31st March 2013
Bagdogra airport wore a deserted look in the morning. It sometimes feels good to only hear our footsteps. Druk Air to Paro was the only flight scheduled at that time from Bagdogra, a military airport also shared by civilian flights. Check-in was a cool affair, with the only surprise being a handwritten boarding pass instead of a computer-generated!!
Apart from our family, a few foreigners were boarding that flight. Little surprised at the lesser number of passengers but then realized that the flight was only making a stop on the way from Bangkok to Paro.
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| Paro airport |
Reaching Bagdogra was a task by itself. We had first landed in Kolkata on the previous day and waited for four hours before taking our flight to Bagdogra. The renovated airport of Kolkata was much better than the earlier dingy building. We had to spend a night in Bagdogra as the flight to Paro was scheduled for early morning.
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| New Kolkata airport |
The flight arrived on time, but there were no signs of boarding even after 30 minutes. Airlines announced that the weather at Paro was bad, delaying take-off from Bagdogra. Soon, another Druk Air flight also landed in Bagdogra. It was not a scheduled stop, but they had to land at the nearest airport thanks to the weather situation at Paro.
Paro airport is surrounded by high-altitude peaks making it one of the most challenging airports to land. Only eight pilots are certified to land at the airport!! Hence bad weather makes it extremely risky for the flight to land.
The wait ended when the ground staff got clearance for boarding. But a surprise awaited us in the aircraft. One of our seats was already occupied by a lady from Bangkok. She showed her ticket, which had the same seat number!! The Air hostess called one of the ground staff, who then realized that she had written the wrong seat number in our boarding pass. The issue was sorted quickly, and we were offered a different seat!!
There are two ways to enter Bhutan. One is the land route through the border towns of Phuntsholing near West Bengal, Galepu and Samdrup Jongkhar from Assam. Another way is to fly to Paro, the only international airport in Bhutan. At present, only Druk Air flies flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Gaya, Bagdogra, Guwahati, Bangkok and Singapore. There are no border crossings on the Chinese side.
The flight duration between Bagdogra and Paro is just 25 minutes. As soon as the seat belt signs were switched off, air hostesses hurried to serve juice and nuts to the passengers. They had only a few minutes to finish serving, which they did in a jiffy. The flight had already started its descent when serving was completed!!
The scenes got better as the flight descended. The snow-clad mountains started appearing, which provided photographing opportunities. My daughter was in the window seat (obviously!!), and we quickly took turns to get the view from the window.
The flight descended into the valley at a fast rate. Also, the flight angle seemed to go haywire with a series of left and right turns, which is not usually the case while landing. But, in Paro, it has to fly through the narrow hills before landing on the airstrip.
Immigration was a simple affair as Indians do not need a visa to enter Bhutan. Having a passport or a voter ID is sufficient enough. The process is complicated and expensive for foreigners. They need to pay at least 250 USD per person/day. In addition, they need to be in a group and accompanied by a guide. This makes Bhutan one of the costliest tourist destinations. Bhutan has a good relationship with India, and hence we do not have such restrictions.
When we walked from the aircraft to the immigration area, my daughter commented that the airport resembled Temple. Indeed it was!! And that was the reason for our trip to Bhutan!!!! To experience a place that was still virgin and original, where traditions were well preserved and the environment intact.
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| Paro airport |
The journey to Bhutan had just begun!!
R Niranjan Das
Nice captures. Waiting to read your Bhutan stories.
http://rajniranjandas.blogspot.in/2013/04/vythiri-gateway-to-wild-wayanad.html
Srikanth Manjunath
Nice write up. I appreciate your way of giving even minute details about the place you visit.
Nice photos.
Team G Square
Lovely start to wonderful experience called Bhutan . waiting for more
Vineeta Yashswi
One of my favorite place… It is really nice to read about the place… Good post…
Parul
I am wiating for the travelogue from the rest of the trip….:)
Aravind GJ
Niranjan, Parul, Dhiraj,
Thanks!! Will try to cover the rest as soon as possible.
Srikanth, Vineeta,
Thanks.