Enchanted by Bhutan

North-East part of India always seemed a mysterious place to me. Waha ek baar to jaana banta hai bhai. I got my chance now. Harsha was at college, Mom was going to baby-sit Adhrit, it was only me and Gopal (my long-time Guinea-Pig). It started with various options – Sikkim & Bhutan, Bhutan & NE etc and finally I decided to do a dedicated 10 day Bhutan trip on a bike. I decided to keep it completely unplanned & ad-hoc. Maybe this correctly reflects my state of affairs at-least for the next one year. The only things decided were my start and end dates – 16^th to 27^th April. The bike, route, hotels, everything is undecided. So much so, that in case Gopal doesn’t get his permit, we would probably drive around for 10 days in Sikkim (That is if we get the bike)!

15^th April - Day 0: The Under-Preparations

I reached home from Nagpur at 2PM. I had just 15 hrs before I leave and hadn’t started my packing yet. Gopal leads me in under-preparedness. He plans to go to the tehsildar office today to check if they can issue him a domicile certificate to prove his Indian-ness! Except for the documents that Bhutan Immigration Authorities accept – Passport or Voter’s ID Card, we were carrying all other documents to prove that this man is an Indian. We had his driving license, ration card, birth certificate, domicile certificate, affidavit attested by Executive Magistrate and a couple of other ID cards. If they still don’t allow him then maybe Sikkim is a better place than Bhutan!!

Vishal and Hoshner got the golden opportunity :) of sending their photography gear with me to Bhutan so collected the stuff from IBM office. Spoke to Gautam of Adventures Unlimited for the rental bike. I hope he sends the bike because I don’t have a backup there.

Gopal came to Vikhroli at 8PM with Mom, Dad & Adhrit. Adhrit is unwell and when he finally vomits all that he has eaten during the day, I take him to the doctor. All okay with him and I finally leave for home at 10 PM.

Gopal called up on my way home to give the first shocker…his ticket from Kolkata – Badgodra is for 17^th and mine is 16^th!! How the @$#* can I do such a @#&^%$# thing. We cancelled his flight ticket and booked a Tatkal Ticket by Shatabdi Express from Kolkata to NJP. Now I will reach Siliguri at 2 PM and Gopal at 11 PM – we have already lost one day.

Everything else looks small now. We packed everything –food, clothes, and other utilities in one large bag-pack. We had one bag with my cameras and one with all paper-work.

16^th April – Day 1: Mumbai – Kolkata - Siliguri

Travel anxiety is the best alarm bell. It just doesn’t let you sleep. I went to bed at 2 AM. Got up at 2.30, 3.00, 3.15, 3.45, 4.00 and then finally at 4:30 AM. Gave Gopal a sarcastic remark to wake him…this never used to work earlier but it seems to work very well these days. Just when I was to leave, Adhrit woke up and seemed to figure out that he loves me a lot. I had to promise to get him a Yak when I came. I knew he will not forget this.

It was Gopal’s first flight..he was super excited. We got an auto to the airport easily. I was delighted to see Pritam Vywaharkar at the airport. He was travelling to Kolkata in my flight. I liked the look he gave me wearing Shorts and T Shirt with a bag-pack on my back. I couldn’t stop myself from talking about business with him. Guess I really needed this trip to de-tox me from the IBM I had in my veins.

We reached Kolkata peacefully. Here I take my next flight and Gopal goes to Howrah station to catch his train. I resisted buying the Lonely Planet book on Bhutan & saved 1000 bucks. I couldn’t resist the samosas and kheer kadam at Kolkata Airport. 80 bucks and several calories consumed.

I met Ganesh from Adventures Unlimited at Bagdogra Airport. Finally I get to see my ride – a Maroon Bullet Classic – 350cc. It was in pretty good condition. We drove from Bagdogra to Siliguri where I would stay till Gopal comes. Siliguri seemed a nice, small town. Weather was every bit the perfect holiday climate. Gitanjali Guest House offered us a twin room at 550 bucks which was within our budget. I drove around Siliguri, had my dinner at “Sona ki Rasoi”. Sona gave me a nice Punjabi Thaali for just 175 bucks, I knew this would be the last good meal for some time. Gopal reached NJP at 11 and we called it a day at 12.

