Samdrup Jongkhar, Bhutan

Bhutan's Southern Gateway

Samdrup Jongkhar's name translates as "the place where aspirations are fulfilled," and the town backing it up is Bhutan's oldest and the largest urban centre in the east. It sits directly on the border with the Indian state of Assam, with Arunachal Pradesh just beyond, making it the natural crossing point for travellers combining a Bhutan trip with Northeast India.

Few places in Bhutan show off the country's elevation range as dramatically: the district runs from just 200 metres at the Indian border to 3,500 metres in the northern hills, producing a subtropical climate at town level that feels nothing like the high valleys of western Bhutan. The vegetation, humidity, and pace of life here are genuinely different — this is frontier Bhutan, not postcard Bhutan.

Despite its status as Bhutan's oldest town, Samdrup Jongkhar's dzong is one of the newest in the country, completed only in 2004 — and unlike the cliff-perched fortresses of the west, it was built on flat, open ground, an architectural rarity worth noting if you've already visited dzongs elsewhere in Bhutan. The deeper history is close by: 18 km away at Dewathang, Jigme Namgyel — the father of Bhutan's first King — led Bhutanese troops in the country's final battle against British forces in 1884.