Bhutan - The Land Of Thunder Dragon

VanLifer Story Steering Land Of Thunder Dragon - Bhutan

https://youtu.be/pgUIbLJHTOY

Steering to Land Of Thunder Dragon 🇮🇳🇧🇹

Bhutan is called Druk Yul - Land of Thunder Dragon , because of the violent and large thunderstorms that whip down through the valleys from the Himalayas.

Steering to Bhutan
Mumbai To Bhutan(Phuentsholing) by Road : 2436Kms /46Hrs/3Days
Flight - Mumbai to Bagdogra (Direct 3 hours /Via Kolkata 7-8hours )

Bagdogra to Phuentsholing - 165 Kms /4Hours drive .

We chose to fly to Bagdogra through Kolkata to save on time for our Road To Thailand in a lil tight schedule to complete all in 20days ,Since we have already driven to North East in 2017 to Kathmandu and  Shillong/Cherrapunji so this time we transported our Campervan Nissan NV 200 to Bagdogra and started our journey from Siliguri (Siliguri to Bagdogra is just 20 mins drive ) .One need to keep the transportation timings in mind to that taking atleast one week ahead , despite we doing our best the Campervan got delivered a day later and we ended up shopping only at Bagdogra for a day .

Woh kahte Hain na...aage badhen se pahle ek kadam peeche ..." Yeah Many will be wondering why we planned Bhutan for our Road To Thailand Expedition ..I wanted to experience what gives Bhutan So much on Happiness Index being our neighbors and we have too much to cover for .

Nonetheless if we leave behind the race of winning all the time and start living what fuels us more ,may be we will feel that happiness within and that's my expedition journeys are all about !!

It's not the destinations which fuels me but the journey steering to "

And steering here is easier than our another neighbor Nepal as the road conditions are far better and one will love steering to the Himalayan curves in a carbon free zone ,two wheelers or 4 wheeler you will love steering here.

Permits

Bhutan is half n hour ahead of India and thus one need to know this to get their permits if trying to reach Phuentsholing in afternoon , otherwise it's advisable to reach here a day ahead and stay at Phuentsholing .

On Weekends the Immigration office and RTO offices are closed and thus on Monday one can expect a sudden rush to the offices and thus need to plan this well. If you are traveling in a group of more than 4-5 ,I recommend to have an agent who can file the papers else no point all preparing same set of papers and stand in long queue , for a couple you can come early as 9am with all the Forms /Annexure mentioned on the website along with all the relevant ID and address proof if not carrying Passports (For Indians only )Otherwise Passport is must .
The Immigration office /Permit office is 5 mins walk from Bhutan Gate , Phuentsholing. The permit taken from Phuentsholing is valid to travel to Paro and Thimpu and for onwards to Punakha and Phobjikha can be taken from Thimpu Permit office if you want to steer /Ride on your own vehicles.
The approximate time taken at both the offices end to end is 2 hours , so keep that in mind while preparing the iteneary. Checkpoints - One should get their Passport/Permits stamped at all the checkposts along with vehicle permission and should ensure to stamp out also while returning through same route as mentioned in your permits.

Bike and Car Rentals
One can get Bike on rents easily between Rs 1200-1400 per day and Cars for Rs 4000-5000 per day .

Important Travel Tips :
1)#Currency Indian currency and Bhutan Currency have same value and one need not worry exchanging currencies while traveling to Bhutan if carrying INR .
2)#LocalSimCard can be made available at Permit office or with valid Passports in Phuentsholing.
3)Travel Documents - Passport or Valid ID proof preferably Voter ID Card/Aadhar Card , Driving License for Vehicle permit along with Valid Insurance and Pollution Certificate . 4)Travel Kit Since it's a 4 hours drive each from Bagdogra to Phuentsholing and Again Phuentsholing to Paro/Thimpu one must carry #TravelEssentials like Foot Pumps /Puncture Kit/Torch Lights and a good stepeney .
5) Responsible VanLifer - Be a responsible VanLifer if you are driving your own and do not honk, do not litter and keep this beautiful country as it is which inspired you to travel that far .
6) Staying In Phuentsholing doesn't require a permit for Indians and thus you can apply for permits in the morning for Thimpu and Paro. 7)Permits can only be taken between 9am to 4:30PM on all weekdays , Saturday-Sundays , Immigration offices are closed.
8)As mentioned earlier Bhutan is half n hour ahead of India ,IST.
9)Since it's uphill drive ,you won't get dividers or Highway lanes and thus need to respect traffic rules without honking.
10) Google Maps - Have a proper mounting to keep the Google Maps so that you can steer uphill with ease.
11) And last , have some amazing road trip playlists to fuel your trip to the thunder dragon.

Bagdogra To Phuentsholing

We started from Bagdogra at 1 PM and reached Phuentsholing at 5PM with one stop for ATM and traffic going slow at Border Town Jaigoan. We took sometime to relax and unveil our #ResponsibleVanLife Expedition for the next 20Days and was very much appreciated by the locals out there , Campervan having flags of Thunder Dragon country got all the encouragement we were expecting to our second cross border .

We took 2 Sim Cards with the help of local Mobile shops showing our passports , without passport and permit you will not be able to get that . And thought to check out for Hotels for night stay , though we had shortlisted some on our Booking.com and MakeMyTrip.com
I thought to look for some budget ones but on arrivals they were lil costly ,so I gave the confirmation through Booking.com for Legphel 3 Star Hotel newly built and was amazing one to spend the night and prepare for permits in the night itself.