Our Ride for the next 10 Days!

17^th April – Day 2: Siliguri – Phuentsholing (Entry to Bhutan)

It rained last night. We started by 6AM. The plan was to complete all formalities and reach as close to Thimphu if possible. Phuentsholing is about 150 Kms from Siliguri and Thimphu is a further 170 Kms. We also have the uncertainty over Gopal’s permit.

Shibu, the extra helpful hotel attendant gave us directions for a short cut to NH 31C which goes to Guwahati. We have to travel to Hashimira and then turn towards Jaigaon which is the border town on the Indian side. Then we cross over to Phuentsholing where we can get all requisite permits and move further inside Bhutan. NH31C is maintained by the Military for a large portion. The road is amazing. Driving here especially in the mornings is a pure joy. We passed through several army establishments, Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary, a small ghat and crossed river Teesta. The road then is a straight stretch which passes through several tea plantations. Sans traffic, we could maintain an average speed of 70 Kmph. After we cross a place called Baripara, we hit a bad patch. This is probably the biggest patch of bad road I have ever driven on – almost 10 Kms. The road here seems non-existent.

With about 3-4 kms to go, we had our worst nightmares come true….a rear tyre puncture!!! I asked Gopal to stay with the bike and hitched a hike to Hashimira. There were 2-3 repairmen but the only one available was a Sardarji. Papaji might have had a bad fight with pepe, he was just in no mood to come but finally after much coaxing he sent his assistant. We hitched another hike back to the bike. While these guys were looking at what to do with the bike, I caught hold of an empty pickup van and managed to get him to drop us along with the bike to Hashimara. We loaded the bike in the van and came over to Hashimara to get the repairs done.

Our Ride being repaired at Hashimara

We reached Phuentsholing by 2PM. The immigration office stays open till 4PM so had to rush to the office. Traffic in Bhutan cities is strange…you cannot overtake and have to drive in a single line!! It’s frustrating!! At the immigration office, the officer said something we dreaded… “Sorry sir but we accept only Passport & Voter’s ID Cards”. But then he had a look at us and said hold on, I’ll come back to you!! When you have two sales guys in this situation, we immediately start thinking let’s give him something and get him to issue us the permits. That’s not how it works in Bhutan and thankfully we just kept quiet. Thinleey Wangchuk (he is now my friend on FB) the duty officer directed us to the Indian Consulate Office. They issue an Identity Certificate to enthusiasts like us who come all the way without correct documents either without checking or just to give it a try. The Consulate officers were more than helpful and issued us the certificate in 5 mins flat. 

Back at the immigration office, we got our permits done within half an hour and then spent the next half hour discussing our possible routes with Thinleey. He gave us an animated overview of what to do and where to go in the next 7 days. The adventure traveller in us wanted to do a cross country travel in Bhutan – get in from Phentsholing then go to Thimphu, Paro, Punakkha, Bhumthang, Trashigang, Mongar and exit from Samdrup Jongkar. Just that we had to be Tarzans to do all this on a Bullet in 7 days. The other extreme was to go only to Thimphu and Paro and spend 7 days meeting locals, going to villages, knowing culture etc. This would have been too boring for Gopal though. Finally we decided to keep the itinerary like the whole trip – unplanned!

The permits issued to us from Phuentsholing were valid only for 4 days and did not allow entry beyond Thimphu and Paro. So we had to get the validity extended and get permits for restricted areas (which is the whole of Bhutan outside the above two cities). I wondered if they are definitely going to allow me to stay longer and visit more cities than the two, why don’t they issue me an appropriate permit in the first instance! Also our bike needed a different permit which is issued by their RSTA (Road Safety and Transport Authority) aka our RTO. The Indian driving license is allowed but this permit is needed to carry and Indian Registration vehicle in Bhutan.

