We continued our journey to Thimpu after the short food break. We were pretty relaxed after a wonderful meal. But Tashi was driving very fast. We got a bit scared and asked him to slow down. He just smiled and continued driving fast. We found out the reason for his speeding only later.
The roads were quite bad towards the latter part of our journey, as road widening work was going on. We finally reached Thimpu by 9:30 pm. Tashi took us to a good hotel on the city’s main road. Accommodation for Indians is cheap in Bhutan. Luxurious double rooms are available in the range of 450 -1000 Ngultrum. Bhutanese currency is at par with the Indian Rupee.
The hotel room, which we stayed in, was on the third floor. It had a heater, geyser and wood paneled walls. When we reached Thimpu the temperature was frosty, probably just 1 or 2 degrees.
After our check in, we ventured out into the city for a quick bite. The time was around 10:30 pm. We were shivering because of the biting cold. We were really surprised to see all restaurants downing their shutters. We enquired at one hotel and found out that all restaurants close by 10 pm, as Bhutanese people sleep early and rise early. We then realized why Tashi had driven like a maniac to reach Thimpu before 10 pm. We roamed all over the city and still couldn’t find a single open restaurant!!! Worst of all, we had to battle the sub-zero temperatures!
We gave up our quest for food and were walking back to our hotel. We saw three Bhutanese teenagers coming towards us. We were happy to see that they were dressed in Jeans and leather jackets, after seeing most of the Bhutanese dressed traditionally. I had a word with the young men and requested for help. They were very kind and came with us, knocking on the restaurant’s doors, asking for food. But we were unsuccessful!!! We thanked the young men and returned to our hotel, with a heavy heart and an empty tummy!!!
Our hotel had a vegetarian restaurant on the first floor, but that too was closed. But I wasn’t ready to give up. I chatted up with the hotel owner’s daughter and slowly explained our predicament. She was very sweet and gladly made a nice vegetable salad for us. We couldn’t thank her enough!! We had salad and Lays potato chips with beer for our dinner!!! We were so hungry that we felt that the salad was the tastiest meal we ever had!
We then retired to our room and had a sound and peaceful sleep!
Travelouge will continue...
Photos of Thimpu coming up....