Journey to the Border

October 7^th, 2026

Phuentsholing, Bhutan

Woke with the alarm at 5:00AM.

Sat in the chair for about 10 minutes, then got into the shower.

Was done with shower, and dressed and ready to go by 5:35.

Packed the last items and took most of my medications during this time as well.

A knock on the door was the hotel staff collecting the luggage.

Thankfully I had both the duffle bags ready to go, just had to zip the one up.

Handed them over and he took them away.

All I had now was just my small shoulder bag with a few important things inside.

I used the toilet one last time, checked over the room, turned off the lights and opened the blinds and then left the room to go down and check out.

Once checked out, I stood with the rest of the group for a bit, then we went outside while they loaded the luggage into the shuttle van (15 passnger?)

I recorded a few videos and then was the last person on the van.

With Ben and the two Bhutan guides + the driver, we had 10 people, and that is when we noticed we were missing a rider.

Sadly, one of the guys (UK rider) had called Ben around midnight that he had to leave the trip due to a serious family emergency and that he would be flying out that day.

So, we now only have 6 riders.

We got going, but only managed a few blocks when we were stopped in a bottle neck with the narrow road, trucks parked on the road and a stalled car blocking the main route.

Took a few minutes for enough people to help push the car out of the way, then we could proceed.

Once past that, things were moving along pretty good, just moderate traffic, but the narrow roads still caused a few slowdowns.

We soon reached the edge of town and the road started to get very curvy and moving up into the lower hills now.

This slowed things, and made passing slower vehicles a challenge as well.

We meandered along the main highway till we reached the turn that would take us over into Assam.  We then moved along at a slightly better pace, going through several small towns and villages and crossing a large number of decent sized rivers (though most had only minimal water flowing at this time of year).

After 2-3 hours, we pulled over for a beverage stop and toilet break.

Most of us used the facilities and then we sat around and all had a chai while we talked a bit.

Once done, it was back in the van for the last hour to the border.

The road soon turned north to reach the border area where we would stop to go through India immigration to leave the country.

We reached the section of town where the immigration office was.  We all exited the van and followed the Bhutan guide into the building, only to find the office closed.

Guide went to talk with the officials as the front gate and found that the staff had gone for a coffee/tea break.

We stood around, thinking it might be quick, but was probably 30-40 minutes before anyone showed up. 

In the meantime, another couple had arrived trying to cross back into India, and they had a flight to catch as well, so time was running out for them.

When the guy finally showed up, we let them go first, but shortly after a 2^nd guy showed up to start processing our departures.

In the end, all of us got through the departure process before that one couple got through the arrival process.

We all left and were walking to the van when we were called back by the official at the gate.

Turns out they needed to record more info.

I find it somewhat crazy the amount of manual, hand-written, ledger records they keep around here.

They official had to take down our names, passport data, visa data, age, gender, phone number, and counter of residence, all by hand, all in a book that I will guess gets sent to some central office, probably stored in a big room and never looked at again!

Once done with that, I stood around waiting for the others and had a chance to talk with the woman from the other group.  Her and her husband were actually living in India and had diplomatic visas, but the local official kept trying to process them as tourists, which was wrong.  So that is why things took so long for them.

We finally finished and got back on the bus, drove down the road about 1 mile, and then pulled over just down from the border.

The van could not take us to the entry point and would need to cross at the main gate up the road.

We had to unload all the luggage and walk over to the human entry point.

One of the guides did grab a tuk-tuk driver and they loaded most of the luggage onto that to help move it over.

We all walked about ¼ mile to reach the entry point, a small portal in a big wall.

They had two lines, one for foreigners and another for Indian/Bhutan citizens.

That line moved pretty quickly as they just had to show ID to the first guard, then again to the 2^nd guard 5 steps away, then they could enter.

We had to stand in line and sit, one at a time, at a small table where 2 more guards wrote down all the same stuff they had done in India in their own set of ledger books, and also took digital photos of us.

Once done we could then go up and show our ID to the 2^nd guard and enter the building.

All of our luggage has already been taken through by the guides, so we just had any smaller bags on us.

We had to go through a security checkpoint, bags getting x-ray, metal detector and a metal wand pass over.

From there it was a long hallway up to a waiting area.  A few were still waiting, as they had not been given the paper copies of the visa, but as I had mine, I could go into the last room and go through the immigration entry process.

I grabbed my bags (all in a huge pile) and went in, then when my turn came, I went through the basic process of him checking passport and visa, taking picture, asked a few basic questions, and stamped the passport.

We then went past and outside.

I noticed some of the others over buy the van, which had passed through the road gate and was waiting for us.

Dropped off the bags so they could be loaded back on and then got into the van and out of the sun.

Once we were all in the van (minus one of the guides who had walked over to the nearby hotel to get things ready), we drove up the road.

But due to the nature of the road way, we had to drive past the hotel, up a small hill, around the block, and then back down to the hotel entrance road.

Once in the parking lot, we unloaded the luggage, and all went into the lobby to wait.

They served us all a welcome drink and then we were presented with welcome gift of a local scarf (similar to the one we were given in India 4 years ago).