We stayed back at Phuentsholing in Gelsing Lodge where the manager Mr Shantilal Jain (a Marwari settled in Phuentsholing) gave us the same cold treatment he gives to every guest who stays with him. We had our first and last taste of Bhutaneese Food and concluded that these people definitely have priorities other than tending to their taste buds. How much more unimaginative can one be than having Rice with dish of Cheese Sause and Chillies (Rice with Ema Datsi)? We got a local pre-paid mobile connection from Tashi Cell and then roamed in Phuentsholing before calling it a day.

18^th April – Day 3: Finally we Enter the Land of Thunder Dragon

I woke up early and decided to take a walk around the city. Phuentsholing is a nice town with a large proportion of curious onlookers. They seemed pretty interested in me taking pictures.

Indo-Bhutan Border on Bhutan Side

Offices in Bhutan open by 9 and you can get your work done in no time if you have all the required documents. The RSTA guys needed copies of the Vehicle papers, Driving Licenses and a hand written application. True to our nature, we “maska lagaaoed” the RSTA officer who signs the approval hoping that this should fasten our permit only to realize that this is not required. He signed my paper immediately and further went on to apologize that this has taken more time because they have an audit. Normally this would happen even faster!! (What world am I in??). The permit was issued in no time and what took up our time was finding and getting the photocopies. We were finally done by 10.30 and ready to leave. We were all excited that finally out Bhutan tour was about to start.

Petrol in Bhutan is sold by Indian Oil Companies. Plus it is available 10 bucks cheaper than it is in India. So we filled the Bullet upto the brim and started the journey. The distance between Phuentsholing and Thimphu is 175 Kms and is winding journey through the Himalayas. We have to cross an immigration counter just outside Phuentsholing where we have to produce our Entry and Bike permits and then started the “washing machine journey”. If one has a GPS phone and Google Maps installed on it, he should see the roads in Bhutan. When someone wants to go from A to B, he will get a Bhutan Ghat between the two points. First you take a right turn in which you take a winding path long way towards the right and then you come back all the way close to where you started and then move slight ahead and repeat the same. It’s similar to the wash cycle in a washing machine. First it rotates you clockwise and then rotates you anti-clockwise!!!

The roads are superb. You come across some beautiful sights. It slowly starts getting cooler as we move higher. The highest point on way to Thimphu is about 3500 mts. Most part of the road is a 2 lane highway. It becomes a single lane ghat road about 100 Kms from Phuentsholing. We stopped at a few places on the way – sometimes to enjoy the scenic beauty and sometimes to rest our backsides. We planned to reach by 4 and spend the day roaming around Thimphu. Gopal seemed much worse than Harsha in pillion riding. Either his discomfort threshold is too low, or he does some basic mistakes while sitting behind, he just cannot sit behind long enough. Maybe its just the start of the ride..he will get used to as we go along. We stopped at a cozy looking hotel for lunch and had first of our Maggie Noodles for lunch. Rain ensured that we did not start for more than an hour and then wet, single lane, muddy ghat roads ensured that we drove at an avg speed of 20Kmph. We finally reached Thimphu at 6PM.

I thought this will make a good picture...Bhutan Roads

Welcome Lodge gave us a decent room at 750 bucks. Gopal was keen to search for a cheaper option but I was in no position. We did the last stretch of 70Kms non-stop for 2 hrs to ensure that we reach Thimphu with sunlight around. I crashed to bed in no time and Gopal went around exploring Thimphu.

19^th April – Day 4: Thimphu

Agenda for the day was to get Bhutan Permit extended, get permit for Restricted Areas and Extension and Restricted Area permit for the Bike. All the permits have to be done serially!! We spent the better part of the day visiting the Immigration office and then the RSTA in Thimphu.  

Our route finalization discussion seemed to go nowhere. We were keen to atleast to go upto Bhumthang as spending 7 days in Thimphu and Paro would be a too “honeymoon style” holiday. This was supposed to be an adventure trip. Bhumthang on the other hand was 250Kms and it seemed impossible to reach there in one day on the bike. Just then we figured out that there are 2 buses which go to Bhumthang at 6AM and 6:30AM. This would reach Bhumthang by 5 PM and seemed perfect. So we decided to dump the bike and take the Bus, as seeing Bhutan was more important than driving in Bhutan and Gopal merrily agreed.

