Druk - The Last Shangri-La

There is a place on earth that even the most seasoned travelers consider a privilege to visit. Although, it is voted one of the world's top travel destination, very few make it. This is Drukyul, Bhutan, the Land of the Thunder Dragon.

Bhutan was in the bucket list from the time my senior visited and had shared some great moments there. Though planning was done months back ,we had not booked any tickets as it was tough to convince Sush about the place. Off-late , Bhutan is in the news everywhere for being the only carbon negative country in the world.

Bhutan is a landlocked country and there are many entry points. Phuentsholing is the border town of Bhutan and Jaigaon is the border town of India.

Some of the ways to reach Bhutan,

a)Travel by Druk Air flight from Kolkata, Delhi, Singapore, Katmandu and other places to Paro. The route from Katmandu will get a glimpse of the Mt. Everest on a clear day. The flights are super expensive as there are limited flights and only 8-9 licensed pilots fly them. 4 of them are Sardarjis.

b)Flight till Bagdogra/Siliguri and bus/cab from there to Phuentsholing.

c)Train from Kolkata to Hasimara. Hasimara is close to 15 km from the border towns.

d)Flight till Guwahati and train from Guwahati to Hasimara.

e)Bus from Esplande(Kolkata) to Hasimara. I heard its close to 18 hrs journey. Definitely, I would not have traveled so long in a bus, me being bus-sick and is quite boring too.

We chose option c) above as we could cover Kolkata too. Check Kolkata sight-seeing for more details.

Train Details : Kanchan Kanya Express . The end stations have more quota for seats. So if no confirmed tickets to Hasimara, book till Alipur Duar Junction , which is the last stop.

We chose Bhutan Adventure for our trip and I can vouch for their hospitality, VFM, information shared and being so nice that we felt so odd that such people even exist. No wonder, Bhutan is the happiest country in the Asia. Thanks to Tshering, Rinzin for everything.

Ours was 6N/7D tour package which included transport, 3 daily meals, driver cum guide, entry to all major attractions and accommodation in 3* hotels. Check Why Bhutanese package for more details.

Bhutan is just an arch's away from the Indian border and we need to take permit at Phuentsholing to continue our journey. We reached here on Saturday after a herculean 15 hr journey from Kolkata and realized that permits are not provided on Weekends. Our guide tried through some of his contacts , but it was futile. It was already close to 3 PM and there was no point leaving to Thimphu as it takes easily 5 hours and is uphill. So, we decided to stay in Phuentsholing and we were assured that our itinerary would not be disturbed and they kept their assurances.

Our unplanned stay at Phuentsholing proved useful as we were staying in a nice resort and Sush was exhausted. She seemed to like this.There isn't much to do here, but there are enough hotels to accommodate you for a night and its a good idea to stay here after fatiguing journey.

Next day we visited Kharbandi temple , Palden Tashi Chholing Tsuglagkhang Monastery and Phuentsholing town.

Since no permits were issued on Weekends, we has anticipated huge crowd at the Immigration office for the permit and we were not proved wrong. Our guide was waiting in the Queue and was almost near the entrance. They start issuing the permits from 9 am and when they opened the doors, the crowd went in , much like free prasadam offered at temples. A big let down to both people and the Bhutan Government. They could have managed the crowd or at least issued tokens. It was chaos and we were clueless what would be the outcome. Some agents from Jaigon, shoved people and tried gaining in. We were completely let down and we lost hope that we would receive the permit. For Indian citizens either Voter Id or Passport is needed. NO ADHAAR!. For foreign national, per person, per night 250 $ is the amount for 3 * accommodation, food, mode of transport and a guide. Some amount goes as royalty to Government.

They take bio metrics and after close to 6 hours, we got our permits. This was the only let down in our entire junket and we hope they do something to expedite the process. Its advisable to not enter Bhutan on Monday and Friday.

Renouncing the bad moments and frustration, we started our journey to Thimphu. Its close to 180 Kms and is uphill. Landslides, poor visibility are not uncommon. The ride was joyous for Sush and she tried all possible ways to capture the beauty of the nature. The terrain kept changing and we rode on roads like Sinking roads, un-heard off till then. En-route there are many restaurants, but Dantak Canteen is hard to miss and South Indian delicacies like Dosa are available here. We reached Thimphu in 4 hours due to less traffic. We visited Memorial Chorten and night view of the Thimphu Dzong.

