4. Bhutan Bhraman.

Bhutan-Bhraman

0

To spend a vacation, one has to earn it first. The one who penned down this quote is on a vacation now.

Many of us believe that an excursion has to start with a plan. I would say it starts with a Passion. Plan may fail depending on various factors. Passion doesn’t – come what may.

With a passion of vacation in mind, I spoke to J few months back (around Oct 2017). The thought of exploring the mystical Bhutan was all over the mind and heart. Appended to the feeling was to cover a few uncultivated places on the motherland.

It was a 10 night 10 day trip wherein we were a crew of 6 voyagers when the thought had germinated. Unlike the earlier trip to Leh during July 2017 when the number had shot up from 2 to umpteen, we were 3 when we took our flight to Guwahati on Night 1.

1

J, M and D landed on Guwahati airport on Day 1 where our Lightning McQueen was waiting for us. We had fuelled in our abdominal tank before landing so there was no point in any further investment of time for the gas.

We drove to Manas National Park (A UNESCO World heritage site) with only 1 chai pit stop. Manas is an extra-ordinarily beautiful landscape and it dwells in India (950 sq km) as well as Bhutan (1057 sq km).

After having a simple yet delicious lunch, we took a power nap and headed for the Jungle Safari. The weather was simply awesome. Sun had covered himself in the clouds and the soil had started generating a fragrance that one would long for. We were sensing the indication of rains and as we moved ahead, we experienced drizzling. The jungle is extremely dense, lush green, stunningly eye-soothing and home to Big 5 of Wild Life (The Asiatic Elephant, The Gaur, The Leopard, The Royal Bengal Tiger and The Sloth Bear).

During the safari, we stopped by the Manas River for a while. The river was extremely clean and tranquil. The animals get full marks for not polluting it. They possess a great sense of awareness. Manas River is supposed to be a boundary wall between India and Bhutan but there are no check posts and armed guards.

After the lovely 4 hour safari and good amount of sighting, the stomach raised its demands for food. We rushed to the beautiful cottage that was precisely overlooking the exquisite Manas forest. The sun sets pretty early in the geography we were in. We let the sun call it a day but not us. After taking a stroll around the cottage and some more photography, we did some un-packing and re-arranging as well as chatting simultaneously. We were still breathing the jungle.

Night 2 was again a short one for us as Day 2 had to start early.

2

The power packed day kicked off at 5.30am. By 6.30, we had started our Safari number 2. The weather was quite varied than the previous evening. The day had opened up, sun rays had begun to kiss the lush green forest and we took a different route to explore. Not fair to compare but the geography on day 2 was better than the earlier evening. We were cruising through a much denser captivity. There were few places where it was difficult for the daylight to penetrate. The thought of being eaten up by the wild elephants also passed by. Looking at the serenity of the forest and the peace on the body of animals, the previous thought would suddenly get contradicted. The communities of Deer, Monkey, Peacock, Birds and all the other animals were busy in their own world and would pay less or no attention to the travellers like us. We bid adieu to the jungle by 10.30 am expressing our gratitude towards the wild life that allowed us to mark our footprint on their territory.

In next 30 minutes, we had to move towards Jaigaon, the last town on the Indian side and enter Phuentsholing, the first town on the Bhutan land. The distance of 230 odd kilometres was to be covered and the map was showing 5 hours and 30 minutes of driving time. We had determined to beat the maps by an hour by including 1 hour lunch break in the estimated time.

It was a wonderful feeling, first ever in life, of entering a foreign land with hands on the steering and 4 wheels on the ground. We checked into a beautiful hotel at 3.45pm.

After a bit of relaxation, it was time to explore Phuentsholing. We had few hours in evening and a couple of hours next morning for the same. Though it is a small place, it had a potential to submerge the tourists into the architecture and legacy of Bhutan. Less than a mile into the tiny town and once could witness the mountains on the other side of it, mighty and green. The traffic movement was quite disciplined, no one was honking and the pedestrians used only designated place to cross the road. The people were very helpful and friendly.