Roaming in Thimphu was fun. There wasn’t much to see but it’s a nice place to move around. We spoke to shopkeepers, vegetable vendors, “Old Monks” (NO PUN!) to know about life in Bhutan. Writing about my observations is beyond the scope of this tour diary but it was nice to see a different way of life. We found a few decent indian restaurants. Shopping was out of question except for the Yak which I would have to buy at whatever price available. The King’s castle can be seen at a distance of 50 mtrs, Taj Tashi you cannot miss on the main street, the market place, The Buddha point with 60 feet Buddha Idol is a nice place to be. Views are great and I could feel the IBM getting weeded out of my system!!

An old lady in Thimphu...
We kept laughing at each other..she in Dzonkhang and me in English!!!

Thimphu City as seen from Buddha Point

20^th April – Day 4: Thimphu to Bhumthang – An 8 Hr Roller Coaster Ride

Aasmaan se gire Khajoor Main Atke. This was probably the only thought in Gopal’s mind all through the bus ride. Even I did not know about this motion sickness thing Gopal has but it was terrible for him. It started within half an hour of starting from Thimphu and accompanied him all the way to Bhumthang.

Gopal.....in his bad shape!!

I enjoyed the ride. They play a mix of English, Bollywood Item numbers and Dzongkha songs in the busses. Lots of people sing along the hindi songs. I closed my eyes to catch up with sleep and started wondering whether I was actually in a different country. The bus stops at few designated eating joints where the stench of whatever they eat ensures that you don’t feel the pinch of hunger. Fruits, biscuits and Maggie if you are lucky is what is edible available for vegetarians.

The roads start from being okay to bearable and go all the way to bad. It’s a single lane road throughout and the bus driver drives as if there is one way traffic…unfortunately it is not this way. So we keep braking, swaying and dodging other vehicles as we move from one mountain to another. I think the runway at Paro airport must be one of the few straight roads in Bhutan.

Bhutanese have a unique feature of constructing buildings on the most precarious positions on mountains. Houses or monasteries whatever they are, these buildings are constructed at the absolute edge of mountains. All along the roads, you come across houses made right on the edge with the mountain on one side and a deep valley on the other. Apparently they make it so that it merges well with the nature.

A Typical House cum Hotel in Bhutan

People in the bus curiously look at you. They are eager to ask you which part of India do you belong and when you say Mumbai…they give the long sigh as if it is on the Moon! I met a 20 something Monk. He was on his way to his monastery in Bhumthang and was going to lead the rest of his life as a simple existence. He seemed pretty happy though, he also invited us to his monastery which we will definitely visit.

We reached Bhumthang just before it started getting dark. Phuentsho Guest House was way outside our budget. 1250 per night was steep but not enough to push me to search for other alternatives in the cold. It turned out to be a blessing as the fireplace inside each room was the life saver. Gopal decided to hit the sack and I ventured out for some time before calling it a day at 9PM.

21^st & 22^nd April – Day 5-6: Bhumthang

Bhumthang is a beautiful valley. The main town – Choekhor is as small as a college campus around a Murchangphy Chhu (Bhumthang River). It is considered religiously important town with a few old and sacred monasteries. The Jambay Lakhang and Khurje Lakhang were both built around the 7^th Century AD. This town was also frequented by the Tibetian Guru Rinpoche who has cult status amongst religious people in Bhutan. The town is surrounded on all sides by beautiful mountains and you get a serene, unhurried and contented atmosphere.

We spent the whole day visiting monasteries. We meet Chimi Dorji, a monk teacher in Jakar Dzong and who took us to his house. We later visited the monk we met in the bus – Sonam Chope and saw his monastery. Our cab driver Leki was a nice man who also doubled up as our tour guide. He took us around the town and we also managed to witness a game of archery. The most amazing thing about him was that he was a man with limited means supporting his parents, wife and 3 daughters but seemed pretty happy with what he had.

