It was the last weekdays of September 2017 and the time of Navratri and Durga Puja in India, and we had mid semester break at IIT Guwahati. And, I was very excited for these holidays, after a very long hectic schedule of IIT we got these holidays, and we wanted to utilize our long awaited holidays, so we planned a small tour to Royal Kingdom of Bhutan.
We were 5 people in the group from IIT. On the first day of our holiday we took a cab in the early morning from IIT Guwahati to Kamakhya Railway Station, we reached at the right time, our train arrived at 05:00 am. We boarded the train from Kamakhya Railway Station to Hasimara, which is the last railway station near to Indo-Bhutan Border. We reached there after 6 hours of journey, the journey was beautiful the route passes through the beautiful terrain of the tea garden of Assam state. After reaching at Hasimara Railway Station we took an Auto rickshaw to Jaigaon which is the last city of India at the border of Bhutan, it is just 30 minutes away from the railway station. There we met one person Kuldeep who was going alone for 2 days of Bhutan trip. We joined that man with our group, now we were 6 persons in the group, and he stayed with us for the whole trip.
After reaching at Jaigaon we crossed the India-Bhutan Border by walk, the another side of Bhutan was mesmerising and this place is called as Phuentsholling.
Phuentsholling
Phuentsholling is the place where immigration office is situated. From there we got the permit to enter the Bhutan. It took us 3 hours to stand in the queue to get the permit, a huge crowd was there because it was the time of Durga Puja holidays in India, so most of the Indians were there on their Bhutan tour.
Important documents to show at immigration office: Indian Voter ID/Passport and Hotel booking proof. No visa is required for Indian citizen. They will give a temporary permit for 7 days, which can be extended later if you wish.
After getting the permit we ran towards the bus stand of Phuentsholling. But we missed the bus, because the last bus towards Thimphu was at 04:00 PM.
It was raining in Phuentsholling at that time, and all of we went to a nearest restaurant for the lunch, we were all hungry. There we had some Indian food Daal and Rice. Daal was not up to the mark and the price was 100 NU/INR. There we had exchanged our Indian currency (Rupees) into Bhutanese currency (Ngultrum). Although INR is in huge demand in Bhutan they are accepting the Indian Rupees, we can buy anything with INR, because INR and NU has an equal value.
It was around 06:00 PM and we were still in the Phuetsholling, and our plan was to reach in Thimphu for night stay. So we went near to the taxi stand, it was just near to the bus stand, from there we took a taxi toThimphu. The taxi driver charged us 4500 INR for taxi fare.
On the way to the Thimphu around at 09:00 PM, we took a small rest for the dinner in a restaurant. There we ordered some food, among of them one was Ema Dachi, we ordered it just by curiosity and our experience was not good with this dish.
As I’ve mentioned above that, to get permit we need to submit the hotel booking print in immigration office. But, because of some reason the hotel which we had booked during permit got cancelled after getting the permit. So we had to find new hotel to accommodate us, and it was a bit difficult to get the hotel in that situation , because it was the time of Chesu festival in Thimphu. Because of which all the hotels were already booked. We reached in Thimphu at 12:00 AM midnight, and it was too cold at there.
Thimphu
After reaching in Thimphu, we started the Hotel search operation. We all were divided into 3 groups of 2 people in each group. For the first 30 minutes we went to the each hotels in the city whichever were open, but all the hotels were already booked. All the Bhutanese were giving us the utmost respect and there hospitality was really appreciable, some of the staff members of those hotels were willing to give us their personal accommodation without of any charge, we were surprised to see this, because it is not a common thing in India.
After a few time one of our group has found a hotel in the middle of the city. The name of the hotel was New Grand Hotel, there we booked 2 rooms at 3000 INR only. The restaurant of New Grand Hotel was totally vegetarian.
The next day we woke up early and went to explore the Thimphu city. In between of all these we went to the immigration office at Thimphu to get the new permit to visit the Paro, which was our next destination.
National Folk Heritage Museum, Thimphu
National Folk Heritage Museum is situated in the Thimphu city at a walking distance from the main city. This is a little wooden house which is turned into a museum where you can see how people lived in old days some people are still living like this.
There were a demonstration of alcohol making and weaving inside the museum.
There was a restaurant in the museum, we had lunch at there in the traditional Bhutanese style. It was delicious, and some of these dishes were showing there similarity with the food of Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh India. It was like a buffet and the price was 300 and 500 NU/INR for vegetarian and non-vegetarian food.
