Recent reviews Bhutan
[koshkha, 08/10/2010] The ancient art of "bows-and-arrows" is the National Sport of Bhutan and is the most common way for young men-folk to pass a Sunday afternoon. I did wonder if archery had grown from a history of hunting small furry critters for food but I was wrong. Archery is not about food, it's about war - shooting at invading Tibetan armies or fighting with your neighbours. In a country with mountainous terrain many of the usual forms or warfare have limited use and so archery remained an effective form of warfare long after the rest of the world had moved on to guns and missiles.
On any Sunday afternoon
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[Mort, 10/02/2010] To arrive in wonder at the beautiful Paro Valley in Bhutan after a breathtaking descent by Druk Air was just a prelude to our wonderful vacation at the charming Rinchen Ling Lodge north of Paro! The host's welcome was so warm, and the gracious staff soon had us sipping butter tea and awaiting our first delicious meal!
Having traveled to Bhutan from the US for my nephew's 50th birthday, the six of us (two other nephews, my daughter and my sister-in-law) immediately became completely comfortable at the Lodge, which was to be our home base for 6 days in late April, 2004. The large rooms
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[koshkha, 13/03/2009] The Zangto Pelri was my favourite of the three hotels we stayed in during our tour of Bhutan and I really enjoyed the two days that we spent there. It's located a few miles outside Punakha, the city that was the historic capital of Bhutan before the fourth king moved the capital to Thimphu.
We arrived by car from Thimphu after a nauseating drive up winding roads and over the Dochu La Pass - a place with fabulous views of the Himalaya and a good place to stop and top-up on your travel sickness tablets.
With stops for photos and cups of tea, the journey was about three hours and as we pull
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[koshkha, 08/03/2009] In major cities there's often a particular church, mosque or other place of worship that serves as a magnet to the worship and devotion of the locals. In the case of Thimphu, it's the National Memorial Chorten (NMC) that attracts worshippers more than any of the many temples. The problem with Bhutanese temples is they are all too often stuck way up on top of hills with a long climb to get to them. It's not as if you could just pop in for a couple of prayers and a blessing in your lunch break. Instead, the NMC is right in the town center and is easy for people to drop in and visit.
It's a ro
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[koshkha, 07/03/2009] After our rather uninspiring visit to the television tower, we were excited to learn that Mothithang hill held yet another great visitor attraction. It's the Takin Preserve, possibly the world's lamest animal experience but also a bit of a giggle.
Thimphu used to have a small zoo focusing on local wildlife until the Fourth King decided that such a place wasn't really in keeping with Buddhist principles. So the zoo was closed and rather than taking the critters off to a field in the middle of nowhere and sending them on their way, it seems they just opened the gates and let them out. After
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[koshkha, 07/03/2009] The centre of Thimphu town lies in a flat river valley but you can't go far before you hit the hills again. And as you might expect for any city with hills, there's always a favourite viewpoint where tourists go to look down on the town. On our first day in Thimphu we were told that we could get a good sense of the lay of the land by going up to the Sangaygang Transmission Tower which provides the city with the Bhutanese Broadcasting Service's programming and can be found in the Mothithang district of the city.
Our driver set off to wind up the hairpins, climbing to a final elevation 2865m
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[koshkha, 07/03/2009] There are lots of things to see and do in Thimphu but visiting the National Library is one stop you can easily miss without your trip being any the poorer. I think it's a fair guess that most visitors dont open their guidebook and think "Wow, I must make sure not to miss going to the library" whereas the companies who organise tours are probably rubbing their hands together at the thought of somewhere they can take you that won't cost a penny.
To be honest, from the moment we stepped through the doors of the old library building until we left the new library, I was puzzled about what the po
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[koshkha, 16/02/2009] The River View is one of the best hotels in Thimphu - it must be, my guide book said so. It's not one of the most expensive - apparently that accolade goes to the Taj Trashi which is still being built and is said to be likely to cost about $1000 a night. But who needs that much ostentation on their holiday? Not me. Actually despite being good enough for the Lonely Planet to know about it, I have to be honest and say that I don't think the hotel's as good as it thinks it is. However it's in a country where no hotel really needs to try very hard. You can only go to Bhutan as part of an organised
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[koshkha, 30/01/2009] I don't think that Dungtse Temple was supposed to be on our itinerary for Paro so we were lucky to get to see it as a quick 'fill-in' for an already very busy day. Bhutanese tourism isn't known for its flexibility - in fact it's so regimented that there are military campaigns and major government initiatives which require less paperwork and forward planning than a day out in Bhutan. I believe we went because the National Museum was closed due to us inconveniently arriving on the wrong day of the week. And since our guide Rinzin seemed to have magic powers and access to a photocopier for creati
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[koshkha, 27/01/2009] Toward the end of our first full day in Bhutan I was feeling a little bit flat. I'd wanted to visit the country for 12 years, ever since someone I'd met in India had told me it was their favourite place in the world. It took a while to get there because it's such an expensive place to visit and quite difficult to get to. With such a massive mental build-up the reality seemed almost sure to fall short of the dream. There was nothing actually wrong with what we'd seen and done, indeed it was all very lovely, but there was a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that it wasn't quite what I'd exp
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[koshkha, 24/01/2009] For most visitors to Bhutan, Paro Dzong will be either the first or the last dzong that they visit in the country. This is due to it's proximity to Paro Airport, the country's only air-link with the outside world. For us it was the first dzong and one to remember. As our plane landed and taxied along the runway my eyes swivelled to hunt out the big white block on the hillside which I knew from my pre-trip research would be the dzong.