Jakar Dzong

Leki took us to Subba Restaurant, a place where we could find Indian food. It is run by an Indian lady married to a Bhutaneese. Unfortunately she lost her husband a few years back but she continues to stay in Bhumthang manage her hotel with the help of a few locals. Subba Restaurant was out go-to joint for food for the next 2 days!

On the second day, we visited a village called Chhume. The locals at Chhume village were celebrating their annual festival and had assembled in an old temple to perform their traditional dance and songs. It was the first time I could see dance and costumes that we normally see in History or National Geographic Channel. Such festivals are visited by a lot of foreigners who pay through their nose (Fees of $ 250 per day) just to visit Bhutan. The locals wore traditional costumes that Indians would associate with a Rakshas and danced in groups singing “Ringa ringa roses” in Bhutanese language. Just that instead of falling down they jumped higher!

Chhume Villagers Dancing

An old man with a superb hat at Chhume

We then took a decision to go farther and visit the Bhumthang Museum (A bad decision indeed). Although an amazing museum, it was on a 2.5 hr journey on rally grade roads. Plust the rain ensured that our rally in a Wagon R was full of oohhs and aaaahss. The museum had some really ancient manuscripts and artifacts used by Bhutanese villagers.

The one on right was considered as the epitome of evil in Bhutan!

Gopal managed to carry himself through the two days with hope of searching for his coins. While Gopal could not manage any coins in Bhumthang market, I managed to find the Yak. The first day ended early and we still had a lot of time at our disposal. This is when the best thing happened. We entered a pool parlour and played a few games of snooker. Since both of us were exceptionally horrible at this game, we got a few school kids interested and joined us in the game. It was amazing speaking to kids in Bhutan and listening to some really melodious Bhutaneese songs. We repeated the same exercise the next day but we could not find the kids and we managed to drag one game for almost 2 hrs!

Bhumthang was a beautiful town and every local we spoke gave rave reviews of the place. Visiting this place was indeed an eye opener on what to expect in Bhutan. I realised that Bhutan is not a place for the general tourist who visits to see some great “spots”. Bhutan is also not a place where they advertise naturally beautiful locations to attract people – it’s not in them to do anything like this. Bhutan is a beautiful place. You go along a road and you will see a mind boggling sight but not a single soul around to shout about its beauty, it probably may not even be marked in their tour guides as a place to visit. Places they mark as attractions are places of traditional importance and they genuinely believe in their significance. Be it their old monasteries, Dzongs or places like the “Burning Lake” which to a normal person just appears to be a small bridge with Ura river flowing under it. So if you don’t appreciate the beauty as the locals see it, you have missed the spot and all you will come back with is the comment that one of the Indian officials in the consulate in Phuentsholing made – “Yaha kya rakha hai..sirf pahad hi pahad hai. Dzong dekh ke kya tum Buddh banoge?”

23^rd April – Day 7: Bhumthang to Thimphu to Paro – The return roller coaster

The return journey from Bhumthang was a lot more peaceful. Gopal had taken several preventive measures to avoid the grumblings in his stomach and some of them maybe worked. So he was more at ease. I also managed to get into a conversation with a school kid travelling with us and had some fun with him.

Today was the Election-Day at Bhutan. They were supposed to elect 20 representatives from each district that would be part of the National Assembly. Radio in Bhutan was full of election coverage. In one interesting conversation, the correspondent was speaking to villagers of a specific constituency which had 11 polling booths spread over an area of about 50 sq kms and had a total of 1600 voters!! They had almost 90% voting and a lot of people could not vote because they did not have the correct ID cards! Bhutan was indeed a nation under construction.

The original plan for this day was to return to Thimphu and then start for Paro on 24^th. We however reached pretty early and thought about stretching a bit and leaving for Paro in the evening itself. This plan worked out and here we were travelling another 60 Kms on the Bike to Paro.

The road from Thimphu to Paro was indeed the best journey on a bike I have ever had. Everything about this journey is perfect. The roads are simply amazing. The scenes alongside are simply awesome. It just reinforced my latest finding about Bhutan that beauty in Bhutan is there to be seen and not to be shown. It was a journey I in which I could drive the 70 Kms in about an hour but wished that it took longer – the biker in me was pulling the accelerator on an inviting road and the beautiful mountains were making me stop and simply admire their beauty!

