1st April 2010, 15:26
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1st April 2010, 16:20
| #32 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 4,106
Thanked: 537 Times
| SS, This is definitely one travelogue I am looking forward to! The picture of the snow filled road is great! Even more interested in knowing about the "adventures" that you had been thru! Post on! |
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1st April 2010, 18:19
| #33 | |
| Distinguished - BHPian | Quote:
Sweeping roads  Sweeping out this truck  Road diversion at Rinchending - have to take the road to Pasakha  The bad roads begin  But our wonder at the beauty of nature doesn't wane  Driver wants to buy this - called apeygong in Drukpa language  but the lady wants 100 Nu. for it, and is in no mood to bargain  Let the rains come on again  First sight of Pasakha - industrial area with lots of factories, rolling mills and more...  Prayer flags line the road - a common site in Buddhist regions including Bhutan and Sikkim  Rough roads begin     Closer to the industrial area - with its smoke and noise  Across another IMBAR (India-made Bridge Across River)  And we carry on until...  ...our car is cleaned of H5N1 viruses   The road goes on - a little better sometimes, often as rough as ever      First sight through the fog of the Damchhu River, which flows down from Thimphu  The road narrows down in some places   A really cold bath in unpleasant weather. Brrrr...   ... to be continued... Last edited by SS-Traveller : 1st April 2010 at 18:23. | |
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1st April 2010, 20:33
| #34 |
| Distinguished - BHPian | ...continuing on the road to Thimphu... The mountains of Bhutan, at least before Gedu, are highly landslide-prone   Road works in progress Attachment 321451 Attachment 321452 These stretches don't look like they've been worked upon in quite some time...    Houses with a standardized design and appearance everywhere  1500 rpm, 30 km/h, hold her steady, here we go...  We're in Dala...   Hi   The forests romancing the road...   ...as we approach Gedu   Good roads announce the fact that we are approaching Gedu, but the fog persists Landmarks at Gedu - Engineering College  Hydel project  Time for a break...   Last edited by Dippy : 5th April 2010 at 09:14. Reason: Merging on request |
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1st April 2010, 21:58
| #35 |
| Distinguished - BHPian | More photos from the road to Thimphu... Our driver offers us a spare SIM card, and we recharge it at the tea stop   The Bhutan-style dhaba is usually a small store-cum-tea stall-cum-bar that also caters to other needs than tea and food.    Cheese (datse) is a standard add-on to the Bhutanese diet - ema datse, kewa datse, and a host of other recipes using cheese can be tried out. We did!  The centre of attraction in a Bhutanese living room is usually a coal- or kerosene-fired room heater-cum-water boiler   All houses are decorated with intricate hand painted murals like these  Met the official driving this car and chatted with him for some time over a snack of peanuts. RTSA stands for Road Transport and Safety Authority.  |
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2nd April 2010, 00:58
| #36 |
| BHPian | The Thimpu-P'ling road is horrendous, except for the stretch near Thimpu. You had some rain on the way, which settled the dust. When we traveled in Feb, it was extremely dusty. Wonder why they do not repair the roads which is pretty strategic and has considerable volume of traffic. Here's a couple of examples from our return journey to P'ling.   |
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2nd April 2010, 07:05
| #37 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: TSTN
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| Whew!!! the roads looks definetly bad & worth considering them as border roads. Just one question, how did you manage to take pics of people & shops, especially the ones where they clear for H5N1 viruses? Wouldn't they object? Do you've to convince them saying, I post them on internet & whole world could see you OR simply smile & say memorizing my trip OR are they least bothered about their privacy OR don't tell me you clicked it when they don't notice .That lady at H5N1 looks like she volunteered for the job rather than making a life of the job. Did you get some info there? And was this virus cleaning activity carried out by our Indian govt? |
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2nd April 2010, 08:41
| #38 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Mumbai
Posts: 7,369
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2nd April 2010, 08:46
| #39 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Mumbai
