The Land of the Thunder Dragon

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It was an early start Friday morning, up and on the tube to Heathrow by 6.30am. We arrived in plenty of time to pick me up some new shades and enjoy a glass of champagne in the lounge, before boarding the near empty flight to New Delhi. We managed to get the exit row seats so plenty of leg room for the 8.5hr journey. The new airport in Delhi was very spacious; sadly it looked like the carpets were from the late 70’s, brown with a wide pattern. How they found a company manufacturing carpet like that is a mystery. After walking about 1km we arrived at customs. I was a little nervous as realised I had a business visa and had ticked ‘holiday/leisure’ visit. But all was well and we were both waved through and found a taxi. We zoomed out of the airport past some works that were still progressing. This was the first of many signs leading to the conclusion that prayers and sunny skies are the only likely contributors to the Commonwealth Games being ready on time. This was later backed by multiple newspaper reports over the weekend, including an international road cycling test event that was hampered by rubble on the road, advertising boards that had fallen onto the race track and people crossing the track during the event. It took about 40mins to reach the hotel, however we had a small incident; an attempted hijacking. The taxi turned the corner to go down a dark side street, one guy jumped in front of the car and stood in a star jump position, while his friend opened the front door and he leaped in and shut the door. Yikes! We decided to stay calm and let the driver handle the situation. A noisy conversation perused, while we looked on with stern looks on our faces, occasionally saying ‘get-out’. Finally he left, the driver told us they were drunk and then promptly told the next group of police officers. Pretty exciting at 1am in the morning. We were stay at the newly opened Hilton, which was an oasis of loveliness.

The following morning after a quick dip in the pool we headed out with our driver for the next few days, Virender. The first stop (after about 45mins on the road) was the Qutb Complex build back in the 1193 as the Muslin sultans capital of sorts in Delhi. It has a massive Minar or tower which is the centre piece and delicately carved pillars and panels in the surrounding Mosque. We were rather popular with photos being taken of us with families and couples. It was steaming hot, and it hit you in the face as you stepped out of the car it was around the 35+ mark with humidity up in the 90’s. After this we drove past the Lotus temple, refused to go to a craft shop and ended up at Humayuns’ Tomb before stopping for lunch. After the first of many curry’s we headed for India Gate, a monument that is usually pictured to symbolise Delhi. It is huge sandstone structure commemorating those that died during War I. From there, there is a long wide road leading up to the parliament buildings and the president’s resident. This entire area was developed during the British rule to be the showcase of the Empire. We then drove into the madness which is Old Delhi and almost came to an instant stand still in the chaotic traffic, well more chaotic than usual. The Red Fort was closed due to the lateness in the day so we fought the traffic around to Jami Masjid, the largest Mosque in India. We climbed the stairs to the top of one of the towers and got amazing views of the city, including the Red Fort (which is huge!). That evening we went to the ITC Maurya for dinner at the famous Bukhara, delicious.

It was an extremely early start, up and out the door by 6am, whizzing out of Delhi heading for Agra and the Taj Mahal. Our car zigzagged in and out of high speed buses, trucks and slow moving cycles, tuk-tuks and bullock carts. It took near on 5 ½ hrs to reach our destination and collect the worst guide in the region. So yes, we set off on foot to the Taj in the searing mid-day heat. We started leaking profusely and generally melting. The Taj Mahal never ceases to amaze me, it was my 4th visit and Scott’s first. The entrance way through the gates offers a framed view before bursting through to the wide-open gardens and path leading up to it. After the usual photo stops including the classic Lady Di shot we donned our white medical slipped and ventured inside. After this we tried managed to shake the ‘guide’ who was more interested in telling us about his factory/shop we would be visiting later all though we had already told him we would not be visiting. After this we took our time enjoying the beauty of the structure. It is one of the most magnificent buildings in the world in my book. The river was extremely high and had flooded the grounds leading up to the platform which it is built on, the water was rushing by at a great rate of knots. After visiting the Mosque and enjoying the view from a different vista we headed back to the car. We didn’t manage to shake the ‘guide’ completely until he had asked us a further 8 times to go to the shop, luckily he got out in town and we went to Agra Fort without him. The Fort was great. There are lots of rooms, courtyards to explore and a fabulous view of the Taj Mahal. The Mughal Emperor, who had the Taj constructed for his wife, lived at the Fort thus the spectator view. The poor women died giving birth to child 14 after only 18yrs of marriage. We managed to depart just as the rains came down. To our good fortune we managed to get in two action packed sightseeing days without any serious monsoonal rain, a miracle given the weather forecast we were tracking before departing. And in addition managed to see an elephant, camel, monkeys, cows, water buffalo, ox, dogs, goats, and hogs, all wandering roadside ... don’t get that in many other capitals around the world.

