[coolrats]

Thanks for the wonderful and detailed travelogue. It will make anyone to take the wheels and go around. Thanks for sharing and makes us feel the amount of places we need to go and take the road less traveled to beautiful destinations

[ShivrajG]

Excellent write up and pictures @sandy28. I am planning a trip to Bhutan very soon and will be connecting with you for details about the tour planning.
I may have missed that in the travelogue however what were the dates you traveled ?since you mentioned Summers. I am not a big fan of Heat and like my destinations served cold

[palsaumik]

A beautiful travelogue indeed! Very well written and the pictures are marvelous too.

And if you do a road trip, nothing like it.

You've nailed it!

[nvldvr]

Beautiful travelogue and great pictures. Thanks for sharing. It indeed takes a lot of courage to travel from B'lore to Bhutan and back in a car, with wife and two "bachus".

A word of advice/ suggestion. Whilst the inflatable bed is good for kids to sleep on; however, its not safe for them. The reason being that when they are sleeping on it in a moving car, they are not belted up. In case of sudden braking or god forbid an accident at highway speeds, any rear seat non belted passengers, whether sitting up or lying down, would essentially become projectiles, susceptible to severe/ fatal injuries. A colleague of mine lost his daughter in such an accident. (She was not lying down in the rear seat though, just seated without a belt).

So the kids may find sleeping in a seated/ belted up position a bit difficult/ uneasy, it would still be a far safer option.

Regards.

[Sandy28]

Originally Posted by ShivrajG

Excellent write up and pictures @sandy28. I am planning a trip to Bhutan very soon and will be connecting with you for details about the tour planning.
I may have missed that in the travelogue however what were the dates you traveled ?since you mentioned Summers. I am not a big fan of Heat and like my destinations served cold

Thanks ShivrajG. Happy to be of any help in planning your Bhutan trip. We did this trip in April last year though I could post the log only now . But Bhutan is not a hot place even in summer. During my entire stay in Bhutan, we never had to use the car AC. All the hotels we stayed had room heater but no AC or fan. Infact on couple of nights, we actually turned on the room heater for some time to make the room warm.

Originally Posted by nvldvr

Beautiful travelogue and great pictures. Thanks for sharing. It indeed takes a lot of courage to travel from B'lore to Bhutan and back in a car, with wife and two "bachus".

A word of advice/ suggestion. Whilst the inflatable bed is good for kids to sleep on; however, its not safe for them. The reason being that when they are sleeping on it in a moving car, they are not belted up. In case of sudden braking or god forbid an accident at highway speeds, any rear seat non belted passengers, whether sitting up or lying down, would essentially become projectiles, susceptible to severe/ fatal injuries. A colleague of mine lost his daughter in such an accident. (She was not lying down in the rear seat though, just seated without a belt).

So the kids may find sleeping in a seated/ belted up position a bit difficult/ uneasy, it would still be a far safer option.

Regards.

Thanks nvldvr, Thats the reason I named this trip the 'Big B trip' - Bangalore to Bhutan with Biwi and 2 Bachas in a Blue Beast

On the safety point, I agree with you that it is not a very safe thing to do. To be belted is always a safe bet. But to be seated for long and sleeping in a seating position is too much to expect from kids. If they can get couple of hours of comfortable sleep, they are fresh and in good mood for the next many hours to enjoy the drive and the trip. As a safety precaution, I slow down when kids are sleeping. Ofcourse accidents can still happen but it is a balance between some caution and some comfort.

[BlackPearl]

Lovely travelogue with a lot of details. Bangalore to Bhutan is a very long drive! Good to see that many people from Bangalore and Chennai are travelling to the east nowadays. The travelogue brought back nice memories of our Bhutan trips in 2016 and 17! Thanks for sharing.

Sharing my travelogues here -

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...olero-4x4.html (Throwback to a bygone era - Bhutan in a Bolero 4x4)

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...orpio-4wd.html (West Bhutan in a Scorpio 4WD)

A picture of my beloved Bolero LX in Bumthang

[Sandy28]

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

Lovely travelogue with a lot of details. Bangalore to Bhutan is a very long drive! Good to see that many people from Bangalore and Chennai are travelling to the east nowadays. The travelogue brought back nice memories of our Bhutan trips in 2016 and 17! Thanks for sharing.

Sharing my travelogues here -

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...olero-4x4.html (Throwback to a bygone era - Bhutan in a Bolero 4x4)

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...orpio-4wd.html (West Bhutan in a Scorpio 4WD)

A picture of my beloved Bolero LX in Bumthang

Attachment 1858780

Thanks BlackPearl. Bhutan is the 'eastest' that I have been so far. Plan to go further east on the Indian side towards Shillong, Tawang, Cherapunjee and other places some day.

