I arrived in Bagdogbra mid afternoon and was met by my driver, Bibi and guide Karma. I also had an extra passenger with me for 2 days. The owner’s son arrived from Nepal and was going back to Thimpu and he was hitching a ride with me. It was fun starting my road trip with 3 boys. I say boys because they acted like 3 naughty boys. It was a 6 hour drive to the border town of Phuentselong and the roads didn’t help. But we got to stop on the way at some cool places. We had to walk across a bridge instead of going by car and we came across some monkeys. The naughty boys started chucking peanut mnms at them and caused all sorts of mayhem. We finally got to our car followed by very irate monkeys but managed to get away in one piece.
As we were heading towards Bhutan I got a general idea of the place. They only have 750000 people in all of Bhutan. The main religion is Buddhism. They also have a King; it is only their 5th King since 1907. The King is a young and handsome man who recently married a local girl. Their wedding appeared in our UK Hello magazine.
We got to the border town late and I couldn’t register so we crossed the border into Bhutan anyway and I felt like an illegal immigrant. But this was normal and immigration can be completed the following day, which is what we did. But technically I was in Bhutan a day earlier than it says on my passport. The hotel wasn’t bad for a border town hotel, I’ve stayed in worse and I had a cockroach in my room for company. It died in the bathroom the next morning though.
The next day we headed for Thimpu, 172 kms but it took 8 hours along narrow uphill and winding roads where the lorry drivers were crazy and the landslides a little hairy. But it was a scenic drive nonetheless. We stopped for lunch at a government approved restaurant and I tried my first ever momos. They are awesome and the momos I tried were cheese and onion. They are now my favourite Bhutanese dish. We finally arrived in Thimpu and I checked into my awesome room for 2 nights. I had views of the nearby mountains. I relaxed for the evening checking out the local shops and then went to dinner with the guy who organised my trip. I met his wife and his daughter and the boy who tagged along joined us for dinner too. We went to the Druk Hotel for some Indian food then had a walk in the town centre. Then we drove to the highest point to see the supposedly largest bronze Buddha in Asia. As we were pretty late the gates were closed but that didn’t stop us from dumping the car and walking past the gate to the Buddha. There’s nothing like a bit of breaking and entering when you’re on holiday.
In the morning we did the usual city tour but my favourite was visiting the Takins in the animal reserve. They are a cross between a cow and a goat, or so the legend says.
I’ve decided that I don’t care much for Bhutanese food. Their local food is too hot and has too much fat in their meat and the food for the tourists are very bland and boring and also tasteless.
Next morning we headed for Paro. But before that we stopped at the oldest bridge in Bhutan made of iron. It kind of looks like fence wiring and it was pretty scary walking across it. We made it to Paro in good time and were able to fit it a city tour. I finally visited a Dzong which is a huge building which houses a temple, monastery and government offices all in one roof. Then we went for lunch which was finally a little tastier than the last meal. Then I checked into a hotel but not before they said there was no room because of a party of Indian delegates that arrived on the same day. Luckily for me a nearby hotel had a vacancy. Unfortunately it wasn’t the best room as it didn’t have a fridge or aircon or even a fan. But the nice ladies in reception found me a fan, thank god as it was hot as hell that afternoon. I found out that the owner is from Malaysia and she had the most amazing gorgeous dog that followed me around at dinner time. She also had a group of tourists from Singapore who asked me to join them for a sing along. After a lovely and the tastiest meal ever in Bhutan I made haste for the bedroom just in case I had to sing. But not before comparing tattoos with the waitresses. Theirs were all homemade, didn’t look very good and looked painful and they loved mine.
The next day was the big trek to the Tiger’s Nest Monastery. It took me 2 and a half hours to get up. It had stunning views but it was a hard trek. On the way down was more fun. At lunchtime the restaurant we went to had 6 naughty little black kittens. They played with me and then kept trying to bite me. One even climbed all the way up my leg, licking and biting or should I say nibbling me. They were cute little buggers.
The next morning I was a little stiff but was looking forward to the end of the trip. First we had to go back to the border town for one more night to transfer me to another tour. It wasn’t a boring night as I thought as the owner of the hotel, Sangay who is a close friend of my Bhutan tour operator, took me out to dinner with two of her girlfriends. We went up to the roof terrace bar and restaurant and had a few drinks and some dinner. I was eaten alive by the mosquitoes so she got the waiter to give me a table cloth to cover my legs and to go out and buy a mosquito coil for me. Unfortunately my feet were still covered in bites.
The next morning I left my Bhutanese guide and driver and met with my Sikkim guide and driver. They drove me to the Bhutan check point to exit Bhutan. We were quite early and the person in charge of immigration was not in the office. Instead the office seemed to be manned by three non uniformed guys, one was on the computer checking his facebook, one was playing a video game while the last one watched. They said it would be another thirty minutes but my driver really wanted to leave as we had an eight hour drive. Then one of the guys started looking around the desk and found the stamps. The guys then went about stamping each stamp to find the correct exit stamp. They even started stamping each other for fun. They finally found the stamp I needed and proceeded to stamp my passport at which point I asked politely if this was legal. I checked the stamp and it looked legit and the guy even signed it. But I have no idea who he was or if he even worked there. I left Bhutan after this with no problems and entered India. Whether I left legally or not I have no idea but I had a good time in the land of the thunder dragons.
