On the road

Dochula pass, Punakha dzong and Punakha suspension bridge! Are you a citizen of India, Maldives or Bangladesh? If you are, take a moment to be extremely grateful for this fact. Why do I say that? It's because it's only the passport holders of these three countries that are allowed an entry into Bhutan without a visa. In addition to visa processing fees, citizens of other countries also have a minimum compulsory daily spending of $200/250. Ergo, be extremely glad for Indian passport, which allows you to decide the budget of your Bhutan trip, plan your itinerary on your own terms, and spend as much or as little as you want. Anyway, getting back to business.. Our itinerary for today, after Thimphu was Punakha via Dochula pass. Having read marvellous things about the Punakha dzong, we were very eager to start the journey and hoped that B would arrive on time. But when he did not show up even at 9.30, the hubster and I decided to look for other options. A call was also made to

Day 3: Thimphu! So there we were, in Bhutan's capital! A capital city of a country which has zero traffic lights. As a loather of traffic lights, this was another aspect of the country that has always fascinated me. I always used to wonder how amazing it must be to live in a place like this, and now I would get to experience it first-hand! And this is how the traffic is managed! Even the booth for the traffic police is pretty!  PC: Rashmi Patwardhan During my extensive research, there were quite a few places of interest that showed up and I really had to pick and choose so that we could visit places that we found interesting, rather than going to the most visited, touristy kind of places. After much deliberation, we decided we would visit these: - Taschhicho dzong - Buddha dordenma - Motithang Takin preserve - Folk museum - Coronation Park - National Library - Tango monastery (This would be visited on Day 5) Sums up the places we visited! Of course, I sketched i

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

(Total distance travelled : approximately 1000km over a period of 5 days) Beautiful Goa!   If we don’t take a vacation every 2-3 months, we get severe withdrawal symptoms, the hubster and I. So after the Sirsi-Karwar road trip in January 2017, it was time for our yearly Goa pilgrimage in April. Goa is never disappointing and you can always find something or the other to do there, no matter how many times you visit. I had permission to leave early from work that day and the hubster came to pick me up. We had planned on leaving directly from my workplace, so he was all packed and loaded up and since we left at around 12 noon, we were on the highway in no time. NH4 is a road we have taken many many times. Though the road till Kolhapur is still being built, it was heartening indeed to see much of the work was done. Since there was not much traffic either, we really enjoyed the drive. There are signposts throughout and it is an easy drive to Goa. However, once we rea