Inconvenience Regretted

One of the hardest working people in Bhutan has to be the individual responsible for the pithy public service announcement billboards on the highway between Paro and Thimphu.  Most are in couplet form and most attempt to rhyme (but don’t always succeed).  I noticed the following:

Eager to Last / Then Why Fast

Let’s Go Green / To Get Our Globe Clean

Enemies of the Road / Liquor, Speed and Load

Some don’t really work:

Don’t Litter / It Will Make Your Life Better

Pleasure Only / If You Drive with Leisure

Some don’t even attempt to rhyme:

If You Are Married / Divorce Speed

Driving and Drinking / A Fatal Cocktail

And one didn’t even make sense:

Self Trust / Is the Essence of Heroism

There was a different sign that I enjoyed most of all.  In areas of road construction, there was a simple sign saying “Inconvenience Regretted.”  I don’t why, but I loved it.  I want to make a replica and hang it in my office.

A sincere message from the Bhutanese Transportation Authority, and from me as well.

And driving around Bhutan, there are some inconveniences.  From Thimphu to Punakha on Bhutan’s National Highway is about 50 miles.  The drive takes 3 hours.  It’s through breathtaking mountain scenery, so I seriously did not mind, but they are in the midst of a multi-year project to widen the road from its current 1/1.5 lanes to 2.  And forget shoulders.  There are rarely guardrails, even though you could be looking down at a 250 foot drop.  Because there are no highways that can serve as detour routes, they’re widening the road as you drive along, and you frequently have to wait for the heavy equipment to get out of the way.  In some places there’s no heavy equipment, just people (men and occasionally women) using pickaxes.  In other places, the road is a muddy mess.  I’m no expert, but I can’t recommend driving on this road during the summer monsoon season or inclement weather.

Pausing while they work to widen the road between Thimphu and Punakha.