Tigers Nest, Bhutan

Photo’s are here or you can just click on the photograph above.

It’s not easy to reach Bhutan from the USA. The Land of the Thunder Dragon is a tiny Himalayan Kingdom in South Asia wedged between the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China in the north and India to the south. Towards the west lies Nepal where we started our trip. Whichever route you take from the US it is bound to take you 2 days to reach Bhutan. We flew to Doha, Qatar and then on to Kathmandu before catching the final flight into Paro, Bhutan.

We departed Miami on a night flight on Qatar Airways at 8.45pm in their new world renowned QSuite Business Class (which they describe as “first in business”). I’ve got to say – it’s good! There were the usual lay flat beds with a mattress, pillows and fluffy duvets which you expect of business class but with the QSuite you also have the addition of a sliding half-height door for privacy, slippers and pajamas – and round the clock service. The food was excellent. White table-cloth service and dinner by flickering candlelight. What more could you want at 35,000 feet?!

It was still a long 14 hours. We arrived in Qatar the following day at 5.40pm in time to check into the Oryx Hotel in Concourse B, conveniently located airside. We followed instructions to locate the giant 23-foot sunshine yellow teddy bear sculpture known as Lamp Bear – so famous there were lines of people waiting to take the perfect selfie with him. The Hamad International Airport at Doha is very swish. The Oryx Hotel is located above the Hermes store and not far from the 24-hour Harrods Tea Room. We were starving so we ate dinner in the Business Class lounge and headed to bed at 9pm absolutely shattered. Five hours later we were wide awake staring at the ceiling starving hungry again as if we’d not eaten for a week. Back to the Business Class lounge for 2nd dinner at 2am.

The jet lag was pretty bad. It took about 4 days to properly recover so that we weren’t fast asleep at 5pm and crawling the walls at 3am. Taking this possibility into account, I’d planned a stop over in Kathmandu for 4 nights before embarking on Geoff’s bucket list vacation to Bhutan. Since he was a teenager he has nurtured a desire to visit this elusive and mysterious country. I’d be surprised if there are many 14 year olds (nor adults come to that) who know much about it, can locate it on a world map, nor plan to add it to their travel bucket list.

There are only 5 direct international routes into Bhutan and one of them is via Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu (a far cry from the glittering excesses and abject luxury of Doha’s Hamas International Airport). As I’ve always wanted to visit Kathmandu we were killing a couple of long-distance birds with one large stone. (I have written about our 2 trips to Nepal (either side of our 9 days in Bhutan) in my subsequent blog.

The flight from Kathmandu to Paro International Airport in Bhutan is notoriously perilous. Paro is routinely ranked as the most dangerous airport in the world to land a plane. It is so dangerous that flights can only be made in daylight hours since the treacherous route through the mountain pass before landing in the Paro valley must be navigated visually – without the assistance of auto-pilot. There are only 24 pilots in the world who are qualified and approved by the Royal Bhutanese government to fly into Paro. There are reputedly 15 rapid and complicated maneuvers required to safely make it through the narrow valley approach to the airport without inadvertently clipping a mountain. Of course we knew all this before taking off so I sent a few adios messages to close friends (just in case our pilot was having an off-day) but mainly I was happy that I had at least finally visited Kathmandu. We flew with Drukair Royal Bhutan Airlines for our brief 1 hour 20 minute flight. It is highly rated so I had no reservations about the skills of the pilot – nor the quality of their fleet of planes (which is more than you can say about the dismal safety record of various Nepalese airlines). As it happens we had little time to contemplate the tiny taste-free yak cheese sandwich (our snack in a cardboard box) nor the possibility of impending death because we were so entirely distracted by the sight of Mount Everest looming above the surrounding Himalayan mountain range. Everest, the highest point on earth rising to 29,031 feet, was bathed in sunshine on a fabulous blue-sky morning. She took our breath away!

A little bit about Bhutan. It is a throughly unique country. The government of Bhutan has been guided for decades by the philosophy of gross national happiness (GNH) as an indicator of the success of modern-day Bhutanese society. An index (used to assess the collective happiness and well-being of the population) measures the development of societal progress by quantifying the happiness of its citizens rather than by measuring their material wealth. This concept, of course, is somewhat different to the philosophy of gross domestic product (GDP) which rules our money and asset-driven western lives. This philosophy dates back many hundreds of years. The 1729 legal code of Bhutan states: “The purpose of the government is to provide happiness to its people. If it cannot provide happiness, there is no reason for the government to exist.” But it was in the mid-1970s, that Bhutan’s King Jigme Singye Wangchuck first introduced GNH stating that GDP is less important because it cannot deliver happiness and well-being.

