Land of the Thunder Dragon – Part One

It’s been a while since we blogged, but Bhutan was quite a remote place with few connections with the internet; but what an amazing time we had there.  In simple words the scenery is spectacular, the people are courteous, well-educated and welcoming, and it is an oasis of calm, particularly after India.  We did spend a couple of days in Kathmandu beforehand, but we have returned there since, and will talk about Nepal later; and just talk about Bhutan for now.

It was very exciting flying in to Paro as the airport is in a narrow valley and requires the pilot to do a couple of steep turns.  However, we were met on arrival and taken to a local hotel, where we met our fellow travellers on the tour.  There were thirteen people from Switzerland, Japan, Australia, and the UK and US, and all, with the exception of a couple of the lazy American boys, were great company.

We started the trip with an incredible trek up a steep climb to one of the most remote monasteries in the world.  The Tiger’s Nest Monastery was named after an early Buddhist teacher and his consort, who turned into a tiger and carried him to the site.  It was built on the site where they landed and he meditated in a cave for three years, which happened to be up a cliff at 3,100m above sea level.

The trek was to one of the most magical places we have visited so far.  The walk is quite tough as it is at a high altitude, but we managed to stay in the leading pack of trekkers and emerged after two hours at a viewpoint across the valley.  We were confronted with a beautiful building clinging to the edge of the rocks, and which initially was impossible to see how we could get to.

However, after the party regrouped we carried on with our steep ascent until we came cross the start of 700 steps going down and then back up to the monastery.  It was worth starting early as we got to the monastery before the crowds and spent two hours looking at the temples, buddhas and observing the monks undertaking a prayer session.  The latter consisted of guttural chanting, plenty of unusual instruments from drums to wind instruments, lots of insence, and seven year old monks yawning as they got bored with it all.  It was very atmospheric and moving, given that this was at such a remote, and high, place.

The trekking continued for the next couple of days.  This time we climbed even higher to 3,900m where we could feel the air getting thinner.  The climb was pretty tough as it was almost four hours of constant climbing with few flat areas.  We went through pine forests and jungle areas, where we were warned about sloth bears; but finally ended up in what was very like an alpine meadow, albeit one with a Buddhist monastery beside it.  It was complete with cows with bells round their neck, which we could hear all night, along with the chewing of grass by our heads

This was Tim’s first experience of camping, and was quite an experience.  Firstly, as we all arrived at camp we had an almighty thunderstorm and had to shelter for half an hour in the main restauarant tent as water flooded around our feet.  However, after that it calmed down and we were shown to our individual tents.

This was a revelation as the tents actually had beds in them, complete with chrome-plated headboards and mattresses.  There was even a separate room for all our belongings; which had been brought up by mule, as we just carried our day packs.  What was a shock for Tim were the “long-drop” toilets.  For the uninitiated this is a hole in the ground with a toilet seat, which is surrounded by a small tent for privacy.  But then imagine the least clean and fragrant place you have been to, multiply it by ten, and that is your toilet.  However, we all survived the experience, and loved the added touch of a hot water bottle to go to bed with.

After three days of trekking we headed to the capital, Thimpu.  This was a much livelier place, but still adhered to the rules of all buildings being built to the Bhutanese style and being no more than six storeys high.  With 150,000 people it had 20% of the population; and despite there being lots of cars there are no traffic lights, just white-gloved policeman theatrically directing traffic from purpose-built boxes in the road.

We saw a lot of varied things in Thimpu.  There were the religious sites of the largest chorten memorial built to commemorate a previous king, to the 150 foot high Buddha statue overlooking the  city.  We also stopped to learn a bit about the national sport of archery, and went to the very neat and organised weekly farmers’ market.  We also went to a textile factory, wher Tim and Yoko tried on the local dress.

Perhaps the oddest feature of the city was the Thimpu Club, where we all went to have a couple of beers while watching young local guys and girls dancing to new and old Bhutanese songs while dressed in the latest fashions – very like K-Pop.

After Thimpu we moved further east to the sacred Gangte Valley.  Here cranes arrive for the winter months and we walked through the picturesque valley.  We then stumbled across the local teenage monks playing football in their red robes before heading to a homestay for the evening.  This consisted of a large house with lots of bedrooms, which in turn were basically wooden floors with mattresses.  We all ate together in the communal room, sitting on the floor, while we washed outside using cold water.

(Continued in Part Two)