Simple pleasures of having your coffee hot: Some ideas

I'm all for having my coffee or tea extra-hot. Its a disappointment every time, when it quickly loses temperature in the space of a few minutes. And I hate it to finish off the beverage cold or at best, lukewarm.

I am the kind who usually runs back to the oven to reheat my tea when its half done. To confess, there are times I've ended up reheating the same tea a couple of times, before actually finishing it.

This has made me wonder whether there aren't any elegant solutions in the form of a custom, improvised coffee mug.

Googling got me some options. A popular one was the insulated coffee mug, which doesn't really solve the problem.

Thermos insulated mug

Then, there were the reheatable mugs that could be plugged into a power socket or even through a car charger. A bit messy and certainly not one you'd want lying around your table.

Stainless steel coffee mug from Alibaba

I was looking for a combination of a mug -cum- thermo flask that retains heat best, one which comes with a reheat option without those ugly props.

Concept by Green Lama and Design HMI LLC

And, I landed on this page which seemed to offer quite an elegant solution. This kickstarter campaign had originally been launched with some issues, and then relaunched to completion.

Product launched by Green Lama on Kickstarter

With this campaign getting closed, the product doesn't seem to be in the market yet, but with limited availability on their home site.

Looks like I'll have to wait some time until I can have a steaming cup of coffee, all the way to the end!

Serving delicacies on the go: your neighbourhood Superman food truck

Food trucks are the latest rage to have burst onto the Hyderabad food scene. One can find them in the evenings, in several parts of the city, quite noticeably in the areas around Hitech City and Gachibowli. Its practically a night-time 'mela' with all kinds of food trucks dotting the length of the road serving a variety of cuisine, snacks & other assortments. The rates charged though are tantamount to the QSRs (Quick Service Restaurant), and not very different. They are doing brisk business and people from all walks have taken to it with full vigour. You can find Zomato listings of food trucks and even startup apps that are built around locating food trucks in your area. 

A food truck (source:Hindu)	the busy 'eat street' in Madhapur

This has not always been the case, atleast in the southern parts of the country where, unlike Mumbai or Delhi, 'street food' was never celebrated. Food trucks used to be a 'cheaper' & 'quicker' option, but not a palatable one for most people. People had their qualms about standing and savouring these options, or atleast a stigma attached to being seen eating out in the open. Ofcourse, there have been noticeable exceptions, like the famous 'ram-ki-bandi' in Nampally area of Hyderabad, which boasts of a celebrity clientele. However, these have been few and far between and acceptance was generally low. Its nice to see this change now, for the good.

My experience with food trucks started during my Engineering days in Karaikudi, where a Chinese-cuisine serving truck aptly named 'Huang Suang' was a rage in the campus. Located in the middle of the city, this was frequented on a daily basis by the students & 'masses', but the other locals and 'classes' generally stayed away. I've continued eating 'out' through my stints in Delhi and during my travel, so we recently checked out one of these food trucks in Hyderabad. The 'Superman Dosa' truck served piping hot 'pizza dosa' and 'schezwan fry idli', while the kids enjoyed the experience!

2-Minutes to Notoriety!

Its been over a month and enough news-feed bytes have been transferred on how Nestle's Maggi got it all wrong, and ended up serving an unsavoury snack in India. This post is not about that. Maggi has also been the butt of a billion jokes over the past month. I do not intend to go into that either.

My brand association with Maggi is over 2 decades old, soon after the Swiss giant entered India. With their innovative promotion campaigns especially targeted at kids, they caught us young. The Maggi club with a catchy caption "'Maggi clubbers are fun lovers'", was the in-thing in those days when computers weren't around. Enrollment into this elite club was by sending empty wrappers of Maggi. Apart from continuously pestering parents for the 2-minute snack, primarily for the wrappers, we used to hang around the friendly neighborhood families collecting empty wrappers! Maggi captivated our attention with exciting goodies like board games, comics and several other gifts that had to be claimed by sending more wrappers. There was heightened competition amongst cousins and friends to get them all, and many a summer vacation was spent with these games. I've treasured this membership and the souvenirs, and still do, until recently.

