In order to get to Bhutan, I had to find a travel agent first. Unless you are a citizen of specific country, such as India, you are required to obtain a visa and pay the daily tariff which includes meals, accommodation, local transportation and the guide. The daily charge is somewhere around $250 (depending on the number of travelers). It's not cheap at all but I thought it's not too bad because this is all inclusive (alcoholic beverages and souvenirs are excluded). First, I needed to fly to an airport that the Bhutanese airlines fly into, such as nearby cities like Delhi, Kolkata, or Dhaka. Although it's further away, I chose Bangkok because it was easier to find a better fare.
I arrived at Bangkok a little before midnight. The connection flight by Drukair to Paro, Bhutan is leaving at 5:00am. I could have stayed at the airport but I booked a hotel close to the airport just to take a shower. It was less than $30 and it's worth it! When I came back to the airport around 3:00am, there were not many things opened. My options were Subway and Starbucks. I found a somewhat local coffee shop but they didn't have coffee ready yet... To me, going to American chains, such as Starbucks while traveling is a defeat but I had no choice. Luckily I found something unique, called Thai tea bricks. It's a square bread piece filled with Thai tea flavored filling. Although I'm not a big fan of Thai tea, I gave it a shot. I didn't taste any Thai tea.... Just sweet creamy filling but it's a unique product to have in Thailand.
The Paro airport that I landed at, was one of the smallest international airports I've ever seen. The airport is situated in a valley so that it's completely surrounded by steep mountains. With the buildings that are in the traditional form, it was beautiful.
When I got out of the airport, I was greeted by the guide and my Bhutan tour has started!
As I mentioned above, this is a country of chili (although it's not well know). Because I've already mentioned my strong interest in food (by email), he stopped by at a street vendor who sells chili. One bag of ground chili (approximately 100g) was less than US$1.
This vendor is much bigger than the first one and sells more stuff, such as grains, fruits, etc. The hanging white things are yak's cheese.
The guide also took me to the farmer's market. It's very huge market with more than 100 vendors.
I took this picture from the second floor. Lots of fresh produce
This section is specialized in grains
For my very first meal in Bhutan, my guide took me to a restaurant called Orchid restaurant. The meal started with a drink. It seems milk tea is a more common way to drink tea here.
Look at the amazing dishes served on the table!
This is the dish I came to Bhutan for. It's a Bhutan's National dish called Ema Datshi, chili cooked with cheese. It literarally means ema (chili) and datshi (cheese). Datshi is made with either cow or yak milk. Yes, all the spicy green stuff is chili, not sweet bell pepper! It's pretty spicy but still pleasantly hot. Almost any meal includes ema datshi and each dish is slightly different. I'm looking forward to comparing the variations of this national dish throughout the trip.
The next very unique dish is buckwheat noodle (?). It looks more like skinny spaetzle than noodles though.. It was prepared with very light seasonong. But it seems this is a specialty dish of this restaurant.
This is the additional dish that my guide requested for me because I specifically indicated that I didn't want any dishes that were toned down for tourists. This is the country of chili. If they reduced the heat, that's no longer the local dish. The ema datshi that I had earlier was pretty spicy but this is 3 times spicier. The red chili seems a spicier than green ones. It was very tasty! I left the half of the chili, though....
The dinner was at the hotel's restaurant. It's a hotel restaurant and buffet after all. So, I didn't expect much...
I started the meal with the local beer, called Druk 11000. It's a beer with 8% alcohol which is pretty strong, by Asian standards, for beer. It wasn't bad but I wish it was a bit chillier.
Because Bhutan has a strong relationship with India and Indian tourists are exempted from visa and minimum daily cost requirements, half of the buffet dishes were Indian. Although I was a little disappointed, I found that all the spiciness level was set for Indian tourists. Everything was spicy! In fact their ema datshi (lower left corner) was spicier than the one I had at lunch.
Let's see what happens tomorrow morning after I eat this much chili....
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