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I entered Bhutan by land from the Indian border. I was a bit nervous going
in as to whether it would work because everyone in India, from the tour
agency employees to government immigration folks, insisted that I needed to
meet either a travel agent or my host at the border, who would bring a copy
of the visa. This sounded bogus to me, but it did make me wary. To cross
between the countries, you walk through an archway - Indians and Bhutanese
just get to go through, Indians can visit for a day without a visa as long
as they don't spend the night. (As the guidebook predicted, there really is
a noticeable difference between the sides of the archway - in Bhutan, the
streets are more organized, there are fewer people and vehicles, practically
no garbage/litter, etc. Plus, you see lots of the national dress, which is
required attire for all government employees, attendants at public schools
and citizens who wish to enter such establishments. For women, the attire
consists of an ankle-length wrap-around skirt and a silk jacket, usually pinned in the front as opposed to buttoned, that is worn over a blouse or
t-shirt. The men's outfit is a little harder to describe - it is similar to
a kilt, a skirt to the knees, but has an upper part that is worn like a
jacket - again criss-crossed in front rather than buttoned down - although in
warm weather the top part, which has long sleeves, can be rolled down and
tied around the waist, just showing the dress shirt or t-shirt worn
underneath. The outfit is generally worn with knee-socks and black leather
shoes, although sneakers, flip-flops or boots are also worn. In colder
weather, I saw men wearing a white shawl for additional warmth - the color
of shawl that can be worn depends on your status, i.e., monk, royalty,
"normal" person, and white is for normal people.) As an obvious foreigner
entering the country, I was asked for documentation. I showed them a copy of
my visa authorization letter and was pointed towards the immigration office,
just on the Bhutanese side. After spending 20 minutes uselessly waiting at
the window and being ignored by the woman working on the other side, I
walked inside to the room, which other people had smartly done, and there
was greeted by a really nice man who did all my paperwork - and apologized
that it took "so long," - it only took 10 minutes! He stamped the visa into
my passport and I was good to go.
I started walking, looking for the bank, to get some local money so that I
could buy a bus ticket to Thimpu, the country's capital - about a 7 hour
ride from the border where I entered. As I was walking, I passed a young
girl/woman, probably first year university, and asked where the bank was.
She pointed me in the right direction but a minute later came up to me and
asked if she could help. Despite my saying I was fine, she took my smaller
backpack and led me to the bank, there explaining that I needed to change
money, and then led me to the bus station where she helped me buy a bus
ticket. A really nice girl and a great first impression of the country!
(It turned out that nearly everyone in the country was this friendly, there
is a wonderful combination of desire to help and respect for privacy.)
Everyone assumed she was my guide, which she found quite amusing, and she
kept explaining that she had merely "picked me up" on the street. I had
about 3 hours before the bus so went to a small restaurant next door for
lunch - fried rice was the only dish that didn't sound spicy and without
meat that the owner and I could figure out in a common language. (I was
quite wary because the national dish in Bhutan, as well as most of the food,
involves large amounts of chilies - not cut up or made into a sauce, but
whole chilies.) Here also everyone was very nice, the owner encouraged me
to stay at the table and read until it was time for my bus. I got back to
the bus station the half hour before departure appointed by the bus
company. The man who sold me the ticket assigned me the front seat - next
to the driver, which is considered good since away from the bumpy back, and
walked me to the bus to make sure I got on the right one. In addition to
Bhutanese citizens, there were two Indians on the bus, which was nice so that I
wasn't the only one who had to get off at the immigration checkpoints; my
passport/visa was checked four times along the way - this is not a country
to visit without the proper documentation! The ride was nice, although very
zig-zaggy and fast - its called the "vomit comet" for a reason, but happily I
did not get sick. I did want to show the driver the part in my guidebook
that said people in Bhutan drive on the left hand side of the road, but we
made it to Thimpu in one piece around 9 at night. Thimpu is at an elevation
of almost 9,000 feet, so much of the drive was spent going up and through
the mountains, often driving at what appeared to be the same level as the lower
clouds.