FirstBeer of the expedition was #DrukBeer and thus it remains special till the end of our Road To Thailand Expedition steering #5Countries and #5Beers 🤩❤

We also prepared what to see in Phuentsholing next day while driving to Paro and Thimpu .

Phuentsholing to Thimpu 🇮🇳🇧🇹

Morning Visit to Karbandi Monastery - Absolute Bliss to start the Expedition from Bhutan and visiting this Monastery gives you Phuentsholing view from Uphill and we didn't mind waking up early to visit here at 7:30am

After having breakfast , we did all our permits and RTO work for 2 hours to come back to hotel and checkout for Paro .
Steering between the valley and river to the Himalayan curls is like dream coming true.
We were greeted with fogs around and moist drizzle and stopped at Gedu for some photographs which is also known for having rainfalls throughout the year .You will steer throughout up hill vibrant green and calm nature so don't make mistake even for a second to honk ,since it doesn't have dividers and lanes ,need to respect .
Have a look at the videos ,I have uploaded on my YouTube channel #KhanabadoshAjay about steering to this uphill in our Campervan Nissan NV200 with all our bags packed for 20Days.

Since ,we didn't do much homework on TigersNest timings , we reached there at 4 PM and since like Cherrapunjis living root bridge this also need a hike up to min 3 hours further and thus it was closed for the day for trekking ,so one should be here by 9-10am max if you really wanna go to Tigers Nest which is a must .

What all to see in Paro :
Tigers Nest , National Museum of Bhutan and Rinpung Dzong. Steering to Tigers Nest from the Paro Town looks you driving in Edinburgh such a clean and heritage town with river flowing on the side you steering.

Paro To Thimpu

65Kms /1 hour 30mins
We started in evening itself after 2 hours break for tea and snacks .
Perks of Road trips are you get to steer through all the traditional architecture , colorful houses beautiful rivers flowing in and that's why it brings in most of the tourists who love the nature .Wish we could have stayed there one night at Paro.
Maps go a bit tricky here so one need to know the way they got into Paro it's an intersection at TanaLung Chu Bridge for Paro ,if you will drive straight you will go to Thimpu , so that was our milestone 😄.
Thimpu being the capital of Bhutan is the biggest city and one starts seeing this as countrys commercial center as well .
We chose to stay in Bhutan Boutique Residency , where we had to struggle with some card payments and their machine was not working and thus a quick note , have stufficient cash if you want to avoid heavy exchange margins on cash withdrawals in absence of POS machine.
They also didn't had change to $100 to return us for $30 Hotel bill ($ we kept for our Thailand and Myanmar expense) 2nd Druk Beer with dinner at Hotel itself we prepared places to be seen tomorrow morning , knowing that we have to cross Guwhati till Dimapur next day looks crazy right ?
And stay tuned for all the Episodes till we cover Road To Thailand .
8 Sundays to New Year and I wish I can write back all 8 Travel Stories steering through Bhutan /Guwhati/Nagaland/Manipur /Imphal/Moreh/Myanmar/Bagan/MaeSot to Bangkok and Back 🤭🤭

Thimpu to Phuentsholing

Waking up early 😴 again packing up our stuffs in our Campervan , We went straight to #MemorialChorten where our Prime Minister , Narendra Modi also visited in July/Aug '19.
And again clicked our Responsible VanLifer Picture with Amazing Bhutan 🇮🇳🇧🇹

Second we steered to Buddha Dordenma , Thimpu asking some routes from school kids , as some of the routes were closed for maintenance and Google Maps were struggling to figure out , couple of u- turns , we were on our way to uphill again to be with Buddha .

Great Buddha Dordenma is a gigantic Shakyamuni Buddha statue in the mountains of Bhutan celebrating the 60th anniversary of fourth king Jigme Singye Wangchuck. The statue houses over one hundred thousand smaller Buddha statues, each of which, like the Great Buddha Dordenma itself, are made of bronze and gilded in gold. The Great Buddha Dordenma is sited amidst the ruins of Kuensel Phodrang, the palace of Sherab Wangchuck, the thirteenth Desi Druk, overlooking the southern approach to Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan. Construction began in 2006 and was planned to finish in October 2010, however construction did not conclude until 25 September 2015. The completed work is one of the largest Buddha rupas in the world, at 169 feet (52 m) and contains 100,000 8-inch-tall and 25,000 12-inch-tall gilded bronze Buddhas.

One can also see entire Thimpu from the Big Buddha here , #TravelEssential #GoPro is must.

Places to Visit in and around Thimpu :
Memorial Chorten , Big Buddha , Fork Heritage Museum , Tashjchho Dzong and Changangkha Lhakhang.

Also to be noted ; Thimpu to Punakha is 85kns and 2hours 30min drive /and can get the permits done at Thimpu .We didn't steered there since had to travel back through Phuentsholing to Guwhati and Dimapur.

Packed some fruits from locals in the Valley , we steered to say goodbye to this beautiful Happy county to visit again 💯. Sumans Restaurant Midway to Phuentsholing at Chukha is must to have breakfast /a quick meal , they were also good to accept Thai Bhats too which ,I got at good exchange rates as well.

Will come back with my another short travel Story about North East in Episode II . 🤩

Khanabadosh Ajay
VanLifer - Road To Thailand