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2nd April 2010, 09:03
| #40 | ||||
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: TSTN
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 - may be due to the small area in size; also I see lots of automobile invasions from Korea in form of Hyundai & Kia, so hopefully there're aren't any much homegrown players.Quote:
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2nd April 2010, 14:52
| #41 | |
| Distinguished - BHPian | Quote:
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2nd April 2010, 15:16
| #42 |
| Distinguished - BHPian | Some more random shots of the trip to Thimphu. Most pics are self-explanatory, and the last one shows the welcome gate to Thimphu - a bad shot in the low light from a moving car.                     |
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2nd April 2010, 23:38
| #43 |
| Distinguished - BHPian | We roll into Thimphu after 7 pm (BST). Norzin Lam is a street name I remember from travelogues by Sudipto-S-Team and hvkumar, and thanks to them, we head to that street. There are innumerable hotels on Norzin Lam, and the Hotel TT is one of the first ones we check out. Rooms available on the 3rd floor, and though not too bad at 500 INR/Nu., they are quite cramped for space. A half-hour of research and climbing up and down stairs (too expensive, too seedy, too small, too many floors to climb - the list included boutique hotels across the road like the Jumolhari and Dragon Roots @ 3000+ INR), we finally locate a hotel with rooms on the 2nd floor - the Hotel Yoedzer.  A bit of bargaining later, we land ourselves a couple of "suite-rooms" @ Rs.900 - decently appointed, roomy, with a small ante-room attached.   The owner is one Mr. Kamal Pradhan, whom we have the opportunity to learn a lot about Bhutan from. He also runs eco-adventure tours in Bhutan, and is extremely apprehensive and mistrustful of Indians, who have cheated him on multiple occasions.  However, for us, his staff and he are delightfully helpful, and for the next two nights we feel quite comfortable there.   Rooms secured, we are now interested to locate and try some authentic Bhutanese food for dinner. A recommended place nearby is Bhutan Kitchen, located on the 2nd floor (the ladies are building up their tempers rather than their appetites by climbing all those steps).   The food is a set menu served at the table with no limits on quantity, and includes the Bhutanese national dishes of ema datse (ima datshi) (chillies in cheese gravy) and kewa datse (kewa datshi) (potatoes in cheese gravy). There are no prizes for guessing which suits our tastes more. There's also 2 non-veg dishes to go, and 3 varieties of rice.    That's what happens if you indulge in too much ema datse  An early morning peek through the window gets us our first sight of Thimphu in daylight.        It looks so clean and green everywhere, so what's that pile of ugly trash doing at the corner?   Surprise! In a few minutes, along comes a garbage collection truck. It picks up the trash, and the guys not only clean and wash the road, they wash and brush the truck sparkling clean too!   Incidentally, elephants are revered in Bhutan, though not one live animal exists there. This is a rock formation that looks like an elephant, which can be seen on the highway leading to Thimphu - which is why this part of the highway cannot be widened, and re-routing the highway is being considered by the authorities.  |
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2nd April 2010, 23:57
| #44 | |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Mumbai
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 That was quite a disaster and seeing no way out, they went on to Shillong, which they reached an hour ago. So much for the way small countries like Bhutan work. There is no intimation on any of their web-sites and can you imagine, what a waste of time it would have been for anyone else had he no alternative plans. Last edited by hvkumar : 2nd April 2010 at 23:58. | |
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3rd April 2010, 00:10
| #45 | ||
| Distinguished - BHPian | Quote:
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A note here for intending travellers: Bhutan closes its borders with India at 10pm BST (9:30 pm IST) to ALL vehicular traffic, whether Indian or Bhutanese registered, whether entering or exiting. The gates reopen at 6 am BST (5:30 am IST). Only emergency vehicles like ambulances are allowed across. Pedestrian traffic, esp. Indian citizens, entering Bhutan is also not allowed during this time. Last edited by SS-Traveller : 3rd April 2010 at 00:11. | ||
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