Paro Travel Blogs

Africa

Antarctica

Asia

Central America Caribbean

Travel Blog » Asia » Bhutan » Paro

Paro Travel Blogs

Background: In 1865, Britain and Bhutan signed the Treaty of Sinchulu, under which Bhutan would receive an annual subsidy in exchange for ceding some border land. Under British influence, a monarchy was set up in 1907; three years later, a treaty was signed whereby the British agreed not to interfere in Bhutanese internal affairs and Bhutan allowed Britain to direct its foreign affairs. This role was assumed by independent India after 1947. Two years later, a formal Indo-Bhutanese accord returned the areas of Bhutan annexed by the British, formalized the annual subsidies the country received, and defined India's responsibilities in defense and foreign relations. A refugee issue of some 100,000 Bhutanese in Nepal remains unresolved; 90% of the refugees are housed in seven United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) camps.

Bhutan

Map of Bhutan

Bhutan's Flag

Hostels in Bhutan
Latest Paro Blog Entries
Paro Photos

By sadwanker abroad
May 2nd 2008

Bhutan - Arrival and Attrition

Asia » Bhutan » Paro » Taktshang Goemba

Bhutan: Chapter One As I think I mentioned previously, arrival in Bhutan was delayed by almost a whole day due to a flight change. This affected those of us coming from Delhi and from Kathmandu - which proved to be 6 out of 8 of us. As a result, day one was anything but a "rest day" as we were picked up at the airport, given a welcome cup of tea, threw our stuff in our hotel room and rushed off to go to the Tiger's Nest Monastery. The walk up to Tiger's Nest was part of our preparation for the [View Full Entry]

By Shane and Bec
November 25th 2007

Paro

Asia » Bhutan » Paro

Drugyel Dzong

Paro: Christian who is the chef of all the Amankora lodges took a trip to check out Gangte and Bumthang so Shane and I headed to Paro to make sure all was okay with the food here. It’s nice to get out of Thimphu for a little while. Paro is smaller and the lodge is set about a half hour outside of the Paro town. Paro is located in a valley and is surrounded by gorgeous snow-covered mountains. We stayed at either the lodge or Christian’s house. The lodge rooms are very nice and have HUGE beds, an awesome bathtub and [View Full Entry]

By packman
September 29th 2007

Lights Out - Bye Bye Bhutan

Asia » Bhutan » Paro

monk in front of paro dzong

Oy. I did not sleep well last night at all…I think I got eaten alive around my ankles and that is the worst! It was SO itchy…so I was kind of cranky all day. Anyway, we headed to the Paro Dzong. The architecture is all Bhutanese and apparently the finest. It is a pretty big temple although the area where the tsechu is held in the spring is much smaller than Thimphu. We then headed to the National Museum which used to be the old watchtower for the dzong…its sits up on the hill above the dzong. It is definitely an [View Full Entry]

By packman
September 28th 2007

Full, Gluttony or Blessing?

Asia » Bhutan » Paro

me in front of tiger's nest

Today I spent the day hiking…sorta…apparently my hike is a good warmup for some of the other treks in the country, but I thought it was pretty tough! We were hiking to get to Tiger’s Nest, Taktshang Goemba, which sits on a cliff just outside of Paro. It’s supposed to be a two hour hike…most people take longer, I of course did it in less. Not that I was trying to rush but more I needed the workout! It was fun and Tshultrim was definitely out of breath at my pace. Anyway, this was well worth the heat and the scary [View Full Entry]

By packman
September 21st 2007

‘Plane’ and Simple

Asia » Bhutan » Paro

Mt. Everest

As I write I am on the Druk Air flight to Paro, Bhutan. We have a quick stop in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The flight is not all that long…2 hr 15 min to Dhaka and nearly two hours to Paro. I am beyond excited to start the next part of my journey. Last night I flew from Hong Kong to Bangkok so I could catch this early morning flight. I decided that instead of killing time a t the airport hotel in between my arrival and departure, that I would rather fill my time by heading into the center of Bangkok. I [View Full Entry]

By mrandmrssimmonds
June 5th 2007

Day 338 - Tiger's Nest

Asia » Bhutan » Paro

Taktshang Goemba

Waking up with the sun we soon found ourselves walking among the evergreen trees and rivers towards the Tstong Monastery or Tiger's Nest, a Monastery that was built in the 17th century on a rock cliff 900m high. As we made our way up the steep path there were many times when we could have been in England due to the surroundings and weather. The hour or so hike up to the monastery is well worth it for the many different views you get of the buildings as well as the exercise. From the top we got to look around [View Full Entry]

By jillybeansan
December 3rd 2006

Ready, Set, Gho to Bhutan!

Asia » Bhutan » Paro

Mt. Everest Above the Clouds!

Okay, that title may not make sense now, but I promise it will soon! The highlight of our India/Bhutan tour was -- Bhutan! We wish we had planned to spend more time there and we've promised ourselves to get back there some day. We flew to Bhutan on Thanksgiving Day. Our flight was on DrukAir -- the Royal Airline of Bhutan -- and the ONLY airline allowed to fly in and out of the small Buddhist Kingdom of Bhutan where about 700,000 people live. Bhutan lies along the lofty ridges of the eastern Himalayas and on our flight we were blessed [View Full Entry]

By grantcorp
October 2nd 2006

Finally underway!

Asia » Bhutan » Paro

Finally underway!
Ok, so it is not the A319 flight from Bangkok, this is KB203, the RJ flight from Dehli which arrived in the afternoon...

At 3.30 in the morning I came to an abrupt halt just outside the hotel door. Standing there bag in hand just about to go down to the street and flag down a cab I noticed that it was raining. Well, correction is in order, it was pouring down in a noisy cascade of grey and black. Luckily there was a taxi parked a bit down the road and even though I ran to it like crazy I still managed to get completely soaked from head to toe. The rain continued to hammer the roof relentlessly as we got underway, southbound [View Full Entry]

In flight breakfast courtesy of Druk Air

And if you sit on the left, heaven is at your feet

By SharkStalker
September 23rd 2006

A Royal Hike to the Tiger's Nest

Asia » Bhutan » Paro

Tigers Nest

22/09/06 Taktstang - The Tiger's Nest Taktsang Temple monastry is probably the most famous site in Bhutan and revered as a holy place built on the spot where Guru Rimpochey, the Great Buddhist Master landed on his Tigress after flying from India in the 8th Century and meditated in a cave high up on the cliff side. The shrine in the cave was slowly added to with additional buildings until the monastic temple was formed. Destroyed by fire in the 1990's, the temple was completely re-built and only finished and re-ordained in recent years. Legend has it that the gold statue [View Full Entry]

By SharkStalker
September 22nd 2006

Dramatic Entrance to a Dramatic Land

Asia » Bhutan » Paro

Monk in Burgundy Robes

21/09/06 Paro, Bhutan With 30 minutes before landing, the pilot announced the time and expected weather conditions in Bhuta, before adding For those of you who are flying to Bhutan for the first time and not used to seeing mountains in such close proximity, please don't be alarmed as this is the standard procedure. The plane proceeded to bank left and right around the mountains, with the wing tips seemingly a few meters away and then banked one more time even moments before landing as it rounded one final curve into the Paro valley and straightened up perfectly to touch [View Full Entry]

Travel Blog » Asia » Bhutan » Paro