopalgunj to Siliguri is absolutely safe to travel at any time, 24X7. I can say the same for almost entire Bihar [JH & some parts are not safe because of Naxals] and that too if you are traveling in those big burly white SUV's or black.

Similarly, post Araria, it is a better idea to go via Purnea. You may go via Bahadurganj at night to save time, but during day, it is a sea of humans and they are not very civil in case some untoward incident happens.

Your next travelogue hints me towards the 7 sisters, so this note may come useful

[gururajrv]

Boy-O-Boy! What a wonderfully written Travellogue!

I’m sure you guys had a tremendous time driving through the toughest roads and making it upto your dream!

I can only be envious of you guys for living what you’d planned

Hope the T-Rex is restored to its glory from the unfortunate incident. Pls do let us know on the restoration

Rating 5 *****

[rxpaul]

Lovely drive with the two trucks. I really enjoyed reading this from end to end. But a million dollar or should i say Rupee thirty lakh question - which one is better for such a long distance drive, the Endeavour or the Fortuner? Ease of driving (lesser fatigue), engine NVH, ride, speed, ruggedness, head lights, parking ease, fuel consumption ?

[@Chaand]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

Keep it up and a couple more such trips might finally convince me that SUVs are the rides to have when exploring.

Thanks @Blackwasp. I can't believe it that you are still not convinced about the utility of SUV's in such drives

Originally Posted by varunraizada

Wow Chandra ... What a lovely travelogue... I could see myself doing what you guys did !

Can you share a little about cold starting the cars ? Any additives used ? How easily did they start etc ?

Thanks Varun. Try to join us in the next trip. On all occasions barring one, T-Rex started in one crank. In Lachung, on one cold morning, it started on the third crank, which i believe was my mistake.

Originally Posted by RAHS

Wow! Lovely travelogue guys! Enjoyed reading it. Wonderful clicks as well.

Thanks @RAHS

Originally Posted by dsnaveen21

Chandra, great drive, beautiful pics, very detailed report, really enjoyed it...Keep it up. Looking forward to more travelogues.

Thanks Naveen.

Originally Posted by prateekvidya

Awesome post Chandra ! You took your time but it was worth the wait.

The trip inspires so many of us - the pics are simply stunning - your enthusiasm even after taking the hit is awesome. Very well articulated - it could simply fit into tripadvisor or something

Keep driving !

Thanks for the nice and lovely words. It indeed took a long while to collate all the pics, videos, data and present it here. Add to that my other trips also were also in progress
By the way, we need to go out together in at least one trip with T-Rex and Imperator together.

Originally Posted by ts1506

Wow, it was a real pleasure reading your adventures. Literally sat here, and read the entire post in one go. Loved the details and attention you put into the travelogue.

Sorry for the damage on your Endy It's disheartening to see that on our cars.

Thanks ts1506.
Damage to the vehicle in such trips is part of the game. The more the driving the more the risk of damage. More importantly, no one was harmed. T-Rex is restored back to glory now. Thanks for Ford for moving swiftly on the repairs and also thanks to Zero Dep insurance for not denting my pocket much!

Originally Posted by ShubhamGhute

Great travelogue! Neatly written and well put together coupled with lovely photos. I liked nicknames of both the Hulks. Sad to hear about the accident, hope she is back to her glory.

What was the overall efficiency for the entire trip?

Thanks ShubhamGhute!
Over FE was 9 KMPL for the T-Rex as evident from the image I shared just before the closing post.

Originally Posted by Sheel

Loved reading the travelogue and thanks for taking the effort to compile and share it. Is going to inspire/help a lot of folks.

You got the mirror changed at Bombay or somewhere in between?

Your next travelogue hints me towards the 7 sisters, so this note may come useful

Those are really lovely words coming from a seasoned campaigner!
All the damaged stuff was sorted in Mumbai itself. As I mentioned, once the mirror issue was resolved nothing else mattered!