Thanks for sharing your earlier posts. Adds to the information. Quite interesting that in 2016, you say 'Kolkata-Siliguri route is now almost head-ache free' and in 2018 I found this segment to be the most treacherous one, especially the stretch between Farakka and Raiganj. Things seems to have significantly deteriorated over the past 2 years.

[Kireet]

Excellent travelogue. We visited exactly the same locations in 2015, bought back a lot of great memories. Bhutan is one of my favorite destinations with the calm and serenity of the place. Will surely want to plan another visit to Bhutan sometime soon.

[JoshMachine]

Wow! A breathtaking story of your travel! Loved it to the core, especially because of the family bits
When I showed this thread to wifey and some of my colleagues, almost everyone has warmed upto the idea that our next long distance road trip has to be Bhutan. Thanks for sharing!

[Sandy28]

Originally Posted by Kireet

Excellent travelogue. We visited exactly the same locations in 2015, bought back a lot of great memories. Bhutan is one of my favorite destinations with the calm and serenity of the place. Will surely want to plan another visit to Bhutan sometime soon.

Thanks Kireet. Happy to have revived old memories and instigated you to plan another trip to Bhutan.

Originally Posted by JoshMachine

Wow! A breathtaking story of your travel! Loved it to the core, especially because of the family bits
When I showed this thread to wifey and some of my colleagues, almost everyone has warmed upto the idea that our next long distance road trip has to be Bhutan. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks JoshMachine. Do plan a road trip to the Land of Happiness. Trust me, you will have an awesome trip.

[prince0407]

A brilliant travelogue to complement the sheer beauty of Bhutan. People from the hills are usually very hospitable and welcome with a warm heart. Bhutan is a very clean country thanks to sporadic habitation and great administration.
I appreciate the energy of your kids. Waking up at 5-ish and travel entire day and still happily posing for photographs- they are rockstars!!

Glad you decided to share the travelogue, albeit after an year. Better late than never, as they say!!

By the way, how do you place the inflatable bed? Do you place some luggage or something between the 1st and 2nd row to support the bed?

Here's to many more such wonderful road trips.

Cheers!!!
Pratyush

[Sandy28]

Originally Posted by prince0407

A brilliant travelogue to complement the sheer beauty of Bhutan. People from the hills are usually very hospitable and welcome with a warm heart. Bhutan is a very clean country thanks to sporadic habitation and great administration.
I appreciate the energy of your kids. Waking up at 5-ish and travel entire day and still happily posing for photographs- they are rockstars!!

Glad you decided to share the travelogue, albeit after an year. Better late than never, as they say!!

By the way, how do you place the inflatable bed? Do you place some luggage or something between the 1st and 2nd row to support the bed?

Here's to many more such wonderful road trips.

Cheers!!!
Pratyush

Thanks Pratyush. Yes kids and wife both are a great support in all my crazy drive trips. Thanks for the "better late than never". Writing is not as exciting as driving

You dont need to place anything between the 1st and 2nd row to keep the inflatable bed. The bed is L shape and one part fits into the space between the two rows as seen in the below picture. You can see the plug in the middle which is used to blow air to inflate the bed. A similar plug is there for the top section also. Just pull the plug to deflate the bed when not needed.

[The Riddler]

A well written travelogue. Thanks for the detailed write-up.

I read the complete travelogue in one stretch. Will come back to it again when I plan to drive to Bhutan from Bangalore just like you!

[Pavan A K]

Great travelogue there Sandy. Commendable that you did it with your kids, I'm sure it is gonna be a great lunch break story for them at school for weeks to come.

I've been planning Bangalore-Bhutan for a while now, i'll be definitely keeping your thread as a reference. I'll be either using my 14 year old LC Prado or my Innova. You've proven that if you plan the routes and the season of travel correctly, you just dont need 200+mm GC or 4X4.

Meanwhile adding a pic of the Prado from my expedition 2 years ago (Travelogue still pending ). This was taken near Nako, a few kms off China.

[supreddy77]

Hi Sandy,

Amazing trip log. Have rated 5 stars. We had done Bhutan trip in 2016 but using a taxi. Your experiences and photos are at another level. Driving the whole 6k+ by yourself is really an icing on the cake Another brilliant thing for kids - is the inflatable bed, I will try and get the same.

I want to drive this route sometime soon. How did you adapt to the driving in Bhutan, had heard that there are lot of rules in especially in the city area and for overtaking etc?