2013 RE Tour of Bhutan : Pursuit of happiness

While I had already partly conquered the Himalayas on a journey to the land of the lamas a few years ago, ever since Royal Enfield introduced the Tour of Bhutan as part of their ride calendar, I’d felt the mountains calling out once again to explore its scenic beauty. So leaving behind all my freelance photography commitments, research assignments and worries about the job, I decided to head to what is claimed to be the happiest country in Asia – Bhutan. 

Although I used to ride on a regular basis back in the day and have also ridden to the Himalayas with the RE in 2008, my motorcycling adventures have been on the low off late. I felt rusty and was anxious about riding on the rough and gruelling terrain once again. Thankfully, when I arrived at Siliguri, a few familiar faces from my Odyssey days and, more importantly, tales of other rusty riders trying to get back into the groove, got me all pumped up about the ride that lay ahead. In the evening, post a short briefing from Adarsh, the lead rider from Royal Enfield, I got the keys to a shiny Thunderbird 500. Although everyone departed for their rooms to hit the sack early, I was pretty sure most of them were wide awake anticipating the excitement that lay ahead. 

Next morning none of the 11 riders was feeling fatigued or sleep deprived thanks to the scenic vistas we were treated to throughout our ride from Siliguri to Darjeeling. The roads seemed straight out of a painting, creatively cutting through a jungle of tea plantations. The T-bird 500 was fun to ride and easy to handle. The low seating position and the tall handle bars made for an extremely comfortable riding position as I cruised at a leisurely speed admiring the green that carpeted the land. I felt an immediate connection with my ride as both of us glided through the smooth twisty tarmac. Arriving at Darjeeling, I thought to myself, this was indeed a perfect route to mark the start of an epic journey. 

The next day we were scheduled to enter the happy zone of Bhutan. Only when we actually did that, we realised why it was the eighth happiest country in the world – alcohol and tobacco, two greatest evils invented by man (although some of the riders weren’t quite of the same belief), are completely banned in the state of Bhutan. Phunsoling, right at the edge of the India-Bhutan border, was our destination to halt for the night. The ride from Darjeeling to Phunsoling was quick and fun. We had to arrive at the immigration office at a specified time for all the paper work to be completed before the office shuts at the end of the day. We all had to maintain adequate pace to ensure that we reached on time.

If day 1 was a smooth relaxed ride to Darjeeling, day 2 was quite the opposite, but the T-bird was more than happy to obey orders swiftly switching sides for corners and slithering through the mountain roads. To cross over to Bhutan we simply had to pass a gate that brought us to Phunsoling. This really lifted the spirits of all those riders who were hoping to have a smoke and drink their regular brand of alcohol with fellow participants as they just needed to cross over to the Indian side to do so.  

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The day we rode to Paro and Thimpu was undoubtedly the highlight of the trip. The tarmac was smooth as silk and the traffic was so civilised that I almost thought that I was riding on a race track. It wasn’t just me who was happy. I could feel my T-bird dancing to the tunes of the exhaust. There were times that I felt that I didn’t even need to steer the handle; the T-bird would merrily find its way through.

The pleasant weather was as much a contributor in making the ride fabulous as the Royal Enfield. I pitied the people back home who were trying to find whatever comfort they can amid their daily chores in the scorching summer heat. This was when it struck me that while the world was sulking about the summer, I was grinning away in Bhutan with my rather un-talkative but understanding T-bird for company and a temperature of less than 10 degrees to making it ideal to ride.  

60km prior to Thimpu, we took a small break, if you could call it that, to pay homage to the iconic Tiger nest Monastery. No doubt the monastery was peaceful and calming, but the three-hour climb to the destination and back felt endless and tiring. We rode our motorcycles to Thimpu like injured cavalry finding their way back into their home city. As soon as we hit the road for Thimpu, the skies opened up with a mild shower – perhaps as a sign of the Buddha’s blessings to wash away our fatigue as we arrived at the capital city of Bhutan. 

We headed to Bumthang next, covering the longest distance of the trip and for the first time riding through challenging roads that got narrower, rougher and longer. This was a real tester for both man and machine; a test of patience for man, and of endurance for machine. The long route was a mix of bad roads, roads under construction, slush, dust and traffic in some patches. But the beauty of nature energised the riders throughout. Pleasantly cold weather played a very crucial role in making the ride a little less taxing. On bad roads, the T-bird did feel a bit inconvenient and the same low saddle that seemed ‘oh so comfortable’ on smooth roads was now causing a backache. Having said that, she stood strong through the roughest of terrains ensuring that both of us reached our destination.  

Our way back to India was via Trashigang in Bhutan. This final day of the ride was as challenging as the previous. The temperature was on the rise again as we kept descending from the hills, energy was at an all time low after riding endless rough terrains over the last two days and to make matters worse, as we approached Guwhati the conditions of the roads became worse. But the excitement of heading back home and telling stories of this beautiful ride to Bhutan got everyone charged up as we slid through gravel and surfed through the slush to find our way out of it.  

Happiness can mean so many different things to different people and reflecting on the time I had spent in Bhutan, I pondered about what really made the Himalayan kingdom the happiest nation in Asia. Surely, it wasn’t just the absence of tobacco; but the abundance of some of life’s simple pleasures – the majestic mountains; warm and friendly people; quaint, beautiful villages; and the surrealistically gorgeous landscape. As for me, happiness was all about another simple pleasure – riding the mountain tarmac, mile after mile, on the trusty Thunderbird 500, without which this trip would have never been the same.