The GNH index takes into account a strong sense of community and personal safety, living standards, education, equality, strong family bonds, health, gender equality, and satisfaction in employment. In 2022 the index calculated that 9.5% of Bhutanese people were deeply happy, 38.6% were extensively happy, 45.5% were narrowly happy, and 6.4% were unhappy. So, not perfect, but I’m willing to bet that’s a better score than most other world governments might achieve if their populations were polled.

There is also a very strong commitment to conservation and protecting the environment which is tied to the belief that sustainable development needs to take a holistic approach. Indeed, 51% of the country is protected land – there are 5 national parks, 4 wildlife sanctuaries and 1 nature reserve. Bhutan also has the highest proportion of forest cover in Asia at 70.46% and almost 5 million acres of protected land rich in verdant forests, pristine rivers and biodiverse wildlife. (Having said that, we did task our guide and driver with finding us a tiger or a clouded leopard on a daily basis but alas, no such luck!)

Another defining feature of Bhutan’s unusual approach to modern day life is that TV wasn’t available until 1999. The Bhutan Broadcasting Service started to broadcast as a radio service from 1979 but no TV for another 20 years due to fears of its corrupting influence. The internet was also made publicly available in 1999 (embarrassingly for the western world, internet access was significantly better in the mountain passes of Bhutan than in many areas of the USA and far better than in the UK!). Up until 1999 people could buy TV sets and rent movies but TV itself was illegal. Since there is something of a national obsession with Bollywood movies I’m guessing they would have been the illicit rentals of choice. There is a very close relationship between Bhutan and India. Not surprisingly, given their physical proximity, their close trade relations (Bhutan exports huge quantities of hydro-electric power and imports food out of harvest season). For Bhutan’s security, the Indian army is also deployed along the border with Tibetan China. In essence Bhutan is somewhat of an unofficial “protectorate” of India.

For those who aren’t aware, if you plan to visit Bhutan outside of the valleys of Paro or Thimphu you must employ the services of a government-approved guide and driver. I’ll admit we were more than a little nervous at the prospect of spending eight days stuck in an SUV with two total strangers. We booked our trip through Audley Travel based in Boston – a highly rated travel company which arranged flights to Paro, hotels, ground transport in Bhutan, visas etc etc. They employed the services of Druk Executive Travel based in Thimphu and, with hindsight, we were so very lucky to be met at the airport by our guide Sonam Chohpel and our driver Phub Dori (whose nickname was Dasho). They were the best company! English is taught in schools as the second language (after their own which is Dzongkha) so we didn’t have any communication problems with Sonam. (The Bhutanese also understand some Hindi – picked up courtesy of Bollywood!) Thankfully, they both had a great sense of humor which was a relief because the Bhutanese do rather portray a formal seriousness of demeanor in public. This rather dour appearance of solemnity is left behind as soon as the car doors were closed and we were chatting in private. It is true to say that we were rather spoiled by Sonam and Dasho. We didn’t open or close a car door, nor carry so much as a bottle of water, for nine days. They shared our backpacks between them on all of our hikes and it was even a struggle at times to convince Dasho that I could actually manage my own camera whilst simultaneously dragging myself huffing and puffing uphill.

There is very little traffic on the roads in Bhutan (I didn’t see a single car in the capital until well after 7.30am on the first morning from the vantage point of our hotel balcony overlooking the city streets). Whilst en route through the countryside, every time I screeched “STOP!!!” in order to take a photograph Dasho’s response time was singularly impressive. Partly because we were the only car for miles, so an emergency stop wasn’t as dangerous as it sounds, and partly because he didn’t want to have to reverse half a mile uphill on a blind bend. He quickly learnt that stop meant stop 😊. Dasho made many “emergency” stops on almost vertical switchbacks and on blind bends the likes of which even Geoff wouldn’t have agreed to make – and he’s used to my unreasonable requests. It’s fair to say that Sonam and Dasho made our trip a once in a lifetime experience.

