September 25: Getting to Bhutan

After a long day and night in Bangkok, I’ve started popping Motrin every few hours to control the pain in my scratchy throat and the canker sore inside my lower lip that refuses to heal. Unfortunately, it’s doing nothing for the headache that this leg of the trip has become.

When we got on the plane this morning, we found out that our flight to Paro included a stop in Bagdogra, a back water town in north east India, to let three passengers disembark. Forty-five minutes later, we were still there. It was raining so hard in Paro that we couldn’t land. After his initial projection of forty-five minutes, the captain said that it now looked like it would be two hours before we would be able to depart. To make matters worse, we would have to wait in the Bagdogra airport. The airport looks almost like something you would see in a war zone. The walls haven’t been painted in ages, and the stucco around doorways and windows is badly chipped. Jan later reported that the ladies loo consisted of a hole in the floor. We were marched through security past women soldiers with AK-47s slung over their shoulders.

My sense is that some authoritative posturing was going on. As we approached security, a flight attendant on our left checked our boarding passes and passports and handed each of us a temporary, additional boarding pass. Then we literally turned to our right and handed our passports and new boarding passes to a soldier who studied our documents importantly and directed us into security where we and our belongings were scanned. Women were escorted into a curtained area for privacy. Why bother with all this fuss? We’d already been screened in Bangkok. I think our captain is Pakistani, and that might explain why were treated wiht such suspicion. Or some airport manager just wanted to beat his chest. In any event, the two-hour projection turned out to be only about one hour, and we were back on the plane and in the air.

All the sources I consulted about Bhutan had the same thing to say about it: it’s widely regarded to be the most frightening airport in the world in which to land. The pilot has to fly very close to the mountains and execute a number of sharp turns and sudden drops in altitude. Now, I was sitting in an aisle seat, so maybe that explains why I didn’t find it particularly scary. Or perhaps out pilot was just that good. I found landing in Vail, Colorado to be much more frightening.

We landed in Paro under now partly sunny skies and were treated to the beautiful sight of the only Bhutanese international airport terminal.

We met our guide, Tashi, and our driver, Tenzin, who gave us a very brief tour of Paro, took us to an archery match (archery is Bhutan’s national sport), and then took us to a restaurant for lunch. The restaurant was unlike restaurants at home. The dining room was more like a living room in a home, and our lunch was pre-ordered. No menu, no chicken fingers. Tashi did, however, ask us in advance if any of us had food allergies, so I was able to make sure that I wasn’t served onion. Those of you who know my dietary proclivities would be proud of me. I ate everything except the spicy cabbage.

After lunch, we headed for the capital, Thimpu, stopping along the way to take photos of some breathtaking scenes.

We ended our day after visiting a local market and then checking into a fantastic hotel with a great view.

Tony and Jan went on to dinner, but I crashed. I let myself get dehydrated and feel pretty awful. After two big bottles of water and some rest, I’m hoping to feel better tomorrow.

ps. Wi-Fi is spotty in Bhutan, so I may not be able to post regularly.