The final ride of Bhutan

October 17^th, 2026

Samdrup Jongkhar, Bhutan

Woke a bit before 7:00AM and took a shower.

Geared up and then went over for breakfast.

Once done, went back to the room, finished packing, and after a short rest, took the bag and left the room.

Staff saw me and took the bag from me, so followed them out to the van where the bags were being loaded.

Dropped key on the front desk and then went to find my bike. (The tend to move and arrange them each morning, so never where you left it the night before).

Setup the bike, then waited while others did the same.

Few photos taken, and then we all got on the bikes and headed out.

The first challenge was the steep downhill road in the loose dirt/rock.

Made it down without issue, and a few of the others made it without too much trouble, just slow, and a few needed a hand balancing bike for some difficult sections.

To make the ride more challenging, every damn car in the city was driving up to the hotel!

I guess there was some kind of meeting of the monks from the local areas, so they were all arriving and driving up the hill.

We finished the paved section of the hill, most of the same issues, sharp corners, and lots of cars going up.

Once off the hill, we headed out of town on the highway.

The road soon turned south and would take us mostly in that direction for the rest of the day, though is zigged and zagged quite often.

We started heading up the hill right away to get out of the current valley and into the next.

The roads were very twisty, lots of hills, several small villages, far too many cows on the road, and a moderate level of traffic.

We stopped after an hour along side the road to take break and get some water.

A nice view over the valley at this point, and we were right at the top of the ridge and would soon start going downhill.

While hanging out here, I found a good sized bug clinging to the tail bag on the bike.

It looked like a leaf, and was about 3 inches long.  A bit of searching and I think it is a leaf-mimic katydid.

Took some prodding, but it finally flew off and landed in the grass nearby.

Not sure how long it had been there, or where I picked it up at, but hopefully the higher altitude would not hurt it and it would find its way home or find a new home in this area.

We took a group photo and then got going.

Had some great riding down the hill.

We stopped soon after to have coffee in a small village, and really got some attentions here, do not think they are used to foreigners stopping here.

After our break, we hit the road again, still going downhill.

Another good hour of riding and we came to another village where we stopped for lunch.

We parked up the bikes and went inside a small place, but it went way back and there was a nice little room at the back where we had our meal.

It had a small balcony off the back wall overlooking the valley, and was situated about 30-40 feet off the group below which fell off rapidly in a steep incline.

We finished our lunch and were back on the bikes.

About we climbed again, and then headed down again.

About half way down, I had to stop and take a piss, could not hold it any longer.

So found a spot off the road where the bike could park without falling and stopped to relieve myself.

Rest of the group went onward and Ben, bringing up the rear, stopped for a second and then headed down the hill some.

I got back on the bike, and shortly after passed Ben who was taking some photos, I think.

We really started to push it then, trying to close the distance to the main group.

Some hard cornering, a few slips, and felt like I might have drifted the back wheel on one corner.  Few wiggles from the rear on several corners, either from loose rocks, or sand, or possibly the layers of cow shit all over the road.

Finally came up to the rest of the group as they were stopping in another village.

This was our last coffee/drink break.

We ordered or drinks and Kinley bought some fresh walnuts from the local vendor and shared them with the group.

Sam also collected all of our passports as we would need to pass a checkpoint a few miles before the border town we will be staying in tonight.

Once back on the road, I was in the rear of the group for about half the ride, then at one point the rider in front of me (Mike, I think) slowed in a really rough spot to avoid tangling with an oncoming car, but I was going too quick to stop, so I just took to the large sandy/dirt section everyone was trying to avoid and passed by him.

We eventually reached the police checkpoint and pulled up along the road.  The officers indicated for a few to pull through the checkpoint and park a bit farther up to avoid blocking too much of the road (there was not any place to actually pull off the road.)

But then we had to sit around and wait as Sam had all the passports and documents, and he was in the van which was probably a few miles behind us.

A truck pulled up behind the bikes and probably a dozen or more guys got out and had to go through some kind of process as well.  But some cars would just pass through after slowing down.

Once Sam arrived in the van, he took care of the paperwork and we were cleared to continue.

It was only about 2 miles to the hotel at this point, but we did have to ride through some of the town, which was a bit slow going.

We pulled up at the hotel and all did our congrats to each other on a good ride.

Then it was time to start taking things off the bikes.

I had my rain gear in the tail bag to remove, the straps for my tank bag (and the bag), my GoPro mount (which I had not used since Thimphu), the Quad Lock mount for my phone, and the phone and camera as well.

