The Bhutanchal Buccaneers

Day 2: April 11^th

Madarihat-Phuentsholing-Thimpu

Off to the land of the thunder dragon:

The morning of April 11^th saw us getting up at an early 0500 hours. The taxi that would take us to Phuentsholing had been called in to report at 0730 hours. So we had our breakfast and waited for the taxi. While we waited, Gyan found a volleyball at the community centre and immediately started playing football with it. Kenny and Doley joined in too while Dutta chose to play the photographer.

The taxi arrived after a while and we all piled in. The guys made wisecracks at me since the taxi was a Maruti Omni and I had told these guys that the Prado was the default vehicle in Bhutan and ever other vehicle in Bhutan is either that or a Hyudai SUV. Having to be content with that we sped off towards Phuentsholing, making another stop at an ATM on the way. We made entry at the border town of Phuentsholing and were officially in Bhutan!

The driver directed us to the immigration office from where we had to obtain our Inner Line Permits. Immediately after taking our stuff from the taxi, I pointed out to the guys a wine shop where I had brought my first whiskey from Bhutan from my previous trip to Phuentsholing! We entered the Immigration office and were immediately accosted by a guard who handed us blank forms to be filled up. When he saw that only two of us carried passports, he informed us that in the case of the others without passports or voter id cards, the ILPs will have to be obtained from the Indian Consulate Office. Still he asked us to try our luck with the officials. So we filled up the forms and queued up to the window where the applications were being received. In the meantime Gyan and Doley had come across and taxi driver willing to take us to Thimpu and also take care of the local trips in Phuentsholing.

Our fears came true when we were told by the Bhutanese official that for people without passport or voter id card, a mandate has to be issued from the Indian Consulate. Off we went to the Indian Consulate and came across a serious looking person at the window. Doley and I surmised we weren’t in for a totally smooth transaction and we were proved true. Out came a list of government orders or whatever when Gyan mentioned working for a PSU along with the proclamation that my passport was fake and so on and so forth. After lots of coaxing and cajoling, the man finally gave in and reluctantly signed on the documents. We rushed back to the Immigration office and resubmitted the forms and were asked to come back after an hour to collect the permits. It was almost noon by that time and we decided to get our currencies changed to Ngultrum and have our lunch. The taxi driver, a friendly Druk citizen by the name of Kinley, took us to a departmental store where a nice (and nice looking too!) girl exchanged our 11k into Ngultrum. We wandered into a nearby restaurant “Zen” for our lunch and before we could finalize on the main menu, beers and the veritable accompaniment pork were ordered for the bunch! We cautioned each other however that we still had to get our permits and we shouldn’t get drunk or carry the smell of beer into the Government office.

The meal was sumptuous to mention the least. One of the best fried rice I have had in many years I must add. We could actually munch on pieces of meat unlike having to search for microscopic chunks in conventional restaurants. Having finished lunch we headed for the office yet again only to find out that it was closed for lunch. With a little over an hour to kill, Kenny and I decided to head to a nearby park while the rest walked over to the Indian side to have a smoke. Smoking is banned in Bhutan and can attract severe punishments including a six year jail term. We gathered together after a while and headed for the office and wait there instead. We waited patiently, a little too patiently. Kenny, Dutta and Doley had happily fallen asleep in a bench, lulled into serenity by the calm office, the heavy lunch and the potent Druk beer. The office was officially open at 1400 hours and Gyan and Doley went about making pleading faces at the nice (again, very nice looking!) lady at the counter and were assured of the permits within a few minutes. One thing we noticed in the office is that the people of Bhutan, ladies included, like to chew on bubblegums a lot.

We received the permits shortly after and expressed our sincerest gratitude to the officials. The officials there are fast, friendly, computer savvy and some of them are even funny. There are no unnecessary delays on their part and no dilly-dallying. This became more evident when we had gone to the Indian Consulate office and the difference in the working culture became acutely apparent. We headed to our patiently waiting Kinley, not forgetting to thank the guard of the office on our way out.

Dutta’s tryst with the never-ending butt jokes started when all of our birthdays were printed the same on the permits. You see, technically Dutta is the wisest of all of us. That’s read as he was the eldest among us. With the permits making us even-aged, it was like Dutta had been given a shave-off from his age advantage and he was young again! The wise one among us was young again! Hallelujah!

