I was in my home town Bongaigaon for Puja Vacations. This is the time of the year when we get some time from our busy professional lives and get together to spend some family time together. On Nabami of Durga Puja my brother and me went out for a road trip towards northern areas from Bongaigaon. We never saw the Hagrama bridge over Manas River and that was a prime attraction for the trip that day. I was never expecting a bridge so long over Manas. While crossing it I estimated the length to be near half kilometer and while returning calculated it to be more than 1 kilometer though my mind never accepted a bridge length more than a kilometer. later it appeared that the bridge was about one and one third of a kilometer. We went upto Koila Moila which looked like areas of Stone queries that gather stone from riverbeds and supply to nearby towns. However the trip only increased appetite for a longer trip further to the north and the trip to Gelephu came to my mind.
Though the road to Gelephu goes via Gorubhasa near Kasikotra, around 10 kilometer west of Bongaigaon, we tried a different route. We drove north of Bongaigaon through Rowmari and took left before Hagrama bridge towards Kajalgaon-Santiipur road. We drove through Hasraobari and Bengtol to reach Santipur. The road from Hagrama bridge is not a pitched road and can be called an off-routing for passenger vehicles. Neverthless we drove ahead through river sides, villages, paddy fields, forest areas. Roads are mostly good after Hasraobari. Places are yet to be urbanized and therefore the green cover is still there.
We drove towards north of Bengtal to reach Santipur and towards Deosri. The roads are fantastic and its probable that roads have been repaired recently. Driving north from Santipur through Deosri to reach Hatisar, the populated locality to the Indian side of Indo-Bhutan border at Gelephu. Gelephu is more of a small town compared to Hatisar which can be called a village or small commercial hub.
A tributary to river Manas near Santipur- en route Gelephu
We entered Bhutan after necessary formalities which is minimal for crossing an international border and drove on Gelephu-Trongsa highway for some while. The town, roads looked so neat and people looked so peaceful that it portrays and opposite image of the busy urban city polluted with exhausts of cars, dusts and humming and bustling of a busy city.
Though we wanted to drive further it was getting late and considering the road condition we returned without much expedition inside Bhutan. But the sixty kilometer drive from Bongaigaon to Gelephu was in itself a thrilling experience that I would like to experience again. While returning we decided to drive through Gorubhasa but it was almost a misadventure as the road through Runikhata is so badly dilapidated that driving became miserable. If I drive to Gelephu again in near future, I would surely avoid that road or I would consider taking a big fat SUV.
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