Entering into the kingdom of Bhutan :: The Land of Thunder Dragon

T-r-r- ingg, T-r-r- ingg, T-r-r- ingg. Its 30 minutes past 3 in the morning and I wake up without giving a fight to my alarm clock. A few minutes from then, I step outside with a bag on my back, to accompany my friends in our first foreign tour nonetheless to our neighbouring country Bhutan. So I must record the date. It is 27^th February 2014. We all arrive at the Railway station and board into the Train to Hasimara. Yes, you get it right, it is Hasimara, a small Railway Station in North Bengal. All trains do not stop here or many of them do not pass through this route. Alternatively, one can get down in New Alipurduar. We choose Hasimara because of its proximity to the Bhutan Entry Point at Phuentsholing. After a short drive of 40 minutes from Hasimara we reach the Indian side of the border called Jaigaon, a small and a nasty town.

We cross over the Entry Gate, a free entry gate, and approach to Regional Immigration Office with our respective Voter ID Card/Passport for Entry Permit. An hour for lunch in between and we are with the permits to set our journey into the land of Thunder Dragon at 3.00pm.

Kailash Sharma, our driver of Rajasthan origin, is a very calm and quite person and drives on this mountainous terrain with great tolerance and skill. We notice no rush drive by Bhutanese in general and there is absolutely no horn. We are now connected with a Bhutan mobile network service and all of us call our dear ones at home.

After sometime we urge for coffee, so our car stops at a shop at Geddu. Everyone in the shop including the owner is watching a Hindi movie on television to which they are deeply involved, yet our coffees are served in no time.

After that our car hits the highway again at a speed of 40-50 KMPH and quite sometime after dark we stop at the check posts en-route at the confluence of Wang Chhu (“Chhu” means river) and Paro Chhu, 31 KM before Thimphu. There are actually two check posts en-route, which checks for the valid permit, the earlier one was just after leaving Phuentsholing.

My friend Chandra comes out from the car and finds a lonely place to throw up. He says, “I was doing everything in my control not to throw up – but in the end I realized, I was just delaying the misery.”

Permit check takes only a few minutes; thankfully people are so efficient here. Our Journey starts again. It is now 8.45 pm, our car enters into the capital city “Thimphu”. We notice a big photograph of the King and Queen at the Entry Gate and a wish therein “Long Live Our King”. Thimphu is a town that’s small, yet not so small as to be called a town.  We notice the picturesque architecture and purity of air. We reach at the Hotel, a good and clean one; the best part of it is the location, on a city centre.  Outside temperature of 3⁰ C makes the night really cold. We finish our dinner and take guard of blankets.

In the kingdom of Bhutan :: The Capital City Thimphu

Kamal and Chandra stroll through the heart of the Thimphu city this morning while rests of us are engaged in our normal routine. Kamal comes back and shows his keenness to take us with him for a stroll beforehand. We too show our eagerness and set our feet with him upon the road to the Bhutan Thailand Friendship Park. It is small but a cute place. After some photo shoot we come back for breakfast.

To start with today’s tour our driver takes us to the Immigration office to get our permits extended for Punkaha. He suggests us to drop the application for extension of permit which we may collect later while returning back from the city tour. We do the same and resume our tour.

Our car stops first at National Memorial Chorten (Stupa). It was built in 1974 in memory of the Third King. The chorten with a golden spire is one of the main areas of worship in Thimphu.  People circumambulate the Chorten, spin the large red prayer wheels and make their prayers. We also offer our prayers and circumambulate the chorten. It is really a charming place.

We now set out our journey to Buddha Point. We are fascinated by the excellent views over Thimphu valley from the road.

We reach the Buddha point and see a 169 feet tall bronze statue of Buddha Dordenma (meaning Vajra-throned Buddha) is sitting up high on a mountainside overlooking the Thimphu Valley.

After spending a good time at Buddha Point we move towards the Takin Preserve which is located on a wooded hillside. We enter into the Preserve and see Takins are roaming. Takin is a national animal of Bhutan. I believe it is worth visiting this place because Takin is hardly seen outside, not even in zoo.

It is a small Preserve and we quickly return to see the Thimphu Dzong. The Taschichho Dzong is a beautiful fortress located just outside the city. It is also the seat of the office of the King of Bhutan.

After seeing the Dzong, we come back into the valley and collect our permits for Phunaka. We notice some mistakes in our permits and address to the officials immediately. It takes quite a time to get the permits corrected which leaves no office hour for the day to obtain a separate permit for our vehicle which is issued by the Department of RST located near the bridge.  It comes as an unpleasant surprise which is now doubled by a piece of information that from tomorrow there is a three days Public Holiday for the festival Losar. We all stand speechless as we are not feeling at our best. Our driver is promising to give a try tomorrow morning at RST office. But no words of him are taking away the pain we are now feeling because we understand the implications of not having permit for our vehicle.

In the evening we pass through the National Stadium in Thimphu, a small but beautiful ground. Besides Archery, which is their national sports, other games are also played here. We now stop by the side of a road on uphill and see the spectacular view of Dzong light up with red and yellow lights. A session of Photo shoot begins with all known poses.

Backed into the hotel we order for “Ema Datshi”, the national dish of Bhutan, for our dinner with Roti. Ema means Chilly, Datshi means cheese. Ema Datshi is a chilly and cheese stew. It is a tasty recipe and not hot at all.

I lie down on the bed for a good sleep. But it is not coming to me. My mind is grappling with so many questions. Will we be able to make our journey to Phunaka? Will we not see the famous Dochula Pass? Will we not see the Phunaka Dzong? I wish all of these will happen and we will have a delightful tomorrow.