24^th April – Day 8: Paro

Paro was another beautiful place. The town is as small as Bhumthang. Since this has the only international airport in the country, most tourists to Bhutan visit here. It has several avenues for shopping and shopkeepers here are experienced enough to judge whether you would actually buy or just window shop and leave! Obviously we were attended with least priority and we found everything to be atrociously expensive.

The main reason for visiting Paro was to see the Tiger’s Nest. It is the most outrageous construction ever seen. Built on the absolute edge of a cliff, it provides a superb view of the valley and a scare for the faint hearted. Journey to the Tiger’s nest is a 2 hr trek which culminates to a simple monastery. We realised that climbing the mountain itself was the destination and did not enter the temple and returned with hope of visiting a few more places in our last day at Bhutan.

The outrageous Tiger's Nest

On our way back from Tiger’s nest I got my share of sickness! Gopal got the rare opportunity of driving and we decided to call it a day. I spent the rest of time watching IPL!

25^th & 26^th April – Day 9 & 10 : Back from Bhutan

The plan for the day was to reach as close as possible to NJP. We were to catch a train from NJP on 26^th evening and wanted to leave little chance for disasters to strike. The cold had started becoming irritating, the bike ride was getting more painful for Gopal, the food tasted increasingly bland, I was missing Adhrit even more and we wanted to get back ASAP. We started from Paro early and decided that if we were to reach Phuentsholing by noon, we would carry on to Siliguri.

The return journey was surprisingly peaceful. Memories of the whole journey were so fresh in my mind that I could recognise each and every place we halted on our way to Thimphu. We drove swiftly to reach Phuentsholing at 11:30 and crossed over to India. The first thing we did on Indian roads was honked loudly for no reason and overtook a car from the left. Breaking traffic rules seemed extremely liberating. We crossed the bad patch before Hashimara with no sweat and drove almost non-stop to reach Siliguri 5:30 in the evening!

The bike is the most important thing in a trip like this. We decided to compromise on everything else – Hotels, Food, Shopping just to ensure that we had a good bike. While I don’t know if I overspent on the Bullet, it gave us absolutely no problems. It would start in a single kick and would effortlessly take us up and down the mountainous stretches in Bhutan and India. Bullet, I believe is the best bike to drive in such trips. It doesn’t go faster than 110 so keeps you in check, it is very stable even on bad roads and finally it keeps you seated in a good posture so you won’t have back issues after a long day.  After driving the bike for over 1500 Kms in the last 10 days, I actually felt bad returning it to Adventures Unlimited. You can visit them on http://www.adventuresunlimited.in/

With one full day to spare we decided to pre-pone our return journey. We spent the night in the waiting room at NJP station and took the early morning Shatabdi from NJP to Kolkata. We reached Kolkata by 2:30. We decided to spend the least possible for a decent stay and ended up staying in a hotel cum museum called “Howrah Lodge” right next to Howrah Station for all of 550 bucks. It was an old hotel and everyone there seemed proud of its legacy.

With nothing to do in Kolkata, we watched KKR take on KXIP at Eden Gardens. I fulfilled my lifelong dream of watching a match at the biggest stadium in India. The crowd in Kolkata was too docile compared to apna Mumbaikars but had a good time.

27^th April – Day 11: Amchi Mumbai!!

We felt as if we were being picked up from the refrigerator and shoved into the cooker. Kolkata was hot and humid. So much that we decided to skip Gopal’s mission to collect coins and head straight to the Airport. We saw the battered KXIP team waiting for their flight at the airport. We were sitting right opposite to WV Raman for almost half an hour and failed to recognise him (not that we would have done anything different even if we had recognised him!).

Reaching home was something I was looking forward to for some time. Meeting Adhrit after a long time was amazing. Although he was expecting me to get a real Yak, he was too happy to meet me and did not fret over this toy Yak. It is now a part of his small animal kingdom and he gets it out to play often.

Out of the refrigerator, into the cooker, I now have to prepare to enter the oven – Ahmedabad.