BPD: Back on the Indian border

(BPD: Back on the Indian border, 1 May '15)

After a good week in Bhutan, I had booked my return for the 1st of May from Paro, by bus.  I was looking at taking a day extension and visiting Punakha valley in Bhutan, another scenic place in Bhutan. However, I had put this off for the next trip and planned to get back on my 7th day in Bhutan, which was the default permit duration. Being a little more informed about the workings, I promptly 'reserved' my ticket at the Paro city bus stop a day earlier, and arrived on time at the designated hour of departure. As the bus rolled out of Paro and crossed the Paro Dzong, small & impressive Paro Airport, undulating mountains and the valleys, I bid my goodbyes, until the next time.

Meeting a varied set of interesting individuals had been happening throughout my backpack journey. Again, in the bus, I was fortuitous to meet another different individual. A man who looked to be in his forties, was actually a retired civil engineer who had worked with the UN and other agencies in a job, travelling around the world. What was interesting however, was what he did after retirement. After observing farming models in Australia, he set out to try his hand at farming, more in an attempt to put his unused land in Bhutan to some use.

Starting with a very small area cultivated with crops and fruit trees, he also bought a couple of cows and chicks to dabble with a new, full-time job as a farmer! As small successes led to excitement, coupled with his stellar entrepreneurial streak, though late in life, he had rapidly expanded in the last 2 years. He gave an interesting account of why and how he tried out different things in his farm, and how he had ended up with a large cultivated area, growing close to a dozen crops and fruits like paddy, maize, banana, pears, lychee, guava. His animal farm had also expanded into hundreds of cattle and a big layer-poultry producing milk, eggs and other dairy products that he sold in the local market. He was also using all this produce in a tourist guest house which he had also set up, to brisk business in South Bhutan and Paro!

His energy was infectious and he spoke more like a man on a mission, who had just begun and was hungry to try out a hundred more new things in his farm. He pointed to the plenty of land still left unused, as if it were another indication of the miles left to go, for him. It was amazing to hear the knowledge he had accumulated in a short span and his eagerness to learn more, in an area completely different from his life-long profession. When he also mentioned about the blueprint he had just drawn up for contract-farming of cattle and how he intends to expand, I saw a lot of similarities in him with Suguna's MD Sundararajan, who had painstakingly and ingeniously carved out a billion-dollar poultry business in India over the last 2 decades.

Deep in conversation, I didn't realise that we had spoken 6 hours and had already reached the Bhutanese border town of Phuentsholing. Bidding good bye, I proceeded back to the same hotel that I had stayed in, on my first day in Bhutan.  By now, I had made up my travel plan for the last 2 days of my trip. I was going to stay put in the border town and just chill out for a day, reading, writing and having a relaxed time, with a change of gear from the continuous travel that I'd been doing. I just reminded myself again, that it was just a vacation and this was what I felt like doing, at that hour!

6AM: Lounging at the park, Phuentsholing	Bird (is also) watching..!

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.

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!