Travel to Bhutan

In this blog post I will cover my experience, itenary and other details for travel from Bangalore (India) to Bhutan.

We 3 (me, wife and son) went towards the end of December 2023. Took flight from Bangalore to Kolkata, stayed there with our family and then took train to New Jaipaiguri station the next evening. 

We reached at morning 9am and a cab was waiting for us to take us to Phonstoling (Border entry town of Bhutan). It took us around 5hours including a stop for an hour for breakfast to reach Phonstoling. 

The entry process is quiet simple for Indian tourists. You need to have a valid passport with validity of 6 months atleast, 4 photographs, a travel insurance. (Travel insurance can be bought then and there at immigration office too). 

Important points to know:

1. Having a guide with you is compulsory in Bhutan. (Ranges between ₹1000 - ₹2000 per day)

2. Indian tourists need to pay an SDF charge of ₹1200 per night per adult and ₹600 per night per child there. (Except your stay in Phonstoling).

3. If you take an Indian registered Car with you then it costs ₹4500 per night SDF for the vehicle too. (So better hire a cab there). Approx ₹3500 for 1 day including everything. (Creta charges)

4. Entry tickets for everything is very expensive and not everything is worth it. So choose and enter.

Now back to story. 

We reached Phonstoling in the afternoon and then got our entry permit in no time. This permit allows you till Phonstoling only. For visiting rest of Bhutan you need a Visa which you can get easily in an hour or so.

We stayed in Phonstoling that day and explored nearby market. We stayed at Hotel Druk. It's walking 100mtrs from immigration office. So it's very convenient. Hotel is decent with decent food and courteous staff. Our guide got us our Visa the next morning and we started our onward journey. We headed towards Thimphu. There are 2 checkposts when we get out of Phonstoling where they will check your Visa and passport. The guide needs to register your travel in some app which they use and the police at the checkpost will match it with your passport. 

It took us around 5 hours to reach Thimphu with a 30min lunch break. On the way we also stopped at some places to take photos because the scenic beauty of Bhutan is just too hard to resist. We stopped at the meeting point of rivers paro and thimphu. City Thimphu is around 2140 meters above sea level and the temperature there was cold. As the evening progressed it became colder and colder. 

We stayed at Resort Termalinca. It's very good with big rooms and just beside the river Thimphu. They had a big spread during dinner buffet. Food was good and staff was very courteous. It's a luxury resort. Although we didn't try it but there was Spa at the resort too. After dinner we sat in the lawn to enjoy the clear skies and the chilli weather with river Thimphu flowing right beside us. It was phenomenal. 

Next day we explored Thimphu. 1st thing we  visited was the Bhuddha statue. It's very big and a great place to spend time. Car goes right to the top of the hill so nothing to walk. No entry charges. 

After that we went to Takin preservence center. Takin is the national animal of Bhutan. It's an animal with cows body and goats head. It's a calm and quiet animal. The preservence center entry charge was ₹300 for adults and kids are free. It's a small zoo kind of place with Takin, yak, deer and few other animals and birds (read very few). It's a decent place to visit. 

Next we went to some view point to take pictures. The whole city of Thimphu was visible from there. It was good. (No entry charges)

Guide took us to a Buddha stupa in the middle of the city but it looked very small from outside so we skipped it. (Entry - ₹500 per adult and ₹250 per child). Not worth it, ₹1250 saved. 

Next the guide took us to "Simply Bhutan". Entry charges were ₹1000 per adult and free for kids. There they show us the history of Bhutan and architecture, food and culture of Bhutan. It was "Simply" not worth the amount paid for but we enjoyed there. There was live dance performance and guests were also encouraged to dance. They even played an Indian song. There are few shops inside too. 

On the way back we stopped at the textile handicraft shops there. I don't know the area name but there was handicraft school and number of banks there. There are around 50 shops in a line selling almost the same set of things. The items are good and the price increases as we go down the road. You can bargain there and get what you like because that item will be the cheapest there compared to anywhere else in Bhutan. So don't leave it for later. It was evening for us by that time and we headed back to hotel. 

Next morning after breakfast (read yummy with lots of options) we headed to our next destination i.e. Punakha. 

It's a small town where 2 rivers meet (Hoonchu and Moonchu). Hoonchu is the male river and violent and Moonchu is the female river which is little calm. It took us around 2.5 hours to reach there. The drive is over Dochu-la pass(3080 mtrs) which is very scenic with a great view of the mountains of Bhutan. We stopped there for tea, coffee and of course photos. A must visit place. 