Bhutan is not an inexpensive country to visit (especially given that it is in South Asia). When we booked the trip back in 2019 (yes, it was postponed every year for 3 years due to COVID!) there was a daily tourist fee imposed by the government of $200 per person. The hefty daily fee is apparently intended to keep out the riffraff. That (plus the visa fees, flights to Paro, hotels – we booked 4 star and 5 star but there are also Homestays, 2 and 3 star and 6 star hotels depending upon your budget, plus the undivided attention of your driver and guide, the SUV, gas, entrance fees to monuments and temples, plus food, etc etc) all rather add up. We paid a one-off lump sum covering all of the above for an 8 night/9 day trip which would probably have bought us 2 weeks in a 5-star in Bora Bora. But what you get in exchange is a one-on-one fairly luxurious experience in a country currently unspoiled by mass tourism. As it happens, our trip was booked under the old tourist fee rules but as of September 2023 there is now a reduced rate of $100 per person per day for the daily tourist fee. What that will do for tourist numbers and the potential negative impact of tourism on the country remains to be seen.

I have digressed – considerably!! After landing and passing through immigration in what has to be the quietest, most serene and most exotically decorated airport in the world, our first destination was to be in the capital Thimphu for 2 nights. Immediately upon leaving the airport we were transported to a land of mountain passes, crystal-clear rushing rivers, bright red chillies drying in the sun on hot aluminum roofs and farmers harvesting rice in paddy fields. We spotted Tachog Lhakhang (the Temple of the Hill of the Excellent Horse) on a ridge by the main road heading east from Paro towards the capital. Traditionally the monastery and temple were accessed by a 600 year old swinging iron bridge over the Pacho River. It was originally constructed by Thangton Gylapo (the Great Iron Bridge Builder) allegedly with his bare hands … and some 600 years later it was irreparably damaged by a group of idiotic tourists who thought it an excellent idea to shake it with their bare hands until it all but collapsed. A more sturdy swinging bridge has been subsequently constructed and draped (as is almost every bridge, tree, inanimate object and temple in Bhutan) with fluttering multi-colored prayer flags.

Thimphu lies 30 miles away from Paro (and some 90 minutes or so by car). It takes such a long time to get anywhere because there is a strict speed limit of 30 mph. Everyone dawdles as if they have all the time in the world (which they probably do). No-one ever hoots a car horn unless it is a case of life or death – otherwise it is illegal to use one. It is supremely peaceful and stress-free. In fact the only travel stress at all is successfully dodging the preponderance of cows on the roads. They graze on blind bends, meander aimlessly out in front of moving vehicles and chill out in the centre of the tarmac. If you inadvertently hit one you’re in big trouble with a hefty fine. It’s not a country in which you’d want to hire a car – best to leave it to the natives who efficiently weave amongst them at 30 mph without blinking an eye. They say “Cows are King” in Bhutan and since they don’t come fitted with headlights driving at night is understandably not popular!

Such peace and tranquility – especially after the dreadful, chaotic and ear-piercing cacophony on the roads in Kathmandu. There are no traffic signals in the country. To be fair there is a lone policemen standing in an ornately painted circular hut in the centre of Thimphu who waves at drivers vaguely directing traffic – but it seems wholly unnecessary since all drivers are already obeying every rule of the road. We arrived in Thimphu and checked into Norkhil Boutique Hotel and Spa, a 4 star modern hotel in the centre of the city (with great food) and were offered butter tea as a welcome drink at reception – which is exactly as it sounds – tea made with butter – salty and never to be repeated 😉

Already enthralled by what we had seen in our few hours – but with boring practical matters to deal with – we wandered into town with Sonam and Dasho in search of an ATM. You can only buy Bhutanese currency – the Ngultrum – within Bhutan’s borders which is a little inconvenient. And once we had currency we then had to buy SIM cards for our phones in case of emergencies. Neither task proved easy. After four attempts to extract money at various ATMs across town, we finally struck gold, just as I was beginning to worry that we would be penniless for 9 days. We wandered from an ATM in a truck on the street, which in any other country would have been hijacked and driven away (pointlessly as it happens as it didn’t actually contain any money at all), to ATM’s outside banks with no power supply, to ATMs down obscure alleyways etc. etc. Sonam didn’t seem remotely fazed by my increasing panic. In fact, in nine days we saw no signs whatsoever of stress or even mild concern emanating from any Bhutanese national we met on our travels. The words quiet, shy, reserved and utterly composed mainly come to mind in describing the general demeanor of the population.

Once we had finally obtained some hard cash we went in search of SIM cards. It took three stops across the capital city at various electronics stores to find a vendor with any SIMs to sell. He couldn’t sell a plan however – so we weren’t much better off than 5 minutes earlier! Three more stores and finally we gave up so Sonam organized us a plan using his cellphone plan for which we then refunded him the fees with the cash we’d just withdrawn from the only working ATM in town. Not quite as easy as we’d hoped but we had, in searching high and low for cash and SIMs, inadvertently traversed the city and most of its back streets, so we ticked that one off the list!

