Passage to Bhutan

January 24th, 2008  |  Published in Living, Photography, Sports & Adventure, Travel  |  32 Comments

Bhutan Chron­i­cles, Oct 2007: After get­ting our per­mits to enter Bhutan, the road jour­ney from the bor­der town of Phuntshol­ing to Paro took us around 9 hours. The road is not in a good shape due to fre­quent land­slides and soil erosion.

On the way from Paro to Phuntsholing

In the small bor­der town of Phuntoshol­ing, we need to halt a full day to get our per­mits. Since we need both an entry per­mit for our­selves and our vehi­cle, we require a whole day to sort out the documents.

It is not the eas­i­est task to find the Immi­gra­tions Office : there are hardly any signs. Thank­fully, it’s a small town and we ask a few peo­ple how to get there. One thing we notice is the num­ber of one-ways. For a small town, there are many. So miss­ing the turn once meant we had to go all the way around again.

The other thing is that both the rider and the pas­sen­ger wear hel­mets. It’s com­pul­sory and peo­ple abide by it.

Finally, we find our­selves at the Immi­gra­tion office. We are one of the first to arrive but aren’t too wel­come : the bored look­ing offi­cials are busy play­ing com­puter games! We find the right counter : 3 : and undergo the nec­es­sary photo tak­ing ritual.

Appar­ently, they will pile up all appli­ca­tions till they get enough and then take it for all the sig­na­ture and red tape thin­gies they do with offi­cial doc­u­ments. We were told to come back after an hour, but it took a lot longer. We passed time at the office itself and it was around 2 and a half hours around 1230 pm that we were finally issued our per­mits (only for Thimpu and Paro) and told that fur­ther per­mits need to be taken at Thimpu. We were now legally allowed to stay in Bhutan for 7 days.

For lunch, we tried a place called CN Restau­rant near our hotel where I set­tle for a harm­less fried rice (I am rather sus­pi­cious of every­thing else in the menu at this stage!).

After that, it was another few hours spent at the RTO (not sure what it was called) orga­niz­ing our vehi­cle per­mit. That done, we felt rather accomplished.

The next day we got an early start to the day at 8 am and set off for Paro.

Once we’re out of the swel­ter­ing town of Phuntoshol­ing and start climb­ing almost imme­di­ately, it’s a wel­come relief. The air gets cooler and the scenery gets bet­ter as we ascend. Unfor­tu­nately, though there are hardly any shops in sight for a cup of tea or coffee.

A few hours into the jour­ney, the road dete­ri­o­rates as this area wit­nesses a lot of land­slides. All along, huge rocks and boul­ders lie on the road and it’s not a nice thought : one of them hurtling towards you just as you’re cross­ing. Apart from the bad roads, the jour­ney is pleas­ant : many a times we are rid­ing through cloud cover.

At a place called Gedu, around 1130 am, rather fam­ished (as I usu­ally am at this time) we come across a house with an invit­ing sign say­ing restau­rant. The lady says she has Maggi and we also ask for omlettes. And I have to tell you folks this (if you didn’t know already) — Maggi, actu­ally tastes really good when you’re really hungry!

Maggi never tasted so good!

From there, another hour later we’re at the famous Dan­tak can­teen : not only does it have a view point it also serves masala dosa. But I’m not too keen about try­ing South Indian food in Bhutan so I pass and set­tle for a very oily channa bhatura instead. On the way is a beau­ti­ful water­falls, emerg­ing out of the hills in the dis­tance — we stop for a while and take some photographs.

At around 330 pm we reached the con­flu­ence from where the road splits in 3 direc­tions : to Paro, Thimpu and the HAA val­ley. Unfor­tu­nately, it starts to driz­zle just then. Show­ing no signs of abat­ing, we con­tinue in the rain : I pull out an umbrella which is soon bent out of shape in the strong wind. But there is nowhere to take cover so we con­tinue. An hour later, rather soaked, we enter Paro val­ley. Even through the driz­zle, I am quite taken in by the beauty of this place.

