Tour of Bhutan 2024 | Day 14 | Bumthang – Mongar | 185.4 kms

Got up around 7:30 a.am. to prepare for the long journey ahead. The weather seemed cloudy and I could not see the sun. Got ready quickly and loaded my bike before the breakfast. Went inside for breakfast around 8:45 a.m. and Phub joined me 5 mins later. Breakfast consisted of Rice, Omelets, Stir fried spinach, chili paste and fried puris.

All this was served with Butter tea called ‘Suja’. After the breakfast, we thanked the owner for hosting us and meanwhile Phub got ready. I lubed my chain and everything was set in place. We left around 9:20 a.m. Phub was donning his traditional ‘Gho’ as we were going to the temple which we’d missed yesterday. We reached the temple and went inside quickly. Phub was explaining the temple history which was built in 15th century. The temple looked old and most of the painting done on it’s wall were faded. There was even a leftover beehive on one of the temple walls. As we entered the main temple, we could hear the prayers being offered by monk in the upper floors. We visited the ground floor section of the temple with Phub explaining about everything. There was a chain kept inside a glass cabinet. It was like a chain mail around 3 feet by 3 feet and it weighed quite heavy. Phub explained to me that whoever would carry this chain on his/her shoulder and make 3 clockwise rotations around the temple, all his sins would wash away.

Phub insisted me on doing it. I went for it and the chain was literally heavy. After that, we went upstairs to the deity temple and saw the monk offering prayers. At it’s entrance, there was an entire shredded skin of snake which was stuffed. By its length, it must have been a long one. Near the local deity’s temple, there was even a preserved remains of Vulture which was kept in a glass box. It’s entire body had been preserved. Just outside the deity temple, on the walls surrounding it were the 15th century old paintings with some finer details done in gold. They were quite detailed and beautiful. Almost every details imaginable was shown. I was in awe of the painters of those times. We took blessings and came out of the main temple and later exited the courtyard to our parking lot. My souvenir shopping was still left incomplete. There was still 1 shop which we hadn’t seen as it was locked yesterday. Today, we decided to check it out before heading towards Mongar.

The shop was just 2 km from the temple. When we reached, we found it closed. But a quick call from the number posted below the shop board saw the owner within 100 mtrs of us. He came running quickly, much to our surprise. Both of us being lucky. He opened the shop for us and it had plethora of items which could be taken back as a souvenir. I finalized on a few, my bill totaling 7000rs after discount. For all the heavy shopping, he allowed me to take 2 prayer wheel keychains for free. I thanked him for opening the shop for us as we bid adieu to him and left for Mongar around 11:07 a.m. We had a mammoth distance of 188 kms to cover. We decided to take the new route to exit the city and join the PNH 01 highway instead of the old one which was broken but indeed a short cut. After riding for about 25 kms, we joined the PNH 01 highway towards Mongar. Our first major village named ‘Ura’ came 20 kms later.

The roads were good and wide. We were having fun riding and kept a constant pace of about 50 kmph. Our next milestone was the Thrumshing La pass coming at about 20 kms. For this, the road started to climb upwards and we started to see snow alongside the mountains and thin layer of ice on the road. As it was noon time, we were saved as most of the ice on the road surface was melted making the road wet. Danger had gone but we were still cautious about the wet surface. The traffic on the road was almost non-existent. It was like, we were owing the highway today. As the pass came near, my body started giving up. Hands and Feet started to lose sensation and when we reached the top at 3780 mtrs, we quickly took photos and moved down. The temperature increased a bit but it was still cold. Roads now were broken at times due to past landslides or due to construction work.

We now started to observe some traffic and the road width also narrowed down. We were riding along tall cliffs and deep gorges. The scenery also changed dramatically as we could see dense vegetations with many other types of trees apart from pines. The clouds has completely engulfed and for most of the time we were riding through them. They obscured the sun which made the atmosphere shadowy and we could feel the dampness from the heavy rainforest kind of vegetation. We could see some tall waterfalls dropping down to the valley and at some of them, we stood to take photos. We were still at high altitude and slowly progressing our way downwards. We could see now lush green farmlands with Banana trees, Oranges, Poinsettia’s and lot of other varieties of trees. The mountains were all green which were a start contrast to the western side.

It seemed like, I was now riding in a tropical country with all the greenery all around. Around, 3:30 p.m. we stopped at a road side stall to snack on some noodles. I had tea before we went riding down further. We were still riding on narrow village roads and it was only after the last 24 kms to Mongar, did we receive proper mega roads. We were cruising at 60 kmph before we touched Mongar around 5:30 p.m. The last 20 kms were really an icing on the cake after having ridden serpentine roads since the morning. We checked into the hotel. Phub went to his sister’s place while I got fresh and later in the evening tool a stroll around the town. I came back around 8:30 p.m. for dinner which consisted of Aloo Jeera, Dal, Rice, Chicken, Fish and Salad. After the dinner, I worked on my diary writing before going to bed around 11:30 p.m.