Day 6: To Paro

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A late night show of Jack Nicolson's "Something Gotta Give" resulted in we getting up late and it was already 10.30 am when we reached the bus stand. Unfortunately there are just two buses between the two largest cities of Bhutan, Thimpu and Paro, one at 9.00 am and the other at 2.00 pm. So we looked around for Taxi. A nice guy agreed to take us for 100 bucks each with the condition that he wont leave till he gets a fourth one.
After circling the bus-stand for about half an hour shouting "Paro Chi, Paro Chi" (One seat for Paro), he gave up and headed to Paro. A smooth ride (a rarity in Bhutan) of one hour and we were in Paro. Paro is a beautiful small town with the only airport in Bhutan and of-course a magnificent Dzong on its gates. Its not much of a town but a couple of parallel roads stretching for a couple of kms. We found a hotel (Hotel Tandim, Rs. 400 double bedroom) in the main town and had lunch in the restaurant below which reeked of the foul smell of cheese gone bad. After lunch, we took a stroll round the town. The town has a museum and a dzong as tourist attractions. Tired of seeing dzongs and not interested in museums, Shyam and Basav retired to the hotel. I decided to have a look at the Dzong.
On the way, I saw a small gathering in an open field, a kind of fair with people dancing, singing, playing and drinking. They were playing a dartboard game except that the board was kept at least 30 m away and the darts could actually kill someone if hit. A local told me that the game was called Khuru and a competition was being held to choose the best team from Paro. The team would then head to Thimpu to compete with 19 other teams from the 19 other districts. It was an entertaining game and most of them were drunk. After every failed attempt, the opponents would point to the small dartboard and shout "Thache" which means "near". A strike is called "Kurry" and all the members in the team do a small traditional victory dance. Archers took a shot nearby on a board which to me seemed atleast 100 m away. I couldnt even see the board and the archers were targeting the bull's eye on it ! Archery is the national game of Bhutan. Speakers were blasting lates Bhutanese songs regularly interrupted by a guy probably urging the guys to participate in some competition which had prizes like rice cookers and DVDs. I walked further to the Dzong which was nothing much different from the other Dzongs. Clicked some pictures and headed back to the hotel.

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