A water­falls some­where on the way

A huge val­ley with golden yel­low fields spreads out before us, bor­dered on all sides by hills and a river snakes through it. I can just imag­ine the sight — if it wasn’t so gloomy. From the van­tage point, we get a glimpse of the tiny but beau­ti­fully done up Paro Air­port and the run­way, in the mid­dle of the valley.

The Paro air­port from a van­tage point on the road

A few min­utes from there, we enter the town and decide to try the same hotel we had tried in Phuntshol­ing — Peljor­ling. We are lucky : the sleepy guy at the counter agrees to Rs 500 bucks after some nego­ti­a­tion. We are soaked to the bone and cold and enjoy the warmth of the small but rather cosy wood pan­elled rooms. I order a veg­etable noo­dles (with about a litre of oil) : I have still not warmed up to Bhutanese cui­sine and then I blow out like a can­dle in the wind!

We are now offi­cially in Bhutan — king­dom of the dragon.

A street dog look­ing out into the town

Phuntshol­ing acco­mo­da­tion:
Hotel Peljor­ling, Near Bhutan Main Gate, Phuntshol­ing
Ph: 00975—252833
Rates: 400/500 : s/d (basic rooms)

Pho­tographs:
The Pas­sage to Bhutan album

Responses

1. Lavs says:
   

   January 24th, 2008 at 11:48 am (#)

   Oh, that Maggi photo is absolutely mouth watering-Slurp:-)

2. Divs says:
   

   January 24th, 2008 at 3:12 pm (#)

   I know a friend from Bhutan but never imag­ined the heaven he’s com­ing from ;)!!

3. Shobha says:
   

   January 24th, 2008 at 3:17 pm (#)

   Hey! Please check your red­iff­mail. There’s an email wait­ing for you :) Expect­ing a reply…Thank you :)

4. anita says:
   

   January 24th, 2008 at 5:29 pm (#)

   lavs: :) yeah, it’s snack time for me too!

   divs: ah, this is just the beginning :)

   shobha: thanks! got the mail and have responded!

5. Sukanya Bora says:
   

   January 24th, 2008 at 7:15 pm (#)

   i loved the first pic­ture (on the way from Paro to Phuntshol­ing) — that’s a post­card right there!

   i have always wanted to visit Bhutan and after see­ing these pic­tures and read­ing your post, i am more deter­mined to make that happen.

   s

6. Passage to Bhutan | DesiPundit says:
   

   January 25th, 2008 at 2:44 am (#)

   […] Ash | Pho­tog­ra­phy, Travel […]

7. Vivek Kumar says:
   

   January 25th, 2008 at 8:01 am (#)

   Wow! You had the Maggi at Gedu! It really is one of the high­lights of my own Bhutan visit. Here is the post I wrote after my visit in 2005:

   http://vivekspace.com/2005/06/11/gone/

   Rel­e­vant extract:

   “One night stay for these vis­its was at a place called Gedu, and I had the best Maggi ever in a small restau­rant near the only bus stop in Gedu. KP and I had gone for a walk and decided to try the Maggi there just for the heck of it. What an amaz­ing deci­sion that turned out to be! They cook it dif­fer­ently from what the Maggi packet spec­i­fies and they put dif­fer­ent spices in it as well. I don’t know how they do it, but it is awe­some. So much so that KP, ES and I skipped our offi­cial break­fast next morn­ing and went to have Maggi. You might won­der about why I am rant­ing about Maggi so much, but then, you didn’t have it.”

8. anita says:
   

   January 25th, 2008 at 8:51 am (#)

   @ sukanya: thanks! i love it too :) and you must plan a trip. it’s a lovely place. and don’t for­get to stay a few extra days in paro. it was my favourite!

   @ vivek: haha, i couldn’t help smil­ing read­ing your post! such a coin­ci­dence! enjoyed read­ing about your trip also! you met the royal high­ness? wow, i am so jeal­ous :) he’s really good look­ing. and so is his son (the one who is his successor!)!

