Tour of Bhutan 2024 | Day 19 | Trashigang – Samdrup Jongkhar | 178.1 kms

Today is my last day in Bhutan. Day 19 of 19. We leave for the Bhutan border. I wake up early around 7am and slowly get ready. I pack all the things, have my morning coffee and get all my luggage down in the lobby and get the bike loaded. Around 9:15 am, we have our breakfast of fried rice and wash it all down with hot milk coffee. Phub is wearing ‘Gho’ as we plan to visit the Trashigang Dzong first. We say our goodbyes to hotel staff and make our way to Dzong. We park the bikes at designated location, register ourself at the security cabin and go inside.

We can see 1-2 monks in the courtyard. A dog comes running and continuously bark at us. One of the monk silences him. Bhutanese flag is fluttering in the wind hoisted on a pole in the courtyard. We go inside and visit one temple. A monk who is inside helps us. We can see mantra chanting sounds coming from the floor above us. We try to find the entrance to but and finally manage to enter after searching. Young monks are reciting their morning verses and just as we enter, they have tea break. We are told to sit at one corner and we observe their proceedings. We are served tea, they also offer bread but, we deny. The reciting resumes after the break as we sit silently listening to them to the beat of bass trumpets and drums.

We prostate before the gods and seek their blessings before leaving the Dzong. At the ground floor, I wear the Phub’s ‘Gho’ for taking photo. We click some really good ones before changing back to my riding gear. We take a circular round around the Dzong with a monk who explains us about the place. we see him off and then move towards the Sunday weekly bazaar where I buy some of the local produce brough up by the farmers for selling. I buy the potatoes, oranges, spicy chili, local pepper, apples before we push towards Samdrup Jangkhar.

We fuel up our tanks at the city’s entrance before hitting the highway. It’s a 175 km distance to the border. The roads are good and very wide. The atmosphere is pleasant with the sun shining brightly. We slowly start gaining altitude. Winds are fierce. Vegetation is dense like tropical rainforest. I had ditched all the warm clothes thinking that it would get warmer as we move closer to border and get down our altitude. But we are proved wrong. The altitude keeps on increasing and the cold grips us.

I am shivering now but I decide to continue like that in a hope that we will soon get down into plains. Around halfway to our destination, we stop for lunch at Wamrong. We have the local pork dish before continuing. From there, we cross multiple passes. The temperature does not increase but we get broken sections of road due for rebuilding. We see huge number of trucks plying the road now and we become cautious during overtaking.

I miss the sunset, one of the mountain hides it during it’s last moment. we are just about to reach Samdrup Jangkhar. We come to see a statue of Guru Rinpoche by the side of the road. We both take a photo before heading towards our hotel. The time is 5:30 pm. Tashi is already waiting for us. He welcomes both of us as we get inside and settle. We have cake cutting ceremony on account of successful completion of trip. The cake is good. We get ready after that and visit the immigration office for my checkout. My passport is stamped out. We take a day pass for my next day stay in Bhutan as I enter India tomorrow.

Once that is done, we head to city center for walkthrough. Tashi has come here after 29 years and as for both us, it’s completely new. We do some shopping before visiting the local fair of Samdrup Jangkhar happening near it’s Dzong. We spend our evening there drinking beer and barbecued pork before calling the day off and retiring to our hotel for a good sleep.