It is a postcard from a country that seems to be too good to
be true. With parameters like Gross Happiness Index and the possibility of
bumping into the King while shopping for vegetables, who wouldn’t want to visit
this place. Stuck in the unstable and sometimes violent neighbourhood of South
Asia, Bhutan is everything but that. A picture of grace, calm and beauty that
is almost unbelievable just on the other side of the fence in noisy, chaotic
and clamorous India.
Anyway, a group of us – 4 friends, decided to embark on a
budget back-packing trip to Bhutan and we managed to do a week’s worth of
travel under a good sum. Here’s just chalking it out for you, in case the bug
bites you one fine day.
*This post is mainly intended for Indian citizens. All
costs, rules and permits are relaxed for Indian tourists. Travellers of other
nationalities will have to take a tour guide and pay a minimum fee to stay in
the country every single day
.
Travel Options
1.
By Air to
Bhutan and back- Bhutan’s only airport is at Paro, which about 5 hours
drive away from capital city, Thimphu. The Druk Air has regular flights from
Delhi, Bagdogra, Guwahati, Gaya and Kolkata. Tickets are sold out way in
advance. Hence, this trip would require planning at least 2 months in advance.
2.
A
combination of Air/rail and road- Fly from anywhere in the country to
Bagdogra airport (Darjeeling District, West Bengal) and then take a taxi or a
shared cab to Jaigaon/Phuentsholing.
Take a train from any major city in the
country to New Jalpaiguri station (same Siliguri city, West Bengal) and then
take a taxi or shared cab to Jaigaon/ Phuentsholing.
Jaigaon is the last town from the Indian
side on the Indo-Bhutan border. Phuentsholing is the first town from the
Bhutanese side. They are virtually twin towns separated by the international
border.
The drive to Jaigaon from Bagdogra takes
close to 4-5 hours. A shared cab charges Rs500 per head and a hired taxi is
anything from Rs2500 depending on the kind of car you choose. They are available
right at the airport, railway station and Siliguri bus-stand.
Reaching
Bhutan- One can take bus from Phuentsholing to Thimphu at about Rs 300-350
or take shared cabs at Rs500 per person or hire a full cab for the group at Rs
2500 for the entire ride upto Paro or Thimphu.
If going by bus, it is advisable to check
the bus timings and book a seat at least a day in advance. They tend to get
full easily and do not hold for Indian tourists who first have to get the
travel permits.
3.
Within
Bhutan- Travelling within Bhutan is easy via public transport, if you have
the time for it. Buses between cities and towns like Phuentsholing, Paro, Haa,
Thimphu, Punakha take 5-6 hours, again it is advisable to book them at least
one day in advance. The buses are small, but comfortable and airy. Hence they
have a lot of takers amongst locals and tourists.
Alternatively, one could hire a cab to
commute between the cities at nothing less than Rs 2000-2500 per day. This
doesn’t work on a shared cab basis.
While touring within a city, the local
buses are not a convenient option as they don’t cover all tourist points and
timings may not be suitable. There are no auto-rickshaws in Bhutan. So, you
will have to hire a cab.
If one is to hire a cab at every location
and then another to the next location, it will prove to be a costly affair with
every commute taking about 20 minutes only but nearly 500 bucks. It is far more
economical to hire a taxi for the whole/half day at prices Rs2000/Rs1500
respectively.
What we did: We
converged from different cities at the Bagdogra airport, took a full taxi to
Phuentsholing, (failed to book a bus) took a cab to Thimphu (Rs2000). Within
Thimphu took a cab for one whole day (Rs2000) and then took buses to every
other place we visited – Haa Valley and Paro. We also booked in advance and
took a bus from Paro to Phuentsholing on our way back. Again, we took a full
cab to Siliguri and split on our ways back home.
When- Ideally Bhutan is best to visit in Spring or autumn-
that is February-March and September-October. April and November is slightly
pushing it, but doable. All other periods of the year, Bhutan experiences heavy
snowfall and torrential rains. It is unwise to visit the country in those
months, expect if you desire to be frozen or swamped. Even roadways are clogged
because of landslides or snowfall and all plans come to a halt in other months.
We visited in the last week of September, which we planned
around the Tshechu Festival in Thimphu. Visiting Bhutan during Festivals also
means that their government buildings and offices close down for those days-
including Museums, libraries, post-offices, textile showrooms (all of which are
supposed to be great tourist attractions!). Nonetheless all the monasteries,
trekking trails, forts, and forest reserves were open; we had a fruitful and
engaging trip.
Travel Permit:
Indians do not need a visa to travel, however we need a travel permit document.