I was surprised to see that Bhutanese language Dzongha has many common word with the Kinnauri dialect.
Buddha Dordenma, Thimpu
After visiting the museum, we went to Buddha Dordenma by a taxi. It is a gigantic Buddha statue in the mountains of Thimphu.
One can see the mesmerising view of Thimpu town from this place.
Motithang Takin Preserve
After returning from the Buddha Dordenma we went to the Takin Preserve in the same taxi. Takin is a goat-antelope and is the national animal of Bhutan.
This palace is situated in the Motithang district a few Kilometre away from the Thimphu. The ticket price to enter in this preserve was only 100 NU/INR.
Taktsang Monastery (Tiger’s Nest), Paro District
The next day we went to the Paro and Taktsang monetary (Tiger’sNest). It was one of my dream destination. We took the taxi from the Thimpu toParo, the driver charged us 4000 NU/INR for the whole day to pick up and drop us at the hotel.
After reaching at Paro he dropped us near the base camp, we registered us and took the ticket for Tiger’s nest. The ticket price was 500 NU/INR, luckily we were carrying the our IIT Guwahati ID card for which we got 50 % student discount. So we paid them 250 NU/INR for each person.
Tiger’s nest is situated at a high altitude rock. Reaching that place is like a trek. It was a normal trek for me because I am habitual to hilly area. I belong the Hilly area of Kinner Kailash Range of HimachalPradesh, India. So it took me around 1 hour to reach at that place, and for other people who are from plane area, for them it may take 3 hours’ time to reach there by walk. One can reach at there by horse riding for that they will charge you 500 NU/INR. So it took me around 1 hour to reach theTiger’s nest from the base camp. The view of Tiger’s nest was alluring, I was in full of happiness.
I reached at my destination, there I met around 60 Buddhist monks from Rewalsar, Himachal Pradesh.
Taktasang monastery is a temple complex, which was built in 1962, around the Taktsang Senge Samdup cave where Guru Padamsambhava is said to have meditated for three years, three months, three weeks, three days and three hours in the 8th century.
Taktsang is best known of the thirteen Taktsang or tiger lair caves in which he mediated.
National Museum of Bhutan, Paro
After returning from the Tiger’s Nest, we went to the National Museum of Bhutan in the town of Paro. It is a cultural museum which was established in 1968. One can see the finest specimen of Bhutanese art, including masterpieces of bronze statue and paintings.
After then we came back to the hotel New Grand at Thimphu. Around at 09:00 PM I went in search of the dinner in the main city market. But, almost all the restaurants were closed. Then we got to know that, after 09:00 PM almost all the kitchens of restaurants gets closes, it’s a strict order from the Royal Bhutan Government. Somehow we found one restaurant Tibet Kitchen was open, their we ate Thukpa and Momos.
Punakha
The next day again we called our taxi driver and went to an another place called Punakha. On the way to Punakha we stopped at a place for lunch. We ordered chicken with rice.
This was the only thing they have at that time, and that food was worst food. Don’t eat at such places where your taxi driver is asking you to eat. They have some setting with these hotels. They charged us 150 rupees only for 2 pieces of chicken with a few rice. On the way to Punakha we crossed through the Dorchula Pass.
The Dorchula Pass is a mountain pass in the snow covered Himalayas within Bhutan on the road from Thimpu to Punakha, where 108 memorial chortens or stupas known as “Druk Wangyal Chortens” have been built by Ashi Dorji Wangchuk, the eldest queen mother. After reaching at Punakha we went to the suspension bridge which was above the Pho chhu (Father) and Mo chhu (Mother) river. It is one of the longest bridge in the Bhutan.
Punakha is a district in Bhutan. There is a Dzong known as Pungtang Dewa Chenbi Phodrang, which is the administrative centre ofPunakhaDistrict in Bhutan. It was constructed in the year of 1637, it is the second oldest and second largest Dzong in Bhutan.
During returning time we went to the Fertility Temple (ChimmiLhakhang). It was about 10 Kilometre from the Punakha. There were some shops who were selling some paintings and some Bhutanese handy craft. All of those were very expensive those painting were of 400000 rupees price.
After then we came back to the our hotel. It was our last night in Bhutan. In the evening time we went to see the Cheshu festival in the city where we did some shopping. The next day we called an another taxi driver forPhuentsholling, and deal was done on phone for 4500 NU/INR, we took taxi around 08:00 am and came back to the Phuentsholling. On the way to Phuentsholling we saw many beautiful water falls.
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