3

The next morning we finished our entry permit related formalities and paid a visit to a beautiful temple. The next destination was the capital city, Thimphu. It was around 170 km and the entire journey was on the hills. In over 5 hours of driving time, the temperature had dropped by close to 12 degrees.

On our way to Thimphu, we stopped by for lunch and had delicious soupy noodles in a cute wooden restaurant overlooking a gorgeous valley on the back side of it. It was also a house to half a dozen mountain dogs. By this time, we had realized that Bhutan is a home to a big number of stray dogs.

We took a few stops on our away to breathe the fresh oxygen and soothe our eyes with the sorcerous Mother Nature. There were places wherein it felt like staying immobile for a long period of time.

Not so long in the journey post the last break and we were welcomed to the beautiful hilly capital of Bhutan. Thimphu is supposed to be the third highest capital city of the world at an altitude of 2648m. The first 2 are La Paz (Bolivia) and Quito (Ecuador).

After zooming through hilly terrains, the body demanded a little bit of rest. We negotiated a bit and resumed the hunt towards the centre of the city, also the most prominent one amongst the travellers – The Clock Tower. It can be described as a flat ground that has a clock tower in the middle and on 3 of the 4 walls at the end, steps were designed to walk and sit. It reminded me of the Trafalgar square in the city of London.

We had heard about night life in Bhutan. It turned out to be an evening life as most of the stuff gets shut by 9pm. We wanted to settle down for a place that had live music. We knocked a popular place and were welcomed as if they were opening it only for us. Post that, we headed for a simple dinner and were back to our dwelling by night (per Bhutan standards).

4

Come another fantastic morning and I opened the doors to my balcony. It was cold with some wind but my mind craved to be fearless. What a lovely view it was! I was standing on the footsteps of a benevolent hill on my front, ready to be embraced by the presence of it. I could sense a significant amount of quietude from within. After a lot of difficulty in taking the eyes off it, I managed and moved for breaking the overnight fast.

The schedule was to visit a few places around but more interesting was the feeling of the terrains. National Library had a huge collection of books in Bhutanese and English. Also, it hosts a book called Bhutan, which was world’s largest book recognized by Guinness book of world records in 2003 and it remained so until 2007. After the library, we paid visit to the Thimpu Dzong (Dzong is a fortress with a temple inside and also has government offices) but didn’t get inside as we were told that the Paro Dzong is a better place to be.

Buddha Point was the next and also the best place to be. Sitting in front of a 169 feet giant Buddha in the backdrop of mountains was an absorbing experience. I wanted to take my own time and the good part was, I took. I am finding it hard to describe the experience in words. 125,000 smaller Buddha statues have been placed within the Buddha Dordenma statue.

Takin reserve was the next hop. It is the national animal of Bhutan and claimed to be found nowhere else on this planet. The closed captivity also had a few types of deer and goats. There were trees around that were home to variety of birds.

After a quick lunch, we headed towards Dochula Pass, which is a mountain pass on the road from Thimphu to Punakha. 108 memorial Stupas (Chortens) were built here by the eldest queen mother. Besides, there is also an old monastery. The view from the pass is quite picturesque since it has an enchanting backdrop of the Himalayan range.

The nature all over was so charming that we didn’t even bother to think about the material stuff, which predominantly meant shopping. Towards the end of the day, all we needed is a little bit of food to satisfy the digestive system as it would keep complaining of no work.

To our surprise, the day though being a long one, wasn’t quite exhausting. May be the lack of pollution and the transcendent vibrations were working.

5

Paro was the next terminus. We didn’t want to start too early as the distance wasn’t much but we got an input that on the way from Thimphu to Paro we can catch up with a few beautiful sights. We loaded ourselves and the first pit stop was the meeting point of Thimphu river and Paro River.

Meeting of 2 rivers is considered as a not-so-good omen in Bhutan and hence at the meeting point, they have built 3 small stupas that can generate positive energies adequate enough to do away with an omen that is dwelling in their belief system.

