Bewitching Bhutan! Day Seven--Goodbye Paro! Return Journey from Paro to Puentsholing…Because All Good Things Must Come To an End

Thursday, May 14, 2026

Bewitching Bhutan!

Day Seven--Goodbye Paro! Return Journey from Paro to Puentsholing…Because All Good Things Must Come To an End

We awoke in the Shomo Chukki Resort in Paro in the middle of misty rice paddies. The knowledge that this was our last productive day in Bhutan brought a veil of sadness as we had truly enjoyed our time together in this unique land and felt sorry to be leaving it. I showered, brewed a cup of decaff coffee in our room (as we did every single day of our time in Bhutan) and took it out to our lovely little balcony attached to our room to sip it and savor it slowly while taking in the miles of flooded rice paddies that spread out before us, stretching all the way to the distant mountains. This was as rural a scene as any one could expect in the Himalayan nation and I was grateful for the few minutes of peace and solitude as Llew showered. Then, I packed up my bags and got ready for our departure. But first, breakfast…

After the disastrous dinner of last night, we hoped to eat a decent breakfast and we were not disappointed. There were the usual Indian and Western offerings on the buffet table and we ate well: omlettes with toast (which I asked to be made extra dark and crispy—and that took an age), chicken sausages, butter, jam, fresh fruit, coffee. Yes, it did make for a substantial breakfast and before long, after checking out of our hotel, thanking the staff and taking pictures of our bucolic pastoral location, we piled into our van and left.

Goodbye Paro and Hello Again Puentsholing:

We passed through the picturesque town of Paro, for the last time, taking in its neat main street, its dzong or fortress that overlooks the main road and it’s really pretty airport. Paro is supposed to be one of the trickiest airports at which to land an aircraft and it is said that only very seasoned pilots can negotiate the short runway which, if misjudged, can drive the aircraft straight into the adjoining mountains. We actually watched a plane land as we skirted alongside the airport terminal. And then, we had left the town behind and worked our way into the snaking mountain road that would follow us for the next few hours as we made our way down south to Puentsholing.

It was with some sadness that we played ‘Antakshari’ to while away the time on the long journey back. Occasionally, we switched to listening to Bhutanese music—which, to be frank, I could take only in small dozes. I found it to be very monotonous and soon we were longing to listen to something else.

About halfway through our long car ride, our driver Chilay stopped and our guide Dil told us that we would make a stop at a river bank to take some pictures. He told us that this was an unscheduled stop—“a gift from Chilay and myself”. Hmmm…it turned out to be a nice break as we were at a river bank covered with river stones and pebbles that had been hewn smooth and rounded by water erosion. Marisa suggested that we make a stone tower to which each of us would add a stone, in order to leave something of ourselves behind in Bhutan. It was such a good idea—and we certainly did so and took a lot of photographs to immortalize the moments. Next, we each picked up a few stones ourselves to take home: I tried to find the smallest and most stable ones so that they would form a balanced tower that I could place on a bookcase. And with this being our last holiday experience, we reentered our van and continued with the journey. We passed through the verdant mountains on both sides, an occasional cascade, concrete bridges that spanned the mountain sides, flowering trees, a patch or two of road works that left the road bumpy and uncomfortable—"Kantwadi Road”, as we christened it—and some spurts that were just really smooth and lovely and lulled us to sleep.

We stopped for lunch at ‘The Pit Stop’ and had one of those buffet lunches that had become truly predictable, by this point. I enjoyed the Butter Tea best in these places but we also had the salad, dal, papad, rice, rotis, chicken, vegetable dishes (all done in typical Indian style) with sheera (sweet semolina) for dessert. We had a private joke among us—that we would get back to our van for a proper dessert of Toblerone chocolate—but, of course, as we were carrying none, the chocolate never made an appearance. Instead, we passed the time during the long drives by nibbling on dried fruit and nuts, quiche, cookies and other snacks that we had carried with us from India.It was here that I discovered, as I finally got connectivity, that my brother Russel was unwell in Bombay and would need a house visit from our doctor. I had to make several calls to arrange it and with it done, we could move on.

Although we spent most of the time in the van, it is really surprising how tiring these drives can be. By the time we were on the outskirts of Puentsholing (at about 4.00 pm), we were too tired to even step out to take a look at the very last temple about 5 kms from our final destination. We decided to pass as we were keen to have some time for last-minute shopping in Puentsholing. When we discovered that we would be at the Park Hotel, which we knew was right in the main temple square, we checked in speedily. Dil informed us that he and Chilay would be taking our leave and since we had all contributed to tips for the two of them (which we had placed in two envelopes with their names on it), we handed them over with thanks, took our last pictures with them, said our goodbyes and saw them off. They had, on the whole, been very helpful to us, highly knowledgeable and had been worthy escorts on our week’s adventures. It was sad to see them go off, but we too had a few things to do before calling it a day.

Hence, we used the facilities and then left immediately to make a beeline for the Duty Free Shop. Some of us wished to buy imported booze to take back to India, others wanted to buy a bottle of peach wine. These purchases made, we went into the handicrafts shops to buy a few last trinkets to take back as gifts. As we wove our way in and out of the shops, we realized that most of them were the same and offered similar merchandise. By the time all our shopping was done, darkness had fallen over the town, the temple was illuminated and we had our last few pictures taken by it. Then, we returned to our rooms to pack up our shopping, met in our room for the last time to finish our bottle of peach wine and the last of our nibbles and then made our way downstairs to the restaurant for dinner.

Dinner was quite tasty as this chef certainly knew how to cook. We had soup, rice, roti, papad, chicken or fish, two vegetables, and gulab jamuns for dessert. We chatted a bit with the staff and looked for Blossom’s young admirer—but he was very subdued this evening and did not have any of the flirtatious exuberance of a week ago! When we’d had our fill, we said goodnight and returned to our rooms, having decided to return to the restaurant for breakfast at 8.00 am.

And with that, our last day in Bhutan came to an end.

Until tomorrow…keep smiling.