Originally Posted by gururajrv

Boy-O-Boy! What a wonderfully written Travellogue!

Hope the T-Rex is restored to its glory from the unfortunate incident. Pls do let us know on the restoration

Rating 5 *****

Thanks gururajrv. It was a great pleasure to pen the travelogue and relive the experience.
T-Rex is back to business again after the surgery. Thanks for your concern.


One common query which came up offline is which vehicle was the dinosaur and which was the snail. I thought it was evident from the names but happy to explain again.
Truckasaurus Rex (or simply T-Rex) is the way my Endy is lovingly referred to. T-Rex is also the acronym for a dinosaur and hence T-Rex is the dino here.

Furteela Ghonga (Fast snail in hindi) is the snail here and belongs to bhpian ragh_bhushan.

[vinitbhavi]

Just going through the travelogue a second time in detail Chandra what an awesome read!
The visiting card idea for each place of stay was such a nice idea and really helpful
The description was very crisp and pictures were awesome. There is no other travelogue for us Mumbai folks wanting to visit Bhutan and you have done the needful.
I missed the trip and pictures on our whatsapp group and was waiting earnestly for the travelogue. This was worth the wait and enjoyed your adventure when reading the narrative. Rated it the 5 star it deserves and hope to join you guys soon on the next one!

[@Chaand]

Originally Posted by varunraizada

Any additives used ?

Missed answering this earlier. No additives were used.

Originally Posted by rxpaul

Lovely drive with the two trucks. I really enjoyed reading this from end to end. But a million dollar or should i say Rupee thirty lakh question......which one is better for such a long distance drive, the Endy or the Fort ? Ease of driving(lesser fatigue), engine NVH,ride, speed, ruggedness, head lights, parking ease, fuel consumption ?

Thanks rxpaul and that is a tricky question to answer. I think you need to take a back to back TD yourself to be convinced.

Originally Posted by vinitbhavi

Just going through the travelogue a second time in detail Chandra what an awesome read!
The visiting card idea for each place of stay was such a nice idea and really helpful
The description was very crisp and pictures were awesome. There is no other travelogue for us Mumbai folks wanting to visit Bhutan and you have done the needful.
I missed the trip and pictures on our whatsapp group and was waiting earnestly for the travelogue. This was worth the wait and enjoyed your adventure when reading the narrative. Rated it the 5 star it deserves and hope to join you guys soon on the next one!

Thanks Vinit. As mentioned earlier, one of the reasons for going ahead with the travelogue is to help and inspire people from the western part of India to go to these beautiful places preferably in the off season. It did take me and the others a significant amount of time and effort to make this log see the light of the day but we are happy that this is already helping other roadies.

[Maddy3008]

Wow !! A really EPIC travelogue ! Went through this in one sitting. Rated 5*. Its travelogues such as these that make you run to your boss to say I will be away for 2 weeks

You have captured the essence of the place beautifully. I really loved the pics where the thick clouds in the valley provide a background to the T-Rex and the Snail. Both Sikkim and Bhutan are on my bucket-list. After reading your TL, I have called my wife to let her know that our next car will be an Endy (I personally favour the Endy more as compared to the T-Fort, nothing against the T-fort). Although this may not happen for the next 4-5 years, its always better to set the anchor first in such cases !

Keep driving and writing such wonderful travelogues ! Wish you many years and miles of fuss-free ownership with the T-Rex.

[yogesh.8984]

This is the longest travelogue I ever read at Team-BHP. Can imagine the amount of efforts you would have put in to make this log live here. And I will be honest that I thoroughly enjoyed reading and viewing it.

Wonderful to see those two monsters conquering the roads (including Ice-beds) as convincingly. Also felt sad a bit with minor incident where Endy had to take a hit from Army truck.

[RAHS]

@ ragh_bhushan,

Considering it's a long journey in such terrain conditions, what is the FE you have achieved in your Fortuner Automatic?

