Tour of Bhutan 2024 | Day 12 | Gantey – Bumthang | 151.1 kms

My alarm goes off at 7:30 a.m. I stare at the window and the valley is lit up. The sun is already up from behind the mountains. I get freshened up, brew my coffee and sit at the window gazing at the valley as the sunlight soaks me up. Staring at the valley feels seems like some meditative activity for me. My body is all warmed up and my coffee is finished. I get ready and pack all my stuff and make it ready for loading it on bike. I then go upstairs for having my breakfast of coffee and butter toast. Phub joins me when I’m about to leave. He quickly does his breakfast and then joins me at the parking lot, and we both start to load the luggage.

Around 9:40 a.m., we leave the hotel. It’s bright and sunny but also cold due to fierce wind blowing across from the valley. We take the same route as yesterday and halt at the stupa on the top, also called as Lawala Pass. We take photo before joining the main PNH 1 highway. Within few minutes, after tackling few hairpin bends, we reach atop Pelela Pass at 3420 mtr.

Again, we take photos before continuing our journey ahead. From there, we ride non-stop till Trongsa view point. The roads are just amazing and it’s fun to drive. We are cruising around 50 kmph. At the Trongsa viewpoint, we have the view of the Trongsa Dzong from a distance. Phub explains the history behind it and later on, I take some photos before we go down a bit further and stop for some refreshment at this beautiful cafe called ‘Willing waterfall’ cafe, who has a waterfall cascading from atop of mountain just behind the cafe and the waters run beneath the cafe to fall even further down into the river. We park and enter inside. The ambience is great. l order coffee and banana cake.

Till the time my order is ready, I sunbath outside besides the waterfall. After a few minutes, my order arrives as I savor my coffee with banana cake. We leave from the cafe immediately once I am done. We keep the some pace and stop just before Trongsa to take photo against the beautiful back drop of blue mountains at a distance. From there, we start to climb upward in a series of long bends. I can see some other varieties of trees besides Pine & Cyprus. The roads are broken at some stretches limited upto few mtrs only. It starts to get more cold as we approach Yotongla Pass at 3425mtrs. When we reach, it’s very cold and windy. We stop to take photo before the road winds down hill. At the base, we stop at a petrol bunk to fill up on the fuel at 67 rs/ Itr. Even though our tanks are half full, we are not taking any chances. Further up the road, we stop to take a look at one of the handicrafts store. There are lot of handloom products on sale like carpets, dress, hand bags, purse etc. Most of them being done in yak and sheep wool.

The lady has the production house behind the shop and she gladly takes us through her setup of weaving and dyeing. They have a total of 10 colors of wool, all made using natural elements taken from plants, either stem, leaves, flower or fruit. It’s really fascinating for me having seeing this for the first time. We could not see the live action as it’s a holiday season for the weavers. I like some 2-3 items from the shop but Phub tells me to compare the prices of the same stuff in Bumthang Handicraft market, which we plan to do tomorrow. We decide to buy from shop who sells us with the best rate. We move ahead, climb a small mountain and then descend almost immediately into the Bumthang valley. A river is flowing parallel but in opposite direction. In no time, we arrive at the old part of town and move towards our homestay. It’s 7 kms far. We cover the distance and see our homestay on a raised hill. An off road leads to the property and we can see the owner outside the house.

He opens the gate for us. We park our bikes and we are shown our respective rooms. We move the luggage into the rooms. Some time later, we are called for having tea which I almost instantly like. Tea is served with local made snaks. 2 items are on offer and both of them are tasty. Dinner time is scheduled around 8 pm. I spend the remainder of time to write my diary as well as transfer some of my videos into hard-disk. At the dinner, we have a menu of pork, red rice, chilies, potato with cheese and buckwheat noodles. Dinner is great, no words for it and super tasty. After the dinner, we are served with local alcoholic drink called ‘Ara’ containing ‘Cordyceps Fungus’. We take 2 servings. It’s a little strong drink. We sit and chat for a while. I play with the house’s cat for some time before saying good night to the family and retiring back to my room for a comfortable sleep.