I Am In the Land Of the Thunder Dragon

The Planning

I arrived in Bhutan this morning fulfilling a dream of more than 25 years. I heard about Bhutan back in the late 90s and had always wanted to go there to visit. Bhutan is known as the Land of the Thunder Dragon and is a small traditionally Buddhist country nestled between China and India next to Nepal. It is a country that is known for maintaining its traditional Buddhist culture while controlling the onslaught of the modern world. A feat that it has managed amazingly well I might add not that I am here.

My opportunity to travel here came after I realized I was going to be on my own over the holiday break. Not wanting to let the opportunity pass I decided that the time had come for me to go to Bhutan for a visit. So I contacts my travel agent extraordinaire friend in Australia to see what she could do for me and she was only too happy to help me with my plans.

The first step was to figure out how to actually get to Bhutan. Since there is only one airline, Druk Air, that flies into Bhutan’s only international airport and it has limited service it came down to traveling from Bangkok or Singapore. Bangkok was the better choice with more convenient flights but getting to Bangkok from San Francisco wasn’t easy. Singapore is easier for me to get to but the flights into Bhutan are more limited. I figured out my options and am ending up doing a hybrid.

The next step was to get my flights to Asia. United Airlines has regular direct flights to Singapore that are relatively (I am talking relatively as no flights to Asia are cheap right now) cheap. Since the flights to Bhutan weren’t convenient from Singapore I then booked another flight to Bangkok where I was getting my Bhutan flight. On the way home I will fly from Bhutan to Singapore and then directly home to San Francisco. All good except the 17 hour direct flight from San Francisco.

The final thing was to book the actual tour here. This is where my travel agent came in and she was able to arrange an amazing itinerary. I will get to see all the major attractions, stay in a home stay house, do some hiking and even tent camp in a national park during the trip. With all that taken care of it was only a week and half before the trip when everything had been confirmed and paid for. That was good as I didn’t have a lot of time to think about this dream trip happening. Thanks to my travel agent for pushing me forward on this as I was waffling a bit about doing it to be honest.

Actually getting here

Last week at work was a bit challenging as I was quite busy and I was also trying to keep my head focused on work while knowing I had the trip of a lifetime coming up. My flight left on Thursday 21DEC at 10:45pm from San Francisco. I worked a full day on Thursday and went home to figure out what to pack. I had been going over the packing plan in my mind all week but hadn’t really settled it. I am usually fanatical about packing in such a way that I don’t have to check bags. On this trip checking a bag was inevitable as the hand luggage allowance on Druk Air wasn’t going to allow me to do my usual packing. So now that I was committed to checked bag that opened up options. I ended up taking my travel backpack and a small day bag for my hand carry.

After getting that sorted I headed to the airport. I didn’t have hardly any food at home so I decided to head to the airport early and get something to eat in the international business lounge. Thank goodness for my status on United that I was just barely able to maintain last year. After getting something to eat and hanging out in the lounge for a bit it was finally time to board my flight. I kept checking the United app to see if my requested upgrade came through. I had been checking it all week with no luck and by this time I had seen the list ahead of me and pretty much gave up but kept checking anyway. Boarding came and that hoped for exchange of boarding passes didn’t happen so I took my seat in economy and settled in for 17 hours. For a while the seat in the middle was showing as open but then just before boarding closed someone came and sat in the middle of the three I was in. The door closed and I was off.

As per my usual habit I was able to sleep for the first hour of the flight. Interesting side note - I have a habit of falling asleep before take-off and for about the first 45 minutes to an hour of all flights. I haven’t been awake for a take-off for almost 20 years.

I then had another meal on the plane and felt really uncomfortable after that. I was able to sleep some more but I have to say the economy leg room was challenging. I watch the Barbie movie and fell asleep a couple times during it for a nap before finally finishing it. I then watched another movie but was barely able to pay attention while napping. I read for a bit as well and slept some more. Finally when we touched down in Singapore 17 hours later I had managed to get a total of 9 hours sleep. I was quite impressed by that.

