Arrival at Guwahati

9th April 2011
I dont remember when I slept off, but at 3 AM, we woke up for the taxi ride to airport. Delhi cabs dont drive, they fly. Dutta is always hopeful of the neighbouring seat in public travels. This time, the seat remained vacant.
We arrived at Guwahati at 8:10 AM, 15 minutes early. Nilu was nowhere in sight. We had to wait for half an hour before he came. Funnily, I noticed that the luggage carrier had been marked as Fragile. Sinha saab was styled in goggles and goatie. He had a huge apartment to himself. Each room had some sort of music source in it. An Audiophile's place. We called up to find out that our bikes had not arrived yet. Estimated date of delivery was 11th April. Now we had to work on a contingency plan. The ire on Tiwary would come later. To fine tune our thinking, we had some Tuborg Strong that Nilu had stocked up. Gyan also arrived. He can sniff the opening fizz of beer miles away. We began to work on alternatives . We could explore the areas around while waiting for the motorcycles and then zip through the itinerary in fast forward. That also meant we would have less time to explore the areas properly. Gyan made a list of plans based on what day the bikes would be collected.
Gyan started to cook pasta for us. He made a terrific job of it and then asked us to keep it as a secret from his wife. Nilu must have been having a hard time in his office during this duration because he arrived home soon and we all went to pick up PayengDa. It was great to meet him after so long. We went to Cafe Hendrix. It is such a chilled out place. Delhi should have such places. In fact, it had one by the name of Cafe Morrisson. But then they hiked the prices so much that it got unaffordable. We finished our lunch there. Fried Rice and Pork. This would be our staple food during the entire trip. We returned to Nilu's palace to reach a decision. With our senses sharpened by Carlsbergs, ideas began to flow. We could stick to our itinerary and explore Bhutan on four wheels. Everyone knew that we would be missing our bikes the entire time we would be on the road, but we were helpless. At that time, it seemed to be the best decision. PayengDa declined as he had an interview the next day at Chennai. So, there was only two bikes available, Nilu's 200 and Mamaji's R15. We could also hire other bikes at Guwahati. But ask any rider, and he would vote for No Riding rather than riding a hired motorcycle. Later, Mamaji also declined as he had already been to Bhutan on 4 wheels. That left with 5 of us. We could fit easily into Nilu's Fiery Fiesta. That also meant we could have limitless bakchodi.
Nilu had already booked the Indian Oil guest house at Madarihat near the Bhutan border. He also made arrangements for breakfast at a cousin's place we would be crossing on the way. This later resulted in a hilarious experience. Now we had the rest of the day with us. Gyan left for his home as he would be returning again in the evening. Nilu had a treat for us. Famous Grouse.
We drank moderately that night. Nilu got his tank full first so that we could leave early the next morning.