Khardungla Summit by Abdul Momen Rohit

We all are surrounded by air but we never feel its importance until we can’t breathe properly. Just like that sitting at our own country we won’t feel the real meaning of our national flag that much unless we see our flag is floating at other country soil. That red and green flag will make us feel like we got water at the desert and our eyes will stand still. Two of our Bangladeshi youngster Abdul Momen Rohit and Abu Saeed have taken our flag to international lands and made our nation proud. As the first Bangladeshi traveler they have travelled Khardungla summit, India and Bhutan with most loving vehicle of all young age riders and that is motorbike. It took almost one month to complete their trip and they traveled almost ten thousand kilometers, two countries, and new environment and took the experience of new weather.

Every man goes beyond their dreams they saw. And now it is proved to Mr. Rohit. He used to saw the pictures at internet, YouTube and other social media and thought if he could ride at those roads he just saw. He didn’t even think that one day his dream will came true. It is not a dream anymore it is reality that those places which we saw at reality shows or Indian movies like west Bengal, Howrah bridge, Kashmir, Ladakh are already being pass through by these two youngsters on motorbike, with holding our red and green national flag into their chest.

Journey starts at 16th August 2016. On that day they entered India by Benapol. For carrying Abdul Momen Rohit his favorite vehicle Yamaha Fazer was with him. Abu Saeed took a bike named KTM Duke from Kolkata.

Starting of that journey was not that much pleasant at all. As we all know how the government offices are, Mr. Rohit has to take care of it. NBR was not giving the permission to ride the way to India on motorcycle and because they didn’t have any lobbing or familiar face they had face a dirty situation. He did not get any sympathy though they said we are headed for the summit of Khardungla, India as a Bangladeshis but he didn’t get upset tried and tried. At last he turns out to be successful and got the authorization.
If you want to travel with motorbikes outside your country, firstly and most importantly you must get the permission or NOC of NBR. In that case you have to submit an application to the chairman by placing your purpose. After you get the NOC you have to go at Bangladesh Automobile Association office. Link: http://www.fia.com/about-fia/member-clubs/automobile-association-bangladesh ). They will take an amount of TK 15000 and provide the bike passport with carnet and international driving license. But you have to deposite the same number of amount as your bike at the bank for guarantee. After that at the preset day you have to go at the port office with your visa and they will do the other workings. You have to submit a TK 300 stamp paper for the bond.

Now it was the time to start. They entered india from benapol, Comilla. After that they reached Asansole and from there they reached Kanpur to Agra to Delhi. They left their presence at Srinagar, Cargill, Leh-Khardungla, Mahi Bridge, Frozen lake and Shimla. Following them they went to Ajmer Sharif and from there Elahabad, Patna, Shiliguri then they reached Bhutan. Later than they reached benapol, Comilla from India’s Malda Ranaghat.
Sharing the experiences of this trip MR. Rohit says, “Surroundings of KHARDUNGLA summit was amazing to us. That’s why we stayed there at 28th August. We were moving their freely, no destinations were fixed and started to taste Indian food at the breakfast, Israeli food at lunch and Swedish food at dinner. Leh city was an ideal place for trying these foods. You will find food variations in very low cost.

At last our happiness didn’t stay long the next day we started our journey together without having our breakfast. After going 100 kilometer we had our breakfast and headed for the third motorable place Pash-chang it was the toughest day of my trip. On that day we had to fight the most with the low temperature on our whole trip. Only 100 kilometer distance was feeling like to long for both of us. And the roads were in very awful condition, mistakes cannot be afforded. One mistake will take you to Allah excluding import/ export taxes.

We got 2/3 degree temperature at chang la. It was very difficult to breathe properly. Without wasting time we headed for the Pang gong lake. After we reached there we forget all the pains and started to enjoy the beauty! For an hour we stay there and took picture and some rest. After that we started our journey again beside the lake.

Later than a marathon off ride starts and we had the lake at our left side. Darkness comes out before we crossed Spangmik, Man, and Mirak to reach Chushul. We didn’t saw any living at there but we saw some Asses and dear crossed from the front of us and they were big in size. We were scared because we heard that predators are also there. We were feeling so cooled that our hand stopped working. We were using the engine heat to conscious our hands. Bad period started to become worst and it suddenly started raining there. It was like off roads, low temperature, fear, and now rain. Wow! We can’t express our feeling s of that time. At the Chushul check post they suggested us to stay there. They offered us food and shelter, maybe someone else will took that offer but I wanted to go through and started the journey again.

Now the off riding stared! Again we ride almost 100 kilometers and at 9 we reached nyoma altitude village. We saw a shop was open and took some fuel. Saeed Bhai said we must stop now for today and I also thinking of that proposal too. At this type of situation we came through 350 kilometers, which is a lot, Alhamdulillah. We asked for shelter at a house. On the other hand my head started to pain for AMS. By the grace of Allah and instead of 1000 rupee we have got our shelter, dinner, hot water, my medicine and warm clothes for us. We forgot all the pains and tiredness of the whole day.”

They have full box of experience like this one and many of them are very interesting and painful. Every single day of their trip was out of the ordinary.

Mentionable summary of the trip:
Total time: 26 days
Total countries: 2, Indian and Bhutan.
Total provinces: 11, (west Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal pradesh, Kashmir, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh)
Total distance covered: 961 kilometers.
Average mileage: 38+ KM/L
Total Lubricants used for the engine: 3(MOTUL 7100 10W40)
Total cost: TK 1Lack
- TK 15000 for the carnet (with international driving license)
- TK 25000 for fuel.
- TK 25000 for tires and other spare parts.
- TK 30000 for living
- TK 5000 for extra




Some pictures: