Tour of Bhutan 2024 | Day 18 | Trashigang – Merak – Trashigang | 136.1 kms

I wake up around 8 am ad get ready by 8:30 am. I have my morning coffee. We have our breakfast of fried rice and chili paste and leave for Merak around 9:45 am.

Google doesn’t show direct route to Merak. So we are left clueless about the distance and time. Locals are saying the journey time around 2 hrs. We move at a gradual pace initially going down and riding close to the river. After 15kms, we arrive at Rangjung town where we stop to ask for directions. WE are directed to go to Sakteng village first since it has a good road from across the town and later on it gets connected to Merak. The 2 policeman who help us also take our details before we leave. We then cross over to the other mountain via a bridge .

Initially 3-4 kms are rough, then we get good roads to ride. The road width is very narrow around 3 mtrs with valley to our right. We move at a leisurely ace taking into the views. We soon enter Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary. The temperature drops further down. Every now and then, we see a waterfall. Upon checking our GPS location, we come to know that we are riding close to the India-Bhutan border. Tawang is not far from here. We have already covered 50 km and still no sign of Sakteng village through we could see the direction boards. It’s feeling cold now and we can see snow collected at the road sides.

The road is in bad condition with us riding over big boulders and loose white sand. Sometimes, the sand is blown in our eyes with heavy winds. The scenery is like valley, the mountain slopes are semi-green. Horses are feeling on whatever fresh they can get. Sometimes, we can see cows or yak. Surprised to see villages located at such remote places. Mahindra Bolero Camper is the choice car of all. They can be seeing carrying loads and sometimes ferrying passengers. We are slowly gaining altitude. The off road ride of around 15 kms ends with us getting the view of Sakteng village finally nestled in the flat valley below.

We stop at the sign board saying ‘Sakteng’ to take some photos before heading down. Our first impression of it is eerie. The town looks deserted. No human can be seen on the road. We stop to talk with some ladies at the wool processing centre to know about the place. We want to see the incense making factory but we find it to be closed. Phub asks other locals on the route to Merak from here. We come to know that is is only a trail, which can be done on foot. The road to Merak is somewhere behind where we came from.

A cut from the black top road which goes to Merak village. There is no option but to go back the same way to go towards Merak. It’s almost 2 pm, so we decide to have ‘Koka’ as our lunch before heading back. I also buy the local yak butter from the owner before we leave the place around 3 pm. The village was exactly 70 kms from the hotel. On the way, we see a huge crowd of yaks sun bathing on the lush ground. We increase our speed while returning tackling the 15 km off road section and join the black top ASAP.

We are able to find the cut from the road which goes towards Merak but just before that we’d confirmed with the people we found walking besides the road. They say that it takes 2 hrs by bike and 3 hrs for car to reach from the current junction. We are already at 4:30 pm with dusk approaching. Seeing the plan totally impossible, we ditch the plan and instead head to the hotel. Phub also tells me that these 2 places are impossible to cover in a day and that most locals and tourists prefer Sakteng over Merak.

With that, we speed in the direction of our hotel. On the way, we stop and take photo of the amazing sunset visible so clearly. We return the same way and cover some balance kms in dark reaching the hotel around 6:45 pm covering 136 kms for the day. Evening, I explore the marked and but some food products and spend the rest of the time at hotel with all of us including the hotel owner watching ‘Stree 2’ movie to finish off the day.