Kalimpong to Paro, by road
Eight nights from Bagdogra to a flight home from Paro: Bhutan House in Kalimpong, the tea plains of the Dooars, the border gate at Phuentsholing, then up to Thimphu and Paro by road.
Photo: Rama Krushna Behera / Unsplash
Rishi Road, Kalimpong
Bhutan held the Kalimpong ridge from the early 1700s until 1865. Afterwards the Dorji family, the kingdom's agents, kept their house here. The 13th Dalai Lama stayed in it in 1912, and a future queen of Bhutan was born in it in 1930. It is seen from the gate.
Photo: Boudhayan Bardhan / Unsplash
Day 3, 180 km
Dooars means doors: the passes that climb from these plains into Bhutan's hills. For two hours the road runs between tea gardens and over wide, stony rivers, with lunch at Chalsa above the gardens. Allow about five hours.
Photo: Yogendra Singh / Pexels
Phuentsholing
The immigration office keeps 09:00 to 17:00 on weekdays, so the crossing is planned for one. A licensed Bhutanese guide, registered 48 hours ahead, meets you at the gate; the bags move to a Bhutanese car, and your watch goes 30 minutes forward.
Photo: Sagar Madha / Unsplash
Day 4
Until 1961 there was no motor road: the 205 km from the border to Thimphu took six days. The highway was cut in 1961 and 1962 and now takes about five and a half hours, with lunch at a road builders' canteen halfway up.
Photo: Rama Krushna Behera / Unsplash
Paro
Ashi Kesang Choden, born at Bhutan House in 1930 and now Bhutan's Queen Grandmother, married the crown prince in the Paro valley in 1951 and raised a Guru temple at Kyichu in 1971. You stand in it four days after her birthplace's gate.
Photo: Ugyen Tenzin / Unsplash
3,988 m (13,080 ft)
The week's highest road pass leads down into Haa, which opened to foreign visitors only in 2002 and was governed by the Dorji family of Bhutan House. You never sleep above 2,320 m (7,610 ft); the pass is a day visit.
Photo: Sujan Mongar / Unsplash
Papers
On a US or other non-Indian passport, Bhutan charges US$100 a night and US$40 for the visa, and you need an Indian visa that lets you back in by air. Go October to December or March to May, with the crossing day on a weekday.
Photo: vineet singh / Unsplash