9. Abhijit says:
   

   January 25th, 2008 at 11:01 am (#)

   very nice photo-essay…liked it much…

10. Nitin Srivastava says:
    

    January 25th, 2008 at 1:08 pm (#)

    Hey,

    Love the first pic.….
    foun­tain pic even more.…

    smiles!

11. Vivek Kumar says:
    

    January 25th, 2008 at 6:55 pm (#)

    Anita,

    The son is the King now. He took over a while ago.

    We didn’t “meet” the then King, only saw him from a dis­tance. We met the present King, who was Crown Prince back then.

12. Global Voices Online » Bhutan: Travel and Noodles says:
    

    January 25th, 2008 at 10:50 pm (#)

    […] just a lit­tle some­thing writes about a trip to Bhutan. Immi­gra­tion, instant noo­dles and breath­tak­ing scenes. Share This […]

13. Rash says:
    

    January 26th, 2008 at 5:26 pm (#)

    Oh yes, there’s some­thing about dif­fer­ently cooked Maggi. Had a great one in a small shop on our way back from Belur once. One more rea­son to visit Bhutan now :)

14. geeta says:
    

    January 27th, 2008 at 7:23 am (#)

    Hey Anita,
    Beau­ti­ful pictures!

    Bhutan, along with some parts of North-east India has long been on my list of places to visit. This read was a vic­ar­i­ous plea­sure, thanks!

    And that thing abt Maggi is indeed true. ;)

15. anita says:
    

    January 28th, 2008 at 12:03 pm (#)

    @ rash: yes, def­i­nitely one more rea­son, and more rea­sons com­ing up soon!

    @ geeta: you must visit then! and let me know if you need any help :)

16. guruprasad says:
    

    February 1st, 2008 at 1:30 pm (#)

    you’ve been tagged! come over to my blog and check it out.

17. Aqua says:
    

    February 1st, 2008 at 9:53 pm (#)

    You can SO com­pile the pics and trav­el­ogues into a book anita madam. lovely!!!

18. KDphotoman says:
    

    February 2nd, 2008 at 3:09 am (#)

    Anita,
    Just fin­ished read­ing the infor­ma­tive and visu­ally appeal­ing blog post on your recent visit to the king­dom Bhutan. Not remem­ber­ing much back­ground about the coun­try from my school his­tory books grow­ing up in India, I did wikipedia some about Bhutan. It was a great eye opener. I imag­ine the air must be pris­tine being sur­rounded by the Himalayan range and not being heav­ily indus­tri­al­ized. Their rivers and streams are prob­a­bly fed by glac­i­ers on the high moun­tain ranges.

    IMHO…It remains to be seen if the tiny king­dom can sur­vive the encroach­ment of their land by the Chi­nese, sim­i­lar to what hap­pened to Tibet.

    KDpho­toman

19. Shravan says:
    

    February 4th, 2008 at 6:46 am (#)

    Superb first pic!!

    P.s: New blog­ger… would love to hear from all you peo­ple in my blog!! Pls visit and post com­ments on how i improve it!

    Shravan(www.deliciousfingers.blogspot.com)

20. Sunil Gangadharan says:
    

    February 4th, 2008 at 9:27 pm (#)

    Great story on Bhutan.
    Thanks for posting…

21. Rohit Tripathi says:
    

    February 6th, 2008 at 10:33 am (#)

    gr8 post. I have read some of your blogs and I want to con­grat­u­late you first that you are hav­ing an amaz­ing writ­ing abil­ity which makes your blogs very much read­able and inter­est­ing. One thing which I have noticed again and again in your blogs is that you describe any sub­ject with great enthusiasm.