The temperature in Punakha is warm and pleasant during winters. It's famous for river rafting. We did the same. 

It's costed us ₹7000 for a full raft with only 3 of us. Our driver Sonam Wangdi also joined us. It was a great experience with almost an hour of rafting along the Moonchu river. The person with us kept telling stories about the place and Bhutan in general. It was interesting and a good experience. Then we went to the suspension bridge over the Moonchu river. It's very beautiful and a good place to visit. We also had the fortress in our itenary but we skipped it and went to hotel. Took pictures of the fortress in the moon light from a distance and it looked stunning. In Punakha we stayed at RKPO resort. It's based on nature theme. The room was big and spacious and the view was also good. Had dinner there which was good and went to bed. 

Tip: 

1. Get the higher floor rooms in resort for a better view. 

2. Momo Hut in Punakha is very small restaurant but sells awesome momos, you should try it. 

Next morning after a good breakfast we checked out and headed to Paro. A town situated at 2280mtrs above sea level and the only one with an International airport in Bhutan. 

We again passed via Dochu-la pass and admired the beautiful view yet again. In Paro we stayed at Le-Meridian hotel. It is situated on the banks of Paro river. The room was huge with a great view. The service and staff is incomparable. 

Before going to hotel we visited Ta Dzong (National museum of Bhutan). Entry fees was ₹500 per adult and free for kids. It has lot of paintings and artifacts depicting the history and culture of Bhutan. It was good and worth the money paid. We were also supposed to visit the Fortress but we skipped it, for it didn't look worth it and we were on a leisure trip. 

Next day we started at around 9am to visit Chele-la pass. Morning 7am temperature was -14°C at Chele-la but was around 0°C when we reached around 12pm. It's is the highest motorable road in Bhutan at 3988mtrs. The view from there was breath taking. And lucky for us it was sunny and not windy so we could enjoy the place without getting frozen. On the way there were multiple places where we could see frost and we took lots of pictures by stopping and playing in the snow. It was a memorable morning. 

By the time we reached back to Paro it was 4pm already so we decided to go shopping. Everything there was very very expensive and you could get the same thing in Darjeeling for half the price if not 1/3rd. But yes for whom they want to buy, Paro is the best place for shopping in Bhutan from multiple shops and cafes. You could easily chill there. We also took a few items. Bought Bhutan's famous Zumjin peach wine ₹270 a bottle 750ml and headed back to hotel. We enjoyed our stay at the hotel and obviously the food was phenomenal. 

Next day was to start our journey back home. The driver insisted on starting early because it's a long way back to Phonstoling and we started at 10am. But we could have started late and still reached by 3 pm. The driver wanted to get himself free early because Phonstoling was the last drop for him of us. We again stayed at Hotel Druk and exited Bhutan without any Hassel the next morning. 

We headed to Bagdogra airport to catch our flight back to Bangalore leaving Bhutan behind but carrying all the lovely and wonderful memories with us of the country, its people and culture. 

That's all folks.

Suwon... Or as i would say heaven of legs... ;)

It's been 3 week since i came here for my companies work or so do they think.. :P
Anyways i am bored and just thought of writing something after a long long time. I know i know loneliness can make you do stuff that you never imagined. :P
This is my first foreign trip and as most people will be i was very excited about it. I made all kinds of preparations for my trip and finally started on 31st March. It took around 15hrs - 3.5hrs(time diff) to reach here and there was nothing much exciting about the trip except the the fact that i might have eat chicken or beef(being a vegetarian) on the plane thinking it was some salad. But i don't wish to find out. Whats gone is gone. ehhh !!! who cares !! My first reaction on getting out on the Incheaon Airport was "Its damn fucking cold out here". The temperature was too low that day .. may be for my welcome.. ;)
Reached my hotel in about an hour, in india it would have taken atleast three if not more. The roads were big and deserted, may be because it was a saturday night and everyone was busy partying. My room was all ready for my arrival. The guest house's so called manager was an Indian guy from chennai "Suresh". He showed us our rooms and after half an hour we set off for dinner with him to the guest house restaurant. To my surprise the food was all indian and not at all bad, I can't use the word good though. Anyways i didn't expect much on that part. Next day was the first day in SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS office. A huge campus with all kinds of facilities which i never imagined samsung would provide looking at the condition of its subsidy SISO back in India. But it awed me. Great first impression i would say. ;) Then started the security policies of samsung as usual but it was taken care off as we were supposed to attend the 1 week long training starting at 8a.m. and it was already 8:05. ;) Some Mr. Park came to escort us and take us to the training room. Which was filled with my dear SISO mates. It was a long and boring session after session till it ended and we managed to get upstairs to our manager thinking that we would have to work for another 4-5 hours untill the day ends. But to our surprise there were yet a number of procedures to get us IP addresses and ports enabled which took about 2 days and we were spared from that till then and had to attend only 9 hrs of long and boring training. :)

