Back door to Bhutan
Our first cross country ride. Suhas and I were very excited about the ride. We had our passports with us and the rented motorcycles.
And we are going to enter the backdoor of Bhutan! Through Deothang. Just a 100kms. Probably a 3 hours drive.
The countryside of Assam was so beautiful, we never realised we were cruising through Bodoland, one of the volatile areas in India.
And after three and a half hours, we saw the Big Back door of Bhutan. Samdrup Jongkar.
Soon after we entered, we were stopped by Bhutanese police. Apparently, they don’t let tourists through the backdoor anymore. Huge Walls, big gate, heavy patrols, now I see why Trump wants to build a wall. It is really effective.
We wanted to request immigration to consider a special case and help us enter Bhutan legally. Nada. Apparently, there are already too many Indians stinking up Bhutan so bad, they didn’t want the back door to be blocked by Indian stinkers. So they plugged it.
We were allowed to ride to the nearest village called Deothang which was few kms down the rear road. They had warned us that there will be patrolling everywhere and if we try to sneak past, we will be shot or arrested.
A sound warning. This time, I wasn’t in Gujarat or Ladakh. This is alien land and I’m new here. But my dirty mind kept telling me to violate.
After riding few more kms, we hit the highly monitored check post of Deothang. As expected, we couldn’t ride past that place.
We rode back to Samdrup hoping to stay the night. Apparently we need permission from the Immigration to stay in Bhutan even for a night and even in the border village.
Staying in Bodoland wasn’t safe. Who knows whether we’d be robbed or killed during the night.
By the time we started back from Samdrup, it was past 7pm. And in the east, it gets dark at 5pm. Need daylight savings fellas. They ain’t gonna split away from the country. Chill out..
We rode hard and fast. And within 2 hours, we were back in Guwahati!
Phew. That was a close one..
For people who want to have a taste of what Bhutan looks like, Samdrup is highly recommended. But in my experience, Bhutan is the worst country to travel to. And believe me, I have visited it more than three times. Spend your money elsewhere!
Arunachal and Sikkim are way better than the Pee country!