The Paro airport has a travel permit office. It can be procured from the
immigration office at Phuentsholing that is open from 9am to 5pm. Bikers
beware, the RTO closes at 12 noon and you need a travel permit before you get
your RTO permit. All tourists must show their travel permits at Phuentsholing
border to progress into Bhutan.
For the travel permit, an application must be filled at the
immigration office and get processed. It requires one passport size photo and a
photocopy of either PASSPORT or VOTER ID (no other identity proof is accepted)!
Please carry along your originals and the entire process is smooth and gets
done within a couple of hours if you beat the crowd and reach there by 9 am. Or
else, you are stuck there for nearly one day.
Travel permits are usually granted only for a period of one
week and the tourist has to specify which all places they are planning to
visit. SO, have an itinerary done in advance, and get the relevant cities
ticked. You don’t want to reach Thimphu and curse your luck for not taking the
permit to Haa, Bumthang or Punakha.
Food: Food
in Bhutan is manageable; some places even surprise you by offering good Indian
food – dal, rice, puri, paratha and sabji. However, their chief dish is a
red-rice accompanied by curries- non veg or cheese-based veg dish.
Non-vegetarians have plenty of options with the curries-
beef, pork, chicken, mutton and fish. Vegetarians have only potato, tomato,
chillies (yes, big spicy ones!!), carrot and cabbage- of which the last two are
seasonal. One also gets thukpas, momos and chowmein at almost all dhabas and
restaurants.
On long travels, there will be but one stop only. So it is
good sense to carry fruits or dry food like biscuits and snacks in case there
are undue delays and/or the food is terrible.
Stay:
Because we were backpackers and mostly staying at each of our night-stops only
for a night, we almost always took only economical, budget options that were
well-rated on TripAdvisor. Mostly we took 4-bedded rooms or 3 bedded rooms and
got an extra mattress arranged. All the Hotels are always CLEAN. Bathrooms are
CLEANER.
1.
Siliguri-
Many options to stay near the Pradhan nagar area. It is walking distance from
the bus stand and about 40 minutes away from both NJP station and Bagdogra
airport (without traffic jams!).
2.
Phuentsholing/Jaigaon-
Jaigaon sucks. Truly. Terrible chaotic traffic, bad roads leading to dusty
yards and no visible street lamp that works. So opt to stay at Phuentsholing.
The hotels are decent and the staff are super courteous and help you sort out
the basic doubts on how to get to immigration office and get the permits done.
The market is also well stocked and easily accessible here.
3.
In Bhutan-
The Norzin Lam road in Thimphu has dozens of hotels. All at the same level of
cleanliness, facilities and affordability. Same with Paro. Check your options
here (http://www.hotel.bt/) . Most of them are reachable via mail or phone.
Otherwise you can search and find them on FB. The proprietors are awfully kind
and courteous even as they take maybe a couple of days to respond.
In Haa Valley, however, we took a rural
homestay option just like that. No hotels there anyway. It is a gorgeous
village that offers some beautiful walking trails. You could go visit other
places in Bhutan if this is not your cup of tea.
All our stay options were at about Rs1500 per night. We
chose Hotels that offered free Wi-Fi at least in their lobbies, made it easier
to communicate to folks back home. Or else, you could always buy a Bhutan SIM
at Phuentsholing just for that one week. They have incredible coverage even in
the deepest of valleys and the remotest of points on the mountains!
So here’s how my
itinerary looked:
Day1- Delhi to Bagdogra, Bagdogra
to Phuentsholing. Stay at Phuentsholing.
Day2- Phuentsholing to Thimphu (6
hours drive after permit process.) Stay at Thimphu
Day3- Thimphu sightseeing. Stay
at Thimphu.
Day4- Thimphu to Haa Valley.
Homestay at Haa.
Day5- Haa Valley to Paro. Tiger’s
Nest. Stay at Paro.
Day6- Paro to Phuentsholing.
Phuentsholing to Siliguri. Stay at Siliguri.
Day7- Bagdogra to Delhi
There’s scope for immense
variation – you could go from Paro to Thimphu and then get out from there- one
could also travel to Punakha or Bumthang from Thimphu- because there is enough
to see and cover.
Here’s how much my trip costed
from my doorstep in Delhi to back (with flight tickets!)- Rs 15600. Not bad eh?
Reach out to me if you want any
more clarifications. I have also generously spammed TripAdvisor with my reviews
wherever necessary. And I insist that you make this dream a reality at least
once in your lifetime. I am going back to Bhutan sometime again. FOR SURE.
PS: Photos and stories to follow in upcoming posts. Plenty of surprises, happy moments and jokes galore. *wink-wink*