The week went in the same fashion and we were supposed to return on saturday. But we were informed that 2 of us will have to stay for another 2 weeks till the project ends to support from korea. I was happy. 2 more weeks means i can roam around a bit and ofcourse more money. :D

That sunday we went to 63 building. As the name suggests its a building with 63 floors. There was a hell lot of stuff to visit in that building and we did the same. Wax museum, aquarium, Sky view of the city from the 60th floor. That took up almost all of our time and it was time to return. I would say korea is well connected with transport. You can catch a subway for almost anywhere from anywhere.

Now the next week again went out in office nothing much to tell about it. Go to office at 10 come back at 10. That was pretty much all about the week.

The next sunday we went to EVERLAND. One of the biggest amusement parks of ASIA(Am not sure if its the biggest :P). Anyways it was big enough. Although i specially wanted to visit that place because of the T EXPRESS. It is the biggest and highest roller coaster of ASIA. That am pretty sure about. All the other rides were no better than our own local Wonler la. I wouldn't be wrong if i say that those rides are better in wonder la. Anyways Everland was all worth it because of the T EXPRESS. Man that was scary. I was all cool till i went in that ride. That scared the shit out of me. At almost 4 points i was sure am gonna die. But the almightly has thought of a much worst way to kill me i guess. ;) The ride was over and i thanked god i was alive. I bought mementos for everyone from there. Though it was hell expensive. I forgot to mention just one thing about korea yet. Prople dont know what is veg here. They eat non veg and only non veg. So i had to survive on fries whenever i went out anywhere. :( So was the case with everland too. Only fries and cold drink. Anyways there are a lot of attractions in everland except the T Express. The rotating house was great then the bug house and a few more. We missed the safari due to time constrains and ofcourse our laziness. But its ok. On the whole it was a great day.

The week to follow went the same as the previous one with just one change. My stay was again extended by 2 weeks and all of my other teammates went back leaving me alone to get bored and write this blog to torture whoever reads this... :P

P.S. : The people here are very helpful and mind before asking help from someone. Coz he might not leave you untill he would have helped you. Although he will not understand your language and you wont understand his, not her(her wont help, her will run away.. :P)

And about the title: Yes the girls here like to flaunt their legs a lot and i being a true Indian don't mind staring. ;)

Thats all Folks !!!

PaschimBanga???

Just one simple question. Why do they want to change the name from West Bengal to PaschimBanga?

Changing the name for Mamta Di won't take 10 secs "from now on the name is PaschimBanga. Ammader banga". But changing the same on all the papers will take a investment of lakhs of rupees if not crores. If they have nothing else to do i can suggest them a lot of work which can keep them occupied for the next 5 years to come if not more. To start with there is lot of poverty and misery in bengal. The literacy percentage is itself not so great. Why not invest your money and power on these factors. Once these are taken care off please feel free on change the name of the state to whatever you want. You can even keep it in your name if you so desire. #MamtaBanga . Just take care of the state. CPIM has already given it so many scars that your 5 years won't be enough to fill them. Try not to give anymore of them if you can't remove a few.

People have great expectations from you Mamta di. Please keep up to their hopes and do something great for the state rather than ruining whats already in ruins. From being one of the richest state to one of the poorest states bengal has suffered a lot. try and recover that if possible. Changing the name might put you in the pages of history but will never put you in the hearts of people who are one you should target.

West Bengal sound elegant please don't spoil that just for your sake. If you so desire put the name as "Bengal". It will still retain its elegance. But Paschim Banga??? yukkkk...

Just give it a thought. I know whatever i say here won't make any difference but just wanted to express my views and feelings.

Thats All Folks!!!

The Two Scavengers

Once upon a time there was a huge kingdom named SAMSUNG India Software Operations.

Although the name was very large for the outsiders the kingdom itself had lots of poor and

hungry inhabitants. There was a lot of misery in the kingdom, so much so that few of them

had taken up scavenging to fulfill the basic needs of their hungry and miserable stomach.

Two of the well known scavengers were Sir ABC and Sir XYZ (Names has been

removed coz it was irrelevant here). Although they

seemed to be well taken care off but the reality was a bit different.