The next milestone was checking out the flowing Paro River that had a road on one side and mountains on the other. It was a good chance to grab some water and sip it down the throat. Moreover, it was a delightful locale to click a few pics that would satisfy the social hunger.

The next on cards was one of the rare sights in the world. Paro Airport. It is a tiny airport situated in the Paro valley, under the wide sky and surrounded by a range of numerous mountains. It is said that only 8 pilots on this planet are qualified to land on this one as it involves a challenging manoeuvring between the mountains before the landing happens. It was indeed a breathtakingly awesome view.

We were only 6 km away from Paro city but it was difficult for us to move from the sight of the airport. We dragged ourselves and soon were tightly hugged by the tiny city of Paro. We were travelling since few hours and hence chose to check in to our homestay and were also excited to meet the Bhutanese family that was our host. After a small refresher, we left back towards the market area and had a local Bhutanese cuisine for our lunch.

Post lunch, we headed towards the Paro Dzong. The entry was restricted only to a single hall as it was the case with other Dzongs. It had a nicely decorated temple with the idol of Buddha in this prince avatar.

The next was the national museum of Paro, which is again a worthy place to be. Honestly, I find museums a bit boring but this was more of a contradiction to my anticipation. It had interesting pictures and stories about the mystical history of Bhutan. Also, it had a great representation about the wild life and the flora and fauna.

It was a day well spent. We weren’t much hungry for dinner so munched a bit and made our way to the stay. The next day was the most exciting part of the itinerary.

6

It was a 30 minute drive from the place where we had lived the previous night to the base camp of the Taktshang Monastery aka Tiger’s nest. Now, this is the most electrifying portion for any tourist who visits Bhutan. On the other hand, it demanded a lot of patience as reaching to the Tiger’s nest was a trek of an estimated 2.5 hour uphill. All we wanted to do is to follow the famous saying – Happiness is the journey. We chose to adore each step of our trek and it really helped us. On our way, we had coffee and biscuits and a bio break. There comes a point where the trekking amid the mountain ends and the steps initiate. This point is the one from where the Tiger’s nest is visible in a most spectacular frame.

After that, a few hundred steps down and then again a couple of hundred steps of uphill makes the soul touch the doors of the monastery. It has 9 temples within. It is said that Guru Padma Sambava, the great Indian saint had travelled to that place on the back of a tigress and hence the name.

Each of the 9 temples is a story in itself and is such a spellbinding experience that it was again hard to leave the premises after earning a lot of quality time there. However, the way all of us have come with a return ticket, we also had. The difference was we knew the return date of this trip and hence had to adhere to the schedule.

We reached back to the base camp and descend was obviously swifter than the climb. It was more than a couple of hours post noon and we had planned to relish on Indian food hence we skipped the cafeteria where we had coffee in the morning.

Due to the awesome weather, the trek was not too exhausting so post delayed lunch, we planned to check out the airport strip once again. However, we got the news that there are no flights for the rest of the day and hence we strolled around and headed back to our temporary nest.

The next day, we had to tell adios to the super cool country and resume our journey forward.

7

This was a long day with a lot of driving in 2 phases. Paro to Phuentsholing – approximately 170 kms (around 6 hours including a lunch break) and then towards Kalimpong – approximately 175 kms (around 4 hours due to flat terrains). The journey went quite smooth and we could make it on time passing through all the milestones.

At Kalimpong, we checked in to our hotel at around 5pm and ideally we should have stretched our legs after a long journey. However, we disobeyed what our legs wished and after washing our faces, we left for the market to take a stroll. I personally like to walk around the city/town centre at almost all the places I visit. This helps in getting some insights about the culture and people and also an opportunity to strike a conversation.

A filling Indian dinner and we were back to our hotel and straight on the bed.

8

We were scheduled to enter Darjeeling on this day. However, we didn’t want to miss on the beautiful sights of Kalimpong. We zoomed through the market, which was totally a different sight in morning and went straight up to Dealo. It is a fantastic park on the hill with quite a scenic view all around it. We roamed around for over 30 minutes and in another 45 minutes, we hit the Durbin Monastery which made us nostalgic about the Bhutan heritage.

