Bhutan Day 2: A Trip To Know More About Bhutan

It was a very good and comfort sleep for us last night. We still unable to believe that we woke up in another new country. Yesterday morning we woke up in Kathmandu of Nepal, and this morning, we woke up in the Kingdom of Bhutan. Wondering where will we wake up to on the next morning? Perhaps, another new country again. What an early daydreaming I should say.

#1: All hotels booked for us come with complimentary breakfast.

While waiting for our tour guide to pick us up from the hotel, we went out and explored within vicinity on our own first. Our hotel ideally sits in the heart of business and shopping district of Thimphu and the most interesting sight that caught our attention is where the policeman stood in the booth on intersection using hand signals to direct traffic. Only to find out from our tour guide that Bhutan is one of the two countries in the world that doesn't have any traffic lights in its capital city. 

#2: Thimphu's traffic booth cause Bhutan is said to be one of only two countries in the world without any traffic lights in its capital city.

Our tour guide and the driver came to pick us up from the hotel at the agreed time. It seems like almost all Bhutanese are always dress up in their traditional clothing made from Bhutanese textiles. Earlier on when we went out on our own, hardly for us to see any of the local wearing T-shirts and jeans. Majority of the men are wearing gho, a long robe which similar to the Tibetan chuba. This applies to our tour guide and driver too. Whereas for the ladies, they wear a long floor-length dress known as kira. You will get to see these traditional clothing in this particular post.

National Memorial Chorten 
Also known as Thimphu Chorten or Memorial Stupa, it is one of the tallest monuments in the capital city of Bhutan. Built in 1974 by Her Majesty, Queen Phuntsho Choden Wangchuck in honour of Her Royal Son the Third Druk Gyalpho, King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck. He was the third king of Bhutan and the father of modern Bhutan. Due to its elegant and stunning architecture, this whitewashed stupa with its golden spires and bells attracts a large number of tourists to visit here and making it to be a prominent landmark in the city.

#3: National Memorial Chorten

#4: Built in honour the third king of Bhutan and also the father of modern Bhutan


#5: Chorten is an ideal place that would give you an insight into Buddhism through its great artwork

Great Buddha Dordenma

We then were brought to atop on a hill of Thimpu to visit the Great Buddha Dordenma. By the time we arrived there, we can see that some of the area haven't completely complete yet but glad that the 51m-tall and gigantic steel of Shakyamuni Buddha statue was fully built. According to our guide, once it is completed, it will be one of the largest statues of Buddha in the world. 

#6: Great Buddha Dordenma, built on top of Thimphu hills


#7: A photo with our tour guide. And he's wearing gho which I mentioned earlier. 

For the following visit, both of our tour guide and driver brought us to few places around Thimphu in order for us to understand and know more about the nation's culture, history and tradition too. 

#8: Centenary Farmers Market - the largest domestic market for farmers. The market is open all days of the week, from 7am to 7pm except Mondays.

Built in two-storey with more than 400 stalls, Centenary Farmers Market provides farmers the opportunity to displace their produce and people a chance to support the local agriculture. While most vegetables in the market are seasonal, the dried chilies are the only permanent produce throughout the year. Therefore, in almost all the restaurants and eateries, you will get to see lots of chilies on their food. Another fun fact of Bhutan is that besides chilies, Bhutanese love to eat rice and cheese. So while venturing around the market, we saw a wide variety of rice. 

#9: Archery in Bhutan is the national sport of the Kingdom.

Frankly speaking, I'm not really into museum but it's not harm to visit at least one when in Bhutan. Our tour continued by visiting Simply Bhutan - an interactive living museum resembling a Bhutanese village, featuring traditional cuisines, performances and cultures. We're greeted and served with a shot of rice wine which they produced and harvest locally (unfortunately we declined cause both of us don't drink) and then, we're given opportunity to dress in their traditional costume. I can say this is one of the activities I always looking forward when visiting a new country. 

#10: Simply Bhutan - a living museum to give a quick introduction to various aspects of traditional life in Bhutan. 

#11: Dressed up in traditional costume

We continued by going to Motithang Takin Preserve. And wondering what's Takin? Takin is the national animal of Bhutan. We were lucky to spot two or three takins during our visit and to our surprise, takins are indeed one interesting creature we ever came across. They have interesting and fascinating features where it's combination of goad's head with cow's body. Now I understood why the Bhutanese is proud with this animal. 

#12: Takin, the national animal of Bhutan. It's the combination of goat's head with cow's body. Only can be found in Eastern Himalayas.

Before our tour guide and driver dropped us back to the hotel, we were brought for a short hike in order to train us and also a little bit of stretching and warming up before getting ready for a relatively hard and tough  hike on the next day. Can you guess where is our next destination to hike up? 

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From Nepal To Bhutan (Bhutan Day 1)

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We're supposed to go back to Malaysia after spending 8 days in Nepal, however, one of my friends and I intended to prolong our trip. We decided to visit Bhutan from Kathmandu. For your information, the only way to get into Bhutan is either flying from Singapore, Bangkok in Thailand, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai in India, Dhaka in Bangladesh and Kathmandu in Nepal. Since we're already in Kathmandu, my friend and I were thinking, "Why not extend our trip to Bhutan instead?" So here we are, our impromptu trip to Bhutan from Nepal.   