Also, it would be great if you can share the FE figures of Fortuner ( AT & MT ) in city and Highway.

Thanks much much in advance

Cheers,
Raghav

[ragh_bhushan]

Originally Posted by Sheel

And for the benefit of everyone - the EW corridor between Gopalgunj to Siliguri is absolutely safe to travel at any time, 24X7. I can say the same for almost entire Bihar [JH & some parts are not safe because of Naxals] and that too if you are traveling in those big burly white SUV's or black.

Being from Bihar myself, I agree on this Sheel. Even the roads are in good shape. Only issue we faced was lack of proper Dhabas.

Similarly, post Araria, it is a better idea to go via Purnea. You may go via Bahadurganj at night to save time, but during day, it is a sea of humans and they are not very civil in case some untoward incident happens.

We took Bahadurganj route while going towards Sikkim and Purnea route on our return leg. You are spot on about the sea of humans comment. In fact most of the road was indistinguishable from tarmac to auction platform. From vegetables to cattle, one could buy everything right on the highway even without stepping out of the car.

Taking NH27 via Purnea bypass was a effortless except for a senseless traffic jam just outside Purnea. The jam involving mostly trucks was massive stretching up to 6-7 kms easily. We took the trucks off road to check out the situation as nobody knew the reason for the snarl. To our astonishment all the trucks were trying avoid flyover and were going under it for some reason. The flyover was completely empty and we just breezed through as we could comfortably cross the median on our trucks. I still have no idea why everybody was just waiting in the queue to go below the flyover. It could have easily been a 4-5 hour long wait as most of the truck drivers had parked on the highway and were nowhere around.

Your next travelogue hints me towards the 7 sisters, so this note may come useful

Perhaps you should join us on our next adventure.

Originally Posted by rxpaul

which one is better for such a long distance drive, the Endeavour or the Fortuner? Ease of driving (lesser fatigue), engine NVH, ride, speed, ruggedness, head lights, parking ease, fuel consumption ?

Let me try to answer this question as I have driven both trucks as well as new TFort.
Fatigue, speed, ruggedness, head lights, parking ease: Both are equal.
Engine NVH, ride quality, cabin plushness, storage options in the front: Endeavour is better
Fuel consumption: Fortuner has a slight advantage.

Originally Posted by RAHS

Considering it's a long journey in such terrain conditions, what is the FE you have achieved in your Fortuner Automatic?

Highway: 10-11 kmpl. Hills: 8 kmpl. Overall trip: 9.5 kmpl

Also, it would be great if you can share the FE figures of Fortuner ( AT & MT ) in city and Highway.

4x4 AT & MT City: 8 kmpl (Mumbai)
4x4 AT Highway: 10-11 (Can extract upto 14 kmpl if driving sedately)
4x4 MT Highway: 13-14 kmpl (People have got upto 16 kmpl as well)

All figures are for 3.0 D4D engines.

[@Chaand]

Originally Posted by Maddy3008

Wow !! A really EPIC travelogue ! Went through this in one sitting. Rated 5*. Its travelogues such as these that make you run to your boss to say I will be away for 2 weeks

Thanks Maddy3008. Buying an Endy 4/5 years down the line is a long wait. This is what I had thought last year as well but ended up buying it in less than year after planning for it and I don't regret it one bit Its a amazing tourer and that's exactly what I use it for. In the city I prefer to use my beater sedan.

Originally Posted by yogesh.8984

This is the longest travelogue I ever read at Team-BHP. Can imagine the amount of efforts you would have put in to make this log live here. And I will be honest that I thoroughly enjoyed reading and viewing it.

Longest Travelouge on TBHP! Well, I guess that's another first for me
As i have mentioned in one of the preceding posts, it wasn't exactly a piece of cake to pen down this long travelogue but still i persevered with it just so that people from this side have reliable point of reference when embarking on a similar journey.
Thanks anyway!