Paro, Bhutan

The flight to Paro departed at 6:50am from Bangkok so we had a wake up call at 3:30am (ugh). The traffic was pretty good at 4am though.

We flew on Druk Air, one of the few airlines with pilots licensed to land at Paro. It's a difficult approach through Paro Valley to the airport.

The flight stopped down first in Kolkata, where half the passengers turned over. I was surprised that that many people boarded, but then remembered that India was one of the regional countries that didn't pay the high visa fees.

For the rest of the world, Bhutan charges about $250 USD per person per day. (I say 'about' cause there's discounts for offseason and premiums for smaller groups). However that includes everything - hotel, guides, food, trekking, everything. You don't need to bring money - but it's useful for souvenirs, tipping, and beer. (It's like an all-inclusive cruise, except reasonable prices for drinks). Each group also gets a guide assigned for the whole trip - something I wasn't too keen on prior, but it's mandatory. The visa fees include a mid-range hotel, but it's possible to upgrade if you want (we did for a couple nights).

Anyways I had booked through Bhutan Travel Club (BTC) way back in June, based on reviews in tripadvisor. It's a little disconcerting sending bank drafts based on email correspondence, but the internet said BTC was good and if you can't trust the internet who can you trust.

Anyways so we had a nice view of the Himalayas on the flight to Paro, seated on the left side per advice from BTC. Maybe we saw Everest, I took some pics that we tried to match up in Google, but the peaks look different depending on your point of reference.

It was really quick through immigration (they didn't even look at the print out of our visas - we must have been on a list), picked up our luggage (our packs were now very large because of the addition of winter clothes), and met our tour guide, Yeshey, who was waiting with a 'Heather / Eric Paul' sign.

Our driver (we have a driver for the full trip too) whisked us off to the Gangtley Palace in Paro, about a 10 minute drive. The hotel was originally a palace that's now converted to a hotel. Our room had a lot of character, and a great view of the Paro Dzong across the valley.

We had lunch in a local restaurant, served family style. The rice here is a red rice, probably much healthier than white rice. Chilies are very much part of the diet on Bhutan, but for tourists they make dishes non-spicy. I tried the one chili dish, and it was very hot.

It felt like dinner cause we were up so early, but we still had an afternoon of sightseeing. Went to the National Museum and then to Paro Dzong. Our guide was excellent. Not enough to switch me over to having a guide everywhere, but if it's mandatory to have a guide, he's the kind of guide I would want.

The Dzong (fortress) was really cool. You have to see Dzongs in person - pics don't really capture the feel. Apparently the Paro Dzong was where 'The Little Buddha' was filmed, for those Keanu Reeve fans out there.

We could have done some more touristing before dinner but we were beat, so rested up for a couple hours in our room. Dinner was good, the restaurant had nice panoramic views of the valley. Watched the moon rise over the far hills. It rose so fast that I didn't have time to get my camera.

...

We were up early for breakfast, excited cause today we were going to see Tiger's Nest Monastery (Taktshang Goemba). Heather's wanted to see Tiger's Nest for a long time, even before it starting showing up on lists when you google cool places to see.

Our driver and guide picked us up at 8am and we drove to the start point of the trek up, about 30 minutes west from Paro. Unlike other sites that you trek to, you can actually see the final destination from the start point.

It took us just under two hours (including a stop for tea and cookies at the restaurant at the halfway point, with nice views of Tiger's Nest). There's a few viewpoints along the way to take pics. The last part now has proper steps and a railing, so it's not a dangerous walk at all.

Tiger's Nest was really cool to see, and got better the closer we got.

At the entrance you have to check your bags and cameras, and there's a security pat-down. It's a very holy site for Bhuddists. As with Myanmar you have to remove your shoes, but in Bhutan you can keep your socks on. Good thing too, cause it was pretty cold inside.

The inside is a series of connected structures, a mix between inside and outside (so the temperature throughout is the outside temperature). There are eight temples inside, of which we visited four. Our guide gave us the history of each as we visited. I was starting to shiver near the end cause my feet were cold (if you remember we had just climbed from 2500 to 3100m).

We had lunch at the restaurant half way down, so had lots more time to look at the view.

We then drove to a couple more sites: the oldest Dzong in Paro and a fortress ruin which looked like a castle.

We had a traditional hot stone bath before dinner which felt great (we had been fairly inactive over the past few days so we were a bit sore from today's little trek).

Had a couple beers (Red Panda, a weiss beer) with dinner to celebrate seeing Tiger's Nest. It was cloudy so we didn't see the moon rise - I had brought my camera this time just in case.