That was the first leg down. I arrived in Singapore with my luggage checked through to Bangkok so I was able to stay airside. It was 7:30 in the morning and my flight to Bangkok wasn’t till 3:15pm. I found the Thai Airways counter, got my boarding pass and confirmed my luggage was in Singapore and headed to Thai Airways. After walking around for a bit I headed to the lounge. Thanks again for my United Status. I spent most of the day there reading and enjoying catching up on some YouTube videos. I was still feeling a bit uncomfortable after the previous night’s double dinners so I took it easy eating lightly on the lounge.

At the appointed time I headed to the gate for my flight to Bangkok. It was only a 2.5 hour flight so my economy window seat was a good choice. I was able to look out the window and enjoy the view as we landed in Bangkok. We ended up parked along way from the terminal and taking a bus. I was in no hurry so I just went with the flow. I had to get my luggage and check-in for my flight to Bhutan in the morning so I went through immigration and shortly found myself landside at about 5pm with nothing to do till my 5am flight. The check-in counter wasn’t going to open till 2-3 hours before the flight so I had some time to kill that included a night. Due to the early start the next day I didn’t want to go to a hotel so I wandered about the airport for a while trying to figure out a plan.

I wandered around the airport a bit and then decided to head to the basement where there is a capsule hotel. I got down there and wasn’t too keen on that idea. Furthermore, there was no one around so I kept walking. Right next to the capsule hotel was something called Boxtel which is a similar although slightly larger concept of a room with a bed and side table and that is all. I like this idea and was soon checked in. I didn’t think much of the fact that there was no toilet nearby. It was about 7pm by now and I was quickly fast asleep. Well, that didn’t last as I soon had to get up to pee. This because a bit complicated as I put shoes on and stumbled out of the room to go look for a toilet. A 5 minute walk later to a different level of the airport I found what I was looking for and was headed back to my little room and back to sleep. As is usual for me when I have something exciting going on I woke up about 5 minutes before my alarm was set. I quickly repacked things and head out of my room. I checked out and headed back up to the departures level to find the check-in for Druk Air. It was already open by the time I got there. I got through the check-in process and was through security wandering around the airport before I knew it with almost 2 hours before my flight. It was 3am so the airport was quiet. Not dead but definitely quiet. I bought a bottle of water and headed to the gate about 30 minutes before boarding time. It was an interesting crowd gathers at the gate with a dozen or so obvious tourists and then the rest looked like Bhutanese locals. A lot of them seemed to know each other but I guess that is what happens when you come from a country of just over 700,000 people.

At the appointed time the boarding started and we headed down to a bus to drive around the airport in the dark pre-morning light of a bustling airport. We got to the plane which was an amazing sight with its tail lit up with what I think is an amazing tail logo and country flag. Then I do have a thing for dragons. I had a window seat on the left side which is the recommended side for the best view. I was forward enough of the wing that I could get a decent view out the window. Due to the early time I and just about everyone else on the plane were soon fast asleep.

I woke up as the breakfast was being served. It was pretty good and in my bodies confused timezone state I was surprised that it went down so well. I forgot that I hadn’t put my Garmin InReach on so I pulled it out and turned it on. It took a while to get a signal and I managed to wedge it into the window shade so I didn’t have to hold it up against the window. I watched out progress on the map as it was completely cloudy outside. I read the inflight magazine which was a great tourist introduction to Bhutan with a lot of interesting articles about the country. Right about as we crossed into Bhutan the sky cleared and I was able to see where we were outside. Off in the distance was the amazingly large massif of Mt. Everest. Ah, yes, the left side of the plane now made sense. I got some amazing pictures of it off in the distance. The plane started to descend to the hilly slopes below. Then it descended further below the slopes and began winding its way deep down into the valley below. With some tight turns where we were very close to the hillsides that I could see out my window and with a couple more tight turns we were on the ground. It was a fresh sunny morning at Paro airport, the only international airport in the country. I pulled out my hoodie and raincoat and put them on over my short-sleeved shirt I had been wearing thus far and stepped off the plan in the morning. I was in Bhutan! A trip of more than 20 years with a final almost 48 hour push around the globe I was standing on the apron of Paro airport actually in Bhutan. I took a moment to take it in.