Bhutan

Day 2: Phuentsholing – A first time experience (13th Feb)

The town of P’sholing is small but busy. Being the transit point between India and Bhutan, there are always a zillion vehicles of all kinds on the roads. It took us 4 hours to reach this town, and we checked in at a modest hotel overlooking the Bhutan-India gate. BST is half an hour ahead of IST, so it was 17:30hrs when we finally laid our tired bones to rest. We spent some time that evening exploring our first Bhutan town, but being tired, we retired by 20:00hrs.

The next morning I was awake early, feeling refreshed and ready to conquer…oops, explore Bhutan. I was sitting by the balcony of the hotel at 07:30hrs, sipping a hot cup of chai and watching the busy street below when I felt my chair moving. I brushed away my mind’s suggestion that it may be an earthquake. But when my friend cried out from inside the room a moment later that his cot was shaking, it occurred to me that we were really experiencing a tremor! Luckily, it lasted for hardly 30 seconds and I was smiling thinking of another “first” I had experienced.

We didn’t need any special immigration permit to enter P’sholing and spend a night, but one needs to have a permit to visit and travel in Bhutan. So we spent the morning of 14th Feb (Tuesday) getting our papers in place and left for the city of Thimpu at 13:30hrs by a bus.

A passport is the quickest way to get travel authorization. Alternatively, you could use a Voter’s ID and get permission from the Indian Embassy in P’sholing to travel around the country.