The next on cards was to experience rafting on the Teesta River. Although we had to rush, we chose not to miss the rafting portion. We jumped in and had a wonderful time. We hardly had time for our meal so we grabbed a quick bite and flew towards Darjeeling. Something was still missing as we weren’t quite convinced to go straight to Darjeeling without seeing some beauty on the way.

Time didn’t allow us but we overpowered and stopped at a super cool view point that had sights of the Teesta-Rangeet meeting point (Sangam) and was overlooking 2 roads and many mountains. One of the roads was on the Sikkim side and other on the West Bengal side.

By around 3pm, we reached Darjeeling and checked into a homestay that had a cool view of the valley on one end and the series of mountain on another.

Mall road and Market are the 2 typical evening hangout places in Darjeeling but as it goes with many places in north-east part of India, Darjeeling also starts yawning by 7.30pm and sleeps by 8pm.

We had little time to take a brief walk and we chose to explore one more monastery and settle for a dinner around 7pm. The most surprising thing about Darjeeling, I felt, was we couldn’t discover a single shop selling sweets. However, this surprise was faded away quickly as we filled in our bellies.

9

The alarm shouted at 3am. Yes, we had to start at 4am and reach the peak by 5am to witness the much-talked-about sunrise where in the first rays of sun fall on Kanchenjunga and it appears golden. We could witness the sunrise but to witness the rays falling was not possible due to the fog. They say that October is the best chance to experience the same.

We started downhill after some wait and were at the Batasia loop by 7am. It is a park that has railway tracks in it and also is a tribute to the soldiers of the Indian Army. We were hungry by now and had a little snack in the name of breakfast. We had to book a toy train and the station wasn’t yet open so after a wait of few minutes, we booked our Joy Ride. Ghoom monastery was apparently similar to the one we saw the previous day and hence we didn’t invest our time.

We recommenced our journey towards Darjeeling Zoo and Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI). We had discovered that both these places will need quite some time and it is worth it. It really was. Zoo is a home to high altitude animals viz. Panda, Civets, Snow Leopard and other animals like Black Leopard, Royal Bengal Tiger, Monkeys, Deer and more.

HMI earned us deep insights on the mountaineering and the upper floor of it is dedicated to Mount Everest and edifying facts around the same. Also, it pays tribute to Tenzing Norgay, a man who needs no Introduction.

Further, we paid a short visit to the Tenzing rock, where Tenzing Norgay had done practice before summiting the Mt Everest.

Last but not the least was the thrilling Joy ride that included traveling on a heritage train on the roads through the Batasia loop and back to the main station. It had a break for 30 minutes in between where we were allowed to explore the Ghoom Railway Museum depicting facts about the High Altitude railways of the world and also the making and effort behind the Darjeeling Heritage Railway.

By the time we finished it all, it was close to 3pm and we already had a long day. We settled for home cooked noodles and called it a day.

10

Darjeeling to Bagdogra airport is a 65 km straight drive. We were scheduled to fly out from Bagdogra at 1.30 pm and reach Mumbai by 5pm. We wanted to tweak it a bit. Hence we decided to start early and take a long route to Bagdodra covering Pashupati Nagar (the first city inside the Nepal border) and Mirik Lake. We started at 6am and welcomed ourselves to the Nepal border at around 8am.

We had an hour of time to explore the market and the temple. We reached Mirik lake by 9.30 am, hogged on to sandwiches quickly, took some pictures at the lake, happily skipped boating and made our way to Bagdogra airport.

Mumbai gave us a warm cuddle at 5pm.

PS: If you travel to Bhutan on a weekday, the immigration office is open between 9am to 5pm. If you happen to travel on a weekend, please ensure that you have done your e-permit in advance else you will need to wait at Phuentsholing until the immigration office is operational. For taking an Indian car to Bhutan, the formalities are done from Monday to Friday between 9am to 5pm at the Bus Terminal. In case of e-permit for self, you need to reach out to the local immigration office that operates on weekend also. This office does only entry and exit stamping.