    I hav started a blogroll and would love to add u r blog there. can I? pls reply soon.

    bye

22. smitha says:
    

    February 6th, 2008 at 5:22 pm (#)

    anita,i fol­low your blogs regurarly.why are you updat­ing your blogs less frequently.You have such a big fan fol­low­ing, this is not fair da

23. Lubna says:
    

    February 6th, 2008 at 11:36 pm (#)

    Love the dog­gie, isnt’ Kit Kit jeal­ous. BTW wanted to ask you, where do you keep the kitty when you ram­ble? Do you know of any good dog­gie ken­nels, where they really really take good care of dog­gies (Dont have a dog­gie now, ask­ing for a friend). Do drop me an email and let me know.
    Thanks

24. Flavors of Bhutan at Blogbharti says:
    

    February 8th, 2008 at 10:48 am (#)

    […] Anita Bora tells us about her trip to Bhutan, along with some cool pics! […]

25. Blogbharti says:
    

    February 8th, 2008 at 10:53 am (#)

    Ping­back from Blogb­harti: […]Anita Bora tells us about her trip to Bhutan, along with some cool pics![…]

26. Vinod Sharma says:
    

    February 8th, 2008 at 11:02 am (#)

    You had posted some great pic­tures ear­lier too. Yes, the dosas at the Dan­tak can­teen with a view are sim­ply out of the world. If I recall cor­rectly, you had posted a pic­ture of the Tak­sang Gompa too, that monastery perched seem­ingly impos­si­bly on a cliff.

    Did you visit it, after an ardu­ous but exhil­a­rat­ing climb from Paro? That place is actu­ally amaz­ing. The best are the pigeons who have made that cold and almost for­bid­den place their home. Watch­ing them fly there is an expe­ri­ence you don’t for­get for a lifetime.

27. akshat says:
    

    February 9th, 2008 at 3:01 pm (#)

    Hi,

    I am plan­ning to go to Bhutan around April this year. It would be great if you could share a bit about how you went about prepar­ing for your trip. Also where can we get more info about going to Bhutan.

    Thanks,
    Akshat

28. Anita says:
    

    February 11th, 2008 at 11:33 am (#)

    @ guruprasad: thanks! i’m very bad with tags and will try!

    @ Aqua: thank you. i’m book­ing a copy for you already ;0)

    @ KDpho­toman: you’re right. it’s pretty much like the way you imag­ine it! i do hope it remains that way and they are able to pre­serve their nat­ural her­itage and their environment.

    @ shra­van: thanks! and all the best for the blog :)

    @ Sunil: thanks!

    @ Rohit: thanks a ton for the nice words! always nice to know at least someone’s read­ing all these words being churned out :) please do! will drop in at your blog too!

    @ smitha: gosh, thanks for remind­ing me. not sure but life has been like a whirl­wind the last few weeks with lots of things hap­pen­ing so i feel like i’m doing way too many things and not enough writ­ing :) but will get back to more reg­u­lar post­ing soon!

    @ Lubna: kit­tie usu­ally stays at home. for long stays i give a key to a friend who drops in and checks in on her. unfor­tu­nately, trav­el­ling in pets is rather dif­fi­cult in this coun­try. they have quite a few good ken­nels in ban­ga­lore. you can check with yashbans.

    @ Vinod: yes, we did do that trek — it was amaz­ing — one of my best expe­ri­ences to go up there and come face to face with the goemba is some­thing one can’t express in words!

    @ akshat: sure, i’ll be writ­ing a few more posts so keep track of them. if you need any more infor­ma­tion, i found the lonely planet very use­ful and used it through­out the journey!

29. Manoj says:
    

    February 11th, 2008 at 1:34 pm (#)

    Lovely!! While I always knew that Bhutan is breath­tak­ing, these pho­tos have inspired me to mas­ter­mind a trip.

30. Anita says:
    

    February 15th, 2008 at 12:03 pm (#)

    @ manoj: thanks! it is breath­tak­ing and worth a trip!

31. Kits says:
    

    February 18th, 2008 at 2:11 pm (#)

    Loved tht last fotu and Maggi looked yummy :D

32. shitiz says:
    

    October 26th, 2009 at 1:10 am (#)

    Hi,
    We are plan­ning to visit bhutan next week and will be reach­ing Phuntshol­ing late on sat­ur­day. any idea if the entry per­mit office will be open on sun­day?
    Thanks,
    Shitiz

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