Once armed with the permits, we hopped into our taxi – a Maruti Versa, and set off towards Thimpu. It was only after we sped off on the hills that I truly heaved a sigh of relief – we had our permits. I was really wary of the Indian Consulate Office. I did use the toilet of that office though and thanked the officer profusely. His disposition had changed dramatically, surprisingly. Don’t know why but he was quite cheery as he waved me off bidding a happy journey!

The journey presented us with stunning roads, twisters and coasters, tarmac and hills couple that up with Nat Geo stuff panorama and it had us gawking at each other. All of us had the same thoughts running like crazy on our minds – if only we were on our bikes, or even if we were in my fiesta. These thoughts made us curse Tiwari from India Packers and Movers all the more. The more we went into dragon territory the more I was enchanted with this place. I was sitting in the front and chatted up with Kinley, squeezing info from him on what is this land called Bhutan. A few bits gathered from Kinley: “Hello” goes by the word “Kuzumbo”, “ Good Luck” is “ Tashi Delek” and more importantly “Boy” is “Boo” (yes, you’ve read it right) and even more importantly “Girl” is “Boom”. Some more tid bits: Pema is the most common name for Girls in Bhutan, while for the boys its Tashi, the indigenous language is “Zonkha” and people have a happy-go-lucky outlook on life. The people tend to be simplistic too, with very simplistic marriage rituals – boy/girl falling in love-girl going to stay at the boy’s place-parents accepting girl-priest marrying them off….. I really wish life were as simple elsewhere.

People also have this affinity towards alcohol. The government has issued an order that bars and pubs should remain open till 2300 hours, up from the 2200 hours earlier and any defaulter attracted penalty and foreclosures!! But they are well-behaved; never saw a drunkard in our entire trip. Must have to do with the strict law and the law enforcers. I was more and more keen on learning more, so I went about asking about jobs in Bhutan and if “Booms” were hard to find in Bhutan, to settle down, to lead a life there. This lead to intense leg-pulling from the rear passengers and we had one of the most merry rides-make that drives.

We took ample shots at Dutta, who has a very remarkable affinity for sleep and the feline pussy cat. Every now and then someone would pop the question-“Is Dutta awake?” Gyan and Dutta were the sleepyheads for this leg of the trip and the butt of almost all jokes. I wasn’t too far behind in the stakes though.

We also took small breaks in between to relieve ourselves and the guys puffed some drags at cigarettes furtively, always on the lookout for people on the road. Nobody wanted any trouble with the cops, especially since we knew they were honest and they drove Toyota Hiluxes. Come on , nobody messes with that kind of cops…..except maybe when they are on Nissan Patrols or Jeep Cherokees or Dodge Chargers!!

We kept resuming our journey after one or two stops and the only time we didn’t call for a stop and we did stop was when Kinley showed us the highest point on the Phuenthsoling- Thimpu road at 8350 feet above MSL. We alighted from the taxi, stretched our legs, posed for some few photos and Gyan wasted no time in lighting up another fag. Jayanti, please take note. The official usherer is Gyan, and not us “innocent” guys!!! We are the good guys and we take the blame on behalf of Gyan!!

Kinley led a spirited drive for the remainder of the journey. It was dusk and lights were turned on. The solar powered prayer wheel mounted on the dash of the versa was slowly losing steam and so was the solar powered “sun flower” that we see with vendors on Delhi traffic junctions. Finally we came across this red and golden gate that boldly said “Welcome to Thimpu City”, the gate made even more glorious by the headlights shining on it. We took a couple of shots and then moved on. As soon as we did the narrow road suddenly turned into a smooth four lane highway. We were hard pressed to actually take in the fact that this hill station could actually have four lane roads. The bright city lights beckoned us and we were squirming with childish delight. Gyan had painted a rosy picture of Bhutan’s night life and night clubs and we were raring to go wild! More sights were to follow that baffled us no end. Thimpu had flyovers!! Oh man oh!