PHOTOSINDIA

The following morning we were up early to enjoy a dip in the pool and buffet brunch before heading towards the airport in mid-morning crazy traffic. At one point the classic green and black cab jumped onto the wrong side of the road to get around a bit of a blockage. There was a bit of a mishap at the airport as we checked in. We put our bags on the check in bay to be weighed, and then there was a slight delay as the lady fussed around with something else. During this moment we filled out the departure card. On looking up to answer a couple of questions I noticed my bag was missing. They had tagged my bag up with someone another person’s labels and sent it off down shoot, good lord! After multiple conversations and taking a contact name and number, we decided that maybe they wound find my bag, re-label it and get it to Bhutan. My confidence was low. The flight itself was good. Brand new plane and a New Zealander at the wheel, however the landing was a little hairy. We were to land in the Paro valley, so we had to drop low and then swing up two valleys before rounding a corner and dropping onto the landing strip, yikes! On arrival the red carpet was rolled out, no not for us. There was a dignitary (reincarnation of one of the lama’s) on the flight who we later saw on the news meeting the King of Bhutan. To my surprise and relief my bag appeared, woo-who! We exited the airport, which was built in the beautiful traditional style white or slate walls, with large colourfully decorated window frames. Our guide (Kinley) and driver (Tenzin) greeted us with traditional white scarves before we jumped into a 4 wheel drive black car and headed up the Paro and Thimphu river valleys, to Thimphu, Bhutan’s capital. School was just out, so all the children were walking home. It was great to see the traditional dress of the Bhutanese. I think the men’s outfits are very smart. They are kimono style with wide cuffs, hosted up to knee height and like a kilt worn with knee high socks. On arriving at the hotel (Namgay Heritage) we were pleasantly surprised. It was newly opened last year and beautifully decorated with traditional carvings and paintings; it also had a basic gym and spa. We were expecting much more basic accommodation. That evening we had a walk around town, which was a hive of activity people wearing tradition dress, western style t-shirt and jeans, plus fully robed monks. This capital is +85k strong and doesn’t have traffic lights. The city is managed by the poetic movements of a traffic guard in housed in a small decorated pagoda. Apparently they did try traffic lights but the population thought it was too impersonal. That evening we tried the traditional Bhutanese dish called ‘emadates’ which comprises of large green and red chillies prepared as a vegetable, not as a seasoning, in a cheese sauce. It was really tasty, and the staff at the hotel restaurant thought we were very brave.

Our first day in Bhutan was auctioned packed! The first stop was the memorial Chorten, the white washed structure was decorated with carved faces and there are elaborate statues. The residents of the city circumambulate the Chorten in the morning and evening. There was every walk of life walking around - elderly and young women in heels. The next few stops were all about the arts and crafts of Bhutan; weaving, textile museum, folk heritage museum, school of traditional arts (embroidery, carving, painting, sculptures, weaving), and national archives for old scripture plus the largest book in the world, as recognised by Guinness Book of records. One painting and sculpture we kept seeing was a bird on top of rabbit, on top of a monkey, riding an elephant. It is a very popular story of four brothers and symbolizes team work. We then drove up into the hills heading for Simtokha Dzong which is one for the oldest fortresses in Bhutan from 1626 AD. There were more than 300 finely carved faces depicting saints and philosophers around the outside of the Dzong. On the inside there were beautiful paintings depicting various stories and multiple Buddha’s inside in the pray room. After lunch of yes, more cheese and chillies, we had a look at the national stadium and archery ground. There was an archery tournament on so we went down to take a look as it is the national sport. They were firing the arrows 140m or more, when someone hits the target they do a dance and when they miss you are allowed to jeer and mock the opponent. We then went up a hill to get a great view of this river side capital stretch down the valley. The final stop of the day was to see the Takin, the really cool national animal. It was like nothing we have ever seen before; the story says it was created by putting a goats head on a cow’s body. However we thought it also had some bear like features with a shaggy brown/golden coat.

We set off from Thimphu early in the morning and immediately started winding up into the pine tree covered hills towards Punakha. Scott and I snoozed in the back (common occurrence as we drove place to place) before arriving at the top of the Dochu La pass at around 3100m. It is marked by 108 newly constructed chortens and a number of prayer flags. The 4th Kings Queen had them built to commemorate the lives lost trying to flush out the Nepalese rebels in the south. On a clear day you can get a panoramic view of the Bhutan Himalayas, but today we were shrouded in mist. From there we headed a long way down. Interesting the pines turned into more jungle like terrain. The valley was very peaceful and pretty, a river flowing through the middle of it and rice paddies on either side. We set off across the paddy fields towards the Temple of Fertility, which was built by a Lama back in the 15th century. He was known as the Devine Madman and spread Buddhism in an unorthodox manor - sex, alcohol, humour - really to dramatise the teaching. He is one of the favourite saints in Bhutan, thus you see flying penis’ painted on houses and hanging from rooftops. The temple had not been restored, so it was interesting to see a more normal temple in operating. The young monks were part way through an English grammar lesson when we arrived. Scott and I both got a blessing, which involved being hit on the head by a Monk with two large wooden cocks and the Madman’s bow and arrow. That afternoon we visited the very impressive Palace of Great Happiness (Punakha Dzong). It is a very large structure (180m long, 72m wide and six storeys high) sitting on the intersections of two rivers, thus it has been effected by flooding, especially the bridge over to the temple. They have now built three lakes up in the Himalayas to try and catch the water before it floods the valleys. The building was beautiful with elaborately carved and painted window & door frames and edging, with golden carved pillars. What was great to see on the way back to the hotel was the kids from the local schools doing a tidy up of the river side, picking up what little rubbish there was and weeding.

