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GHiRT stands for Grand Himalayan Road Tour and GHiRT-1 is the first segment of that Tour! In this tour we went driving in a SUV, the Himalayan roads of Sikkim, Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh
This Page is the Main Page of GHiRT Tour - it shows only a summary of the tour with some highlight Pictures. Tour Details are in the subpages (1 to 9) under this main page ; that can be accessed via left margin Menu
Summary Details of this Tour:
The GHiRT dream:
Ever since I did the GIRT (Grand India Road Tour) in Dec-2007, with my college friend, Tapan Ghosh, I have been dreaming of doing a similar road tour ... but this time in the Himalayas! i.e. starting from Srinagar in J&K, thru Ladakh, thru Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and ending in the Easternmost parts of the Himalaya in Arunachal Pradesh! The name GHiRT was (sort of) jointly coined, by one 'Sadanand Kamath' and a 'Dilliwala', two veteran posters on IndiaMike the India Travel site. IndiaMike discussions on GHiRT can be seen in this Thread.
By March-2009, a year has passed in dreaming and debating what sort of vehicle or SUV is required to do such a journey, in rough terrain and bad roads of Himalayas? The final choice of the SUV is narrowed down to M&M Bolero or Scorpio. While doing research on the vehicles & routes, in Team-BHP site, I came across a veteran roadie, one HV Kumar (HVK), who has logged thousanads of KMs in his Scorpio. HVK has gone everywhere in India, by road! Later, I was surprised to find HVK lives just 2 blocks away from my home in Thane! So, I met him a couple of times to discuss the vehicle, routes & seasons for doing GHiRT. In fact, a "season-fitted" slow-paced, plan for doing GHiRT (in one stretch) looks like this:
15-30 Aug - J&K -->> from Srinagar to Manali via Kargil, Leh
01-30 Sep - HP, UA -->> Manali, Kaza, Shimla, West to East Uttaranchal
01-30 Oct - Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan -->> entirely West to East
01-30 Nov - Arunachal, Assam, NEast -->> moving West to East
However, most people have advised that I break it up into 2-3 segments, rather than in one long stretch.
Sunrise on NH6 .. as we head East from Mumbai to Gangtok
Our Scorpio crossing the Rangit river suspension bridge, in West Sikkim
Coronation Bridge over Teesta in North Bengal
Tsomgo Lake near Nathu-La ... in East Sikkim
The Pemayangtse Monastry ... in West Sikkim
Entering Bhutan at Phuntsoling
Khecheolpalri Lake, W Sikkim
Jhomolhari range (behind the clouds) .... from Drukyel Dzong
Clocktower Sqaure in Thimpu
GHiRT-1:
While I was thinking about how to break it up into segments and when to actually do it, HVK announced his plan to do a road tour to the North-East covering Sikkim, Bhutan and Arunachal in April-2009; and offered to take me with him as a passenger. Though his pace of the tour was too fast for my liking, still it was an opportunity for me to learn from a veteran Roadie and gain some first-hand experience of Himalayan drives and also see the more difficult Eastern segment of my GHiRT dream. So I quickly said yes, to HVK's K2K2 plan.
Monks at Simtokha Dzong .... near outskirt of Thimpu
Trashichhoe Dzong - Thimpu
Punthang Dechen Phodrang .... or simply Punakha Dzong
HVK's "K2K2" Plan:
It starts from Vasant-Vihar, Thane . . . and ends Vasant Vihar, Thane. So for me it is a door-door-service! The Final Route-Kms was:
Day Start-End Towns Date Day Kms
0 Thane-Sambalpur 9-Apr Thu ---
1 Sambalpur (contd) 10-Apr Fri 1448
2 Sambalpur-Malda 11-Apr Sat ---
3 Malda-Gangtok 12-Apr Sun 1453
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
4 Gangtok 13-Apr Mon 28
5 Gangtok-Phuntsoling 14-Apr Tue 474
6 Phuntsoling-Thimphu 15-Apr Wed 190
7 Thimphu 16-Apr Thu 97
8 Thimphu-Paro-Thimpu 17-Apr Fri 158
9 Thimphu-Jakar 18-Apr Sat 316
10 Jakar-Trashigang 19-Apr Sun 315
11 Trashigang-Guwahati 20-Apr Mon 318
12 Guwahati-Itanagar 21-Apr Tue 427
13 Itanagar-Daparijo 22-Apr Wed 291
14 Daparijo-Shilapathar 23-Apr Thu 398
15 Shilapathar-Hayuliang 24-Apr Fri 346
16 H'liang- Kibithu-Dibrugarh 25-Apr Sat 556
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
17 Dibrugarh-Guwahati (cont) 26-Apr Sun 460
18 ----- >> Kanpur 27-Apr Mon 1616
19 Kanpur-Palanpur 28-Apr Tue 1093
20 Palanpur-Koteshwar-A'bad 29-Apr Wed 1125
21 Ahemdabad-Bombay 30-Apr Thu 538
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Total KMs . . . . . . . 11647
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
HVK's plan has three parts:
1st part: A wild drive across India from Thane-Mumbai to Kolkata and then to Gangtok in 3 days, Day-1 to Day-3!
2nd part: A slower sight-seeing drive thro Sikkim-Bhutan-Arunachal (i.e. my GHiRT-1, if you like) from Day-4 to Day-16.