Such are the fond memories I carry of Maggi. Association with the brand continued through my college days with a late-night companionship. Having the Maggi snack at midnight was pretty a routine thing in the campus. Apprehensions about ready-to-cook food and preservatives notwithstanding, I've been maintaining the connect through my working years, albeit at lower levels of consumption.

This is what pains me with the recent episode, while there is a deep sense of disappointment at the callous disregard for food safety standards. Its almost certain that Nestle being the global giant that it is, will muscle its way back into the country from the ban, and will spare no expense to erase this black episode. There are enough noises already questioning and cornering the FSSAI food-safety authority that tested the samples, which led to Maggi's ban. After all, the Indian consumer's memory is short-lived and we've forgotten several cola pesticide controversies and worm-filled chocolate episodes.

However, I wonder how many such long-time associations have been shattered, and would Maggi ever rise up to the same stature, to receive the warmth and trust from a generation that it grew up with?

BPD: Culmination at Kolkata

(BPD: Culmination at Kolkata, 2-3 May '15)

Starting from the Bhutanese border of Phuentsholing on the 2nd May, I was headed towards Kolkata for the last leg of my journey that I had booked from Kolkata to Hyderabad, for the Sunday night. The journey from Phuentsholing to Siliguri takes about 4 hours, and its best to take the Bhutan bus that makes several scheduled trips in a day between these 2 places. Getting a little lazy to do pre-bookings and not wanting to block a time for departure, I decided to take the Indian buses and/or shared-taxis. This became yet another break journey with multiple stops and ended up taking over 6 hours on the whole. The route taken was Phuentsholing- Jaigaon- Hashimara- Birpara- Lataguri- Siliguri.

From Siliguri, I had booked a Volvo bus for the overnight journey to Kolkata. Climbing in, I was greeted at my seat in the bus by some mellowed barks and I was pleasantly surprised to find a 50-day old German Shepherd as my next seat companion! The interesting set of travel partners continued through the trip. Accompanying her was a dog-fanatic, who had just bought her at Siliguri from a dealer to add to his family of 2 other dogs, a wife and parents. He gave me a low-down of the dog breeds and how easy it is to adopt most of them and what little maintenance they can demand, from a first-timer like me.

Just as I was about to fall asleep, this last booking for a 'comfortable', event-less travel was meant to end up with some trouble. Interestingly, throughout the trip, I had absolutely no problems with any of the travel in shared modes by shared-taxi, auto, local bus and the like throughout Darjeeling, Sikkim and Bhutan. Starting with a list of issues in the Volvo bus like leaking and malfunctioning AC, a faulty battery, insensitive driver, and a bus in such a bad condition that it wouldn't start after dinner break without being pushed by the passengers! The extremely bad condition of the roads didn't help either and after long delays of over 4 hours and a mini-revolt by all the passengers, the bus finally reached Kolkata by 12 noon. Shaken and dust-gathered, I got out of the bus to the sweltering summer weather of Kolkata. Perhaps, this contrasting scenario was a gentle, yet final reminder of how well things had panned throughout my 2-week trip, for which I had to be thankful!

At Kolkata, I was getting reunited with Premjit, the buddy from college and the star of our famous Agra trip! I had a great time at his place with his family and particularly his 6-month boy, the ever-adorable Baby Bang. I was treated to a sumptuous lunch of Chelo Kababs at the famed heritage restaurant, Peter Cat at Park Street, and topped up with a masala chai at a Dhaabha nearby. Catching up with stories from the college and experiences from the company he had founded, we severely ran short of time. After the good, short stop for the evening, I got a ride to the airport to complete my return journey.

