The road from Phuntsholing to Thimpu was the most thrilling journey I've ever made. It's very narrow, clinging to steep, forested hillsides. Because it's the main trade route to India it's also very busy, with laden lorries travelling both ways, plus buses and private cars, and the increasing tourist traffic. So, the Bhutanese government decided to widen the road. This is no mean feat, as you can imagine. Blasting is out of the question, because of the risk of landslides. So the extra width has to be drilled and chipped and dug out of the hillside by hand.
Work started a year ago and will take another five years to complete. Bhutan has only a small population - 650,000 - and a high employment rate, so labour has to be imported from India. The hundreds of workers strung out along the road live in encampments of shacks. They use the many mountain streams as their water supply, grow vegetables and even keep cows and chickens. They get 100 rupees a day, plus free medical care, education for their children and staple foods: rice and lentils. They are on six-month contracts, which they can renew.
In return they work very hard, in dangerous conditions, men and women equally. Despite the risks, they are amazingly cheerful and friendly, waving and smiling as we went by. We were held up by a bulldozer at one point and I had a chat with some of them - as much of a chat as you can have without much shared language! Many were having their meal break, tucking in to tiffin boxes of rice and curry.
Because the road is so dangerous, it's closed from 4pm until the morning, and closed all day Sunday as well. Tshering said that means if you are heading for Phuntsholing, say, and you don't get to the shut-off point until 4.15pm, you're stuck until the morning.
He told us about a terrible landslide last year, I think it was, that swept away a road workers' camp, killing about 30 people. When the rescuers got down to the wreckage, far down in the gorge, they found three lorries that had gone over the edge at some point in the past and not been reported.
Once the road has been widened, retaining walls are built, and then drainage gutters are built at the bottom. The designing was done by German engineers and it's supervised by Bhutanese.
We did see some of these walls that had already been damaged by landslides, and sometimes there were rocks strewn across the road. On one particularly exciting stretch, there was an overhang of rock and earth with actual trees growing in it that looked as if it would crash down at any minute. We had to wait to let a whole stream of traffic go past.
And of course on the other side was a sheer drop over a very crumbly-looking edge, with a very long way to go to the bottom.
I loved every terrifying minute of the roadworks, a stretch of about 100km of the road. Gopal says he drives it about twice a week in the tourist season. "My wife is not very happy, but I like it," he says cheerfully.
We stopped for lunch at a "tourist cafeteria" - once we got through the roadwork section we passed quite a few villages with tempting-looking restaurants, but it seems they've set up a special watering-hole just for visitors. Oh well, it was very nice, and the proprietor was completely charming, alternately solemn and giggly.
There's a huge highlight coming up in November in Bhutan - the coronation of the king. It's a bit complicated, because there are kind of two kings at the moment. The senior king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, abdicated last year in favour of his eldest son, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. This was after he'd made the country a democracy. "Many people didn't want democracy," Tshering explained. "But the king insisted." So in November, Khesar is being crowned and it's a huge deal. There'll be a big influx of visitors and everyone's looking forward to it. The cafeteria boss giggled when we asked if he'd be going to any of the celebrations. "I'd love to, but I think I will be too busy!"
After the coronation, Khesar will be going on a grand tour of the country, visiting every little corner to get to know everyone. He already spends a lot of time trekking and so on, and is fantastically popular. Lots of people wear buttons with pictures of the kings on them - young people mostly have Khesar buttons.
More fascinating facts about the Wangchuks: Singye has four wives, all sisters. They each have a house and Singye visits; there are ten children altogether. The wives are all great friends, we were assured. You can spot a member of the royal family - they drive Range Rovers and their number plates read BHUTAN. Sort of the ultimate vanity plate.
It's not just royalty that can have extra spouses: regular folk can have two. Yes, that's right ladies: you can have two husbands. Both Gopal and Tshering said they thought one wife was plenty, thank you very much.
So, after a nice lunch we piled back in the bus. The drive took about nine hours in the end... I think so anyway. The road was now less thrilling, but just as interesting. We passed through settlements of farmhouses set amid fields of red rice, sweetcorn, various greens, fruit trees and flowers. The houses looked solid, snug and secure, all with red chillies drying on the roofs.
We also saw our first dzong, or fortress. Can you spot it?
Buildings are all constructed in traditional style, using wood and bricks and stone.
Only the roofs are modern - traditionally they were covered in wooden shingles, which had to be renewed every few years. But this uses too much wood, so now roofs are either iron or locally mined slate. Bhutan is mostly forest, but conservation rules, so timber exports are banned.
Another traditional feature is clothing. Here's Tshering in the men's outfit:
It's called a gho, and it's all in one piece - you kind of climb into the kilt part and pull the jacket up. The sash, or kera, is separate, and so is the white part, an undershirt with very long sleeves that fold back over the gho sleeves. When we first met Tshering he had the jacket down and the arms tied around his waist - he was wearing a polo shirt under it. The crossover forms a big pouch that men use as a big pocket - wallet, mobile phone, hanky ... it all goes in the pouch. For some reason most men wear argyll socks. The women's dress is a long wraparound skirt, a kira, worn with a blouse (wonju) and a short jacket (toego).
Tshering says the traditional outfit is the equivalent of a business suit in the west - it's something you wear to work or on formal occasions. The only time it's compulsory is when you're visiting a dzong. School uniforms are all traditional style outfits, but girls wear sweat suits for athletics and so on. The big exception is soldiers and police officers - none of them are wearing the gho.
At last the bus trundled in to Thimpu, where we had time for a little stroll around before dinner. The hotel was another Druk, with those board-hard traditional style beds, argh. But in every other aspect it was lovely. We were smitten with the waiters - when they came round offering second helpings they seemed disappointed if you said no thanks - "Ah..." and overjoyed if you said yes. "Yes! Yes!"
Thimpu is a big country town, but is growing fast, with a huge luxury hotel springing up and a couple of new housing estates have recently been built. All traditional style of course. But it's still got a down-home flavour, with the main street lined with little shops and traffic at the main roundabout conducted by a policeman in a rotunda. They did experiment with traffic lights, but drivers got too confused and no-one liked them, so they went back to the personal touch.
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