Once all of that was off (with the assistance of our lead ride guide who had the tools to remove the Quad Lock since I had lost my tool in airport security) I went up where Kinley was handing out the room keys and just grabbed a room.

I was on the 2^nd floor of the center building of the structures in the resort.

Went up and got into the room, dropped off the stuff, and then hit the restroom as I had to pee really bad!

Once done, I went outside to see if my bag was still on the pavement, it was, and two girls were standing there, they saw me and I indicated it was my bag.  They grabbed it and brought it up.

I then got out of the riding gear, took a nice cool shower, and then sat in the cool air for a bit (after turning on the AC unit which I had not seen when first in the room.)

Finished getting dressed and then started to unpack all the bags and sort stuff as I would need to move it all into two bags again instead of just one.  But first I hung all the riding gear up in the closet, but left doors open, to let it air out some and dry the sweat as it had gotten really warm today.

I put on the GoPro batteries to charge and the laptop as well.

Played on the phone and bit and then saw the messages come in that some people were going to go into town.

So, I grabbed my key and went down to join them.

Upon reaching the parking lot, I saw that they had already loaded 6 of the bikes onto a truck to be hauled back to Thimphu in the morning.

The other 3 bikes were going to be ridden back by some of the guides.

We talked for a bit and then got into the van and drove the mile into town which sits just before the border crossing.

After dropping us off, we agreed to meet back in that spot in around an hour.

I walked around with Ben, checking out shops, looking to see if there was anything I could buy that would make a nice memento, but would be small enough to carry the rest of my travels.  I still have way too much local currency to use up.

We stopped in one shop and I bought 2 small bags of chips, a Coke, a candy bar, and paid for 2 candy bars for Ben and only spent about 400 Ngultrum, out of 7000.  Yeah, not going to spend it all.

I figure I can just exchange the money, either on the India side, or perhaps there will be a money changer at the border.  It could be easy to change into Indian Rupee, though will lose the commission to the changer, but its nearly $70, do not want to just leave it, and probably will not be back in Bhutan any time soon.

We wandered a bit more and then the group came together.  We had taken about 20 minutes.  Not sure where the van or guides went, a few wandered off to look.

The van was found parked nearby, but no one around it.

Finally, someone reached out via Whatsapp and found where the guys were hanging out, a small restaurant nearby.

The group wandered over there and we all crowded into the place.  We all had a drink and spent about 30-40 minutes talking until we decided it was time to return to the hotel.

We loaded up in the van and drove back.

Once there, we had 40 minutes till dinner, so all returned to our rooms.

I spent most of the time packing bags and getting things organized for the trip tomorrow.

About 5 minutes before, I headed down and found a few others also walking over to the dining hall.

We stopped in the bar first as the food was not yet ready and ended up spending about 30 minutes there.

There was another large group here as well, think they are a bicycling group as we saw lots of bikes being unloaded from a truck as we arrived.

We finally went into the dining area to eat, the meal was okay, but nothing too fancy.

We then went outside and had a small gathering of all the riders and guides.

We had all contributed money for the team as a tip (I fair amount in the end) to be divided among the 4 (or 5) team members.

A few speeches were made by some of the team and riders, then a few goodbyes were said.

Our photographer Jason and the Driver Tenzin would be leaving with the truck early in the morning, so will likely not see them again unless I get up really early.

Sam, Himal, and Kinley will be around a bit longer.

Sam and Kinley will leave about same time we do and head back on the bikes.

Himal will be crossing the border with us to assist, and then probably returning to ride a bike back as well.

After the goodbyes, most returned to rooms, but Ben, Kinley, and I went back to the bar for a while.

John and Dennis joined us a bit later, but then both left not too long after.

About 10:00PM we all returned to our room to get ready for bed.

Breakfast is at 7:30, though we will not depart till 10:00AM.

I came up and sorted the last few things I had, then remembered where I had left one of my pairs of gloves on the bike, so had to go out and retrieve them from the inside pocket of the tail bag.

Then it was time to get this blog typed out.  I had spent some time earlier uploading the GoPro footage and will worry about the phone later since we are not riding tomorrow and likely will not be taking many photos or videos with it.

Tomorrow we will cross the border into India, which I expect to take 1-2 hours at least.

Then it’s a 3 hour drive to Guwahati.

Then we will have the evening to hang out together, minus the guides, just the riders.

The next day most of the riders will go home, though myself and John will be staying.  John leaves the next day, but I will be hanging out for almost 2 weeks. 

So until tomorrow, catch ya down the road.