Now for the highlights of Thimphu. We had given strict instructions to Audley and by default to Sonam, not to take us to any museums. We are not museum people – we belong in the outdoors not amongst stuffy old relics (no doubt our time will come when that appeals, but it’s definitely not now). Temples, monasteries, mountains and hiking were our specific requirements.

Our first foray into Buddhist life in Bhutan was at the spectacularly impressive National Memorial Chorten (the Bhutanese word for a Buddhist shrine or monument – also known as a stupa). It is a daily place of worship for locals and was built in the Tibetan style as a memorial to the third Bhutanese King Jigme Dori Wangchuck. It was very popular! Lines of locals and children, on their way back from work and school, made the pilgrimage circumnavigating the temple clockwise (as you do in Buddhist temples) spinning the prayer wheels and sitting peacefully in the surrounding gardens. Elderly citizens sat on the floor amongst the huge gold and red painted prayer wheels spinning them from time to time and chatting amongst themselves – kind of like an old people’s day club. The white-painted stupa with its colorful flags blowing in the wind was a sight to behold against the blue autumnal sky.

During the course of our 2 days in Thimphu we passed through Clocktower Square, the main square in the city. We watched archers in national dress practicing their beloved national sport with bows made from bamboo and arrows made from reeds. They were hitting surprisingly small targets placed at a distance of an astonishing 476 feet. Impressive by most peoples standards. Archery is taken very seriously within Bhutan.

The iconic attraction of Thimphu is, without doubt, Buddha Dordenma – the largest Buddha statue in the world sitting at 159 feet – and utterly fabulous glowing gold in the morning sun. The statue was constructed by the Japanese, given to the Bhutanese and placed in its lofty location overlooking the valley in order to bring peace to the world.

The beautiful black, white and red-painted Changangkha Lhakhang is the oldest surviving temple complex in Bhutan. It was built in the 13th century as home to Genyen Domtsangpa. There is also a huge statue of Avalokiteshvara (a birth deity and protector of children) who is depicted with 11 heads and 1000 arms. Parents come here with their newborns to obtain blessings for their offspring. (As an aside, lhakhang is a Bhutanese word for “house of gods” which in Bhutan refers to enlightened beings such as Buddha, his followers and other specific deities.)

We visited the monastery of Dechen Phodrang (Palace of Great Bliss), whose origins date back to the 12th century. It is located on a hill overlooking Thimphu valley where cute small boys in red monastic robes jostled and played amongst themselves (as small boys tend to – whether Buddhist monks or otherwise!).

We stopped briefly at the Jungshi handmade paper factory where paper (called Deh-sho) is handmade using the traditional methods from the bark of local daphne and dhekap trees. Naturally, as an appreciator of handmade art, I couldn’t resist buying some handmade paper greetings cards which family and friends will be receiving for at least the next 5 years or so 😉

Our personal highlight of the region was hiking in the Jigme Dori National Park up to the Chagri Dorjeden Monastery high up on a hilltop. It is also known as the Cheri Gompa Monastery. Audley’s proposed plan for our second day in Thimphu had been the National Library, the National Textile Museum, Bhutan’s Folk Heritage Museum and the Simply Bhutan Museum. Since these sounded as dry as the Atacama desert (but a lot less appealing) I insisted we swap them for hiking in the national park. We might have paid a fortune for a curated trip by a well-respected travel company but that didn’t mean I was abdicating responsibility for day to day choices on destinations and activities. I had done my own extensive research and I will rarely be swayed 😉

To start the hike to Cheri Gompa we parked in the village of Dodena, a 45 minute drive through the mountain valley outside Thimphu and crossed a footbridge over the river. We passed a fabulous white-painted stupa in the foothills decorated with neat rows of red and gold painted tsa tsas. Tsa tsas are small cone-shaped ceramic memorials. Usually they are commissioned by bereaved family members. The clay is mixed with the ashes of the deceased relative and molded in special religious ceremonies by monks. We saw many thousands of tsa tsa memorials during our trip to Bhutan. They were generally painted in red, gold or yellow and we saw them wedged in tidy piles under rocky outcrops, along roadsides and carefully placed onto stupas.

