Karma’s friend came with me this morning to see the Regional Transport Officer, which may or may not have helped. The RTO scanned my letter, scribbled dates on the page, checked his calculator, reminded me that I now owed 16,200 Nu, which included one month free and then offered a reduced fee of 4500. It was still 50% more than we thought fair, but it was obvious this wasn’t negotiable, so I took it. Add to that 2000 Nu for registration, which has gone up, apparently, and we owed 6500. I checked the wad of money I’d brought and found 6440 Nu. Nothing for it but to make another trip home (I went three times yesterday trying to get all the right people and papers together) and finally it was all sorted out.
But not for me. I wanted to get a copy of the road rules to check if I was right in thinking that international rules should apply. The best place to start seemed to be the counter for learner’s licences. Behind the glass screen, the girl in charge looked at me blankly. ‘What licence do you have?’ I tried to explain that I had a valid licence, but I wanted to know the rules, ‘like who has right of way at an intersection.’ She made me show her my Bhutanese licence and told me that was fine. When I pushed harder, she went off to talk to a superior.
A young man beside me, obviously applying for his learner’s licence showed me pages of road signs in his driving permit, saying that it was effectively the road rules. I looked at signs with labels like ‘no right turn’ and ’roundabout’ and realised that I hadn’t seen a single one in the country. I asked him if it described who has right of way at the roundabout and he said it depended on the policeman.
The girl came back and took me up to see the mechanical engineer who was in a meeting. I have to go back another time to see what the relationship is between a mechanical engineer and road rules.