BPD: On a scenic National Highway

(BPD: On a very scenic National Highway, 26 Apr '15)

Monastery  in Phuentsholing border area

Phuentsholing being a border town on the Bhutanese side, most areas closer to the border don't need a permit to enter. There is a check post few kilometers from the border areas, and uphill on the way to the interiors of Bhutan, which is where tourist visas are actually checked. The border areas are free for Indians to enter and do business, hence one can find a lot of Indian shops, laborers and general public moving around the town. However, it has a distinctive Bhutanese feel, coming under Bhutanese administration and restrictions.

For a shared mode of travel from Phuentsholing to Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, one can take a bus or taxi from the bus stand, however the bus tickets are in demand. During rush days and tourist seasons, it is advisable to buy them at least a few hours, if not a day in advance. I made the mistake of going at around 9.30 am on a Sunday and most tickets for the whole day were sold out! I managed to get the last few seats in a bus leaving at 1 pm, after which the next and last one was at 4 pm, equally in high demand. The bus frequency is highest between 7 and 9 AM and is the best time to get started from Phuentsholing, on any day.

The travel to Thimphu is very scenic and its advisable to do this in the morning hours, even if one hires a dedicated taxi. The road passes through a series of mountains and about 5 waterfalls, until one reaches the valleys that open up as the cities in Bhutan. Our travel scenery was further enriched by a fresh dose of showers that brought the clouds to repeatedly cross by the road, at various points in the first half of our journey. After the first couple hours, one starts seeing several villages along the slopes of the mountains, dotted with houses along perfect green slopes and cultivated fields, with horses and cattle grazing by. This reminded me of picture-perfect post cards of locales from the Swiss Alps.

Road dotted with Buddhist prayer flags, a common sight

A prominent thing that one notices on the route is that the mountain roads are extremely well laid & maintained, thanks to India's Border Roads Organization (BRO), through the 50-year old joint project titled Dantak. This is one of the many areas of successful collaboration with India that's very visible in Bhutan. However, one cannot find the tongue-in-cheek road safety boards that BRO has put up in India. In Bhutan, the boards are fewer in number and moderated in language!

The bus did a mid-way halt for food at a way-side restaurant. The food options were quite similar to what I had in Sikkim - chowmein, thukpa, momos, rice gravy - but all with an option of vegetarian or beef/pork only! I ordered thukpa and to my amazement it was served 'faster-than-fast-food' in hardly a minute. They had added boiled spaghetti (actually Koka - the most famous noodle eaten in Bhutan) to hot water and strewn on top some chopped, boiled veggies; while salt and chili paste were given separately, to be added to taste!

During the journey, I met a person working in the Bhutan Power Corporation, who had earlier studied electrical Engineering at a private college in Bangalore, on Bhutanese Government scholarship. He explained how the Bhutan government picks and sponsors education abroad for promising students to add to its skilled workforce. He also gave an overview on the history of Bhutan, things of interest and places to visit. I quickly made a note of things to do while in the country and the places to visit in Thimphu and Paro. The bus reached Thimphu main city at around 6.30 PM, to a cool weather which was a complete contrast from the extreme hot sunny afternoon we had set out with, from Phuentsholing! Such is the variation in altitude, weather and temperature throughout the country.