Hope my readers have enjoyed my earlier post. Well let me continue with my journey from Phuentsholing to Thimpu.....
On 14th April 2016 we halted in Phuentsholing and
enjoyed the evening there. For entering Thimpu individual passes are to be
obtained as well as vehicle pass.
Next day morning we hurried for the permit. The immigration
office which issues the permit for Thimpu and Paro opens at 9.30 am. This pass
permitted to enter only the Thimphu and Paro regions of Bhutan. To travel
further inside Bhutan you need to again get the permit for other locations separately from Thimphu. Immigration forms are available in the office itself.
Documents to be carried for individual pass:
1) Photocopy of Voter I-card/Passport
2) 2 copies of Passport photo
After obtaining the individual pass it was mandatory to
obtain car pass as well. For obtaining
the car pass we had to go to Road & Safety department (RSTA) which was a
kilometer away from the immigration office.
One interesting instance, we were lost in finding the RSTA
office. But the people over there are so friendly and helpful. We just asked a
local taxi driver about the route to RSTA office, he asked us to follow his car
and helped us to reach the office. It was just a kilometer away from the
immigration office and we were moving here and there, round and round finding
the office.
After reaching RSTA we came to know that pollution
certificate is also required and Bhutan Government follows a strict policy and it’s
a mandate. And we didn’t have pollution certificate. We were so disappointed.
But we didn’t give up. We crossed the border and tried to find any local office
in Jaigaon that issues the pollution certificate. We were struggling here and
there and finally we got one and it took around half an hour to issue the
certificate. Huuuffff…!!! What a relief. But our struggle wasn’t yet over, we
had to rush back to RSTA as it would close down by 3.00 pm and it was already
2.00 pm. We reached there by 2.20 and finally with all documents in hand we
filled up the form for the car permit. They follow a certain procedure before
issuing the car permit:
An officer checked all our documents – our individual
permits, Voter I card, Original Car documents then she signed the form and
directed us to the cash counter to pay a certain amount for the permit(the
amount depends upon the size of the vehicle), our was Alto K10 so the amount we
had to pay was Rs. 234 and with the receipt we went to collect our main permit
and finally after the hue and rush the permit was in our hand.
Documents to be carried for the pass:
1) Individual permits
2) Photocopy of the RC
3) Insurance copy
3)Pollution certificate copy
4) Driver’s license copy.
Note: Their lunch timing is from 1.00 to 2.00 pm. And no
pass will be given after 3.00 pm.
We had our lunch in a local restaurant there and without
wasting any more time we headed towards
Thimpu. We started at around 3.00 pm. It’s just 172 km to Thimpu from Phuentsholing
which normally takes 2-3 hours in plain road but as it’s a hilly place we
estimated it would take around 5 – 6 hours. Our excitement level was high. At a
point we lose our hopes as we didn’t had our pollution certificate but “WHERE THERE IS A WILL THERE IS A WAY”- it’s
proved.
There were six checkpoints where they
check all the documents and permits.
After crossing 1 -3 km our phones stopped working “SERVICE UNAVAILABLE.” Google map also stopped
working so what we did, whenever we saw any local person walking on the road or
any local shop we stopped and inquired whether we were going in the right
direction and the above route direction
board mentioned in the picture helped us a lot.
Pic: View of Phuentsholing city
It was a sunny day in Phuentsholing but after travelling
after 1 hour what we saw infront of us the road was covered with fog, we could
see nothing, we slowed down our speed and taking God’s name we proceeded
towards it and entered the foggy area. We were surprised to find that the vehicles
don’t blow horns even in the highway. We had to keep our eyes and ears alert.
Pic: Foggy road
We were going up and up..From one mountain to another..Ohhh my God, it was like we were swinging on the clouds. We had never seen such beauty..
Pic: Road to Thimpu
It was growing dark and still 100 kms left, we two alone on an unknown highway. We were little bit scared and my husband said to me " Lets go back." I said, "Are you mad, we have traveled almost 80 kms, we won't back out." Showing some courage we continued our journey. Then comes a check point where the officials checked all our documents. Here where the permits came into action. Checking was done and we were allowed to go.
We noticed that a tourist cab stopped and the driver was dealing with the officials with the documents of his tourists. My husband heard them, they were also going to Thimpu. We then decided to follow to the car. After some kilometer there was another check point. After the work done we halted for a while for some refreshment as the other car also halted. We didn't spoke to the driver of the other car but he came to know that we were following his car. He was so generous, he started his car and halted at the point we halted and said to us, "Follow my car." We were overwhelmed by his generosity.
We crossed another 4 check point. At the final check point there was a diversion, one way goes to Thimpu and the other way goes to Paro. The distance was almost same from the point. Our destination was slowly and slowly coming nearer.
And finally, we were on top of the world when we saw the gate "WELCOME TO THIMPU."
We felt as if we won a gold medal in the Olympics. We came out of the car and shouted out of excitement and happiness. We also thanked the driver. We clicked some photos as well. It was 7.30 pm and hotel was already booked and taking the help of the local people there we reached our hotel. The city looked so beautiful at night.
After checking in we ordered for a cup of tea. My husband hold my hand and said two words "THANK YOU." I said," Why Thank you???." He said,"This Thank You is for the faith you showed in me, for the support and for the courage."
 |
| Lucky wheel |
 |
| Thimpu main Gate |
Pic: Road to Paro
amazinggg :)
ReplyDelete