I (heart) Bhutan

I had wanted to visit Bhutan for a long time and finally set off towards the Land of the Thunder Dragon this December 30th. The journey from Sikkim to the Bhutan border town of Phuntsholing takes about 7 hours by road. A long drive indeed and I believe I slept most of the way. So after traveling for what felt like eternity, we reached Phuntsholing at 3 pm. Now the difference between the two sides of the border is startling. Jaigaon, the last town of India is this bustling, clouds of dust-billowing-in-the-air, crowded place where cows rule. As you cross over to Bhutan (while the Bhutan police looks suspiciously at the back seat of your car – not their fault actually, cause we had piled our luggage in such a manner we appeared to be smuggling something across the border), you feel more clean and the slope uphill made me feel immediately at home.

Memorial Shrine, Thimpu

No major formality to enter the country, really; just drive through in your car and you’re in a foreign country! Easy as that. Once inside Bhutan, we hunted for a hotel to dump our baggage and in a hurry to eat, ended up choosing a not so great hotel although if we’d just circled the block, we’d have found much nicer hotels. I’d forgotten how it was to be a tourist.

We needed a permit to enter Thimpu which we had to apply at the Immigration office, right next to our hotel (crappy but good location, I admit) You need to submit one passport size photo and a xerox of your Voter’s ID or driving license or passport to get the permit. Took about 250 rupees and 15 minutes to get that done, found it cheap but I wasnt complaining. Next step was a vehicle permit from the RSTA – located in the bus stand. Unfortunately, it closed down at 4 pm so we had to wait to get it the next day. They told us that the office opens at 9 am and the officer walked in exactly at 9 am sharp, which I found very impressive. I know some government offices which open at 10 am and people stroll in only at 11:30 am – dont we all?

RSTA Office, Phuntsholing

That took 140 rupees and another 15 minutes (very affordable; the money, not time since we were on a vacation) and we finally set off towards Thimpu. The drive from Phuntsholing to Thimpu takes another 7 hours but this time I was awake to snap pics and drink in the beauty of the landscape. The road uphill was exactly like that of Sikkim and I felt like I was home away from home. Slight hitch was the road under repair for the first half of the journey which took up almost half the day to cover. The road went from bad to worse to extremely ugh and finally good to a fabulous 4 lane highway in the capital. Of course the return journey went the reverse way which was not so good but I felt happy to see a huge, red gate that declared – Welcome to Thimpu City.

Gateway of Thimpu

We reached Thimpu at around 5 pm and it was soooo cold and I swear I’ve never felt so cold before in my entire life. A walk through the main market made me notice several New Year’s Eve parties signs in various clubs and we ended up going to this pub called Space 34 to celebrate New Year.

Oh my god, the Bhutanese people really know how to party! The DJ, the dance floor, the flowing booze, hundreds of bodies grooving to even Bollywood songs and I had the time of my life! In one word, I can sum up the atmosphere in the club as – Safe. No eve teasing, no prowlers on the move, just really pretty girls and good looking guys having a good time. Thimpu rocked that night! And I helped a bit. Heh.

It seems that Bhutan is 30 minutes ahead of India time so when the countdown to new year happened (shouting 10, 9, 8, 7… is so much fun!) it was only 11:30 pm in our time. So I kept looking at the watch and shouted happy new year after half an hour, much to the amusement of the immediate drunk prople around me.

The next day, we set off for a local sight seeing in Thimpu itself. The permit we had got in Phuntsholing was only for Thimpu and Paro, which is about 3 hours west of Timpu and houses an international airport. So we had to go to the immigration office once again for permits to Punakha, Wangdue, Trongsa and Bumthang. Another trip to the RSTA office for a vehicle permit. For this purpose, many people prefer picking up a guide in Phuntsholing. We, however wanted to roam at our time so we opted not to get one.

Local sightseeings in Thimpu included Tashichhoedzong, which is the throne room of the King. A dzong is a monastry cum government office as we later found out. Near to it was a sprawling golf course, a nine-hole circuit – which I found quite interesting. I kept remembering Shah Rukh Khan saying in an interview- golf was a rich man’s sport – the whole time, dunno why.

Tashichhoedzong, Thimpu

The Memorial Chorten (shrine) is situated nearby and I found quite a lot of local people were really spiritual who frequent holy places of which there was no shortage of in Bhutan.

A long drive uphill took us to BBS tower, which I think stands for Bhutan Broadcasting Service. You can see the entire view of the city from up there especially at night time where the lights dazzle you and make you gasp in wonder.

The next day, we set off towards Punakha, which is about 3 hours east from Thimpu and which served as the capital till 1955. We passed the Druk Wangyal chortens at Dochula Pass on the way which was a particularly cold area and the roads were coated with snow.

The Punakha dzong is a thing of beauty, situated right besides the river. The dzong is accessible by a Harry Potter like bridge which I found very quaint. Another 45 minutes drive took us to a place called Wangdue which had an old monastry not as neatly kept as the one in Punakha but the guard there personally showed us around, which I found quite sweet.

Punakha Dzong, Punakha

We returned to Thimpu and headed towards Paro too since we did not want to miss visiting it. Paro is a quaint little town, not as big as Thimpu but equally beautiful and scenic. There was a beautiful dzong at Paro too which was splendidly lit up at night so you could see it from anywhere.

We decided not to go on towards Trongsa and Bumthang because they were too far away in Central Bhutan and would take another 10 hours to reach there.

Some of the things that I liked about Bhutan were its scenic beauty, yes but also the friendly and kind people who always had a smile for you and did not hesitate to offer a helping hand. For instance when we set off from Thimpu towards Phuntsholing, we got a flat tyre. After changing it, we hunted for a tyre shop because we didnt want to risk getting stranded without a spare. And so when we asked the first taxi who was coming our way, he actually went out of his way to take us all the way to a tyre shop in another corner of the town. The good fella was about to drive off when we offered him some money. He refused to take it and we had to force him to accept it.

But the best thing I liked about Bhutan is – whenever we asked for directions, they would automatically reply in the local language. Made me happy that I could also be a part of this wonderful country and its fantastic people. Maybe in some other lifetime perhaps. That is, if I dont come back as a dung beetle instead!

There was a sense of local pride in their own culture and especially their national dress. People could be seen wearing their gho (male outfit) and kira (female outfit) everywhere. Only a few people were casually dressed, including us. Its like you can immediately spot who’s the outsider the moment you see their dress!

Road to Thimpu

Driving through Thimpu’s roads were a dream. People actually followed some driving etiquette and allowed the other vehicle to pass without so much as a horn. Unbelievable! People were polite, non aggressive and tolerant of each other on and off the road. In fact, when I got back home – I noticed that I use the horn much less often and have somehow become more tolerant of the vehicle blocking the road ahead of me, thanks to the Bhutanese people. Now all we have to see is how long this lasts!

I loved Bhutan and had a wonderful time visiting it. There are very few places that I have visited and have felt like visiting it once again for sure. This was one of them.

More pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/rinchen/MyBhutanTrip#