History Of Bhutan Part 1

26 May 2008 (Day 11) - Another Long Journey In Between The Mountain
We woke up quite late (8 am) today and after breakfast our guide (Raj) and driver (Ramu) already waiting for us at the lobby. I mentioned in my much earlier post that Bhutan is one of a few countries that we can't visit independently. The country policy requires that all foreigners (except Indian Nationals) must hire a guide & driver from Bhutan local travel agent. After much research from the web, I choose 'Keys To Bhutan Tours & Adventure'. The reason I choose this agent coz their website looks professionally organize and the testimonials sound promising. So, here we are in Bhutan with them as our guide. I communicated with them by email my preferred itinerary and they'll try to accommodate my request and a few of their suggestion for the final itinerary.Today we're going to Thimphu (2,300 m) i.e the capital city of Bhutan. Before we started our journey to Thimphu, we stopped at a crocodile farm in Phuentsholing. The best part was that they allowed us to go inside the crocodile cage and see the crocs close up. They were well fed so we don't need to worry too much. The crocs look funny coz I never see a fat crocs before. After that, we proceed for our 8 hours journey to Thimphu. The journey was very tiring coz half of the road condition was bad due to construction but it was a very scenic drive up the mountain (see below). Along the way, we stopped for lunch and here we tasted Bhutanese cuisine for the first time. It's a bit cheesy and spicy but I like it. We arrived in Thimphu around 6.30pm and after check in at River View Hotel we hit the Thimphu town coz this is the only day we'll be in Thimphu coz tomorrow we'll go to Punakha. The hotel was quite nice and comfortable. The best thing was we can see the Thimphu town and the river from the balcony (see below). Thimphu town is beautiful and looks traditional yet modern. There is a stadium construction for the 5th King coronation (maybe by end of this year). We bought a few things there and head back to hotel for dinner. We asked the hotel staffs whether there's any bar or club open in town coz we would like to check out the clubbing scene in Bhutan. Unfortunately, we arrived on Monday and all the clubs were closed. They only open during weekends and some days on weekdays. So, we went back to our room and rest coz we were quite tired from the journey.
Bhutan Modern History : Bhutan first open to foreigners in 1974 and then there were ONLY two tourist visited the country. They were from National Geography coz they were filming the 4th King coronation. After that, there was no more tourist coming to Bhutan until a few foreigners in 1982 coz it's very hard to get in/out to/off Bhutan and there are so many requirements imposed by the government for foreigners. The ONLY airlines that can fly in/out of Bhutan is their national carrier i.e Druk Air which start operating commercially in 1985. All foreigners (except Indian Nationals) are compulsory to fly Druk Air either during entering or exiting the country. I found out that most Bhutanese were well educated coz they studied outside the country but surprisingly technology came very late in Bhutan. They had their first television ONLY in 2000 and computer & Internet in 2003. It's a landlocked country on top of Himalaya with 75% forest greenery and they intend to keep it that way. Bhutan got their name from Indian Sanskrit i.e Boo-Tan that means flat land on top of Himalaya. The other name for Bhutan is Druk which mean dragon given by Tibetan monk who visited Bhutan long long time ago and apparently saw a dragon came out from his teapot. So, they name it Druk land. Until now Bhutanese called themselves Drukpas (Druk people) among them and their country as Kingdom Of The Dragon (even the flag has a big dragon on it). They only called themselves Bhutanese with foreigners. Bhutan is a new democratic country (earlier this year) coz their 4th King requested it after 100 years of monarchy (1907 - 2007). Surprisingly, Drukpas refused to accept it coz they really love the King and want the country to be ruled by the monarchy system. After much deliberation, they reluctantly accept it and as expected not many Drukpas turn out during their 1st general election. Bhutan has around 700,000 population and the ratio of the male and female is 1:4. So, you'll see more girls in Bhutan than any other country and at the eastern part of Bhutan the male:female ratio really alarming with 1:10. I'll tell you the history of ancient Bhutan in my next post.