Inside Bhutan after crossing gate
There are three ways of entering Bhutan from India. One is to fly
directly to Paro which is the international airport. The other two ways are by
road. One is to drive down from Guwahati, Assam. The other is to drive down
from Bagdogra, West Bengal. The Guwahati route takes about 12 hours and the
Bagdogra route takes about 5 hours. We chose to take the Bagdogra route as
direct flight to Paro was expensive.
The peak tourist season in Bhutan coincides with summer vacation in India
which is roughly from mid-April till early June. During this time, it gets very crowded which
makes everything expensive – whether it is hotels, cars or guides. So, it is
advisable to go a bit early or after monsoon which is in September / October.
Day 1 of our tour was a direct flight to Bagdogra from Mumbai. It was a
direct flight which took us about 2.5 hours. After landing at Bagdogra airport,
we were picked up by a taxi (prearranged through a travel agent). This was a
Swift Dezire AC car which was comfortable, and the roads too were excellent. On
the way, we stopped at a roadside restaurant for tea. The place looked unclean,
but the tea was excellent. From here, we drove directly to a border town called
Jaigaon. This town is adjacent to the Bhutanese town called Phutensholing (pronounced
as Phinsholing). On arrival, we were picked up by the travel agent’s guy and
had to walk across the border gate to the Bhutan side while our driver drove
over along with our baggage to the hotel. The hotel was less than 100 meters
from the gate. This is some strange process which they follow, and I couldn’t understand
the logic behind it.
Our room at Ga-Me-Ga
We were put up at a hotel called Ga-Me-Ga which was decent. The rooms
were clean, AC worked well, and service was decent. The view from the hotel was
not much to talk about. As it was already evening when we reached, we had a
quick shower, finished evening prayers and then went for a walk around the
hotel. As it was dark, most shops had already closed for the day. We saw a
small park adjoining a Buddhist temple nearby where some locals as well as
tourists were lazing around. We also found, to our delight, a pure veg
restaurant serving South India dishes. We went in and had some milk – no dinner
as it was Ekadashi.
After that we came back to our room and went to bed early as we were
tired with all the travel done during the day. Thus ended Day 1 of our Bhutan
trip.
