Tour of Bhutan 2024 | Day 11 | Punakha – Gantey | 112.3 kms

My alarm went off at 8 am. I had exactly 1 hr. to me to get ready and hit the road as we’d planned to leave by 9 am. Somehow, I mange to get ready and move out of the room by 9 am. My luggage is moved out of the room and into the lobby. Phub has still not arrived and so I quickly finish off my breakfast of fried rice. By the time my breakfast is finished, Phub arrives and we have tea and butter toast together. I am served butter tea and I also have a local ‘puri’ made of rice. It’s like ‘puri’ from ‘Pani Puri’ but 3-4 times bigger. It’s little hard to chew but tasty. After that, I quickly load the luggage on the bike and leave the hotel by 9:45 am. We drive back along the same route for 8-10kms to join the main national highway.

The highway is in excellent condition. Up ahead, we stop at Wangdue town to gaze upon it’s Dzong from the roadside. It’s perched on top of a hill. There go 2 roads from where we stand. The straight one goes to south of Bhutan while the left road enters into eastern Bhutan. We turn left. We climb a little and then it’s all twistys. The road conditions making the ride pleasurable. Near a small bridge, we stop to look at the map. The previous night, we both had decided to visit the Samtegang lake. The road leading to it just starts from up ahead. We both decide to go and check it out. We start an uphill climb which is completely off-road and full of zig-zag roads. Some sections are risky and filled with heavy ruts. We ride carefully. The whole path is stone, gravel and loose dust. We reach the height of the mountain to find the beautiful Samtegang village nestled besides the huge lake.

The scenery is just awesome and we post in front of it to take photos. Phub doesn’t seem confident to take the same route going down so, we opt for a more safer route which is laid in tar but a little longer. The road joins the highway at the small bridge where we’d stopped initially to check our maps. We continue to push further towards Gantey. Before reaching the highway, I felt that something was wrong with the bike’s clutch. For a moment, I thought that the bike was loosing power. Thinking that might have got heated up with our heavy off-road ride back up to the top, we decide to let the bike cool-off a little bit. So, we stop ahead at a small hamlet by the road side. We both have energy drinks and I also watch some people playing archery on a ground below through the window as our bikes cool down a bit. We leave once we are done drinking our drinks as we continue ahead.

The roads are good with the sunny part dry and the shadowy part wet. We tread carefully on the wet surface. We drive non-stop encountering countless hairpin bends to arrive at a T-junction where we cut-oft from the highway. We stop there to check on what the locals are selling at the roadside stalls. They have dried meat, cheese, vegetables along with woolen shawls and bamboo handicrafts. We take our leave and divert away from the highway. Gantey is just 15 mins ride as we climb up a road much smaller in width than the highway. As we climb, we can see the snow on the mountain sides and even some sections of the road are wet due to the melted snow. As we reach the top, we immediately start to go down and up ahead we can see the valley. It’s a beautiful sight to watch as we move closer and closer. We reach Gantey town where we first visit the Monastery. It’s a little bigger one. We enter inside its premises. There is no entry fee. Phub briefs me about the Monastery but he cannot come inside the temple as he is not in his traditional dress. I enter the temple as he searches for some monk who can explain me the inside part.

There is difficulty in finding one as most of the monks have gone for winter vacation. Phub finds a young monk who is also recently enrolled. He doesn’t understand English or Hindi but tries his best to explain to me in his broken English. After some time, we both come out and I stand in the sunlight for some time. The inside of the temple was too cold. We exit the Monastery, and go down to the valley. Phub tells me that the valley is hibernation place for Black Necked cranes, who migrate to this part from Tibet during this time. Luck is on our side as we spot a group of them not for from the main road. I stop the bike and immediately take out my DSLR camera. I am lucky enough to get some good shots before they notice me intruding their privacy as they move away from me.

After that, we move further into the valley. I can see groups of isolated cranes at a distance. At a point where we are almost level with the valley, we stop to take good photos of ourselves and the light & clouds are just perfect. Photos doesn’t do justice as I soak in the scenery as much as possible through my eyes. After that, we continue riding ahead till the roads let’s us. We get a dramatic view of the valley from all round. The sun is about to go down the mountains and the light is fading fast. We capture the last set of pictures before returning via the same road to check-in in our hotel. By this time, the daylight has gone and its really cold. We move inside the hotel as the staff helps me to carry my luggage. The time is around 5 pm as we decide to call the day off. I take a hot bath to get my body in normal mode and after that spend the rest of the evening inside the room writing my diary and sipping coffee. The cold outside is just unbearable. Meanwhile, I ask the kitchen staff to prepare myself a meal of pork and potatoes. After the dinner, I wind up the day and go off to a good sleep.