It was an early 7.30am start to get to Wangdi, a hill top village that used to be the secondary capital. First we visited the local market which was a great opportunity to see some of the local produce, including fern fronds which are boiled then fried in chillies, and there was a spiky looking cucumber looking thing. It was a great place for some people watching as well. The buildings were mainly black and white, and thus named match box. We then ran into Kinley’s mum and brother. His mum was receiving traditional medicine for what looked like a badly broken or sprained foot. The Wangdi Dzong was built back in 1638 and is currently undergoing massive renovations with the help of the Indian government. The building itself is still used for some local administrative purposes as well as the temple and living space for the monks. We then made our way to Paro, back the same way we had come. Scott and I took the opportunity to get some sleep. But luckily we were awake to see the 4th King, yip the King! You can tell when the Royalty are on the move as all the number plates start with BR, Bhutan Royalty; BG for government, and BP for private. They were all in a convoy of about 4 cars, rather unspectacular cars really. Some times in poorer countries you do see the top officials riding around in fancy cars, to be honest I think the vehicle we were in was nicer. He was sitting in the front passenger seat (again unusual!) looking out the window on our side so we got a clear view of him, very exciting. On reaching Paro we visited the National Museum which is housed in a round watch-tower; it had some interesting bits and pieces, including a tree like sculpture that had Buddha’s and Deities hanging like leaves, plus a rather impressive national stamp collection. This location of the Museum provided superb views up the Paro valley and down to the Paro Rinpung Dzong. We tried to visit the Dzong, however that one needed our elbows to be covered and we had left our jackets in the car which had driven to bottom of the hill already. Instead we went to play archery, Kinley had picked up some traditional bows and arrows and we found local grounds to test out the national sport. Scott was pretty good right off the cuff making the full distance, nearly. And I must also add that we weren’t shooting the full 140m, we had put a target in the ground about 60m. I was a little useless at the beginning with the arrow, embarrassingly, falling to the ground at my feet as I let the arrow go rather than the string. We got our first glimpse of the famed Tigers Nest as we drove up to the hotel; we got the best room in the place as we were the only people staying! To our delight we had a fantastic view of the Tigers Nest from our room and in fact from bed, brilliant.

Given the recent rain we couldn’t go up the Do Chhu Valley as planned, however we went to the Haa Valley. It is a rather isolated place just south of Paro that leads straight to Tibet. The place was only opened to tourists 8yrs ago so it felt very un-touched and off the beaten track. We were the only tourists there. It was a 62km drive over the Cheli La pass which is just under 4000m high (this is as high as we will walk on our hike the next day). We passed a beautiful nunnery nestled in the hills, built in the 9th century and the oldest in Bhutan. At the pass we stopped for a wander through the prayer flags and searched for the blue poppy plant, with no luck. As we descended from the hill the mist cleared and we got a fantastic view to the Paro and Haa valley on either side. About ¾ the way down we stopped for a picnic road side with lovely views. There are three mountains that represent the three local Deities - compassion, wisdom, power. The food they brought along was amazing, it was a Bhutanese, Chinese and India spread; spicy eggplant, chilli & cheese, beans & cheese, aloo gobi, fried rice and other delightful treats. We then drove up the valley looking at the different architectures of the houses and a super old house made out of wood. After a stroll through the Haa town, which was full of cheap china made plastic wears, we headed to the monastery. The monks were practicing dance when we arrived which was awesome to see, a real highlight of the day. The pray room was interesting as well, there was multiple guns including an AK47 gifted by the fourth king. One of the Deities, which the monastery is known for is a protector or in modern day language ‘body guard’. After the successful mission to flush out the Nepalese rebels (mentioned earlier), that was lead by the 4th King, he presented this gun to the monastery. On the way back to Paro, we were treated with some songs from the 2nd place winner in the Bhutan pop idol, excellent. That evening we found out for our 1 night, 2 day hiking / camping adventure that we have a cook and a couple of horse men. Rather a parade for just us two - should be interesting.
VIDEOMONKS