During my first full day in Thimpu, I mainly wandered around the city,
including the weekend market, which was fun to see. I didn't see a whole
lot of the "official" sites, but got a nice feel for the city, which is
beautiful. Nearly all of the buildings, either new or old, include fancy
window frames, painted decorations and other wooden decorations. I normally
don't take pictures while walking through a city, as it somehow distracts me
from absorbing the ambiance, but the buildings/scenery here was worth an
exception. One of these pictures was of the City's largest traffic circle,
where the City's only traffic light had previously been installed. It was
removed because, according to the guidebook, the local populace thought it
was too impersonal, and the area is now manned by a policeman.
(Interestingly, policeman, like military and guards, do not wear traditional
clothing but western style uniforms. On a side note, the national dress may
explain why there are not many motorcycles seen on the streets but instead
scooters, although cars still seem the most popular mode of
transportation.) Another nice scene was many elementary age school
children eating a picnic style lunch, on a school day, on the sidewalks and
grassy areas around their schools with parents who brought over the meal in
insulated containers. My second day in Thimpu involved additional
site-seeing and trips to various government agencies to acquire the
necessary trekking permits; permission is required from the Department of
Tourism, the Army and the Parks Department.
The next morning, someone from the travel agency drove me the hour down to
Paro for the start of the trek. Our trip actually took two hours because,
along the way, we had to stop at a auto shop to pick up a tire that was being
fixed, it had gone flat the day before. Despite telling the shop that he
would be there at 7, the shop was still closed when we arrived at 7:30. The
man giving me a ride called the mechanic and explained to me that the
mechanic promised to be there in 10 minutes so that we would be on our way
shortly. Half an hour later, the mechanic arrived. (Mechanics, and men's
willingness to believe them, seem to be the same the world over 😊
Something I learned on the drive is that, generally speaking, Bhutan does
not allow the slaughtering of animals within the country, as it is against
the country's Buddhist beliefs. Instead, animals are sent to India to be
slaughtered and are then transported back into Bhutan for further
butchering/sale and eventual consumption. You can tell which vehicles are
used for this purpose by the rivulets of blood beneath the back doors of the
trucks; something my empty stomach was thrilled to learn on the
early-morning drive. (The exception is chickens because, since the first
SARS outbreak, Bhutan has prohibited the import of poultry.) The policy
seems a bit ironic given that most people eat meat, but similarly, fishing
is not allowed in most waterbodies and the zoo in Thimpu was disbanded
several years ago; although they had to turn the area into a sanctuary for
one type of animal that could not reacclimate to the wild and was
disrupting life in the city in its search for food.
The trek that I did was the eight day/seven night Jhomoleri 2 trek, which
means that it starts and ends in Paro, although only the last day of the
walk repeated ground already covered. I traveled with a couple from
Canada, Dan and Laura, and was extremely fortunate in that they were great
travel companions! Our paces were about the same and they've done lots of
camping, plus previous high altitude hiking (including Kilimanjaro and
Everest base camp), so I was able to pick up some good camping tips from
them. (Plus, they were kind enough to tell the travel agency, before meeting
me, that two separate dining tents would not be necessary for the trip; as
they noted, that would have been awkward!) Our group also had a guide,
cook, two assistants and two horse herders for the nine horses. The guide
Kinga was fantastic, and is actually starting his own travel agency (Golden Takin Tours) if anyone will be visiting Bhutan in the future.
The trek involved camping every night, but this was pretty luxurious
camping, as evidenced by the carpet, mattress and pillow that was in each
tent every night. With the exception of the acclimatization day, the walking
usually started around 8-8:30 (I was thrilled that our guide was not much of
a morning person so no more 3:30 starts!) and ended by 3 or 4 p.m. The
first three days consisted of walking through some wonderful forested areas, a
long day of small ups and downs, rarely more than 100 feet each but
accumulating to an ascent of about 2,500 feet by the end of the day, walking
through a beautiful valley surrounded by the "lower" mountain ranges on both
sides, and culminated in our arrival at the mountain's basecamp. From where
we camped, you can only walk a few kilometers further up the mountain as the
peaks in Bhutan are generally closed to climbers due to their religious
significance. (This means that Bhutan has some of the world's highest
unclimbed peaks.)
