A passage to India - the road to Phuentsholing

It is hard to explain the feeling of wonderment at arriving at the border between two nations. It is nothing to people who have lived in frontier towns, but to me, a Mumbaikar born and raised on the sea, and having lived either in cities in the hinterland or on the sea in various countries in the world, it is kind of momentous. We were off to Phuentsholing in southern Bhutan, a town on the India-Bhutan border. I had in the past driven across borders in Europe and the US, yet I felt once again the same stupid thrill I had felt then, at the sheer awesome simplicity of just driving under the Bhutan Gate, and finding myself in the town of Jaigaon in West Bengal, India! As simple as that, given that it is a peaceful border between friendly neighbours!

Driving due south from Thimphu which is at an elevation of some 8,000 feet, our journey to Phuentsholing, just 500 feet above sea level, was a study in botany, sociology, economics, geography, strange weather systems, and more.

Southbound to Phuentsholing!

Taking the road to Phuentsholing at the Chuzom (the confluence of the Wangchchu and Parochhu), we drove by Watsa village, still quite high up, and not long after leaving Thimphu. Looking across the valley, the mountains were a gentle kaleidoscope of muted auburn, russet, orange, brown, gold, yellow and green bushes. The play of the morning sun and shade picked out and showcased tracts of this foliage. 

Mountain slopes awash with the colours of autumn

Isn't the contrast of the rust, yellow and gold with the evergreen in the foreground just beautiful!

The lushness and greenery grew steadily as we moved southwards. It thumbed its nose at the autumn, growing into a riotous, dense and almost tropical forest cover of banana trees, ferns, climbers, large leafed trees and strangely even palm trees as we neared Phuentsholing.   

While this southern highway is very good for the most part, the Project Dantak people (who have worked tirelessly since 1961 to improve road connectivity in Bhutan) are working on completely eliminating and bypassing a small single lane stretch, thereby upgrading this entire artery to a double laned road and also cutting the travel time between Thimphu and Phuentsholing by a whole hour! At Chukha, about two hours into our road trip, we saw men at work on this project.

I'm not sure if it is because the innumerable hairpin bends in mountain roads help digest what you have eaten faster, but I was more than ready for the quaint little Dantak Canteen by the side of the road when it beckoned us as we arrived at Takti. The cooks are Nepali but you wouldn't know that from the quality of idli, dosa, wada, sambar, and choley bhature they served us! Do stop and enjoy the hospitality and ambience of this super eatery if ever you find yourself southbound in Bhutan!

Dantak Canteen - the super eatery

The little VIP room of the Dantak Canteen - even His Majesty the King of Bhutan stops here on his way south!

The sky was a beautiful autumn blue so far, but I could easily have believed it was the monsoon or even the height of a dank winter as we moved towards Gaeddu. Lying in a peculiar fold of the mountains, which stretches about 7 kilometers after Takti, Gaeddu is where the famous Gaeddu College of Business Studies is situated. Ghostly mists enveloped the mountainsides allowing a visibility of just 25 feet from the road in some places on this stretch. Trees by the roadside took on grotesque shapes, prayer flags looked forlorn as they flapped about shrouded by the thick mist, and nothing appeared to exist beyond the road as the mountain slopes fell away into an abyss and were swallowed up by an opaque milkiness.

Forlorn prayer flags flap in the misty wind

Visibility of around 25 feet - even the trees by the roadside are covered by the thickening mist

An opaque nothingness falling away from the roadside

An eerie sky at midday!

Coming out into the bright sunshine at Kamji was like coming out of a tunnel in a slightly sinister dream! Notwithstanding Gaeddu's unpredictable and often dreary weather, the college campus itself was lively and pretty, with stunningly beautiful marigolds still blooming everywhere. It was clear to see that the Director General of the college was easily its life, its soul, its driving force, the reason behind its good reputation and undoubtedly among the most inspirational leaders in higher education in the country! He had managed to mobilise almost everyone on the campus to come out and welcome us in a colourful Chipdrel procession, followed by the Marchang ritual. 

A beautiful mural at the entrance of Gaeddu College

The campus aglow with marigolds!

The Gaeddu-Phuentsholing run is just over an hour long. We began to see the flat and contiguous urban sprawl of the Phuentsholing-Jaigaon border area spread out below us almost half an hour before we actually entered the border town. Arriving at the Druk Hotel in Phuentsholing mid morning on a Thursday, we got to see perhaps the most bustling place yet in Bhutan. What luck that the Bhutan Gate is not even three minutes from the hotel. On one side of the road leading to the gate on the Bhutanese side is an immigration office where migrant labourers and other non Bhutanese from across the border were lined up in the hundreds for permits to travel to other places in Bhutan. On the other side of the road are shops and businesses. If I thought this place actually hustled and bustled, it was because I have lived in Thimphu for three and a half months and grown unaccustomed to the buzz of people hurrying, buying, selling, bargaining, pushing, jostling, rushing. It was in fact only as busy as an Indian street on a quiet day!

Bhutan Gate - Jaigaon in West Bengal is visible through the gate on the other side!

Driving through the Bhutan Gate into Jaigaon on the Indian side, the hustle and bustle took over my senses - the shops were overflowing with literally all kinds of merchandise from utensils to sweets to touristy souvenirs to clothing to home decor and furnishings, the traffic was chaotic, and the people were well......chaotic as well! I was in India, and I was fine.....everything was once again familiar within seconds - the chaos, the crowds, the noise, the buzz! Jaigaon market tempted me with its sweet oranges, mithai (Indian sweets), khoya (thickened, evaporated milk) and upholstery fabric and I succumbed, but left plenty unbought and still coveted for another visit! The outskirts of Jaigaon were more serene and surprisingly covered with tea gardens on both sides of the road as far as the eye could see. I had always thought tea only grew on hill slopes, but as far as I could see this terrain was flat as a board! Interesting!

The hum and buzz of the plains were great, yet, happily for me, I had recognized quite surprisingly that they were not something I had pined for in the time I had been in Thimphu. I had grown used to the mountains, the space and the pure air of Thimphu - it was time to head back, but not without another pit stop at the Dantak Canteen! From there onwards it was non stop to the capital and home, driving down to the Chuzom, taking the road to the capital, and driving into Thimphu City through the Thimphu Gate!