It took us only three hours to complete the entrance procedures at the Phuentsholing border with India; and that was solely because we were the first ones to enter the government office. A beetle-nut chewing officer checked our documents and asked us to return at noon; ‘Bhutanese time is 30 minutes ahead, don’t forget!’ he added seriously.
The guard at the immigration office excitedly told us ‘yes! go now, right now!’ when we asked if there were any buses to Thimphu after noon. I didn’t know why someone would hurry us up in this peaceful and happy Bhutan, and so I had no intention to run to the bus station, a task I always do in Mumbai. However, once at the bus station, we realised that we were lucky to get the last tickets for the last bus that left 4 hours later. On weekends, tickets get booked in advanced in this nation with limited cheap transportation. The other, five times expensive, option was to hire a taxi, and if you’ve been reading my travelogues you know – I dislike taxis.
↑ I was only checking the mirror of my bus to Thimphu
India’s Border Roads Organization (BRO) built majority of the roads in Bhutan and someone (maybe it was me) joked that perhaps that was the reason for the shoddy state of roads in Bhutan. ‘Project Dantak’, as the Bhutanese road building mission is called, has a daunting task of carving roads through inaccessible and landslide-prone Himalayas. Probably that could explain why the construction work is forever ongoing. Every now and then there is a landslide and I could only feel the magnitude of their task when I saw a friendly looking but massive boulder being moved out of the way by two bulldozers. pheww!
Traffic is frequently held – either at check posts where Bhutanese police dutifully scrutinize everyone’s ID’s or at a landslide where bulldozers dutifully move rocks to make way for traffic and new rocks. Construction workers (mostly Nepali Hindus) can be seen pouring concrete into casts to reinforce the road edges or chiseling away huge rocks to make gravel that will then be laid on muddy patches as a temporary measure. Occasionally some worker’s baby will wander on the street, immediately being rescued by its mother after there is lot of honking. Hindu and Buddhist shrines happily co-exist, people often praying at both – for example a Buddhist deity of well-being and a Hindu deity of prosperity.
↑ Bad roads. Construction and road cleaning work goes on all the time in this hilly terrain
As if the delays were not enough, the inevitable happened. Our bus broke down in the middle of a curve (what turned out to be a beautiful location to explore.) A noisy stream decorated with colorful prayer flags ran under the bridge flanked by a picture of a Buddhist deity on one of the rock faces and a ‘Enjoy the valley and nature’ graffiti by BRO on the other side. Seems like a regular repair-the-broken-bus spot. The locals were entertained by two foreigners clicking pictures and I bet they were puzzled, ‘What the heck are these guys taking pictures of?’, exactly my thoughts when I see people posing on the streets of Toronto.
↑ Bus breakdown and repair stop
The air was getting cooler as we ascended the curves and someone in the bus vomited from the window, which thankfully was on the other side. It was also getting kinda dark and I was hungry. ‘If you get too hungry, you vomit, if you are too full, you vomit too, ha ha, big question what to do…’ quipped my neighbor through his gritty teeth as he chewed on tobacco. We finally stopped at a place – I was excited and looking forward to my first Bhutanese meal.
↑ Cheese and chilies, fish curry, soup and lots of rice.
As you can see, it was fairly simple food. Ema datshi is the cheese and green chilies, there was some cereal soup and some fish curry with liberal amounts of, guess what, chili. 🙂 If you want to enjoy Bhutanese food, start getting used to chillies and rice. Needless to say, a non-rice eater like me could only finish a portion of that food and recalling what my neighbor said on the bus, I did not force myself to eat more.
We reached Thimphu almost after 8 gruelling hours on the bus. Don’t get deceived by the distance between the border town Phuentsholing (with India on other side) and the capital city Thimphu (176 km) or claims by entrepreneurial taxi drivers at Phuentsholing. It WILL take that long, maybe an hour shorter by a taxi, but then you’d miss out on the interesting people and breaking down of the bus!
↑ Waiting with my backpack
I was wondering when you were going to write about the rest of your trip. This is a good teaser, but I am hoping more will come.
In the first picture – I am sure the mirror needed checking:)
Bhutanese food looks like my cup of tea. More chillies the better!
Vamsee, yes I will write more, but slowly as I get time. Thanks for being so patient! Oh if you like chillies, you’ll love there and their cup of tea is good too!
Betel chewing officer! Didnt that remind you of Marathi cops eating tambakhu? The breakdown episodes may be built into the package. Can almost guess how the food tasted! Rich people never get boring either – you always laugh at their jokes! They dont write “Horn OK Please” – a sure sign of being outside India?