On the third day, on the way to the basecamp, we passed two army posts, one
for the Indian army, which has about half a dozen men there for 4-6 months
at a time for mountain training, and a Bhutanese site, which has personnel
for checking trekking permits and doing patrols (via hiking) to inspect the
country's borders; apparently China has been encroaching recently. (Earlier
in the trek we passed a side path that leads, after about 1.5 days walk, to
Tibet. It used to be an official trade route but is now used only for
black market activities, with goods transported mainly via ponies and yaks.)
We reached the Indian base about half an hour into the day's walk and were
invited in for tea. Perhaps because our enthusiasm level for the tea was a
little low, or that it was not yet ready, we were first served hot water.
Kinga noted the volleyball net that was set up in front of the small
barracks and we were promptly invited to a game. It was a bit surreal,
relearning how to serve a volleyball at over 10,000 feet from several Indian
soldiers. (I'd forgotten how much that game can hurt; fortunately, I
managed to avoid most contact with the ball after serving it, letting the
others play/uphold the reputation of North America!) After the game, we
were served Indian tea before setting back out. About 15 minutes up the
path was the Bhutanese army camp, where we were invited in for coffee while
our permits were inspected. The captain, who apologized that he had run out
of his supply of biscuits and whiskey, hopefully asked if we played soccer,
but, wise after the volleyball experience, we refrained from expressing excess
enthusiasm about the sport.
While the first three days of the trek had some interesting forest scenery,
and some nice walks along the valley, I thought that the scenery on the
second half of the trek was more interesting, even though we had two cloudy
days where the views were limited. On the
fourth day of the trek, the "rest day," we took a half day side trip up a
surrounding "hill/mountain" for some views down into the valley and across
to the range of mountains opposite us. The larger peaks were mainly clouded
in, but we could see the glacier lake at the base of one of them.
The fifth day of the trek was the hardest; this is when we climbed to the
highest point, a pass at approximately 4,700 meters. In the first part of
the days walk we passed two beautiful lakes (and a less beautiful group of
vultures circling a yak carcass). At one point, we walked across a valley
floor that was shrouded in mist - it was quite "Brigadoonish," and
particularly eery for me as I got there a bit ahead of the others. I opted
to wait before walking through, in part because I wasn't sure where the path
was, in part because there was a lone yak trying to get through the
mud/stream to rejoin its herd and he looked mad and in part because I was plain out
spooked. Starting yesterday, we were often walking through areas that didn't
have a defined trail, which to me was a real sign of how few people visit
this area. From the basecamp, we had seen the last settlement in
the valley (i.e., there were no other permanent homes further into that area
of the country). During the whole trek, we only passed 4 other groups, and
none were on the same route as us. The only other people we passed were yak
herders, who travel seasonally for grazing purposes, setting up temporary
camps along the way. (Bhutan is one of the few countries that allows both
men and women to have multiple spouses, a practice that is
practiced more frequently in the north of the country. This is apparently
because many villages do not have enough space for grazing for all of
the yaks, which, along with limited agricultural production, provide the
only source of income for many people in that area of the country. So women
often have two husbands so that one can travel to grazing areas with
the yaks in the summer while the second stays home to help with the
agricultural work. The fourth king of Bhutan, who just recently stepped
down in favor of his son, but whom many think is still involved in giving
advice, is married to four sisters. I didn't ask, but I wonder if
succession was determined by first born, first born of the eldest, first
born of the "first wife," etc., assuming he even has/had marital relations
with more than one of the sisters. The kings in Bhutan are very respected/revered so this didn't seem like an appropriate question/topic to raise.) We also met a few locals who had
permits to search specified mountain sections for an important/expensive
medicinal herb that grows for a few months each summer. Bhutan hands out
time and area-limited permits for people to collect the plant in an attempt
to maintain a sustainable growth level (a problem highlighted by an article
in today's newspaper in Kathmandu noting that many medicinal plants in Nepal
are coming close to extinction from over-harvesting). While people in
Bhutan may harvest the plant longer than allowed in the permit, if caught,
they are subject to a fine, although I don't know if it is substantial
enough to deter significant over-harvesting.
