Day 11, Thimphu

May 3, 2009

Planning doesn’t always work. I had everything arranged before I left for Bhutan. At least, I thought so. But I was wrong. After coming here I discovered that nothing is going to happen like I planned. For the nth time it was proven that I should trust no one with things that matter to me.

I was scheduled to go to Punakha tomorrow, Paro the day after and fly out from Paro on the 6th. But it turns out that I need a permit to enter Punakha, which I cannot have because today is Sunday and tomorrow is a national holiday here. So I will have to go to Paro and come back to Thimphu tomorrow, go to Punakha the day after and drive directly to Paro via Thimpu to catch my flight. So much for letting others plan your life!

The agency that arranged my trip to Bhutan told me that my driver was going to be my guide. I soon realized that though a good a good driver, he is a very bad guide. He could only drive me to the important places here in Thimphu but he knew nothing about them. I had no choice but to hire a guide at an extra cost. As if I hadn’t had enough, just when my guide arrived after noon and we started touring the city, it started raining.

By and by, my luck improved and the weather cleared up. My guide turned out to be quite knowledgeable and educated me about the intricacies of Buddhism in practice. My luck got even better when I was at a local 12th century monastery and the princess of Bhutan happened to walk into that place. It was a very unusual hour for visitors and hence I was the only person present apart from the monks, when the royal family walked in. At leisure, I watched the princess offer prayers in the monastery and noted that no one minded her wearing shoes inside the main chamber.

I spent the rest of the day going around the city. This place is very different from any other cities that I have seen so far. It is situated in a valley surrounded by mountains on all sides. For a national capital, Thimphu is very small. It is clean, calm and well organized. There is little traffic and therefore, very less pollution. I think that the lack of pollution can also be attributed to the thick forests covering almost eighty percent of Bhutan. My guide told me that the Bhutanese government tries to maintain its jungles. They even have a Forest Day when every student is given a sapling to plant and the student whose plant grows to be the healthiest is rewarded. The topography of the town reminded me of Banjara Hills back home. There are a lot of points around the city which provide an unobstructed view of the town. These points also serve as hangout spots for the Bhutanese youth.

The only oddity in Thimphu is the presence of a lot of stray dogs. They were omnipresent - at monasteries, on the roads, near houses. But they didn’t look like stray dogs at all. They were healthy, well fed and looked after. I noticed that unlike the usual strays here in India, they are much shorter, well built and have thicker covers.