Bhutan Budget Backpackers - Day 11/12 ( Marathon journey Bumthang - Phuentsholing via Thimphu )

7 - 8 October 2014 – Day 11/12 (Marathon journey Bumthang - Phuentsholing via Thimphu )

Race against time

The empty sand patch had turned into a semblance of a bus stand as we saw a couple of familiar faces from our previous journey to waiting for the bus when we got there at 6:15 AM. The bus turned up at 6:30 AM and the driver seemed to be extremely impatient as he dumped the plump lady’s six sacks of rice, followed with the bald man’s two trunks of I don’t know what and so on. He seemed extremely witty based on the reactions people were giving to his responses when asked questions by folks.

We were optimistic he’d get us to Thimphu in 10 hours (giving 2 hours buffer) which meant reaching Thimphu at around 4 PM allowing us to catch a bus / taxi to Phuentsholing by 9 PM / 10 PM and we’d be in India by nightfall. From the title itinerary of this blog piece, you already must have figured how optimistic we sounded back then. He was doing great pace too that was till he caught up with another bus which had his friend driving it. Both of them then moved to a leisurely pace passing comments at each other.In the passing scenery, one thing that stood out was the following incident. I saw a school and about 2 kilometres after that on a largely vacant stretch, I saw a 4-5 year old girl in school uniform and bag walking alone towards school. That signified the security and the independence and the trust this country and its culture imbibes in its citizens. It sounds alien in so many other countries including my home India, 

Heights of being nice

The other extreme of how nice Bhutanese folks can be happened moments after that when the other bus broke down. Our driver parked behind him and gave moral support whilst they fixed their puncture. So we all had an impromptu picnic for two hours (remember the buffer?) and no one else seemed to be in any hurry anyways. Our driver also turned out to be the most social being on the planet as he seemed to converse with everyone we passed on the way, often stopping to collect and drop parcels, chit chat with who I thought were his wife and two kids and so on.
Stopping for quick lunch similar to the earlier trip, we sat back and enjoyed the views knowing we’d have to spend the night in Thimphu anyways.

Stranded in the dark (yet again) 

There is something about the zone near Punakha. Our driver ran out of fuel! For about 20 minutes of the ride, he kept on swirling and rocking the bus hoping to stretch the last drops of petrol in the bus to propel it forward. It was inevitable we’d run out of luck in the wilderness. It was too dark to get out so everyone sat in the bus and chilled. He waved down a passing truck after ten minutes and using a spare container someone had, they picked up a few litres of petrol over a couple of rounds from the truck. After all that drama, we finally reached Thimphu at 8:30 PM, beyond redemption of getting to Phuentsholing tonight.

Rooms all booked

We checked out Ghasel for rooms but they only had one terrible (worse than our hostel room from university) available for 400 Nu. The neighbouring hotel Tashi Delek had a room for 1200 Nu , clearly not worth it and I wouldn’t recommend the place but with a lack of room availability in the town and the tiredness of a day’s journey catching up in the cold conditions, we picked it up knowing we’d fall flat and not care two cents of the room’s condition. Grabbing dinner (400 Nu) including our last meal of ema datsi and cheese momos, the next thing we knew was our alarms waking us up at 6 AM.

The Final Leg

After freshening up, we hit the taxi stand at 7 AM and found a shared taxi to Phuentsholing who readily agreed to our quoted price of 600 Nu (the girls had paid the same when they came to Thimphu). I am guessing we could have bargained for lower considering he asked us to pay up away from the presence of other 2 travellers. But the next 5 hours made up it for one, we reached in 5 hours and never realised it as our co passengers were a tourist guide and his wife and more importantly, I have never met such an erudite taxi driver. 

A crash course on all things Bhutan

He explained the history of Bhutan with dates, significance of the Burning Lake and how Pema Limpa took a burning butter lamp into the water and brought it out and how he discussed on an underworld of monasteries and gardens in the lake where a shepherd had slipped and fallen into. When he finally escaped, Rip Van Winklesque, he hadn’t aged but generations had passed and the new inhabitants of his house had no clue of his ancestry. He went on to recent history explaining the genealogy of the kings and their relative popularities. Discussed the present political scenario as a young democracy and how civil servants pay and inflation went hand In hand and what he expected Bhutan to be for the next generation. This last trip metaphorically summed up the entire trip for us as he went on to sports, geography, culture, traditions and a lot more. The Chozum seemed so much prettier in the daylight compared to our first impressions in the darkness on the first trip inwards.

Tashi Dalek Bhutan! 

We reached Phuentsholing by 12 and figured Café Kizom deserved a visit for our last meal in Bhutan. Our permit had been collected back at the last checkpoint about 80 km before Phuentsholing, Gorging on cheese pizza and desserts piling up a bill of 1000 Nu. That was also to empty our wallets of all the Nu we had on us apart from the souvenir notes we had kept. We also decided to empty the pre paid balance on our phone as we called family and friends. We crossed over with heavy hearts, loads of memories and empty wallets. A whirlwind of 12 days were done, though we had another 3 days of Sikkim but that is for another blog post. Tashi Dalek Bhutan!!!! 

Key Points

Thimphu during the festive season seems to get jam packed so you might consider pre booking hotel rooms there. 

Shared taxi (Thimphu - Phuentsholing) - 5 hours / 600 Nu per person. 

Cafe Kizom ($$) - Phuentsholing