After passing the lakes on day 5 of the trek, there was a rather substantial
ascent up to the pass. Given that the area was cloudy and cold, we spent
just enough time at the top for a few pictures and moments of
reflection (also known as breath-catching). Then it was time for the descent down.
Happily, as we started down, the views started to open up as we moved out of
the mist and there was some great scenery. There were also a few sections, on both this and the next day's walk, where the travel became extremely narrow, wide enough for one foot only, on loose gravel/sand at the edge of the mountain with a several thousand foot drop down on your side. As my travel companion Dan put it, you were suited for this part of the trek if you enjoy standing at the peak of your roof with your feet overhanging the edge. There were some scary moments! On the plus side, the sweat of terror warmed me up a bit. The remainder of the second half of the trek included some wonderful ridge walking (on OSHA-approvable paths) and a descent through a spectacular forest; in some places, you were walking down to what looked like cliffs in all directions, and only as you got very close did you see the small path down. On the second to last night we camped in a yak grazing field, which meant that, except for late at night when they were gathered in for the night, the tents were literally surrounded by yaks (and the mementos that they left for us to remember them by during late night runs to the bathroom tent).
It rained steadily, and at times heavily, for the last two days of the trek, which was much better than getting that wet at the start of the trek or at the higher/colder altitudes. (And the award for positive outlook went to Laura at this point, who described the water in her boots as a water massage while walking, kind of a bonus for a hiking trip.) The unusual amount of rain was likely due to the weather in India that killed hundreds of people that week. We were much more fortunate. Only small parts of the trail were underwater but all of the bridges were still in place, which was important given that the strength of the river was amazing - as Dan noted, the fact that I am a poor swimmer wouldn't matter if I fell in, even strong ones wouldn't stand much of a chance. The rain was also enough to close the road between Paro and Thimpu for several days, although technically, you could get through after a point but it required changing vehicles several times and walking around landslide areas. Movement during the rainy season here must be extremely difficult.
I ended my stay in Bhutan with a few days in Paro, the city with the country's only airport (and a really short runway given how much height you have to gain quickly to get over the mountains!) My time here included a visit to the National Museum, which has a great collection and is located in a former fort - so you wind your way through the exhibitions with views of the valley below through small weapon windows (i.e., the narrow rectangular windows that you can shoot an arrow or gun through). The town's administrative offices and largest monastery are in a building on the hill below the National Museum that is also open to visitors, and I had a really nice 30 minute or so chat there with a young monk who is in his first years of studies at the monastery. And, perhaps one of the most famous sites in Paro is the Tiger's Nest Monastery - the temple perched on the face of a cliff about 10,000 feet high. You walk approximately two hours to reach the monastery, mostly on a path through the woods but including descending and ascending several hundred stone stairs that are carved into the cliff face - clutch the side! I also was able to visit one of the oldest temples in Bhutan, built in about the 600s, it was one of 108 built in a single day by the then ruler in order to pin down a demoness.
The flight back to Kathmandu from Paro included some spectacular mountain views, however, Mount Everest was clouded over on the day that I flew. So, given that the lazy version of seeing Mount Everest didn't work out, my next excursion, starting in a few days, will be a trek to Mount Everest base camp The trekking on this trip may have started a little late, but now its coming fast and furious; well, more like slow and almost-steady with achy knees, but you get the point.
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Bob Cammett
non-member comment
Bhutan
I saw,on television,were Bhutan is considered,one of the new world wonders. The palace and environs. Did you feel as if: You'd found Shangri-La. Stay well. Your Friend, Bob