Thanks AK, Arindam, Jayasmokesleaves and Vnabhi. Actually I am a bit too overwhelmed with some 650 photographs taken in two cameras. Here goes my account of the day in Phuntsholling.
Depending on how far you have seen Bhutan, you will either be bored or excited by the border town of Phuntsholling. Having used P'ling as my transit town during my stay in Bhutan in the late 80s and early 90s, I have been to P'ling some 20 times or more. To me it's just a gateway to the amazing kingdom of Bhutan and it does not represent even 1 per cent of the original Bhutan.
But if you are a first timer, you can't miss the strange dress of the people, the unique building architecture, the clean streets and the civilised way of driving, not to speak of scores of Toyota Hi-lux, Prado, Tuscon etc on the roads.
Men wear Gho and women wear Kira and Honju. This is their national dress. During my stay 20 years ago, this dress code was very strictly enforced due to various ethno-political reasons (I am not getting into all that) but now those reasons are no longer very valid and hence the government is more relaxed about what you wear in the city. But a Bhutanese national has to wear that dress if he/she has to go to any government office.
We reached P'ling at around 11 am and immediately rushed to the immigration office. We had already filled in the immigration form in Calcutta (having downloaded it from their website). The immigration official smiled and asked from where I got the form and mumbled that the form had actually changed but didn't ask us to fill in any different form.
They digitally photographed all three of us and asked us to come back after an hour to collect the permit. We spent the hour buying a prepaid Tashi Cell connection and some basic shopping in Tashi Commercial's super market. It's an amazingly fast process to get a prepaid connection in Bhutan. You get connected in 15 minutes flat and the recharge vouchers offer you 100 per cent talk time.
Each call to India from the TashiCell number is approximately Rs 5 in the first minute then Re 1.20 for every 15 seconds. After every call you get a message stating how much the call cost you and what your current balance is.
In contrast - roaming on my Airtel number would have cost me, Rs 133 per minute for making an outgoing call to India and Rs 85 per minute to receive an incoming call from India. That's correct. You read correctly
Rs 133 and Rs 85 per minute. Each SMS would have cost me Rs 15. This is ridiculous I agree but true.
Anyway, by the time we were done with getting the phone connection and buying some jam and jelly etc, our immigration papers were ready. With this I rushed to get the permit for my car from the RSTA office near the bus station. I reached there at just before 1 pm and all the staff had gone for lunch.
"Come back after 2 la," was what I was told by the RTO. Bhutanese use the word "la" as an honourific. It is the equivalent of "Sir" or "Huzoor" or "Janab". "Kadinche la" is a very useful phrase to know when you are in Bhutan. It means thank you and Bhutanese are very pleasantly surprised when you say that and it opens many doors.
By the time I got the permit to drive in Bhutan it was around 3. I thought it would be prudent to stay back in Phuntsholling for the night and start tomorrow early morning for Thimphu. I don't like driving in the night. The last bus to Thimphu from Phuntsholling starts at 4. Bhutan, incidentally, just doesn't have any night bus service anywhere in the country.
We checked into Hotel Sinchula which is a decent mid-market type hotel. It's actually one of the very few in the city offering AC rooms. Lot of Indians stay in Jaigaon, which is on the Indian side of the border, and is much cheaper. But we deliberately didn't stay there because just a week ago Jaigaon had seen violent communal clashes of a rather serious nature. Also due to the ongoing adivasi bandh most hotels were full, as guests who were staying there couldn't move out.
I am keeping the details of getting these immigration and driving permits for later. Now some pictures of Phuntsholling.
Even the petrol pumps in Bhutan have unique architecture. Petrol per litre costs Rs 36 Inside the Tashi Commercial super market. They make the famous Druk brand of fruit products A woman earning her browny points with God by turning prayer wheels Yet another religious woman at the temple in Phuntsholling A child playing in the park of Phuntsholling We stayed in this hotel. Rs 1300 per night after hard bargaining