When my savings of months totalled a princely Rs. 5,000, I started planning for my visit to Bhutan at last. The news provoked taunts, shakes of heads and, of course, sarcastic sniggers. To many, that small fortune did not seem the ticket to great travel. But I was not deterred.

Without adding a penny to this amount, I embarked on my journey to the Land of the Dragon or the Druk as the Bhutanese call it. The mountain kingdom presented me a beautiful bouquet of surprises, and none of them was beyond my shoestring budget.

Standing at the New Jalpaiguri Railway station with two other Bhutan-bound girls, I hunted for the cheapest conveyance available to Hasimara, the nearest station to Jaigaon. From Jaigaon, close to the Bhutan border (Phunetsholing), you enter the Druk territory by road. Enquiries with the local people revealed that intercity trains ran from the station to Hasimara. The tickets cost as little as Rs. 80 for the general class. Despite our safety concern, we opted for the local train. This turned out to be a good choice: the journey was short and the locals were not bothered about three girls travelling with them. From Hasimara, we took an autorickshaw to Jaigaon, which took exactly 45 minutes to leave us at the doorstep of Bhutan.

At the border, we made our tryst with Bhutanese architecture. The gates frame greeted us with artistic carvings of iconographic representations of Bhutanese culture. These, of course, included a fire-breathing dragon!

Once in Phunetsholing, we headed for the India House to get our permits. An easy job if you have a passport, but a little tough if you want to roam around with just your PAN card, but both work. (Carry at least three passport-size photographs for the permit).

After getting the permits, we made our way to the local bus stand. The last bus to Thimpu leaves at 4 p.m. and, if you miss it, you will have to take a costlier share taxi. To my relief, the ticket cost only Rs. 200. It was not a luxury bus, but it was quite comfortable and spacious. Unlike India, Bhutan does not have private buses. The buses and stands are extremely clean in more than one sense - one seat per person, no black ticketing, no bungling.

You enter Thimphu and encounter a series of noteworthy buildings. The hospital is no a morose place here. The hotels don’t look like professional hubs, the bank buildings are not geometrical shapes, the fuel station is a beautiful place to be and so is the town centre. Bhutan seems to have preserved every form of its tradition and architecture not in the museums but the daily life of its people.

You forget about the ‘places to see’ on your travel list. The whole city is a kaleidoscope of Bhutanese culture, tradition and architecture. But you must see the King’s palace, the parliament and Thimphu’s famous dzongs.

A state transport bus to Paro from Thimphu will cost you Rs. 80 and a share taxi Rs 150 per person. We took the bus to Paro to see the much-talked-about monastery, Tiger’s Nest. The monastery is located 10 kilometres to the north of Paro and hangs on a precipitous cliff at 3,120 metres (10,240 ft), about 900 metres (3,000 ft) above the Paro valley.

The trail winds down the side of the mountain. You would know the trip is worth the pain in your muscles when you come face to face with the marvel that is the monastery.

By Priya Shahi