This post will just be a few comments on Bhutanese roads. Bhutan had no roads in their country until the 1960’s. That means that I am older than all of Bhutan’s roads. Fascinating! According to our guide, the original roads built in the 1960’s were very narrow. Our guide said that in the last few years, the country had gone back and widened their roads to about twice the width. The first photo is the road that we took over 10,000 foot high Dochula Pass and back. I took this photo from near the top of the pass from a restaurant where we ate lunch. It will give you a sense of how wide the new and improved roads are in Bhutan. I am glad that we didn’t tour Bhutan until after they widened their roads.

Our guide also told us that Bhutan does not have any straight roads. Considering that Bhutan is in the Himalayan Mountains, I suppose that’s not a surprise. The next photo shows a part of this same road.

I don’t know what Bhutan did before they had roads, but I know what they do now. Everyone and everything uses the roads. You can see us passing a herd of cattle in our bus in the next photo. I leaned out the window to take this photo. If you look at the land off the side of the road, you can see why everyone is going to use the road.

Bhutan is a steep mountainous country. If you need to get anywhere, the road is the way to go. We had to slow down or speed up to find the wide spot every time we passed any other vehicle, not to mention cattle, horses, mules, goats, sheep, dogs, pedestrians, etc. The next photo is a better example of why all the roads get used by everyone and everything. This is steep country.

I couldn’t resist taking the last photo. It was a road sign that we saw several times on our drives. I’m guessing that it means IF you drive safely on the road, THEN you will make it home safely to have your tea. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have some of these signs in California.