Vehicles

1. སྣུམ་འཁོར།

   Num khor

   Motor vehicle

   Usage

   The native word for a motor vehicle in general; common in writing and on signs

   Grammar Note

   སྣུམ (oil) + འཁོར (wheel); a synonym is འགྲུལ་འཁོར

2. ཀཱར།

   Kaar

   Car

   Usage

   From English "car" and the usual spoken form. Independent visitors normally travel by car with a driver

3. བཱསི།

   Baasi

   Bus

   Usage

   Inter-town buses are the main public transport; the mountain roads are winding, so bring motion-sickness tablets. Same spelling as in the Public Transport category

4. གླ་འཁོར།

   La khor

   Taxi

   Usage

   Available in Thimphu and Paro; shared inter-town taxis exist too — agree the fare before you get in

   Grammar Note

   གླ (fare) + འཁོར (wheel) — a vehicle for hire

5. ཊག།

   Tak

   Truck

   Usage

   The highways are full of brightly painted trucks; on a narrow mountain road you wait for them to pass

   Grammar Note

   Borrowed from English "truck"; the native word is དོ་འཁོར

6. དོ་འཁོར།

   Do khor

   Goods vehicle

   Usage

   The native word you meet on signs and paperwork; in speech ཊག is more common

   Grammar Note

   དོ (load) + འཁོར (wheel)

7. ཇིབ།

   Jib

   Jeep

   Usage

   The vehicle used on unpaved mountain roads and long runs to the east; show it when booking with an agency

8. བག་བག།

   Bag bag

   Motorcycle

   Usage

   A distinctly Bhutanese colloquial word from the sound of the engine

   Grammar Note

   In writing you will see འཁོར་ལོ་གཉིསམ ("two-wheeler")

9. རྐང་འཁོར།

   Kang khor

   Bicycle

   Usage

   Mountain-bike tours run around Thimphu; the gradients and altitude are punishing, so pace yourself

   Grammar Note

   རྐང (leg) + འཁོར (wheel) — a leg-powered vehicle

10. གནམ་གྲུ།

    Nam dru

    Aeroplane

    Usage

    Paro is the only international airport — a hard approach between ridges, so delays and cancellations happen. Same spelling as in the Transportation category

    Grammar Note

    གནམ (sky) + གྲུ (boat) — literally "sky boat"

11. ཐད་འཕུར་གནམ་གྲུ།

    The phur nam dru

    Helicopter

    Usage

    Used for medical evacuation and a few charters — the way you come off a trek with altitude sickness

    Grammar Note

    ཐད་འཕུར (to fly straight up) + གནམ་གྲུ (aircraft)

12. ནད་འཁོར།

    Ne khor

    Ambulance

    Usage

    The emergency number is 112; in the mountains it takes a long time to arrive

    Grammar Note

    ནད (illness) + འཁོར (wheel)

13. མེ་གསད་སྣུམ་འཁོར།

    Me se num khor

    Fire engine

    Usage

    Fire spreads fast among the timber buildings here; the emergency number is 110

    Grammar Note

    མེ (fire) + གསད (to kill) + སྣུམ་འཁོར (vehicle)

14. རྨོ་འཁོར།

    Mo khor

    Tractor

    Usage

    Used on the terraced fields; in villages it also carries people and loads

    Grammar Note

    རྨོ (to plough) + འཁོར (wheel)

15. གྲུ་ཆུང་།

    Dru chung

    Small boat

    Usage

    Bhutan is landlocked; you meet boats mainly on river rafting, for example the Mo Chhu at Punakha

    Grammar Note

    གྲུ (boat) + ཆུང (small)

16. འགྲུལ་འཁོར།

    Drul khor

    Vehicle / transport

    Usage

    The general word; show it when asking whether any transport is available

    Grammar Note

    འགྲུལ (travel) + འཁོར (wheel) — the same འཁོར as in གླ་འཁོར and ནད་འཁོར

Browse all TravelPhrases languages