Thimpu – Punakha

From Haa, we took the road straight to Thimpu to be surprised of how big the city was. There are no traffic lights in Bhutan, but Thimpu has one famous crossing with the guard making hand signals – they installed a light years ago, but the people disliked it.

The highlight in Thimpu is really the Tashichhoe Dzong (Fortress) where the King still actually works from and lives. We saw the bringing down of the flag to symbolize the end of the working day and visited the Dzong’s grounds.

We stayed in a standard city hotel (Kang Residence) and went around the town by foot to see the old Post Office and handcraft street market. Other than that we also visited:

• Memorial Stupa: in the middle of the street this temple is where the locals spend hours walking around the main stupa and praying.
• Buddha Point: supposedly the biggest Buddha statue in world. It is being finished but already an impressive sight.
• Traditional Medicine Clinic: we were curious about it and health care is free for everyone including foreigners. We saw a doctor that asked us a few questions and measured our pulse with his fingers to determine our diagnosis. Quite a gift.
• Nunnery: small place with ongoing chanting by the nuns.
• Takin Zoo: this is a small zoo dedicated to the national animal. Quite an weird/interesting animal. The locals say it’s a mix of the head of a moose and the body of a cow.
• National Library: you can see the world’s biggest book in there but that’s all

We finished all the main sight in Thimpu so we had one day left which we used to go see the biggest Dzong in Bhutan – Punaka Dzong. Again, it was a painful car journey with not so safe roads but the prize at the end made it worth it.

Punakha Dzong is indeed massive. This is where the latest royal wedding took place and many other important celebrations like the Punakha Festival. The most impressive part of this Dzong are the courtyards but the temple itself is also impressive being all gold with huge Buddha statue.

On the way, we also stopped by the Fertility temple (Chhimi Lhakhang) where people go to ask for blessing to have babies. The procedure to be ‘granted’ the blessing is quite interesting: you have to hold a giant wooden penis statue, do 3 rounds of the temple with it, receive the blessing from the monk and pick a name for the baby out of a box. We didn’t do because Abraham was afraid of having a first child with a Bhutanese name J

After Punakha, we slept our last night in Thimpu before going to Paro airport. It was certainly a magical experience that we were lucky to share with our family. Bhutan left a nice feeling on our hearts and a hope that openness doesn’t change or destroy this beautiful country and culture. One day we would hope to go back and do more hiking.

That is Mount Everest!

Paro – Chele Le Pass – Haa

After having been greeted at Paro Airport by our tour guide and driver, we started our tour straight away by visiting Paro. First impression: WOW, what a magical place! The grandiosity of the lush green mountains that our plane hovered so closely with beautifully manicured homes & temples sparse by the river in the valley make a breathtaking sight.

The view of Paro Valley from Paro Dzong

Paro is the second biggest city in Bhutan but it follows Thimpu (capital) by a long mile. The town is comprised by a big gorgeous Dzong(fortress) and a main road where all the shops, restaurants and guests houses are. Other than that, little pockets of houses and small hotels disappear through the valley. All the constructions follow the same traditional Bhutanese style making every street an interesting sight. Our hotel- a former royal residence – was slightly higher than the river level so we had a great view of the town and Dzong.

Paro Highlights:

Tiger’s Nest Monastery: by far one of the most amazing sights we’ve ever visited. This temple & monastery is set in the middle of a mountain and to this date still houses tens of monks learning Buddha’s teaching. It is quite a hike up there but it is totally worth it. The guide said that the fittest can go up and down in 3hrs but we took almost 7hrs with a couple of stops for tea & lunch.

Rinpung Dzong (fortress): it was the first Dzong we had seen and for sure it made an impression. The architectural details, courtyards and paintings on the wall were impressive.

The hotel – Gadgety Palace: such a beautiful building with traditional bedrooms and great view. They also have a hot stone bath which was an interesting experience that I shared with my cousins. It is literally a wooden bath that they fill with water and herbs. The heat comes from the stones that are heated on the fire outside and then put into the bath. It was fun!

Other sites we visited in Paro:

• Ta Dzong (Museum): in this small museum you can see the different masks used in the festivals and understand more about the culture, flora and fauna of this spectacular country.
• Kyichu Lhakhang Monastery: one of the oldest monasteries in the country
• Farm house dinner: a slightly weird set up but certainly eye opening – we got to have dinner in someone’s house and eat like locals. We didn’t particularly like the food but it was interesting to see the simple standards that people live in. The particular one we went was also a guest house so watch out if you plan to stay in one of them – you will end up sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

On day 3 of our tour, we departed Paro through The most sinuous road I have ever seen in the direction of Haa Valley. The road took us up a mountain that finished at Chele La Pass and then down the other side to reach Haa. In retrospect, we should probably not have bothered with the painful drive for what we saw on the other side but we made the most of it.

Chele Le Pass is quite a magical spot with white and coloured flags all over the place. These flags are placed by the people as wishing (coloured) or in respect for the dead (white).

Haa Valley Highlights:

Haa Summer Festival: even though it was much smaller than what we expected and it poured rain for a good couple of hours, we really enjoyed been in a less touristic village to see the traditional dance, music and food stalls.

Our Hotel (Soednam Zingkha Guest House) and the valley itself: this was a refurbished traditional Bhutanese home that was set in a beautiful spot at the Haa Valley. The place was very nice and the location was perfect. I wish we had more time to do some hiking around.

Archery Tournament: On the way to Thimpu we managed to stop by a local Archery tournament. They were amazing! The archers were shooting at a target about the size of two pieces of paper from 200 meters away. Every time they hit it they did a nice dance.