3rd part: The K2K2 part - a wild fast-paced drive across India, from Kibithu (in Arunachal) to Koteshwar (in Kutch) (from East to West)
Have'nt heard of Kibithu or Koteshwar? Well Kibthu is the Easternmost motorable border-point in India [at 28°16.874' N 97°1.085′ E] and Koteshwar [at 23°41.352' N 68°31.561' E] is the Westernmost motorable, temple town of India! So you might now understand, why a "veteran-roadie" (like HVK) will want to do that!
BTW: "K2K" is Kashmir to Kanyakumari. "K2K2" is Kibithu to Koteswar! That seems to be the terminology amoung Roadies. Later, HVK changed K2K2 to S2S - meaning Sunrise to Sunset!
Looking North from the trekking trail beyond Drukyel
The ruins of the historic Drukyel Dzong ... beyond Paro, Bhutan
Smiling girl ready for School at Lango, Paro
Punakha Dzong - Punakha
A beautiful covered bridge crosses the river to enter the Dzong
Looking north towards the clouded Himalayas ... over clusters of Chorten at Dochu-La (10,500ft)
River Lodge at Jakar, Bumthang - the best hotel we stayed in Bhutan
Bhutan Exit .. at Sondrup Jhonkar
Young Monks at the Wangdi Chong Palace, Jakar, Bumthang, Bhutan
Pele-La (11070ft-3375M) Chorten
Morning Mists at Daparijo, Arunachal Pradesh
HVK (R), KS (L) & Scorpio at Kibuthu Helipad at 7:50am 25th-Apr-09 This Pic taken by an Army Jawan posted at Kibuthu - just 10Kms from the Tibet-China border, at this Eastermost road point in India.
Post Trip Summary:
The trip happened more or less as per HVK's plan; we reached Gangtok in 3 days and did Local Sights and Tsomgo Lake that had plenty of snow. Nathu-La was not possible due to snow and so permits not being issued. We also saw main parts of South and West Sikkim visiting Tashigang, Yuksom, Pelling, Pemayangtse and Kechopalri Lake.
Bhutan was amazing and we did the entire route from Paro in West to Trakshigang in East Bhutan, over 6 days. Not possible to summarise all of Bhutan's positives in a few words here. So, see details in subseqent pages.
Finally, we did Arunachal - Itanagar, Ziro, Daporijo, Alang and Pasighat. Since river crossing at Pasighat to go to Tezu was not possible (due to bridge being inoperative) we had go back to Shilapathar in Assam, to cross the Brahmaputra on a Ferry to Dibrugarh and drive back to East Aruanchal via Tinsukia, Doom-Dooma on the southern bank of Brahmaputra river to reach Parsuram-Kund and then go on to Kibuthu. Kibuthu is an amazing, scenic place, mostly an Indian Army Camp on China border. Arunachal on the whole was great; with misty low clouds, blue braided rivers and lush green forests everywhere.
On the way back, I decided to drop off at Guwahati and fly back. But HVK carried on solo, to complete his K2K2 goal in 4 days! When he reached Koteswar, he sent me an SMS from there that read: Apr-25 9 am Kibuthu-AR eastmost and Apr-29 11-15 am Koteswar-GJ west most; a total = 4130kms!
Later, we accounted that HVK had driven his Scorpio a total of 11,700 Kms in this entire NE trip. For me, Mumbai to Siliguri of 27oo Kms and then the GHiRT portion from Siliguri through Sikkim, Bhutan & Arunachal, upto Kibuthu was another 4000 Kms, approx. For a detailed account of the GHiRT-1 story, please see the continuation pages in the links below.
HVK had brought a Garmin GPS that he was using to record Waypoints at important places. The GPS WayPoints for the entire trip is available to you in this GPS-File; by clicking on this link and opening the file, you can see our entire route on Google Earth (if installed in your computer).
Main Sqr at Pasighat, Arunachal
Looking back at the bridge over Lohit river and the Parshuram Kund
The rough dirt track short-cut road from Itanagar to Ziro, is in clouds!
The road passes along misty rivers near Alang in Arunachal
Arunachal is full of green forest, flowing rivers and misty clouds
Typical tribal abodes thatch & bamboo huts on stilts at Alang
HVKumar's Scorpio boards the ferry to cross Brahmaputra for the final leg of run to Kibuthu
Srinath & Hariharan - two 13-year, 9th graders, with us on this tour!
******
References:
I have read Lonely Planet's India and Bhutan Guide books and also Koko Singh's "Driving Holidays in the Himalayas - Bhutan" book, while on this tour.
Both these are excellent guide books and cover Bhutan in great detail. Unfortunately, I did not find any good book or maps for Arunachal Pradesh.
Some details in this blog could be from any of these guides-books.
GPS Waypoints of entire route ... click on picture for a larger image
In the detailed stories and pictures, I have indicated the WayPoint number (as WPnnn) from this file. So if you have Google Earth open, while reading the subsequent pages you can 'zoom-in' to the waypoint number and get an amazing aerial view of the place! I got a whole new perspective of the hilly terrain that we covered, by seeing the places and route on Google Earth!
Google Image of the North East regions of Himalayas
Day-wise details see sub-pages listed in left margin column
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