As we continued to hike up hill we spotted a “lucky” grey monkey in the trees. Lucky, according to Sonam, because a grey monkey is relatively rare. In my excitement to get closer I stepped into an equally “lucky” grey monkey poo; not quite so lucky for Geoff who, as allows, is designated hiking boot cleaner. We continued to ascend through the coniferous forest and although it wasn’t particularly steep until the last section the elevation was taking its toll. Eventually the forest opened up and we saw the monastery looming high up above us. We timed our hike perfectly to gate-crash morning prayers. The head monk in orange robes sat in an elevated chair overlooking the younger disciples in red robes who were sitting in lines cross-legged on the floor. They were quietly chanting mantras from script at their feet. Simultaneously they banged large drums hand-painted with white skulls to ward off evil spirits. Every inch of the monastery prayer room was decorated in technicolor hand-painted wall and ceiling coverings or draped in elaborate embroidery. With the rhythmic drumming, the soft chanting and the fabulous decorations all around us it was positively hypnotic and we were quite elated to have experienced it.

The Cheri Gompa monastery was founded in 1620 by Ngawang Namgyal, the first Zhabdrung Rinpoche, and founder of the Bhutanese state. Cheri Gompa monastery is an important teaching centre and retreat for monks who undergo a period of lengthy meditation there. For three years, three months and three days they maintain a vow of silence. Unfortunately, the original monastic structure was badly damaged by fire in 1998 and it has been undergoing slow and arduous reconstruction ever since. The fire was caused by butter lamps (containers of melted butter with a live flame in a metal cup) which are one of the most popular offerings to deities in Bhutanese temples and monasteries. It wasn’t the last time that we would hear about fire from butter lamps catching hold of the decorative fabrics and causing irreparable damage to spiritually critical buildings in the country.

The following day we left Thimphu to drive through the mountains over the Dochu La Pass which rises to 10,170 feet. It was breezy and chilly. At the summit there are a cluster of 108 chortens called Drug Wangyal Khang Zang Chortens which represent a memorial both to the service of the King and in memory of the soldiers who died repelling insurgents from Assam (India) in 2003. The memorials are striking enough in their design but set against a background of pristine forest and the snow-capped Himalaya mountains in the distance they were quite breathtaking. The memorial was also the busiest place we visited in the country. The car park was overflowing with tourists in cars and vans – quite unlike anywhere else in the country.

We continued through the mountains en route to the Phobjikha Valley, a journey of approximately 5 hours or so from Thimphu (plus “emergency” photography stops – of which there were many!). As we climbed higher into the mountains we saw milky teal rivers coursing way below us at the valley floor. There were farmhouses dotted across the steep hillsides surrounded by golden rice fields. There were sweeping rice terraces cut in swathes across the land and we could see harvested rice fronds laid out in neat lines to dry in the sun for a few days before threshing. We caught glimpses of the Himalayas in the distance and every so often we passed stupas covered in colorful tsa tsa memorials and draped in prayer flags.

There are various kinds of prayer flags in Bhutan but the most prolific are dhar and manidhar flags. We saw the “dhar” multi-colored flags strung almost everywhere – over rivers, blowing in the breeze on bridges, draped over temples and hanging in long horizontal strings between trees in the mountains. The white flag represents air (for good fortune), the blue flag is sky (for health and longevity), yellow is earth (for victory over obstacles), green is water (for compassion) and red represents fire (for wish fulfillment). They are made from colored fabric and block-printed with sacred inscriptions, mantras and images. It is believed that with each flutter in the breeze a flag releases a prayer into the air which is carried up to the heavens. The “manidhar” flags are tall willowy, white fabric flags which we saw grouped tightly together on mountainsides. These are memorials to the dead.

Before we reached the Phobjikha Valley we stopped in the small town of Wangdue Phodrang, the gateway to central and eastern Bhutan. The imposing Wangdue Phodrang Dzong sits high on a ridge above the Puna Tsang river. On the opposing bank of the river, is the small farming village of Rinchengang which is believed to be one of the oldest villages in the country. We wandered uphill through the pathways in the village (with their commanding view over the Dzong) where dogs dozed in the sun, red chillies were laid on rooftops to dry and women were threshing rice in preparation for storage for the forthcoming winter.

Late afternoon we finally arrived in Gangtey in the Phobjikha Valley to Bhutanese-style 5 star luxury! We checked into Gangtey Lodge which (for anyone who’s thinking of visiting Bhutan) is quite spectacular. An excruciating “welcome song” awaits your arrival where the entire staff lines up with their backs to a roaring log fire opposite the arriving guest who is caught like in a deer in the headlights in the entrance hall. Thankfully the song is all over in a minute or so and everything which followed for the next two days was all but perfect – from the complimentary neck massage in the great room in front of said roaring log fire … to the (totally addictive) sweet ginger tea and homemade afternoon cake … to the fabulous views across the valley … and to our beautiful suite.