Chelo Kabab at Peter Cat (Pic source: tripadvisor)

Landing in Hyderabad, and walking towards the exit, I was welled with a range of intense emotions from the great travel experiences, amazing variety of places seen, wonderful friends made for life and the humbling learnings from the 16-day backpacking trip. I promised myself to complete writing the experiences with a picture-blog, internalize the learnings as part of my day-to-day activities and get back on the travel circuit soon! 

BPD: Scaling the famed Tiger's Nest

(BPD: Scaling the Tiger's Nest, 30th Apr '15)

With rains lashing out the city until early afternoon on 29th April, I had walked around Paro visiting the local places that day and had planned to visit the famed 'Taktsang' monastery the next day, a Thursday. On a clear day its better to start early for the monastery, since it involves a strenuous uphill 4 hours walk and it could get either very hot midday or end up with some early showers, with the weather being unpredictable in the mountains.

Starting at 8 am, I took a shared taxi until the junction where the main road splits towards the base point of the monastery. From there, it was about 4 km to the base, which was a nice scenic, morning walk on a gradual uphill road, meandering across the river and through a small hamlet with completely timber-built houses. Considering the views along the path, I decided to not cover this bit by taxi. After an hour of walking and sneak previews of the Taktsang monastery from afar, I reached the base until which point all taxis ferry the tourists. And there were a decent number them at that hour of the morning.

The village en route to Tiger's Nest Monastery (partially visible on the cliff behind clouds)

Timber-built houses in the village	Interesting sign at a monastery, on the way

The base point has some makeshift tourist shops selling knick-knacks, apart from other minor refreshments. There are no elaborate arrangements at this place for meals or any additional facilities, hence its better to come prepared to directly start hiking from this point. Considering that the route turns out to be a tough hike for first-timers and old aged people, they have an option to use mules. However this option is only until a midpoint during the journey, and from there one must hike through some narrow pathways, that are best covered only on foot.

The route up the mountain has a well paved, wide dirt track for the horses and those preferring a gradual incline, while there is also a steep trail that saves some distance but involves steep, tiring climb. The total distance up to the monastery is about 5km or 3 hours from the base point, and at various points we saw small sets of tourists turning back as they couldn't make it up further. The heavy rains from the earlier day were partly playing spoilsport, with the path becoming wet & slippery.

Model of the water-bell setup
& actual one (Botanical garden)

While I started the climb up, I was surprised to hear some voices in Tamil, not a usual occurrence in such a faraway place. This was a businessman from Chennai who was travelling with his family on their annual vacation to this mountain Kingdom and had covered Thimphu and Punakha valley, which is rated as the next most scenic place in Bhutan, after Paro. Chatting and walking together, we crossed a place where the waterfall flowing from the top of the mountain turned into a small stream at the base. As with the standard Bhutanese architecture, they had built three domes on the stream's path, each housing a large prayer bell that gets operated and pushed around by the water flowing around a paddle that's fit at the bottom of the bell. With the continuous flow of water, the bells perpetually chime away to glory, and the simple but ingenious mechanism with the chiming sound is a sight to behold. Such water operated bells can be found throughout the country and many of these are of considerable antiquity.

Prayer bell domes at Taktsang base	..and the stream water exiting the bells

Flowering Rhododendrons

Right at the midpoint where the horses halt and bid goodbye, there is the 'Taktsang' cafe that serves tea and coffee with sugar-coated biscuits, to give a small break from the walk. The views of the monastery from this point are click-worthy. At this point, the family from Tamil Nadu decided to stay back, not wanting to risk the climb with kids and the middle-aged lady. While I moved ahead, the driver who was accompanying the family joined me, for the last leg of the journey. The final leg of the hike up from there is at almost the same altitude as that of monastery but goes around the mountains. The walk is on rock-cut steps over a series of zig-zag paths going up-down, amidst rhododendrons in full bloom and offering stunning views of the monastery, of the high waterfall and also of the steep drop down into the rolling valleys beneath. The view at several places got so beautiful that I stopped taking pictures, since I realized it was impossible for the pictures to do justice to the views unfolding! I just stood by and tried to internalize the beauty.

