6 Trashigang

20th April 2009: We left our Tashigang Hotel at 6:30am after breakfast and headed to exit Bhutan via teh border town of Sandrup Jhonkar. We passed through some pretty scenic valleys and ascended a pass at at 7500ft full of clouds and mists. On the way we passed the small town of Kanglung, with its large campus of Sherubtse College, Bhutan's first collge set in 1970 by by a Jesuit priest William Mackey. We then climbed to Kharung-La (2350 M) WP306, where the road was cloudy and we made brief stop at a viewpoint there. People stop here to get a last glimpse of the Himalayas, but we saw only clouds.

Hotel Druk Doethjung - where we stayed a night

River & bridge at Chazam; which we crossed yesterday evening

Trashigang square and parking outside our hotel

Beautiful Dzong .... with a valley & river view

Kanglung and Bhutan's Sherubtse College (WP305) entry gateway

Nearing Yongphu-La at 7500ft

While descending from the mountain Pass, from Wamrong to Pemagatshel Junction, HVK faced problem with his accelerator pedal getting jammed in the down, high-throttle position and not returning back. Somehow he managed to drive down safely to the plains, using the break more than required! Deothang (wp323) marked the end of the mountains and we were in the plains by Noon.

Welcome to India! A sign post, as we enter Assam. You can see the chaos and dirt on the streets all over again!

We crossed the border at 12:50 pm and entered Assam. Guwahati is just 100 Kms from here. Thus ended our Bhutan segment of the tour.

At the border on India-side we stopped at a roadside garage for an hour, to get the Accelerator Cable fixed. But that did not really work for long and so we hurried past Rangiya WP338, 2:30pm) to reach Gauhati by 4 pm, and we headed straight for the M&M Service Center to get the Accelerator Cable fixed properly. That took another 2 hours and so we finally checked into a Hotel Priya Palace at Ulubari (WP358) at 6:00pm. In Priya Palace, a very centrally located hotel on GS Road, a nice AC-DBL Room (net of 15% disc) was Rs 1250 per night.

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