Our room had a sweeping view from the freestanding bath tub over the mountains, farmland and plains of the Phobjikha Valley. The style of the hotel is “rustic farmhouse meets contemporary”. There was a log fire in our living room and the bathroom was spa-inspired. Another incredible view awaits you from the main terrace by the great room where you can wrap up under soft blankets on the outdoor armchairs. There are binoculars and a telescope to spot wildlife way below in the valley or to watch the birds riding the thermals above. The Malaysian chef is superb and she stops by to chat through the menu with you a couple of times a day. The food was fabulous and everything is homemade from scratch. There is a complementary hiking boot cleaning service (handy since I sunk into a boggy marsh up to my ankles hiking in the valley the following day). Laundry is complimentary – also a significant bonus since a few shorts, t-shirts and some underwear had cost $80 to have laundered in our (equally posh) hotel in Kathmandu a couple of days before – a high price by anyone’s standards. The staff were incredibly attentive and we were plied throughout our time there with homemade cake and biscuits and ginger tea.

I left the room at 5.30am the next morning whilst Geoff dozed in bed because I was determined to watch sunrise over the Black Mountain range whilst sipping (more) ginger tea on the terrace. Phobjikha is a glacial valley on the western slopes of the Black Mountains National Park and is one of the most important wildlife preserves in the country. Mission accomplished with sunrise, I braved the chilly breeze and wandered down the dirt track towards the village. I passed cows grazing at the roadsides and wandering equally aimlessly in the early morning light. Stray dogs asleep in gardens or in the undergrowth were waking up. They all looked pretty healthy and well-cared for but that didn’t stop them checking me out for the possibility of a free breakfast. Gangtey village is absolutely beautiful. Many of the houses in Bhutan are decorated with intricate hand-carved pine wood and they are elaborately hand-painted with colorful decorations (frequently phallic and in a variety of entertaining designs). The village, like its population of dogs, is particularly well-maintained. It even has a smattering of art galleries in amongst the restaurants. In winter the weather is brutal in the valley so many of the residents leave their farms, art galleries and homes behind them and head to the warmer winter climate of the Punakha Valley. The highlight of the village is the monastery of Gangtey Gonpa. The elevation of the valley, together with the very early morning chill, was wreaking havoc on my ability to breathe so I wandered uphill back to the warmth of the hotel only to discover Geoff was up and about and keen to wander down to the village before breakfast – so my lungs got another workout.

Sonam and Dasho arrived at their usual time of 9am (goodness knows the Bhutanese don’t approve of starting their days any earlier than 9am unless absolutely critical). We were to drive down to the floor of the valley and hike between a couple of farming villages before lunch. En route we saw a group of very excited young boys playing darts in a village field with arrows heavy enough to knock the head off a yak. They were monks and it was their day off from studies at the monastery. Playing darts is important stuff if you are a monk since they are not allowed to play archery (which is the province of warriors as opposed to the province of the spiritually enlightened). Geoff gave it his best shot against the 6 year olds but frankly it was embarrassing against such practiced, albeit youthful, competition 😉

Most visitors visit the valley to walk the Gangtey Nature Trail in order to see the famed Tibetan black-necked cranes which fly into Phobjikha each November to take advantage of the milder climate in the marshy valley every winter. We were too early by at least 3 to 4 weeks to see them. I knew this. I had planned our trip to coincide with the harvesting of the rice fields in Punakha in mid-October. So we didn’t need to walk the Gangtey Nature Trail since there weren’t any cranes to see. Instead, we wanted to hike between villages and get some fresh air after so long in the SUV the day before. Hard to tell, but I think we walked part of the Tenkhor Yuetsche Sum trail from Jangchub Kemba village to Kilkorthang village. Either way, it was very, very marshy and within no more than a few minutes one of my boots was all but sucked clean off my foot by a deep, muddy puddle. Thank goodness for the complementary boot cleaning service back at Gangtey Lodge because my boots were filled with sludge. We continued on the marshy track through open fields down to a makeshift wooden bridge crossing the river and then up to the second farming village where we were accosted by a couple of small girls who ran out of their garden. Clearly they don’t see too many tourists and were desperate to cuddle the weird western woman with mud up to her kneecaps. Very cute!