View at the midpoint, near Taktsang Cafe	View of Taktsang from Cafe

The more one looks at the monastery it makes one wonder how monks could have made it up here in the earlier ages, let alone complete a full-fledged construction at such an elevation, against the sheer drop of the cliff. The path to the monastery, across the mountains has been developed well for tourists and made safe with solid iron and concrete railings added. Construction of this path would have also been a tough, expensive and time-consuming affair.

Yet another shot of the cliff..	..and the stone-cut steps in the path

Reaching the monastery at 12.30 PM, we just had 30 minutes to complete the prayers before the temple closed for the hour-long lunch break. The monastery has large and majestic statues of Guru Rinpoche, also called Guru Padmasambhava in the main and assumed forms. Legend has it that the Guru flew onto this cliff on top of a winged tigress, meditated and took a ferocious form to tame the local evil spirit and turn it into a protective deity.

The Tiger's Nest Monastery, finally from up-close

Amongst the temples and butter lamp hall, we were surprised to see a small opening in the cliff labeled the 'tiger nest'. Not finding any tourists going in and unaware of the significance, we ventured into the completely dark cave that was damp and slippery with water continuously trickling into the rocks. The opening led into a cave with a steep drop of almost 2 floors inside that had to be covered by crawling down a slanted wooden panel, then on a make-shift ladder, and finally squeezing oneself to get past a huge boulder in the way. This path finally culminates in a small dark corner in the cave, that had the Guru's picture and a small lighted lamp. We learnt later that this was the place where the Guru had meditated for 3 years, 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days & 3 hours in the 8th century! Before climbing out, we tried coming out on the opposite end of a rock crevice that showed some light streaking into the otherwise dark cave. This brought us onto the edge of the cliff that was a vertical drop, and gave a clear, unobstructed view of the valley and snow-covered mountains on the other edge of the Paro city, bordering Haa.

Lunch at Champaca cafe, Paro city

After scrambling out of the 'real' tiger nest cave, we made it out of the monastery, just in time for the monastery's lunch break. After a short pause to meditate in the serene and heavenly surrounding, we were on our way back. This time, the way down was covered mostly on the steep walking path that needed a little, careful maneuvering to avoid twisted ankles. The journey down was covered in 1 hour flat, to get us back to the base point, completely exhausted but fully invigorated. Once back in Paro city, I headed straight to the Champaca cafe for a sumptuous lunch of rice with kidney beans dal and vegetable salad.

BPD: Paro, a Paradise on Earth

(BPD: Paro, a Paradise on Earth, 29 Apr '15)

Paro, is about an hour from Thimphu, at a distance of 55km and the closest city to the capital. Though a smaller town with lesser business activity than the capital Thimphu, its a much more beautiful place with pristine and natural, breathtaking landscapes. It also has the famed 'Taktshang' or Tiger's Nest monastery, that is the unofficial symbol of Bhutan for tourists, and a single look at which would make one want to visit the country.

Paro is covered on all sides by mountains, and the valley in between is a fertile land cultivated by the Paro Chhu river that runs through the length of the city. Its truly a sight to see the vast number of fields that grow paddy, wheat and a variety of other crops that give its fields several shades of green, brown and red interspersed. This city, like the rest of Bhutan is sparsely populated and only the main Paro city has a continuous line of houses, hotels and shops, which is anyway just 3 streets wide! The city has a calming influence on people and the only sound is that of the occasional plane touching down or taking off from the Paro airport, which is an equally impressive tourist sight, unlike perhaps any other airport in the world.

Arriving at Paro on the night of 28th April, I had about 2 days to spend, before I started my journey back to the border on the 1st of May, until when I had the visa. I started the day with a breakfast of Bhutanese fried rice and freshly prepared spicy pickle, amidst a heavy bout of rains. The unseasonal rains had been playing hide and seek throughout my backpacking trip, but the weather Gods had been considerate enough to not foil or majorly alter any of my plans, anywhere. I decided to spend the day visiting the Paro Dzong and the natural history museum, apart from walking around the city and possibly hiking up one of the many mountains around.