The concept of a dzong is an unusual blend of the sacred and the secular and something that's found in Himalayan Buddhist communities but is most characteristi
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[koshkha, 01/01/2009] Bhutan's National Museum is located not in the capital city of Thimphu, but in the second city of Paro. It's located in a round building which started life as the watchtower for Paro Dzong, the fortress-monastery that sits below it on the hillside on the outskirts of Paro. It was built in 1641 and converted into the National Museum in 1968. Normally the museum would be visited on the same day as the Dzong, but our first day in town was a Monday and the museum is closed that day. Consequently our visit was taken after climbing to see the Tiger's Nest monastery and before leaving for Thimphu.
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[koshkha, 30/12/2008] Kyichu Lhakhang - or Kyichu Temple - is one of the most significant temples in the Paro area and can be found about 4 km outside the town. Legend says that Bhutan and much of the Himalaya range had been besieged by a giant ogress who was lying across the area to prevent the spread of Buddhism. In the 7th Century the Tibetan king gave orders to his people to build temples at key points on the ogress's body to sap her evil powers and Kyichu was believed to be the location of her left foot. You have to admit, it's a pretty good story and not a bad reason for a bout of temple building. In total 10
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[koshkha, 29/12/2008] The Weekend Market in Bhutan's capital city, Thimphu, takes place every weekend, starting on Friday evening and running through to late afternoon on the Sunday. It draws traders from all across this Himalayan kingdom, many of whom will travel several days by public bus on poor roads, up and down mountain passes just to get there and then several days to get home again.
The market is located close to the city's river in an area bordered by Chogyal Lam and Kuendey Lam and is well known locally for providing the best and freshest goods in the city. However, it must be stressed that this is mos
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[koshkha, 29/12/2008] The 108 chortens at Dorchula pass in Bhutan are one of the strangest and most unusual monuments that I have ever seen.
In 2003, the fourth King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, led his troops into battle against Assamese separatists who were using land in southern Bhutan to launch raids against targets in India. It was the first time that his country had been involved in military conflict for more than a century and went very much against the country's peaceful Buddhist principles. One of the king's wives, Queen Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuk, picked Dochu La as the location for a set of memo
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[koshkha, 29/12/2008] The temple the overlooks Dochula pass on the road from Thimphu to Punakha was opened very recently and at the time we visited, still had no official name. Our guide suggested that it might be given one when the 5th king was crowned in November but I've not been able to confirm that. However, if you ask for it as the Dochula temple, I think anyone will know which place you mean.
We had left our hotel in Thimphu after a rather bland breakfast and had stupidly not thought about what lay ahead of us. Getting anywhere in Bhutan by road is an arduous business and within 30 minutes of leaving the
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[koshkha, 30/11/2008] To go to Bhutan and not see the Tiger's Nest would be like going to Agra and not bothering to see the Taj Mahal or missing the Eifel Tower on your first visit to Paris. If one image symbolises the exotic, mysterious and timeless nature of Bhutan, it's surely the Tiger's Nest or, to give it its more formal name, the Thaktshang Monastery. Clinging precariously to the side of an almost sheer rock face, more than 900 meters above the valley floor, this is the must-see attraction of all must-see attractions. However, there's one big difference between the Tiger's Nest and most iconic attractions: i
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[koshkha, 29/11/2008] Many of the attractions we saw in Thimphu during our trip to Bhutan didn't really excite or interest me as much as they perhaps should have done. However I really enjoyed the National Folk Museum and thought it was probably the best museum we saw in the country. What I particularly enjoyed was the opportunity to see inside an authentic old Bhutanese house and get a picture of how people lived 100 years ago, and indeed how many people still live today especially in the countryside.
The highlight of the Folk Museum is the farmhouse. It's over a hundred years old - which isn't THAT old by Eur
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[koshkha, 29/11/2008] "Would you like to see the paper factory?" our guide asked us as we wandered around the sites of Thimphu. He'd clearly realised that all his attempts to explain to us what sort of plants were used to make paper were failing desperately. "It's made from Daphne" he said and we looked at him vaguely, with absolutely no idea what or who Daphne was. He tried and failed to explain and eventually realised that, unlike more horticulturally savvy guests, he'd got a pair of dodos with us. We were clueless.
And so, heading back to our hotel, the River View, we pulled off the main road and scuttled up
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[koshkha, 23/11/2008] The Rinchen Ling Lodge was the first of three hotels we used during our trip and was both the most basic and the most friendly hotel we stayed at. We landed at Paro airport mid-afternoon and were taken to the hotel after stopping off to watch some archery and stroll around the town centre. The Lodge is about 4 or 5 km outside the town and at first I was a bit disappointed to hear we wouldn't be staying more centrally. There wasn't anything around the hotel and it was a bit isolated but the setting was beautiful, nestled amongst fields in the shadow of tree-covered mountains.
On arrival our
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