A hot stone bath and luxury spa massage awaited us back at the Lodge after our muddy hike. We wandered down to a separate stone spa building where a wooden trough was filled with near-boiling water. Hot stone baths are alleged to have medicinal properties and are reputedly highly therapeutic. They are filled with freshly picked, prickly, artemisia leaves and the water is heated by river stones roasted over a fire until they are burning hot and inserted into the end of the tub. Tea candles flickered from hangers on the stone wall and ginger tea, homemade biscuits and bottles of water were laid out on a plinth across the tub to ensure continued hydration during the half hour of luxurious soaking. It should have been absolutely perfect … it certainly looked perfect …

After 20 minutes of luxuriating at 100°F we could take no more heat so we grabbed our bathrobes and returned to our room which had been transformed into our own private spa. Two massage tables were laid out in our expansive living room which was also decorated with flickering candles. I spotted that more ginger tea and homemade biscuits awaited us post-massage. All fantastic so far!

By the time we had been pummeled for ninety minutes we were ready for showers and dinner. I glanced in the mirror and did a double-take. My face was covered in large red welts. I looked as if I had contracted some hitherto undiscovered tropical disease. It turns out I’m horribly allergic to artemisia leaves – so no more hot stone baths for me! 2 days of smearing aloe vera gel on my blotchy face and it gradually began to subside – hence the dearth of vacation photos of me for the next couple of days!

The Phobjikha Valley is absolutely fabulous – there are farms and wildlife and expansive mountain views but one of the highlights was our visit to what became my favorite monastery, Gangtey Gonpa in Gangtey village. Our visit (courtesy of the impeccably organized Sonam) was conveniently timed to listen to the monks performing their morning mantras. Gangtey Gonpa is absolutely spectacular. It has a fabulous statue of Guru Rinpoche (the Enlightened One) and is filled, as all monastries are, with multi-colored hand-painted art and wall-hangings. It was a riot of color.

Sadly, we left Gangtey Lodge behind us clutching a goodie bag of fruit and homemade granola bars for the journey, courtesy of the chef who waved us off at the gate with the manageress who had donated me her personal tub of aloe vera. The drive from Phobjikha to Punakha in central Bhutan was about 3 hours. Just as we were leaving the valley we saw our first black furry-coated yaks! Exciting – but that wasn’t to be the highlight of the day!

We were heading to Chimi Lhakhang and to a very special temple built in 1499 and dedicated to the 15th century Tibetan Lama Drukpa Kunley (also known as “the divine mad monk”). It is close to the village of Lobesa in Punakha. It is a fertility temple. The first thing you notice about the village as you approach it on a pathway through the rice fields is that it is the second most touristy place in Bhutan (after Dochu La Pass). The second inescapable feature of the village is that the buildings are covered in paintings of giant phalluses which leave little to the imagination. The stores are stocked to the gunnels with souvenir wooden phalluses, if you so desire, but the main attraction for pilgrims visiting the temple is to receive a fertility blessing by the lama. For reasons unknown Sonam thought it would be a great idea to make a donation on my behalf and before I knew it I had been battered over the head by a large silver-handled wooden phallus wrapped in fabric (grubby with the sweat of a million previous pilgrims). All the Bhutanese fertility blessings in the world wouldn’t result in a trip for me to the maternity ward in 9 months time but I didn’t want to appear ungrateful 😉

If 5 star Gangtey Lodge was the pinnacle of our hotel experience in Bhutan, then the nadir was Dhumra Farm Resort in Punakha. To be fair the view from the grounds of the farm, high up above the river valley and over the roof of Punakha Dzong, was absolutely incredible. I wouldn’t have missed watching the early morning mist floating through the valley of rice fields and over the Dzong way beneath us for the world. However the “resort” would barely have garnered a 3 star in the wider world. The food was good (picked at the farm minutes before it was served to us) but the accommodations certainly had some teething problems and left a lot to be desired in terms of build quality. At least they had a healthy supply of booze to ease the pain – single-handedly Geoff managed to drink them out of both gin & vodka; quite an achievement, even by Geoff’s standards! 😉

That aside, Punakha Valley is as magnificent as Phobjikha Valley. Punakha was the former capital of Bhutan until 1955 and it lies at the confluence of two major rivers (the Pho Chu and Mo Chu rivers) and was built as a defensive stronghold in the 17th century. It is quite beautiful. The temperature was hot in the valley for October whereas Phobjikha had been unexpectedly cool, especially at night. It is the rice bowl of Bhutan and we were there to see the miles of rice paddies cutting through the valley and to catch the beginning of the annual harvest.

