Bhutan - The fulfilment of a long-held dream!

Day 1 of the journey: Pune-Delhi-Bagdogra-Phuentsholing

“Look guys! We are crossing over to the other side!” I exclaimed.  I could not keep the sadness out of my voice as we crossed the Bhutan Gate and ended our week-long sojourn with Bhutan. The sense of loss and longing only intensified just after travelling a few metres into Jaigaon, India  from Phuentsholing, Bhutan. On the Indian side of the gate, there were crowds, incessant honking, heaps of dirt, no respect for traffic rules. On the Bhutan side of the gate, there was a sense of calm, peace, quiet, clean streets, non-fictional zebra crossings, no litter, and respect for traffic rules. It seemed extremely hard to believe that these countries that share a border can be so drastically different.

“It’s all due to the population,” our driver had informed us on the first day. “The population of whole of Bhutan is around 6-7 lakhs, but in India, even a small district will have a much larger population.” There was definitely some truth in this, but as we discovered over the next seven days (that seemed to pass far too quickly for our liking), being sparsely populated is just one of the reasons Bhutan is the way it is.

My fascination with Bhutan started with a 2008 National Geographic issue that covered the coronation of the fifth and the present King, HRH Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk in detail. The concept of measuring Gross National Happiness, rather than GDP, was something I could agree upon at a most basic level. It just seemed right. Their tourism policy (more on this later!), their stress on protecting the environment, their concern for future generations, etc only increased my fascination with the country. But due to some reason or the other, we couldn’t actually visit the country till this year, i.e., September 2017, and without a doubt, this has been one of the best experiences of my life.

In my opinion, planning a holiday is equally if not more exciting than actually being on a holiday. The hubster and I call it ‘the vacation mode’. For months, one is in a semi-excited, happy state; thinking of all the wonderful experiences that one will be a part of in a short period of time. It was true for this holiday as well. Reading up as much as possible about the country, the mode of travel, places to visit, where to stay, gathering companions for the trip, etc took up around three to four months.

Once everything was in place, we couldn’t wait for September 12^th to arrive. The week leading up to the actual date of travel seemed to drag on forever. My sister and cousin arrived on the 10^th of September from my hometown, Sirsi, and going to work on 11^th was one of the hardest things I have done! Finally the day of travel arrived. We had a long journey ahead of us, and all of us had woken up at the ungodly hour of 4.30am. Our travel plan went something like this:

12^th September: Pune- Delhi -Bagdogra (flight). Bagdogra- Phuentsholing (road). We had hired a cab that would pick us up from Bagdogra and stay with us throughout our trip. Even though flying directly into Bhutan would be more convenient, we wanted to experience the thrill of crossing over to Bhutan on road.

13^th September: Immigration formalities at Phuentsholing and proceed to Thimphu.

14^th September: In and around Thimphu after getting the permit done for Punakha (A visit to Haa valley was also in the original itinerary, but we had to drop it due to lack of time).

15^th September: Punakha via Dochu la pass and back to Thimphu.

16^th September: Proceed to Paro.

17^th September: In and around Paro, with Tiger’s nest being the highlight.

18^th September: In and around Paro and proceed back to Phuentsholing.

19^th September: Phuentsholing to Bagdogra, Bagdogra- Kolkatta- Pune (flight)

I had come up with this itinerary after a lot of research. We wanted to explore parts of central Bhutan as well, but it was just not possible in the limited time we had.

At crossroads! Where do we want to go- Sikkim or Bhutan? Definitely Bhutan this time! The roads are by and large well-mainted, except for the landslide prone areas.

Day 1

After finishing the most boring part of any holiday, i.e., packing, the previous night, we woke up with bleary eyes the next morning at 4.30 am, as our flight to Delhi was at 7.30 am. I dunno about the others, but I was feeling like Harry Potter and co when they wake up early and travel in order to attend the Quidditch world cup!! Large amount of excitement mixed with some amount of irritation (at the mundane, uncool things we had to do such as clearing up the kitchen and locking up) was what I felt. Our flights were on time and we reached Bagdogra at around 3.30 pm. There were five of us now, as another cousin had joined us from Delhi. 

Beautiful, lush green tea gardens on the way to Phuentsholing!

The drive to Phuentsholing passes through the Dooars and is extremely beautiful, with lush green tea gardens, mountains, rivers, and scattered waterfalls. Since we were travelling east, the Sun seemed to set really quickly and it was pitch dark at 6.30 pm. The last one hour of the drive seemed to go on forever as we could not enjoy our surroundings. Finally, we reached Jaigaon, the border town on the Indian side. When we approached the border, our tired minds were suddenly alert and just like that; we were in a different country!! I looked at my phone, and it had smartly set itself to Bhutan time, which is half an hour ahead of Indian time, so we went from 7.30 pm one minute to 8 pm the very next minute!! In Bhutan, almost everything shuts down by 9 pm. The hotel we had chosen to stay at, Hotel Park (which we had chosen given its proximity to the immigration centre and the fact that it had a lift), would also be closing the restaurant kitchen at 9 pm, and the reception staff urged us to place order for dinner as early as possible, in a polite but firm manner. This is another thing that is noteworthy. As tourists, we were respected. The people were extremely friendly, many a times going out of their way to help us, but they were neither obsequious nor condescending. Even when the various guides at the different touristy spots commented on how different Bhutan and India were, they were doing just that- making an observation. Coming back to the remainder of the day, we quickly freshened up and had a light dinner. Our driver/ guide, having informed that he would not longer be able to cater to us for the rest of the journey as he had hurt his arm, would be providing a replacement the next day for the rest of our holiday in Bhutan. We would have to get an immigration permit the next day and proceed for Thimphu. It is seldom that things go as planned and we would be acquainted with Mr. Murphy again the next day, but since we weren’t aware of what was to come, we all fell asleep after a long, long day!