Then Ben was given all the room keys and they were just handed out randomly as all the rooms were the same.

Our rooms are all on the 3^rd (and top) floor of the hotel.

We grabbed our bags and then walked up the stairs to the 3^rd floor and into our rooms.

Nice rooms, pretty standard layout.  My only complaint is not very many power outlets, but thankfully I had charged most of the stuff last night.

I did some quick filming and then sat in the room and cooled off as we were going to meet up for lunch in about 20 minutes.

I went back down stairs and inquired on the Wi-Fi as I had been unable to login since the room number had not been linked to my name (the usual method involved logging into the wireless with room number and last name).

They front desk staff gave me the main password instead, still used with the room number.

Finally online, I was able to check a few things out and make updates if need.

I had turned on my cell service, and this time it did get a signal, enough to change the phones time and I actually was getting text messages again.  But calls were still emergency only and no data at all.  So, the roaming ability of the Nepal provider must not have been enabled on my tourist package I bought.

I have already arranged to go with one of the local guides this afternoon to get a Bhutan SIM card.

Once we were all in the lobby, we followed the guide and walked a few blocks over to a local restaurant.

We had seating in the back dining room and ordered off the menu.

I was feeling pretty good today, so decided to try one of the local specialties, and chicken and noodle dish with nothing too crazy in it.

We all enjoyed our meals and then we walked back over to the hotel and into the back parking area to check out the bikes.

We will be riding Honda NX500 bikes, nice, newer models that are well equipped (crash bars, tail plates, phone mounts, and even luggage, though that will be removed unless we really want it (no one did).

I went up to the room to get my gear so we could install it and make sure it would work.

I manage to get the tank bag straps on without too much issue.

While my phone seemed like it would fit in the holder, it did not fit well enough, and the holder itself was not secured very good.

Thankfully the team had the Allen key to allow me to attach my QuadLock base and just use it.

So, one of the guides helped me get that installed and setup, and then I decided to try the Go Pro on the crash bars and they come up pretty high.  Not sure if I will like it, but place to start.

I could not find the box with the various sized rubber inserts, so limited on what size I can install it, and the mirror stalks are not fat enough to hold it.

Once done, I ran the left over tools and gear back to the room, then myself and a few others went off to get phone cars. (Well, one of the guys came with us, but then disappeared to do something else.)

One guy sat down and got his e-SIM setup, and I sat down to get the physical card setup. (My stupid phone does not support e-SIM usage).

Cost me about $20 to get an unlimited data access service for the 2 weeks we will be here.

Thankfully they accept Indian Rupee here as I have not yet had a chance to get local currency (The Ngultrum).

The third guy already had an e-SIM, but it did not appear to be working in this country, so he decided to get a small, limited setup as well.

Once done, we then walked over to an ATM so I could get money, but huge line and when we walked up to the front the guide found the machines were not working at the moment.

I decided I could go without for now as I still have enough Rupee and the two currencies are on par value wise, so not even any crazy math to figure out.

We walked back to the hotel and I came up to the room to do my own thing till we met for dinner in about 3 hours.

I took this time to pull out all the riding gear as I would start using it tomorrow.

I then condensed the two bags into one, and repacked everything as I would need it.

Thankfully the bag will go in the support truck here, and not need strapped to the bike.

I will be putting the rain gear in the small backpack I have, and it will strap to the bike, but not a big issue there.

I then played online a bit, and finally had to put phone on the charger as well.

Eventually I went down to check out the restaurant, but found most of the guys on an outdoor patio that is the roof to the front entrance.

We sat and talked for a bit, as more and more of the group showed up.

Finally, about 7:30 we went into the restaurant across the hallway and sat down for dinner.

They already had some vegetable trays on the table, we all got drinks, were brought some kind of soup (no idea what it was, but was good), and then a buffet of various local and Indian style foods.

Since they did not have anything but that, I decided to go ahead and give it a try, and hope my insides will not hate me.

Had a few different dishes, skipping the fish curry (not a big fish fan and curry tends to mess me up) and the chicken masala. (I like it, but really hate having to pick the meat off the bone).

We enjoyed the usual conversations, though I was near end of table, so kind of missed out on much of it except John and Jude (the Indian rider).

After eating too much food, we all sat around talking for a bit.

I left the table to go use the restroom, and decided to just run up to the room instead of using the public facility.

And barely made it.  Not sure if lunch finally hit me, or if something tonight just acted that fast (some stuff does), but the insides were very unhappy.

Went back up and sat with the remaining crew for a bit longer, but we all eventually went off to end our nights in the room.  We will regroup at 7:30 for breakfast.

The day tomorrow will include getting on the bikes, riding over to the traffic school, going through a basic course on road rules in Bhutan, and then we will ride up the road to the checkpoint to leave town and hit the road.

We have 160km, 1 more checkpoint, and 1000m of elevation to ride after that.

Back in my room, I put phone back on charger, organized gear a bit, and then got out the laptop to type up the last 2 days of blogs, but thinking I will still wait to put them online, getting tired.

So with that, good night and catch ya down the road.