On the road

Day 2: Permit and reaching Thimphu Our driver, having informed us on the previous day that he wouldn't be able to accompany us further, was to introduce us to his replacement at the immigration centre. He had told us to get there by 8.30 am. We forgot to ask him if he meant Bhutan time or India time, so we made a compromise(;)) and reached the immigration centre at 8.45 Bhutan time. Immigration centre, Pheuntsholing..even the official government buildings were so pretty! Us at the immigration centre..blissfully unaware of what was to come!  From the research, we knew the process could take approximately an hour. At 9 am, the centre opened and we saw tourists being ushered in by their guides/drivers as soon as they submitted the required documents. Our driver was nowhere in sight. After calling him multiple times, he arrived around 9.20 (BT). He had conveniently forgotten to tell us that we would need a copy of the confirmed hotel bookings, in order to get a permit. Th

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 definite