Thimphu is the capital city and its clean with medley of both big and small cars, doted with traditional Bhutanese buildings. We visited Folk Heritage Museum,Traditional Painting School, Sangaygang and Buddha Point. You get to try on Bhutan national dress at Folk Heritage Museum and also drink Ara which is a local rice made Wine. Buddha point is the largest Buddha statue in the sitting posture in the world.

We went to Punaka from Thimphu via Dochula pass after getting a special permit. At the pass, on a clear sky can view the Himalayan mountains. Also, there are 108 Stupas at the pass and they looked fantastic though it was foggy. We had read Apples here are very tasty, but didn find it different what we had back in Bangalore, though we bought local variety. Punaka is a small town and is very calm and composed. The Dzong here is very popular and all religious festivities and government activities commence here. BTW Dzongs are Bhutanese word for monastery. Next day, we visited temple dedicated to Divine Madman which is fertility temple and is quite popular among locals and foreigners alike. The story is interesting and interested people can read about him

We went to Paro from Punaka and route is via Thimphu. Paro is the entry point if coming by air. We found that city is nothing but the Dzong and some basic city need shops and buildings. We visited National Museum, Paro Dzong and strolled in the city hunting for souvenirs. Next day we visited Tiger's Nest which is one of the most visited place and an important one. It involves a trek of 4-5 km and though not easy, its doable. Sush was displeased and at one point she decided to backtrack. On continuous motivation , she was happy , she made it. Worth the visit. You will be awestruck looking at the sheer size and sight of it. Sush counted the steps in the last leg of the journey and its close to 700.

We were supposed to do Bumdra Trek and visit Haa valley, but due to time constraint and bad weather , both were skipped. On the way to Haa, highest drivable pass in Bhutan, Chele La is close to freezing and Indian military, (IMTRAT), has some operations there. We visited Drugyel Dzong & Kichu Lhakang after Tiger's Nest.

We left for Phuentsholing next day and visited Airport view and Iron Bridge en-route. We reached Hasiamara station at 4 PM and our train was at 4.40 PM.

We were not able to cover Bumthang , Sacred Lake in Central Bhutan due to the lack of time. Some other time, maybe. The North is covered with mountains and may interest someone who is interested to scale. Gangkhar Puensum is popularly knows as the highest unclimbed mountain in the world. The Snowman trek is labelled the World's toughest trek as it goes over 12 mountain passes.

Bhutanese consume rice throughout the day and Ema Datshi, a combination of Chillies and Cheese is quite popular. Suja is the Bhutanese butter tea and they consume meat generously. Indian food is available everywhere. Only problem we found was, they dont consume Curd and so no popular curd rice option for South Indians.

The Bhutanese currency is Ngultrum and is at par with Indian Rupee. As on today, Indian currency is accepted in all denominations. Dzongkha is the national language, but English is spoken everywhere. But for Indian, Bangladeshi and Maldivian travelers, all others need a visa and they are issued only when a confirmed booking through Bhutanese tour operator or any other operator has been made. More details on tour packages here. Bhutan is relatively well connected over phone and at most of the places, there was good network coverage. Indian SIM's wont work there.

Smoking is banned in public places and offenders are fined heavily. There are no traffic signals in the entire country and two wheelers are less seen on roads. There are no two lane roads in the entire country and Dantak, a wing of BRO, builds and maintains roads in the country. They have nice quotes through out the country to make drivers cautious.

Bhutan is popular for its textiles, organic herbal products and handicrafts. We bought fridge magnets, dagger and lemon grass oil.

One cannot find a more enlightening travel destination today. Perched high on the mighty Himalayan range, the kingdom has defied globalization and chosen to remain a hidden paradise. That's very bold.

It is no surprise that the main goal in life for Bhutanese people is happiness and the mandate of modern Bhutanese state is Gross National Happiness(GNS) . When enquired about this, we realized the same holds good only in villages which constitute 70% and in the towns and cities, people have started metamorphosing to greediness and selfish.

The kingdom today remains last unventured destination and thats how the people there want to keep it. The carefully controlled tourism policy of the Government is based on High value and low impact.

Some photos below,