BPD: Bhutan beckons!

(BPD: Bhutan beckons!, 25 Apr 15)

As I set out from the Zuluk village in East Sikkim, it was yet another long, rigorous break journey to reach Jaigaon, the Indian town in West Bengal, bordering Bhutan. The route to be taken was Zuluk - Rongli - Rongpo - Bagpul - Jaigaon, which was a total of about 100km covered in over 8 hours.

For most part of the journey, I had the company of two Army jawans from the 2 Madras regiment, who were also making their journey down from Zuluk. From them, I understood the organisation and operation of the Indian Army units, the career progression and other aspects that make the Army unique and keep the units in fighting-fit form. It was enthralling to hear about the commando training & operations, and also accounts of the army intelligence ops that is secretive but which keeps getting quoted out of context, in the Indian media.

Pic source: Speakingtree

I also found out origins of the celebrated legend of Baba Harbhajan Singh, and a first-hand substantiation of the stories. The story goes that this Baba used to be a jawan in the regiment posted in the Zuluk mountains who was martyred and went disappearing after an army exercise. There were doubts on His absconding and He cleared the aspersions cast by appearing in a dream and mentioning that His duties will continue. Till date, His name is retained in the Army rolls, He goes on duty, has an assistant from the regiment posted in Zuluk who prepares the dress, bed etc. The jawan I met confirmed that the 2 Madras regiment takes up this duty now and he had seen first-hand that, by end of day the clothes prepared are crumpled and shoes soiled, though there was no one visibly using them. The Baba is supposed to help the jawans and people there in various ways, because of which there is a huge following and a big temple built for Him, on the way to Nathu La pass!

The last leg of the journey from Bagpul starts from the coronation bridge, which was built to commemorate the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1937. This journey from Bapgul to Jaigaon, is entirely within the limits of West Bengal and when one is travelling from Sikkim, one finds:

1. Progressively better roads
2. Regressive-ly hotter weather and I had to keep removing layers of clothing
3. More of plains, and less of mountains or rivers
4. But still the Nepali songs continued in the taxis!

During the trip to Jaigaon, I came across an aged person who used to run a trading business in Bhutan. He gave lot of useful details on the entry procedure and what to expect in Bhutan. Consequently, he ended up raising my expectations of the beauty of Bhutan, but scared me out of the wits about the difficulty of a solo traveller getting the visa permit. I had read about this issue in travel forums earlier and had thought of dropping the visit to Bhutan altogether. However, I wanted to try my chances and hence had kept Nepal as a backup option in case of difficulty in getting the Bhutan permit, since entry to Nepal was also from Siliguri, nearby. But with the tragic news of the Earthquake earlier during the same day (we heard people screaming about minor jolts felt even at Sikkim, during our travel earlier the same day), with an epicentre in Kathmandu ruled out that option.

Bhutan entry gate from Jaigaon, India

Upon reaching Jaigaon, I hurried onto the Bhutan border town of Phuentsholing, adjoining Jaigaon, since the immigration offices close at 4.30 PM. As expected, I was questioned on the 'intent' of single travel, that purportedly was against the 'culture' of Bhutan. Apparently, there were earlier cases of single tourists creating 'trouble' after getting into the mainland, which had brought this restriction. After escalations to the higher officials and a lot of explaining that I had to do, I was finally asked to write an undertaking letter, based on which I got the visa. I guess the mention of my origins from Tamil Nadu had an influence on the officer, by indicating some supposed cultural alignment with their country! I finally heaved a sigh of relief, and had the satisfaction of acing a competitive exam.

Thin-boundary wall separating the
2 countries ('Nokia' et al on India's side)

The Bhutan visa was a standard permit for the cities of Thimpu and Paro over a 7-day duration, which typically can be extended to cover other cities, at Thimpu. The uphill journey to Thimpu/Paro was scheduled for over 6 hours, again to cover a distance of just under 180km. With the last bus only until 4 pm, I took up accommodation for the night on Phuentsholing side of the border as opposed to Jaigaon, as rightly advised by some travelers, as the hotels were much cleaner at the same rates. After a whole day of travel down the mountain, I went to bed preparing for another day of travel, but up the mountain this time. Anticipation was also high on exploring a new country, how much ever close it might be to India in location, customs and culture!