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Thimpu was the best... every lane has more than a few hotels... where do the locals live? I couldnt see any houses at all. But the hotels were great.. Hotel Pedling especially. We set out one morning early to find breakfast at 8:30 am - we searched most market lanes... the few "local" shops/bars/restuarants which were open had food from the previous night. Roads were deserted but clean... we finally found a place called Tasty Bites which gave us great Aloo Parathas which are nothing like the Parathas I have eaten before. (Thats us searching for a nice local breakfast joint]
Rinchenling Lodge at Paro was a SURPRISE. Its a wood panelled house - few rooms, a small garden/orchard... luxurious settings... we had the whole place to ourselves. The manager running it is gracious... we needed a room with 3 beds and a TV (thanks to my kids who cannot live without the TV and my Dad who wanted the bed). He quickly dismantled the beds from one room, the TV from another, and got what we wanted fitted into the best corner room... I dont know whether he gave us the corner room becoz we were noisy.. or
becoz he wanted us to get a great view. Here's my Dad catching up on "Jamie Keppa's Beyind Sun and Sky " - the book about her visit to Bhutan as a Canadian youngster... fascinating. We found the book in a bookstore in Thimpu.
You can see my son posing nonchalantly - as though he doesnt know about the camera. Thats yak hair above him. And yellow wooden shoes from Amsterdam below the table. This is the reception area and it had beautiful momentos from Bhutan and also from other places. He actually managed to explore every piece without breaking any of the delicate pieces placed strategically.
The best piece was a collection of stamps and coins which were below the glasstop of the reception tables. My kids froke out... one of them managed to get a few special coins from the manager and my other son managed to buy a few great snaps. That was a bonus for all of us.
The only thing I did not like was that on the 2nd day we were given a SINGLE sandwich instead of the usual 4 slice 2 sandwich which is usually the norm. I thought that
was being a bit stingy... but the hotel boys were really cute... esp when they heard that we were from Mumbai. They wanted to come and see Amitabh Bacchan.
And just a word of caution - DONT STAY IN PUNAKHA. We were to stay in Zeunsti Pelri in Punakha/Wangdue but ended up staying in Damchen lodge. After using the loo we discovered that there was no toilet paper, a bucket but no tap, a flush tank but no water.. and wash basic but no soap. Well, one has trekked in jungles and we survived... but DO NOT STAY THERE.
By the way these beautiful misty mountains look good on a travel blog... I was sitting in the last row of a Toyota Innova.. in which the window cannot be rolled down, the door cannot be opened... i cannot get out till my kids choose to release me from the prison by pulling forward their seat. Our driver had been on the road for many days and was impatient to get back. We were all staring so hard at the road... trying to figure out whether there was road ahead or just the plunging valley... and hoping we would
Drive back to Pheuntsholing - Misty Mountains
The drive is beatiful but long.
We stayed at Hotel Lakhi in Phuentsholing.discover BEFORE we hit the road/valley. All of us strained our eyes but that did not help our driver... who insisted he knew the roads by heart and who believed in special sight power .. anyway though I took a few hours to recover fro the drive,.. we did actually kand up safely in Phientsholing. Yes I did also finally get the spelling of the place right. Congrats to me.
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Nancy Cousins
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Damchen Lodge
Our tour group also had the extreme misfortune of staying at the Damchen Lodge and Fooding October 2008. it had not been written into our itinerary and came as a surprise to us. We were told all other accommodations were full due to the festival. I can honestly say , in all the traveling we have done, this place was the most disappointing. The walls of the rooms and bathrooms had black mold growing everywhere. Bathrooms were filthy (we had a toilet seat that excrement on it) and the accommodations at the Damchen Lodge and Fooding posed a significant health risk. The people of Bhutan on the other hand were genuinely warm and friendly .The country is beautiful and very unique.