Other sites we visited in Haa:

• Haa Dzong: in a slight strange location because it is set right next to the Indian army camp. It is an okay dzong
• Lhakhang Nagpo (black temple): small temple. Not much to see, but we managed to sit for 10-15 minutes hearing beautiful chanting (click below to listen).

Haa Dzong

To read about Thimpu and Punankha (part 3), click here.

In this post, we will tell you a bit about the place and what it took to get there, with a subsequent post on the places themselves.

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Bhutan… we had been eyeing this remote Himalayan Kingdom for over a year, and actually planning the trip for over 8 months… This is one remote place!  We met in Bhutan with Mari’s uncles and cousins (Gilberto, Mirela, Victoria & Julia), and had a wonderful time!!!  They really travelled a very long way to get there!  We planned or trip for 7 days, and focused in the area of the west and the capital.  This is really the minimum you should do.

It is worth reading a little bit about this mountain kingdom, as it really has an intriguing history, with Guru Rinpoche coming to establish Bhuddism and meditate in the mountains, a divine madman revered as prophet, a King that was elected by the people (quite unusual, right?), and many many other interesting historical facts (and fictions).  There is lots to read, but a few interesting things we found are:

• As mentioned above, a Bhuddist monarchy was established in Bhutan in 1907, with key representatives of all states electing the first king (Ugyen Wangchuk) and naming his lineage royal.  To be fair, there had been a previous man in the family that had been a quite popular Lama. The fourth king (current one is the fifth) was the first to declare he would step down from the throne and pass it on to his son in life, and he also laid the groundwork to change the country into a constitutional monarchy, so now they also have a National Assembly of elected representatives.
• Depending on the region (and the type of work the people did – herders in the mountains vs workers in the cities) people can have more than one spouse… so for example, a single woman could be married to 3 herder brothers, as one would stay at home while another was in the mountain with the herd, and a third one in the city selling their wares.  The brothers would alternate responsibilities and only one would be at home at a time.  In the city, men can be married to more than one woman, up to 3 (but the previous king had 4… the benefits of monarchy!).
• Bhutan is a Bhuddist country since more than 1000 years ago… which led us to think its history was all about peace an understanding… the reality is quite different than this, as up to a couple of hundred years ago there were quite a few battles and wars, not only between countries, but also between different schools of bhuddism.  This is not the case any more, but there are quite a few articles online that document many cases in the last century of discrimination against other religions (we did not feel discriminated against for a second ).  In 1990, one fifth of the population was expelled from the country as they were a variant of Hinduism that was starting to become a vocal majority.  All of this to us was quite surprising, expecting bhuddism in general to be all about peace and love.  I guess even the most enlightened are affected by power struggles and other human afflictions.
• Bhutan is the country that is demonstrating the concept of Gross National Happines – mean to be a more holistic indicator of the quality of life than GDP.  There are plenty of articles online about it if you are interested.  Suffice to say we found people to seem fairly happy, with apparently low levels of homelessness and extreme poverty.  We do not think that it seems like the happiest country in the world (we are looking at you Myanmar!)…  It is definitely great to see a country that takes into account more than income as an indicator of happiness and wellness, and hopefully this will spread far and wide (the first step to fixing a problem is seeing it and measuring it!).

Anyway… enough of information you can find in other places, on to how to get there!

Planning a journey to Bhutan is not a very difficult job. This is because all travel there is regulated by the government, so everything has to be done through a registered travel agency. All of them have a set of standard routes, which are quite spectacular, but you can feel free to move it around as needed. We found the Bhutanese to be quite helpful and accommodating. In the past, there used to be visa quotas to get into the country, but that was changed a few years ago as the country wants to develop tourism more. They still control access quite highly, and manage the volume of tourists by making the trips relatively expensive.

There is a set price of somewhere between 220 USD and 250 USD per day per person, depending on the time of year, and this includes everything except tips and additional drinks. You get a 3-4 star hotel, meals, a tour guide, driver entrance fees to wherever you go, permits, etc.  All in all, it is an expensive proposition, but not as bad as it sounds once you factor everything in.  The money needs to be payed up front, and is payed to the government, which apparently only releases it to the travel agency once the trip is completed… as you can see, quite controlled.  Nevertheless, the country seems quite interested in bringing more people over, and have a favourable view of the coup try outside of it.

The travel agencies advertise quite heavily all of the festivals (there is basically one per month, each in a different city) as a way to experience the Bhutanese culture.  We went to a smaller one of these, and found it to be interesting, but not the highlight of the trip. The best part of it is without a doubt the amazing and breathtaking scenery.  You really can not believe the views…  as you travel across valleys (and probably get a bit dizzy with all of the winding roads), it is just one magnificent view after another.  The country has a law where they can not have less than 60% of the national territory as forest (and my understanding is that currently it is close to 75-80%), so no matter where you go, all you see is spectacular mountains covered in green.  From our limited experience, it seems like the locals are doing a good job about keeping their country in a green state (they say that they are the most carbon negative country in the world).

There are quite a few cities and monasteries that can’t be missed, but Bhutan is also well know for the different treks that can be done, including the infamous snowman trek, a 27 day affair that is considered one of the worlds toughest.  We stayed mostly in the cities and towns but did do a one day trek up to see the famous Tigers Nest monastery (this is probably the one thing in any trip to Bhutan that CAN NOT be missed). We will tell you more about all of those places in the next couple of posts.

Wrapping up this very long post, we found Bhutan to be an incredible place, with amazing nature and scenery, and kind, helpful people.  This is definitely a highlight of the Himalayan region, and we recommend to go there without reservation.

Here is a snapshot of our route, to read about Paro and Haa, click here. To read the final part, Thimpu and Punahka, click here.