Backpacking in Bhutan

This is my first ever trip outside my country, India. Me with my two other friends, Bibek and Nikhilesh planned a budget trip to The Land of Thunder Dragon, Bhutan.

On 19/02/19, we started our journey from Bhubaneswar to Alipurduar on the Puri-Kamakhya Express at 3:45 pm. The next day, we realized that we were going to be late as the train was running at such a slow pace. So instead of going to Alipurduar, we decided to get down at Falakata station at 5:30 pm which is around 50 kms from the Indo-Bhutan border. From there, we took a shared cab to Jaigaon, which is the Indian side of the border. I was happy that within the next 30 minutes, I will be in Bhutan.

On the way, I was chatting on WhatsApp with someone from Bhutan, and she told me that the next two days are public holidays in Bhutan on the occasion of the Birthday of His Majesty The King of Bhutan, and also the 3rd and 4th days were weekends. Therefore the immigration office will remain closed. This means for the next four days, there was no chance that we were getting the permit. I was in real shock. All my dream of visiting Bhutan was fading away just like that. I just asked myself, how did I forget to check the dates? The fact is that our plan for visiting Bhutan was already delayed by a week from 12th Feb to 19th Feb. I had checked the dates for holidays referring to the previous plan but didn’t check for the later. I was blaming myself for all this.

With nothing in mind what to do next, we reached Jaigaon. Bibek tried to contact a person from Bhutan on CS and he told us that he had called a person who works in the immigration office. He said if a significant number of visitors will come tomorrow, they may open the office for some hours. We didn’t want to lose even a single chance of getting the permit. So we decided to go to the Immigration office at Phuentsholing.

It was 8 pm in the night, and the office was closed. We went to the nearby police station to get any help. One policeman helped us meeting an official from the immigration office. He also told the same that the office is not going to open tomorrow. But they may open it if a lot of visitors come. So we decided to wait until the next morning. We searched for a good budget hotel to spend the night. But it was already 10 pm and we didn’t find any. We had to spend the night outside a market complex just beside the main road near the Bhutan gate. Yeah, we slept with a group of homeless. Things we do for traveling…

21/02/19

The next morning, we waited outside the office for other visitors to come, if any. But deep down, we all knew that our plan has completely failed. So Bibek and Nikhilesh decided not to make this trip worthless, and instead planned to visit Darjeeling. But I was not in a state of spending the money on somewhere else which I was supposed to spend on visiting Bhutan. I didn’t had any option at that moment. My dad also told me not to come home alone, and be stuck with my friends. So the next two days, we visited Darjeeling.

Then we decided to try one more time getting the permit to Bhutan. But Bibek decided to return his home as he was tight on his schedule. But Nikhilesh was determined to go to Bhutan, even solo. The only person who was not sure about anything was ME. I was not able to choose whether I should return home or go to Bhutan. So I left it all to my luck and took the option of going Bhutan. That night, we slept on the Siliguri Railway Platform.

24/02/19

Early morning, we two (me and Nikhilesh) took the train to Hashimara at 7 am and then took a shared taxi to Jaigaon. After reaching, we booked a room. It was very good and clean and as cheap as 300/- per night for both of us. In the evening, we booked the bus tickets for Thimphu, and just roamed around Phuentsholing.

All our luggage were kept on the roof of the bus. On reaching the first check post, I found out that I had kept the permit inside my bag which was already tied on to the roof of the bus. So we quickly climbed the bus, searched for our bags, found the permit and then showed to the officer. After around 5 hours, we reached Babesa where our host received us. It's 7 kms from Thimphu. Their house was beautifully crafted with wood. We were going to stay at their place for the next three days. We gossiped a lot, smoked some joints and slept late in the night.

26/02/19

Then walked down to Thimphu. Saw the Clock Tower and Memorial Chorten. We wanted to start trekking to Phajoding Monastery the same day, but it was too late to start, already 3 pm. So we decided just to roam around Thimphu. We saw the Royal Textile Academy, Election Commission office and some foreign embassies from outside.

Then in the evening, we met Mr. Tej Prasad Kafley, he is a teacher in Bhutan. We talked a lot over coffee. He helped us plan our trip in Bhutan. Then we took the bus to Babesa from the city bus stand.

28/02/19

Woke up at around 7 in the morning. The monk gave us some rice and Kewa Datshi (Potato & cheese) to eat. He also gave us some polythene to wrap around our feet to keep it safe from snow. The dog following us was still with us. We gave it some rice. Then started descending through the mountain. It was still snowing. The snow was now thicker than yesterday. Leki was leading us with the dog finding the route and making footprints so that we could just follow.

As we went further up, it started snowing heavily and the surrounding just changed from dark green to frosted white. When we reached the monk's house, he welcomed us with hot tea. He was speaking Dzongkha language, so we couldn’t understand anything. Leki was translating to English for us. Later in the night, he served us dinner and gave blankets to sleep.

But running down a snowy mountain is not that easy. I still remember how many times my butt had to hit the ground as my feet slipped over the muddy trail. On reaching the main road, we hired a cab till the city bus stand. Then got on the bus and reached Babesa. I slept in the evening till the next morning.

Trekked for 1.5 hrs to reach Tiger’s Nest. I'm sure all the pain due to the trekking will disappear when you witness this magnificent structure.

We took a lot of pictures up there. Then trekked down to Tiger’s Nest Junction in 2 hours. Returned to Paro in a cab. In the night, we watched the IND vs AUS ODI. The next day, we left for India.

During the whole 5 hours journey, if you ever come across a bumpy portion of the road or even a sharp turn, you will be greated by a traffic sign saying "INCONVENIENCE REGRETTED." I mean, who feels sorry for such silly things?

I feel grateful that I got to visit this beautiful country.

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