The National Museum of Bhutan is housed in the ancient and renovated Ta Dzong, which is a 7 storey tall watch tower built in the shape of a conch-shell. This structure is currently under renovation following some damages due to the 2011 Sikkim earthquake that rocked the entire Himalayan region. The museum has a good set of antique paintings apart from detailed notes and video on the traditional Masked dances of Bhutan. There are also some ancient bronze artifacts and other exhibits, dated thousands of years old, that trace the culture of Bhutan. However the highlight of the museum is the abundant information painstakingly put together on the natural history of Bhutan, its varied climatic zones, different types of forests in the country and the associated flora and fauna. There are some well preserved taxidermy exhibits of several animals and exotic birds.

View of Paro Dzong overlooking the city	Painting in the fort

The Paro 'Dzong' or fort is nearby, within walking distance of the museum and houses a massive structure with an imposing central dome that raises up 5 floors, and for quite some height above the surrounding structure. Since most 'Dzongs' are converted into regional administrative offices, there is little tourist focus and no information provided on the history or significance of the forts, which was a disappointment. Taking cue from several forts in India where sound and light shows are organised daily, it would be a great means to explain the rich cultural and historical significance of these structures.

Inside the Paro Dzong..	Ancient dustbins made of tanned animal skin!

Guided by some locals, I decided to descend the fort through the back-entrance, that is generally used only by locals commuting to this part of the city. This route offered some stunning views of the entire Paro valley, along with the mountains in the backdrop that stand out with varied shades of pine and fir trees. From the heights of the Paro Dzong, one can clearly see the pristine waters of the Paro Chhu river entering the Paro city at a distance, running through the series of paddy fields on its path towards the fort, and eventually snaking its way along the fort walls and under the ancient foot-over-bridge towards the route that eventually takes it out of the city.

River Paro Chho flowing by the fort

Rear view of the Paro Dzong..	Picture-perfect landscape.. view from fort

Descending from the fort and crossing the wooden bridge, I got onto a street that houses the art gallery with some of the best 'thangka' paintings that I had come across in Bhutan. 'Thangka' is a traditional Tibetan-Budhist painting done on cloth depicting a composition of several minute religious figures. Detailed with vivid colors it appeared to be machine printed to perfection, though in reality all paintings in display had been created over weeks and months of effort by the local artists. Stepping into a painters working room, I could see several in-progress works of thangka art and the kind of detailed sketching and preparatory work that goes into making each masterpiece, which typically takes anywhere from a couple of months to over a year.

I then walked right through the paddy fields to some more breathtaking views and passed some truly rustic homes. Reaching the other end of the valley, I decided to hike up the first visible mountain through a dirt track, which I learnt that eventually goes up to the Chele La pass, bordering the Ha valley. The mountains in the pass were now visible and exhibited fresh snow deposited from the morning's change in weather.

A walk through the paddy fields	..its lush green everywhere!

A set of rustic homes near fields	A serene place near the house

As I started hiking up, I passed some children who were getting back home up in the mountains, after their day at school. Soon there was no sign of people movement and almost an hour of hiking alone got me to an area where I was greeted with some barking by a pair of wild mountain dogs. I moved perilously past the dogs after picking up a couple of stones to scare the dogs, or rather give me some false comfort! Walking further ahead, I crossed a small village with few huts, and to some louder barking, this time by some domesticated guard dogs in the village homes. Not seeing any people movement in the village, I moved ahead, towards a small monastery that I had heard about being on this route.

