A country where red rice and chilies are not just seasonings but the main diet of local residence. Bhutan is a place filled with devotees, the land of buddha, where monks check their smartphones after performing divination. You might feel this place is weird as giant protective penises are painted at the entrance to many houses.
Bhutan is a country ruled by a king and strikingly one of the happiest countries out there. I had a short trip to Bhutan for 7 days. When I got there, I realized that Bhutan is much more than just the happiest kingdom. By reading the post you might just plan your next trip to Bhutan. My little trip made me fall in love with this place.
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Bhutan is a tourist place and with every year passing, I recommend you plan a trip shortly, especially during peak season months (September & October). There is no need for a Passport or visa if you make your visit from Indian. Because of the good relations between India and Bhutan, it becomes a lot easier to plan a visit.
I prefer to visit the place by road, Bhutan can be reached by both by flight or by road. I did not want to take a flight for obvious reasons. Bhutan is known to be one of the world’s most dangerous airports. I know that sounds uncool, but I was really petrified when I learned that it is so dangerous that there are only 8 licensed pilots in the world who are authorized to land at the Paro airport.
To visit Bhutan, one just needs a Voter ID card and a photograph of it. Other than it you need two recent passport size photographs.
As I choose to take to travel by road, I reached Jaigaon (the Indo-Bhutan border on the Indian side). From the border, we took a cab to Phuentsholing (the Indo-Bhutan border on Bhutan side). There was some immigration procedure. In the Immigration office, it was a long queue, we had a travel agent with us so he arranged the process in a fast way.
There was not much to explore in Phuentsholing. So, I directly headed to Thimphu. This place was 6 hours away from Phuentsholing. As google map Showed us that we would be able to reach our destination in 4:30 hours but the road is really curvy and so it will take a little longer.
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As we were a group 7 we took a 6 seat cab, though Bhutan is a tourist place it cost more than we expected. You can always bargain. I do it all the time. As Bhutan is much of a trekking place, in most of our trip we were in our camps.
It was a fun trip as we sat around with friends for a bonfire at night, in the day time we were mostly on ways to explore the Himalayas. There is no need to get exchange Currency as people in Bhutan accept Indian currency, just avoid taking note of 2000rs as many people don’t accept it. There were many small stalls lined up on the streets to do shopping.
Also, Bhutan is a safe place for solo girl travelers. As people are so generous there is no fear in anything. Just because it is up in the Himalayas, they want everyone to sign that if anything happens to tourists while trekking due to natural calamities Bhutan is not responsible.
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It is a heaven-looking place, people are so generous there, the lakes, ice mountains, and a perfect land to visit if you are a trekking person. Traveling in Bhutan is an extraordinary awesome experience; the clean & green country teaches you how to be happy in small things, and that to be grateful for all that you have.