We took a hike in the valley through the forest with views to our left of the milky teal river and yellow rice fields. The hike was fabulous but I had my heart set on walking through waist-high rice fronds in the paddy fields. There is one reason why that isn’t a great idea (but it certainly wasn’t enough to put me off since I’d flown 9,000 miles to do it). King cobras! Apparently they are also quite keen on paddy fields, although not for their photogenic properties. Thankfully, Sonam was armed with a very large stick and he was prepared to use it (for what that was worth)! He remained on high alert for king cobras during our wanderings which was a relief because death by venomous fangs dug into a buttock whilst taking an emergency pee (“watering the bushes” as they say in Bhutan) wasn’t on our list of dignified modes of death 😉. Thankfully, the route is reasonably well-trodden because it is part of the Khamsum Yulley Namgyal Chorten trail so I suspect any king cobras lurking in the undergrowth would have been keeping a low profile.

Before we left Punakha the following morning to return to Paro we visited the “Dzong of the vacation”! Punakha Dzong is known as the “palace of great happiness or bliss”. It is certainly absolutely stunning. The iconic view of it is from the roadside at the confluence of the 2 rivers. It was built as the second fortress in Bhutan in 1637 by command of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal. It is so spectacular that is the location of all royal coronations; it hosted the royal wedding of the current King and Queen in 2011 (who are a very handsome and hugely revered young couple); and, it is the winter home of the central monastic body of Bhutan. The architecture is almost beyond words. It is considered Bhutan’s most beautiful Dzong and it is unmissable.

Time to head back to Paro, crossing back over the Dochu La Pass with its distant view of the snowy Himalayas. It was about 3 hours drive back to Paro where we started (and would end) our visit. Before we bade a tearful goodbye to our guide Sonam, driver Doshu and to the Kingdom of Bhutan we had one more adventure ahead us – hiking to Tiger’s Nest Monastery (also known as Taktsang Monastery).

En route to check-in for our final 2 nights into Nak-Sel Resort and Spa on the outskirts of Paro we stopped at Paro Dzong (also known as Rinpung Dzong, the “fortress on a heap of jewels”), one of Bhutan’s most important fortresses and built in 1644 – also under the orders of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal. The image of this Dzong is on the face of Bhutanese Ngultrum cash notes. Totally “templed and dzonged out” by that stage, we passed on visiting it and chose to relax in our hotel for the final afternoon to garner enough strength for our final hike to Tiger’s Nest.

The tour companies always save hiking to Tiger’s Nest until the last day in the hope that their clients have at least partially acclimatized to the elevation. It is fair to say that it is not a particularly hard hike but it is certainly both knee-busting and lung-busting if you plan to make it all the way to the gates of the iconic monastery. If Sonam and Dasho hadn’t carried our backpacks, snacks and endless water supply we might have arrived somewhat more disheveled at the summit. It gets hot in the open sections of the mainly coniferous mountainside hike so you have to start early (the only time we saw our guys before 7.00am for the entire trip!). You can hike to the halfway point at Taktsang Cafe with its long-distance (but still awe-inspiring) view over Tiger’s Nest – but what’s the fun in that?! If you’re not bow-legged by the time you descend to the car park you haven’t really done it 😉

It was worth the effort (of course!). We survived and were happy to relax at the hotel for what was left of the day. The planned schedule was for another hot stone bath to recover from the hike but given I didn’t want to return to Kathmandu covered in facial bubonic boils we passed on that and swapped it for a massage which was far safer. Our hotel, Nak-Sel Resort, was an attractive 4 star hotel built in traditional Bhutanese architectural style. It has great food but a dodgy power supply. More than once we were plunged into the pitch black whilst in the shower. First world problems! Whilst the food was great the bar bills were staggering … $42 for a large gin and tonic would have been expensive for a trendy New York City rooftop bar overlooking the Empire State building, let alone way out in the boonies in Bhutan!

A quick note on food. When I booked the trip I was mildly concerned that we might starve in Bhutan. At home we’re vegan but with forays into occasional dairy and fish options whilst out and about, if necessary. The staple dishes in Bhutan are chicken, Yak meat, rice, chillies and cheese (the national dish is chili and cheese stew called emadatse). All of this sounded a little limited for our usual dietary requirements. We shouldn’t have worried. October is the month for harvesting all of the local organically-grown vegetables in the country! Some of the restaurants we visited were admittedly a little “rustic” but the vegetable dishes were always top quality and it didn’t take long before we were putting in special requests for “Bhutanese hot” chili and cheese stew. It was absolutely delicious but not for the unadventurous!

We had the time of our lives! We were spoilt from start to end by Sonam and Dasho, we ate amazing meals, stayed in some lovely places, saw incredible scenery, met some interesting people and, even better, Bhutan was exactly what 14 year old Geoff had hoped it would be all those years ago 😊