After covering some distance, the pack of wild dogs were growing stronger with a couple more additions and all patiently started following me, some wagging tails and others not giving any indication of friendship, or otherwise. Feeding them with some cookies didn't seem to work with all the dogs, as the friendly ones ate them all up, making the others sulk more. There I was, walking like a pied-piper with a pack of wild dogs following me! Finally, with the monastery in sight at some distance and dusk setting in, I decided not to push my luck further and turned back on the way down. This time, I took the steep trail going down the mountain and managed to converge to the route inspite of missing the half-visible trail at several places. Back amongst some mountain homes I encountered a bunch of little enthusiastic kids who were spending their evening playing near their homes. They promptly greeted me and asked a lot of questions on my whereabouts, but also regaled with their knowledge of Hindi cartoon characters and their dialogues - Chota Bheem, Motu Patlu, Doraemon and the likes seemed to be the most popular Hindi versions that they watched!

View of paddy fields on the way back	Kids getting back from school

Coffee & pastry at Champaca cafe!

Reaching Paro main city, I checked into the Champaca Cafe, an outlet serving great coffee, good food, a warm ambiance with a mini library and free WiFi - all great ingredients to attract travellers and there they were keeping the cafe busy through the day. While in Paro I spent a lot of time lounging around this cafe drinking loads of coffee, chatting with the travelers, reading and writing.

BPD: Thimphu, the Capital city

(BPD: Thimphu, the Capital city, 27 Apr '15)

The concept of home-stay is not prevalent in Bhutan and one must plan accommodation in hotels. However, while talking to people, I've heard about and also met enterprising people who are venturing into this area, though the places are not yet advertised online, and are let out only to acquaintances. I stayed in a hotel in the main city in Thimphu, wherein I ran into a couple visiting the country from Meghalaya, Assam. The husband had setup his own business in the area of enterprise software security, while his wife was with the Indian Railways.

Kid at the monastery

Joining them, I went around Thimphu visiting the places of interest. The most noteworthy one is the Changangkha Lhakhang, a 900-year old monastery, that is right in the heart of Thimphu. This is a very popular monastery with the locals and acts as the virtual birth registry, as all newborns are mandatorily brought here first, to be named and blessed. The place has ancient paintings on temple walls, and small carvings of religious figures on stone slates, that are placed behind the prayer wheels, all around the temple.

The Changangkha Lhakhang monastery	..birds at the Memorial Chorten

'Buddha point' is an under-construction, mammoth statue of Buddha measuring over 50 meters and slated to be the tallest Buddha statue in the world. The statue has a majestic presence over the city and at the angle its been built, is clearly visible from all parts of the city. The only attraction (and feature) in the Thimphu zoo is Bhutan's national animal, the Takin. I ended up visiting the botanical garden at the insistence of the couple, but it turned out to be a good find, with its collection of ornamental plants and some very exotic flowers. The garden has a very aesthetic architecture, with several click-worthy spots and is very well maintained. We were taken an order of Maggi Noodles in the garden canteen, and ended up being served the Koka thukpa, a soupy noodle prepared using the Koka ready-to-cook noodle, which is the staple and most famous noodle from Singapore, that is consumed in all of Bhutan!

The majestic Buddha point

Takin, Bhutan's national animal	Royal Botannical Garden

There are only a limited number of tourist spots in Thimphu, and these can be easily covered in under 4 hours, leaving one with enough time to explore the city, that is sparsely populated and spread-out length-wise from north to south. The twin monasteries of Tango and Cherri are in the city outskirts, worth visiting and are important religious places of worship with a long history. After exploring Thimphu on foot on the first day, I was contemplating on doing a solo hike in one of the many mountains around the city. Looking up for inspirations, I came across this book compiled by Rogier Gruys, which seemed quite detailed with a combination of short and long hikes, apty titled 'Mild and Mad Day Hikes around Thimphu'. After much deliberation, I was more inclined to hike up to the twin monasteries, a route also mentioned in the book, with an option to extend the trek higher into the mountain ranges for few more hours, beyond the Tango monastery. 

A view of one of the districts of Thimphu City

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.