Around South Asia: Part Two

In which I travelled to the Bhutanese capital

03.11.2025: Tour Day1, City1

Good morning from Phuntsholing! After a much-needed sleep, I woke up at 05:45am to get ready. I had breakfast at 07:30am with Shilpa, Shradha and Soniya. Food options were less. The group of 24 travelers was divided into two coaster buses. Pravin and the tour guides would sit in both buses on alternate days. 

Bus 2

Bus 1

Luggage was loaded and we started the road journey towards Thimphu at 8am. The main sightseeing of Phuntsholing would be covered on return journey. 

Nestled in the eastern Himalayas, situated in the South Asia, Bhutan is a landlocked country between India and China. It is known for Gross National Happiness and deep-rooted Buddhist culture. It’s a carbon negative country with 70% forest cover. It is mandatory to hire a guide and pay daily sustainable development fee (SDP) for tourists. 

At 09:30am, we stopped at the Eight Bodhi Stupas (chortens) built for the Retired Armed Forces Society in Gedu. 

These stupas are built in set of eight to symbolize the eight major events in the life of Buddha Shakyamuni from birth to nirvana. 

At 11:15am, we had a pitstop at Shelgoen restaurant in Chukha for tea-coffee and washroom break. On this tour, we noticed that all restaurants and hotels in Bhutan are decorated with the King’s family photo frames and photos of famous monasteries and dzongs. Jimmy introduced us to His Majesty’s family members in this photo. 

We travelled through the convoluted roads and lush green surroundings for three hours now. Sometimes the journey gets tiring and our bus had no seat handles, so handle yourself with care during the sharp turns. We had Dr. Vidyarani, gynaecologist on the backseat. It was interesting to hear the medical stories and Hyderabad stories from her. Divya Prakash and Pooja Suvarnakhandi and myself were keen listeners. At 3pm, we had lunch in Edelweiss restaurant in Thimphu. 

I had lunch with Soniya, Pranali Kamble and Leena Sarkar Mazumdar. The ground floor on this building had a buddha art gallery with different buddha souvenirs, artwork, thangka, prayer bowls, etc. Post lunch we visited the Handicraft Market. 

We were given an hour to shop and explore the market. It has a plethora of artifacts: fridge magnets, keychains, bags, woolen ponchos, t-shirts, hand woven scarfs, caps, miniatures of gho and kira (national dress for men and women), wood carvings, desho (Bhutanese paper), etc. 

Situated in west-central Bhutan, Thimphu is the capital and largest city at an elevation of 7610ft. We reached the Tashichho Dzong at 5pm. A Dzong is a mix of fortress and monastery architecture. It houses both religious and administrative centers. We were briefed on the rules: below the knee attire, no caps, no sleeveless, round neck t-shirts allowed with jackets, no photography inside the monastery, etc. We walked on the pathway to the monastery with rose gardens on our left and maple trees to our right and a moon shining in the sky and maple leaves swaying in the cool breezes reminding of Mohabbatein movie.

Tashichho Dzong

Situated on the west bank of Wang Chu River, it has been the seat of government and houses the throne room and offices of the king, the secretariat and the ministries of home affairs and finance. 

The dzong complex houses 30 temples of which we visited the Dukhang, the central assembly hall. There are a series of steep steps to be climbed at the entrance gate of every monastery. Tenzing briefed us in the hall that featured a large statue of Shakyamuni Buddha and the thrones for the King and the Dharma Guru. On the left side of the large statue is Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava), referred as the second buddha. There were butter lamps and water lamps in front of the statues along with offerings of fruits and food. We sat on the red cushioned floor for meditation for a while. 

The open courtyard was crowded with more monks than tourist. The reason being the Global Peace prayer festival hosted in Thimphu for world peace and healing of humanity. It starts on 4th Nov on the Changlimithang ground. 

We left the dzong at 6pm, walking in the chilling cold night to our bus. We reached Hotel Kuenphen Rabten Resort at 7pm and had masala tea (dalchini to be precise). Rooms were allotted; my room was 304. We went to our rooms, freshened up and were back to the main building for dinner at 8pm. 

I had dinner with Soniya. The introduction session started with Shradha and then Soniya and myself. We strolled outside for a while, then walked inside the building, discussed on past tours and random topics. Pranali joined us in a while. Then we went to our room, got the bag ready for tomorrow and dozed off. Meeting strangers on tour and jelling with them is not an easy task. There are differences in point of views, life choices, way of enjoyment, etc. We are not answerable to anyone for the decisions we make, biological clock ticking, etc. It takes a lot of courage and efforts to live the life on our terms, and when you get a chance to do that why not!