Get, set, go………. And the journey begins:
We (me with Hari) kicked off our journey on 24th Dec from Secunderabad railway station and after a long journey of 26 hours we reached to Kolkata and got into cab to reach to ‘Sealdah’ (another station in Kolkata), from where we had to catch another train for NJP.
The only thing I could see through the layer of black smoke all around, in that one hour of journey between two stations, was the traffic of hustling city buses and yellow colored taxis.
But soon we were out of the city bustle and reached to NJP next day early morning, it was cold outside the train coach and the saplings in surroundings farms were still sleeping under a layer of fog as the Sun was also in no hurry to come out of the shade of clouds and move forward.
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- Work Day begins @ NJP
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- On way to Jalgaon
We hired a taxi, a maruti omni, which used to very common as taxi vehicle, until Indica made its reach to this terrain few years back. This taxi ride took us through small villages of West Bengal. As this was harvesting time there, so most of the fields were serving as grass field for cattle or playing ground for cricket. Still some tea estates gave some greenery for our drive and after some 3 hours we reached to Jalgaon, small and last town on this side of the Indian border and gateway to Bhutan.
Luckily Hari’s bhabhi and nephew were there in the town, so we went to their home, freshened up and got the chance to taste the Bhutanese style food, green vegetable and potato which is must.
After our lunch, we got into auto and entered into Phuentsholing , entrance to Bhutan. Bhutan is separated from India by a 6-7 feet height long wall and an entrance gate. Entering to Bhutan was simply like going from one market to another market, nothing much, easier than crossing from one Indian state to another Indian state. By the time we reached to taxi stand, it was already 3.30 pm and we had a 7 hours long journey ahead for the Capital city Thimpu.
Welcome to Bhutan
Around 4, our last leg of journey started, although 180kms doesn’t look a long but when we add the height of 6500 ft to it, it makes it tedious as continuous ride of past two days has made us little weary. Thimpu is on height of 7600 ft and Phuentsholing on somewhere around 900ft. The roads are not exactly the kind of national highway yet, but construction/patch work can be felt even in dark. We reached to Thimpu at 11 in night, but the city doesn’t go to sleep that soon, at least not the youth.
We reached to Hari’s bhaiya’s home and met with bhabhi , definitely a wonderful host and very nice person and cool mom. I had my first proper introduction with Bhutanese cuisine over dinner. We retired for the day after some time and packed myself with two thick warm blankets.
Day 1 (Thimpu):
Obviously I couldn’t see the sunrise, because the weather is such that you can’t come out of the bed before 9. But even at that time also, morning was very bright yet beautifully soothing.
We all set around ‘Bukhaari’, a special kind of room heater and met with all the family members. Bhaiya and Bhabhi, as wonderful host they are, even more cool parents they are. Their children, Suraj, cool chap with big dreams and Puku, bubbly girl with vey innocent smile.
One good thing about the place in this time of winter is, you don’t feel need for bath daily, so no wastage of time and water. Just a face polish and we are set for our ride. I am very thankful to Bhaiya, for providing us their car and Suraj, for driving us all around for next 4 days.
First day we visited Thimpu, the capital city of Bhutan, on path to modern development. It is the largest city of Bhutan, yet life is very calm and peaceful here. Lots of people going to government offices to start their day, when we started our ride to explore Thimpu. As city is based on mountain, so inside roads are not very much straight to destination. But once we come to main road, it is straight wide to everywhere.
First stop was at BBS tower, you can see whole city from a height and get
View from BBS tower
some beautiful shots from your camera. Next stop was ‘Dechenphu’, going through zigzag ride, a monastery which is home to the country’s deities. Here, we need to wear national dress to go inside, so we had to offer our prayers from outside only. But we stayed there for while, to get very fresh breath, which we never get chance to experience in our cities.
Next we moved to Tango – Cheri, two monasteries, around 15-20 kilometers far from city. After crossing a bridge, on left side is Cheri and right side is
River near Cheri
Tango. Both situated on mountain, around 1 hour of trekking, so we rather went to near by river side and felt the freezing winds.
Then we returned back to city and got a peak into SAARC building, a traditional architectural building to host SAARC countries meetings, through the car window only and also some other government office and also Indian embassy. City has golf course also. We also passed by royal guard military training campus and market.
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