BORDERS
ACROSS
On the 1st of June, my friends and I crossed the Bhutan border by road. After all the immigration process, it took us around a long 4 hour drive to reach our first checkpoint Paro. However, the happiest land on earth welcomed us with amazing landscapes and strictures I could ever imagine. It just got me even more excited and curious about the next few days to come...
Half way through, we stopped by a restaurant beside the mountains. The place was silent, they had all kinds of food there. Mostly Indian since they had numerous Indian guests. People who came there seemed to be in a weird space, half tired, half asleep, and half spaced out. It should be because of the change in climate and the long drive from or to the borders working hand in hand. Soon after our meal, we bought some alcohol from the shop next to the restaurant and walked back towards the taxi we where on...
It had gotten pretty dark by the time we continued our journey to Paro. This was our taxi driver Django, he kept on talking to us about one thing or the other. Rather he was trying hard to get us into his guest list since he was a liscenced guide too. Anyhow I got tired and fell asleep on to the window beeding and since it was really hot back in India, I enjoyed the cold almost freezing wind and the clear stary sky. After a drive of another 2hours we reached our hotel at Paro. It was sometime around 9 or 10 and the hotel had closed their restaurants. Even though we where starving, the only option left was to hog on to the chips and alcohol we'd bought from the shop next to the restaurant we where at...
The next day morning, we went out for a walk into the Paro town. It was literally just a single stretch which was the whole of Paro town with gift shops, general stores, entertainment clubs, restaurants, and a market at the end. Everyone on the road except for the tourists wore their traditional dress called Gho. Anyone could walk the whole town in less than an hour.
But even though it was small, the place was vibrant, active and well organised. In short,
Paro gave us a warm welcome to Bhutan and our exploration started off from there...
On my way back to the hotel, this guy joined me through out the whole stretch since he was a guide looking for a customer that day. Even though I had no intentions hiring a guide, he was nice enough to explain me some basic informations that I'd have to know when I go around Bhutan without a guide. From all the things he told me I was fascinated with their policy of GNH
' GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS ' and how they claimed to be the happiest country in the world.
And as I clicked his picture and said good bye, he just wished me all happiness in Bhutan.
To be straight forward, I wasn't really keen about the food culture there. Maybe because they tasted blunt to me or maybe because I generally don't eat much. Hence I mostly survived on bread, eggs, and beef with a lot of beer. This was a store close to
the hotel we stayed at, they made me some food the first day and also offered me Indian food which was some rotis
and potato sides after the long walk...
Next day morning we decided on climbing the Tiger's Nest. Even though we all started climbing together, two of us slowed down as it got tough for us. We stopped by at different points to get some rest and then continue. Half way through the trek we found a cafeteria to freshen up. And that's where I talked to this guy. He told me how more we had to climb and the kind of route that'd take us there. I was even warned not spread waste around especially plastic when he showed me one guy planting new saplings since they had to cut down some trees the previous week. And yes I could see the efforts put in to conserve their forests and natural resources.
And finally after a 2 hour trek we got to the Paro Taktshang, also called the Tiger's Nest. A Himalayan Buddhist monastery built in 1692 on the tip of a mountain cliff at an elevation of 10,200ft above sea level. Few minutes we spent there got me all calm and
fresh. It was a place I could talk , question, argue and pacify myself. Even though I found it very much disturbing in the
beginning, later realised how relaxed that had gotten me. The architecture, the art, the silence.
I could spend all my time just sitting there still and silent...
The next morning I decided to trek up to the Phajoding Monastery, perched at an elevation of 14000ft on a hilltop overlooking the Thimphu Valley built in the 13th century. Since it wasn't a regular tourist spot,
it sure was better but equally a treacherous hike across 3 mountains.
The kids offered to take me around the monastery and nothing could be better than that.
So we went inside as they posed to my camera at every possible spot...