Not that really impromptu anywhere, as both of us did preparation earlier such apply for Bhutan's visa and tour arrangement prior to our trip to Kathmandu. And because of this, immediately we changed our flight ticket for the route from Kathmandu back to Kuala Lumpur and luckily for us, the additional charge for changing flight only cost each of us RM200. Consider fairly affordable cause if I'm not mistaken, we changed our flight 2 months before flying to Kathmandu.  

Since our flight to Bhutan were quite early, we bid goodbye to the rest of my friends who will catching their flight back to Malaysia in the evening. The ride from where we stayed in Kathmandu which is Thamel to Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport wasn't that really long - the journey was approximately 20 minutes.

#1: Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport - It's not that really huge but at least my friend and I managed to find a seat. 

Now let's talk about Bhutan. How many of you ever heard of Bhutan before? Neither do I, not until Juno from Runaway Juno, a Korean avid traveller where I met in Kota Kinabalu and she passionately shared about her travel adventures and experienced around Bhutan. Since then, I was so intrigued to know more about Bhutan. She even so kind to help me to get information and introduced me to Bhutan local licensed tour operator. Do take note that all foreign visitors must book their trips through a local licensed tour operator and each visitor is required to pay minimum daily tariff (USD200-250 per person per night). Only those visitors who hold passport from India, Bangladesh or Maldives, they are exempted from applying travel visa nor sign up for a tour to visit Bhutan. I will share more about the total cost we paid in order to get to Bhutan as well as the local licensed tour operator I engaged with by end of this travelogue.

#2: All foreign visitors must book their trips through a local licensed tour operator and apply visa before entering Bhutan. 

Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan is a landlocked country between Tibet and India. Geopolitically sits in South Asia, Bhutan is consider to be one of the least visited countries due to the hefty tag of daily tariff imposed to the visitors. Honestly speaking, it's one of the most expensive country I've visited so far, but by end of the trip, I never regret with my decision to visit this stunning and unique country, in both culturally and enviromentally.


#3: The flight from Kathmandu to Paro. Never got bored with this Himalayan mountain view.

Paro International Airport is the main airport of Bhutan. It is served by two airlines; Druk Air which we flew with is the government-run carrier and private airlines of Bhutan Airlines. Airline schedules change at least twice per year. Hence, it's best to check from your respective local licened tour operator for the latest update schedule.

#4: We flew with Druk Air, the country's flag carrier. In Bhutan, Druk indicates the mythical thunder dragon and it is the important symbol of Bhutanese culture. It's pretty obvious as you can see this huge Druk symbol reflected on the plane.


#5: Paro International Airport. The first thing I noticed when I arrived Bhutan: Just like the Thais, the Drukpas love their king and queen so much. Such a handsome king and beautiful queen.

Our flight from Kathmandu was actually delayed for few hours due to the adverse weather conditions. However, both of our tour guide and driver patiently waiting for us at the airport. When we came out from the arrival hall after went through the short immigration clearance and collecting our luggage, we were welcomed by a very young and fairly tall gentleman holding a card with our name on it. Just because the tour only consists my friend and I, we thought they will use a small and compact car throughout the trip but turned out, they drove a SUV type vehicle. And the car seems pretty new too. Impressive and excellent service! Regarding language in Bhutan, the country's national language is Dzongkha, a sino-Tibetan language spoken by more than half a million people in Bhutan but fret not, they are well-versed in English cause English is their second language and was thought in school.


#6: A brief stop for photo opportunity before heading to Thimphu.


#7: The untouched nature - that's what make Bhutan so unique and special.

Due to our flight delayed, we unable to visit few of the attractions which had been planned earlier. The only tourist spot we managed to cover is Tashichho Dzong, a Buddhist monastery and fortress on the northern edge of the city of Thimphu. Unfortunately, we're only allowed to take photos from outside cause it's closed to public from visiting the inside of the building.


#8: The Utse, or Central Tower of Tashichho Dzong.


#9: A lovely manicured rose garden in front of the building welcomes the visitors to the fortress.


#10: The main structure of the whitewashed building is two-storied with three-storied towers at each of the four corners topped by triple-tiered golden roofs.


#11

Besides serves as a monastery, Tashichho Dzong is also a central secretariat of the present government. It has been the seat of Bhutan's government for more than 50 years. It presently houses the throne room and offices of the king, the cabinet secretariat and the ministries of home affairs and finance. During our visit there, something out of our expectation occurred. A long and exclusive black car passed through us and our tour guide required us to bow. Only to find out that their beloved Royal King was inside the car. What a lucky day on our first day in Bhutan!

Talking about Bhutanese food, I barely remember what was the first meal we had there. And wondering why I didn't take photo of it. But at least, I managed to take photos of the hotel we stayed in Bhutan and it was totally exceeded our expectations.


#12: Hotel Pedling in Thimphu


#13: Our stay in Bhutan was totally exceeded our expectations. 

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