Gopinath, hahaha, yes, if you enter Bhutan, the first thing you’ll notice is red paan-stains everywhere, and people chewing it all the time. Oh yeah, no ‘Horn OK Please’ although everyone is honking all the time! Thanks for dropping by.
Wow, so interesting, a worker’s baby, they take them to work? Love your images, and the bumper sticker, looks out of place, that’s why it is so cool.
Hi Bob, as I saw, they lived in the mountains nearby and worked few hundred meters from their houses. No day-care facility there. 🙂 Thanks, I hope to get rich soon!
Looks like a very memorable journey to take…how is Bhutan shaping up in your eyes now??
Hi Catherine, I miss Bhutan. I have a prayer flag hanging in my room and the relentless snowfall makes me miss the warmth of this himalayan nation!
interesting ride….and ill be looking forward to more posts on bhutan..it is one of the places i wish to visit!!
SS: I hope to entertain you enough in my subsequent posts! 🙂
Toronto? Great!
Kung Hei Fat Choi 恭喜發財
Have a great week!
Missed you at Blogtrotter…
Hey GMG, thanks for stopping by!
haha – the land slides bit reminds me of sikkim – not surprisingly, i suppose. u never know when u can be caught in the debri of one. in Sikkim, i believe they have a decently efficient system of checking upon bliocked roads and unblocking them.
🙂 i see no one above chiding u for the dig on on BRO…
Hi Neeraja,
Yeah, you are right, I am surprised too, he he he, nobody said anything. I have to go to Sikkim some day! Thanks for the comment. 🙂
Ha, ha! Chillies and rice? Looks like I can survive there. Re: roads, it’s the Indian 90% rule of construction. We finish everything upto 90%, the rest never gets done: roads, buildings, everything.
Shantanu, LOL 90% rule. Somehow I was telling my programmer friend that even software packages follow that rule…eeks! 😀
Seeing the condition of the road, I can happily say that we have much better roads in hilly areas in India. The road seem to be quite narrow.
And the curry seems to be full of chillies. Its all red!! 🙂
Hi Amit,
Oh this picture was taken on a particularly bad patch. They were clearing the road, so I got off the bus, took some pictures, walked around, watered some tree, etc. 😉
Bhutan.. will I go there this year? I hope I do 🙂
At least there is plan to be in Sikkim. I must take a step further. 🙂
Keep the stories coming. It will serve as a good guide 🙂
Arun, hey, I hope you can make it:)
High altitude Himalayan roads are more prone to landslides. I recalled the sad incident of Pithoragarh a few years back when an entire village was badly affected.
It’s good to read your interesting stories.
Celine, yeah I guess. The BRO is doing a tough job of maintaining the roads. Salutes to them…!
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Hi Priyank
your posts are very useful.Can you suggest me some budget hotels for family in Thimpu and Paro?The info on net is all commercial and misguiding.
Hi Rakesh,
Unfortunately I can’t remember the names, but if you walk in the market (centre of the town), you’ll find lots of cheap places to stay. When in doubt, ask local shops. As a rule, the further away you are from city center, the more expensive it gets.
Hi Priyank,
I’ve been reading all of these posts, and your time in Bhutan sounds incredible. I am currently planning my own trip to India and Bhutan, and I am having some trouble finding answers to my questions regarding visas and such seeing as I am in a bit of a pecluliar situation. Maybe you can help?
I don’t know your story, but from what I have been reading, it does not seem that you were on an organized tour or anything. Well I actually know someone who’s father works for the Bhutanese Government, and he is requesting a visitor’s visa for me, so acutally obtaining the visa is not a problem. My question arises mainly with the $200 something/a day fee. If I am not on a tour, does that still apply?
I would love to just hear more abot your situation and how you got into the country and got around. Did you have a guide Etc?
Thanks!
Kevin
Hi Kevin, I replied to you via email.
I presume you have read my page about entrance formalities (http://finaltransit.com/blog/2008/12/29/bhutan-gate-welcomes-you/) but let me reiterate. As far as I know, as per laws from 2008, all foreign citizens (excluding Indian) have to pay the mandatory $200-250 and have to be on a tour group. Food, accommodation and tour guide is included in this price. I do not know any way to bypass this rather expensive arrangement, but I would be surprised if there isn’t a way.
As for me, being an Indian citizen, I got in for free and wandered on my own.
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