It was almost 2000 hours and it was totally dark and we reached one of the lanes dotted with hotels. We had to look for a place to shack up for two days and Kinley took us to one of the few hotels. Luckily for us, the first one we hit off seemed to be a nice cosy place with nice friendly staff and nice (yet again nice looking ) Boom staff!!! Kinley seemed to be familiar with the place- one Hotel Choephal Norkye, but one thing I liked about him was the fact that he didn’t expect us to like the rooms but still was ready to take us around the place till we found something we liked. We hastily unloaded our stuff from the taxi and dumped them in the rooms, paid off Kinley and thanked him, and yet again he gave us his number and asked us to call him if we ever needed something. It suddenly stuck us that the next day being a Tuesday was a dry day observed in Bhutan and we didn’t want to go dry. So we asked him to take us to a wine shop so that we could stock up. The streak of dry days wasn’t letting go of us, be it in Guwahati or be it in Bhutan. Funny .

And Kinley did get us whiskey, only thing it wasn’t from a wine shop. It was from a grocery store! Oh yes, grocery stores stock whiskey right next to essential commodities like cerelac! We bought one of the most expensive ones – K5 and a more modest Courier Special at INR 730 and 380 respectively and headed back to our rooms

Gyan had us all charged up with his “knowledge” on the night life of Bhutan and we were all charged up for a night on the town. Kinley had also shown us the way to some pubs. But our very own guide fell sick and wanted to retire for the night. Seems he felt nauseous and wanted to sleep it off. So it left the four of us to wander about the streets and enjoy the views Thimpu provided us with. The first thing I noticed or rather tried to notice was the Booms. They are cute I tell you. Fair, no blemish anywhere, long straight hair, petite and there you have it. The perfect “homely” girl that you’d want to settle down with. We wandered down the street for a while, enjoying the chill in the wind, gawking at the vehicles, at the Booms and went about looking for a pub to chill out at. Bhutan is predominantly SUV country. The default SUVs being the Land Cruiser Prado and the awesome Hilux with a fair bit of Santa Fe’s and the all new Tucson thrown in fair measure. Needless to say, Toyotas, Hyundais and Marutis rule the roost there with some Renaults and the odd Fords seen here and there. We also came across the all new Sonata which looks and sounds smashing! Pity that in India we have to be content with the elsewhere-discontinued Sonata Embera.

Unfortunately our hotel street did not present us with much pubs and having left with little choice to wander about more or to head into a nearby pub, we went in for the latter. It was called Tiger Pub, named after the famed Singaporean beer. Dutta has a special affinity for Tiger Beer as we found out in due time. I think Dutta has an affinity for anything that’s related to the feline kind! It was a karaoke bar and was somehow not too crowded. We were disappointed cause we were on the lookout for people to mingle with. More disappointment came in the way of the pub not having anything but Tiger beer and that too in 330 ml cans. With no options left to explore we ordered for four and asked for the snacks menu to cater to our growling bellies but the lady serving us drinks informed us politely that there were no snacks. Confused at first we asked again for something to eat to which we were told the pub did not serve any eatables! Well, that was a culture shock for us guys who are used to loads and loads of chaknas with our whiskies! Dejected, we decided to finish off our cans and head back to our good old hotel which had a bar of its own. Well, hardly any surprise since all the restaurants we came across in Bhutan served alcohol. Once seated in the confines of the hotel restaurant at a table we ordered beers and luckily the bar had more choices to offer. We all homed in on a new beer to us called HIT, and it was a hit all right; a bit sweet but nice, real nice. Kenny was all for the spicy concoction called Ima Datschi – a combi of red hot red chilies and cheese. But the serving girl suggested otherwise and Kenny was content with a milder version Iwa Datschi – cheese and potatoes. Needless to say , Doley, Dutta and I went in for anything in pork they had to offer. The restaurant guy was a real friendly guy who paid good attention to all we wanted and got them for us and the serving was done by girls, some demure looking girls, two of which entered my room right after we checked in. I intended to include them as bragging rights!!

We had made a plan of visiting Paro, the land of the Tiger’s Nest the next day and decided we’d better hit the bed after a couple of round of beers. Dinner was served without much ado and with a satisfied stomach and bladder, we made it to our rooms. Gyan was fast asleep by then and we also wasted no time in getting cosy in our beds. The room where I and Kenny stayed overlooked the street below and I spent some time peeking out the window to finally let the feeling sink into me that we were finally in Bhutan. Though not on bikes, we definitely were in a fabled land.