Well, I woke up with a slight cold sneezing and coughing away, not ideal for a 2 day hike at altitude. We packed up our gear and set off up a very hairy road. It was mainly mud with a shear drop down into the valley and given the overnight rain fall the back wheels were sliding a bit. Our hike started at 2800m just below a Buddhist college, it felt like the guide and the assistant cook didn’t really know which way to go after doubling back a few times. But after a while we started to climb through the pine trees. We set off rather slow as they had forgotten our sleeping bags, and the mules/horse should have been a head of us. In the end there were 4 mules and one horse carrying a cooking tent, eating tent, toilet tent, our tent, bottle of gas, fold up table and chairs, plus one small bag of our personals. Felt like a lot for one night of camping! As we wound our way up, and we were just going up and up. It turned very moist and wet, every which way you looked there were mushrooms and brightly coloured wild flowers. We picked the yellowy looking mushrooms (Chanterellies) and enjoyed them with chilli and cheese for dinner. The trees were covered in ‘old man’s beard’, so they looked liked ice creams melting in the summer sun. It was hard going up the hill due to the altitude we climbed up 1200m for about 4-5hrs to reach our camp site for the evening just below Bumdra Monastery nestled in the mountain. There was a large meadow just before the camp site with chorten, prayer flags and the meanest looking yak I had ever seen. Our guide snuck up and took a couple of snaps, good lord it was a big beast. It had been saved by the man who owned the fields. The yak herders need to kill the beasts once they get older as they are not longer useful, however they need the money. Sometime the monasteries will buy them using donations or a wealthy individual. We had a spectacular view down into the Paro valley below. As we crawled into our tent for a rest before dinner a slight shower passed across and the clouds came down, whew, as it would not have been pleasant walking in the rain. On the way up, down and at the camp site there were a few basic houses where people were meditating (called being in retreat), they are usually there 3yrs, 3mths, 3days. We walked pasted a burnt out place. That guy had gone nuts and set it alight. After a delightful candle lit dinner, we retired for the evening and awoke the next day to a sensational sunrise. We jumped out of bed and headed up the ridge to watch the sun come up over the Himalayas. Well, not the top just the middle part. Clouds covered the valleys and covered the top, but the Himalayas it was. Further up the ridge above where we camped was a scared sky burial site. Any child under 7yrs who dies is placed on top of this ridge for the birds and natural discomposure, there were lots of pray flags and it was very peaceful.

A hot chocolate soon arrived at the tent door and we enjoyed breakfast overlooking the valley as the cloud rose around us. After breakfast we had a good chat to the Ambassador for Netherlands who was spending the weekend hiking. She had been their five years and it was very interesting to hear her opinions of the challenges the country faces modernising at such pace. We were soon on our way descending rapidly towards the famed Taktshang, which is better known as the Tigers Nest. Known as such as it is said Guru Rinpoche (important Deity) flew to the site riding a tigress and mediated for 3mths after subduing a local demon. First off we visited a monastery above the Tigers Nest, which provided an excellent birds-eye view. It was certainly a lot larger than we thought it would be. We descended further onto the main track up, and had to duck back down into the valley and back up again taking in over 750+ steps. It was hard work. There was a ceremony going on inside, so it was interesting to hear and see all the local musical instruments. The place was spectacular inside and out; a magical end to the hike. It took a good hour to get back down the hill to the waiting car, but it was good fun leaping and running down the trail. Before heading back to the hotel for a much needed shower, boy did we stink. We visited a temple from the 7th century, and although tired we were glad we did. The statues inside were very old verses the newer ones in some of the other temples. The inner temple room was good as well with multiple statues on shelves around a central Buddha. This was the temple where the 4th Kings Mothers mentor/guru resided when alive (his reincarnation is a small child still studying), she had donated another prayer room which was very impressive. The temple was part of 108 build back in the day to protect the people, there are only 2 in Bhutan the remainder are dotted over Tibet. The hot shower back at the hotel was well deserved after a brilliant two day hike. That evening we went to dinner in a place in Paro town, our driver Tenzin who use to be a chief in one of the 5 star hotels cooked, which was very sweet. It was a fantastic meal the only down side was both waking up with very grumbley stomachs the next morning, there was near on an accident given we only had one toilet!

On the way to the airport Kinley told us about his last client from London, all he wanted to do was visit the Karaoke bars. They barely saw any sites, tremendous stuff. We saw lots of amazing temples, forts and breath-taking views and visited no Karaoke bars. The departure was a lot less frightening than the landing as it was a clear day, thank goodness. As we flew towards Delhi we took the same line as the Himalayas and got a spectacular view of Mt Everest, a wonderful end for our adventure in the Himalayan Kingdom.
PHOTOSBHUTAN

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