Although the kingdom provided with a decent quantity as well as quantity of food to the

poor and needed these two scavengers never found it enough to fill their hunger. It was the

kingdom’s fault or their uncontrollable desire for more is not known from the history of evidence

available from that era. But historians have found some shocking papers describing the poor

state of these two scavengers. There is very heart touching incident that our historians came

through.

17th of August 2011: It was a very beautiful day in the kingdom. Although the people of

the kingdom were mostly tired as they had a very tiring weekend due to the 3 days long holiday

which they had enjoyed. The holiday was given on the eve of 15th of August when decades back

the people of the dynasty, of which this kingdom was a very small part, broke free through the

shackles of a huge dragon after slaying it. Anyways that has nothing to do with the event that

occurred on 17th of August, or it does is not known.

On that day there was a small party in the name of the birthday of a small citizen of

that big kingdom(Citizen’s details are irrelevant). On this occasion the friends and co-workers

of that citizen brought in a cake to celebrate his birthday. He cut the cake and all the

co-workers delightedly had their share of it. When the party was over these co-workers took

the leftovers in a plastic bag and kept it near the garbage box so that the sweepers can take

it and throw the plastic where it should originally be thrown. The co-workers then went on their

own ways. But no one knew there were 2 scavengers waiting some place hidden from the eyes of

the citizens to have their part of the cake. Those 2 were none other than Sir ABC and

Sir XYZ. When they saw that no one was around and watching the plastic containing the

cake leftovers one of them slowly moved towards it and the other scavenger took guard. Once

Sir XYZ reached the destination he smelled the plastic for the fragrance of the freshly

baked cake. He found it very intriguing and couldn’t stop himself from picking it up and moving

slowly towards his fellow friend Sir ABC. When he had traveled half of the distance

he saw one of the co-workers moving towards him. Not knowing what to do he ran towards his

fellow friend for help. To their luck the co-workers didn’t notice that the scavenger was carrying

their leftovers and went on to talk to them about the assets and liabilities of the kingdom. After

a while another co-worker joined them at that place and they had a talk for some time discussing

the usual. During the process of their conversation the scavengers came to know that there was no

leftover in the plastic and their heart shattered to a thousand pieces. But the scavengers still

had hopes that the box might still contain the knife from which the cake was cut and they can lick

it to grab the taste of that delicious cake. But to their sorrow the two co-workers never left them,

instead they took them to their respective places of work and left them with the fine memories

of what could have been in the packet.

And thus the quest of those two kept on going in hunt of more food to fulfill their desires.

They had the feeling that some fine day they will get what the truly wanted from the bottom of

their heart.

To this date the voices of those scavengers are heard across the kingdom asking for a piece

of that cake. People of the kingdom were thus requested to have sympathy with those poor soul

and move on with their lives.

Final Yr?????

Although I started writing this post pre-final year but ended it post-final year as i was too busy enjoying it rather than writing some silly post about it. :) Here it goes:

The most awaited time in an engineering college student's life finally arrives. The "Final Year" arrives. This is the year one looks forward too from the time he/she takes his first step towards becoming an engineer. After moving through the terrified yet most memorable phase of the 1st yr, the joyful 2nd yr, the thoughtful 3rd yr, the time arrives THE FINAL YEAR.
Placements?? ehh.. no da!!! will not discuss that sensitive issue here. Assuming a good placement even after this terrifying recession. What you have been doing these 3 short and lovely years doesn't matter a bit when the question comes. What did you do in your final year?
The question might have a short and simple answer "I enjoyed it like hell". Will that answer be enough? I don't think so. One who'll answer just that much must haven't enjoyed it a bit. The final year should be such that you could write a book on it and should end with the parting words "And the saga continued". Things will come and things will go but this year, this time of life won't come again. You wont be in final year yet again.
The year should start with a bang and end with a bigger one with innumerable bangs in between the two. This time which you spent with your near and dear friends will always remain a sweet memory in your life. The movies you watched together, the trips you had, the small outings you had with them, the small fights over bill, the class bunks or rather i should say going to the class coz that happened rarely will always be in your mind where ever you are, when ever you meet them the discussion will finally turn on those days only. These friends what you make will last forever. The bonding which is made in the final moments of your college life is stronger and healthier than the one which was made in the last 3 years.

Looking back and remembering the final year is a nostalgic moment for each and everyone of us.

I cherish my final year and its always feels good to look back at it and wish that "If those days came back. I will make it even more memorable".

Here is an explorer you'll love to work with though the system requirement is high but its great.

www.spacetime.com