Road Trippin' To Happiness

DRIVING AROUND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD HAS NEVER BEEN THIS REWARDING

- Varad More

It’s a straight ‘Yes!’ when some-one asks you, ‘Will you drive to Bhutan?’ After all, who wouldn’t want to go to a place that believes and practices something known as Gross National Happiness? It’s a government-monitored index to measure the collective happiness and well-being of the Bhutanese population. So with my patience running thin over the electoral blasphemies taking place in our land, I realized it was a perfect time to join Isuzu Motors with their first overland driving expedition — the Isuzu Discoveries Bhutan Self-Drive Expedition. A promising week filled with some of the best driving roads, sumptuous cuisine and some of the finest monasteries ever built, right in the neighborhood.

Grabbing the keys to the Isuzu D-Max V-cross, we started from Siliguri on day one and headed straight to the border exit point through the busy town of Jaigaon in West Bengal. Crossing over the Indian border, we were instantly greeted with winding roads entering Bhutan via the border town of Phuentsholing. With thriving trade between the two border towns, the roads were lined up with vehicles, but the difference in traffic density was staggering the moment we crossed the Bhutan Gate. Even the traffic behavior seemed to be in accord with the whole Gross National Happiness scheme with minimal honking and no signs of road rage. Totally my kind of happiness.