High passes to Bumthang

Our road onto the east of Bhutan was a long (time wise) & bumpy one. The destination Jakar, in the district of Bumthang.

This took us for the most part alongside a river on the valley floor for much of the journey, which with it's white water helps make sense of Bhutan's number one industry; hydroelectric. With current usage at around a third of the output India is the main customer and we saw a number of projects in progress that will help the targeted tenfold increase in output. Incidentally tourism is number 2 and agriculture number 3.

Trongsa Dzong

The passes were marked by a stupour and prayer flags but at 3,100 & 3,400m respectively they were shrouded in cloud so any view of the Himalayas was denied. 

High lama, Trongsa Dzong

The main point of interest along the way was the Trongsa Dzong which is the longest in the country. We were very lucky to time our stop with the visit of a high lama from Ladakh, who seemed to be enjoying himself posing with some monk friends around a big tree & taking some photos on his smartphone  before driving off with his entourage in a fleet of 4x4 BMWs & Toyatas. 

Trongsa Dzong 

Our morning sightseeing in Jakar was delayed by another high lama; a number of people were lining the streets & an entire school queued up to receive a blessing.  This essentially meant the lama

Blessing from the lama

tapping people on the head from through the car window looking a bit disinterested, at one point even continuing while taking a call on his mobile.  Once the final P.E. class had completed their walk past we were able to get back on the road and start our morning of Buddhist related architecture.

Drums, Kurje Lhakhang

First up Kurje Lhakhang monastery, comprising 3 separate temples, the oldest dating from the 17th century.  Then onto Jambay Lhakhangonastery where we again crossed paths with yesterday's lama from Ladakh at a place considered one of the holiest temples in the country.

blessings continue

Walking past the apple orchards one kind lady offered a free sample

apple orchards

We round off the morning with a visit to Tamshing Lhakhang monastery, where again our luck is in as the monks are rehearsing a dance routine.  It's not quite SClub7 a little more low key with a bit of clapping & leaping

Tamshing Lhakhang

After another routine buffet lunch we head for the burning lake, so called after a tale of treasure being discovered by a chap taking an oil light to the bottom of the lake and bringing it back up, along with the treasure, still lit. In fact there's not a lot to see here other than a friendly monk who has devoted the last few years chanting mantras in the same spot.

monk at the burning lake

Driving to Punakha

Another bus day as we take the road to Punakha. Luckily it's a festival day which means there is no 2hr daily road closure for widening works 

Dolchula pass

It's maybe an hour or so out of Thimphu before reach Dulcha pass, home of 108 stupours, and theoretically great views of the himlayas - cloud cover means I will never know.

Darts

The other bonus of festival day is seeing the traditional sports being played. The main sport of the nation is archery, but archery not as you know it - these guys are shooting at tiny targets about 150m away.  An extension of this is a big dart where the competitors hurl a thick metal lethal weapon at a unfeasibly small target around 50m away, I'm guessing it's the opposition that stand around the target seemingly with no regard for their own personal safety.  On the rare occasion a dart finds the target everyone joins in a ritual song and dance, circulating around the target & waving their feet.


Punakha is the old capital, and (surprise, surprise) There's another dzong to visit.  This one is situated where two rivers meet and is certainly the most impressive

Punakha Dzong

Punakha Dzong

Fortunately, as it transpires, the Dzong is closed and we have some time to fill so can visit the nearby suspension bridge.  It reminds me of the bridge in my village in Borneo, although twice as long but twice as sturdy.  We have time to chase some butterflies & meet a monk with an umbrella given to him by the queen before returning to visit the dxong.

suspension bridge

a common building decoration

Time to cram some more attractions into the afternoon with a visit to the Chimi L'hakhang temple, a temple dedicated to the divine madman; lonely planet tells us this lama slept with his hosts wives and tied a blessing around his penis rather than hang it around his neck. It is to this saint that the numerous painted phallus that adorn peoples houses are attributed, as a sign to drive away the evil eye. We walk across the paddy fields & up a hill to find the monastery, past further festival celebrations.

Within the monastery itself Gino receives a ticking off from a solemn monk for handling the large wooden phallus, he hands it over and then receive a blessing  in the form of being tapped on the head with this object.  Outside however it's nearly the end of the day & a number of younger monks are having a kick around, football seems to be very big here amongst the boys I've met, a number of them know premier league teams and players and several claim they will be representing their country in a few years That may not be such a difficult thing to do for a team that is rock bottom at 208 in the FIFA world rankings - quite an achievement given there are less than 200 countries in the world.  There is also a game of darts going on & I get to have a go & am happy to report no monks were killed in this game.

football time

Hiking to the Tigers nest

Tigers nest, Bhutan

Possibly the most recognisable building in Bhutan, Taktsang Palphug monastery (commonly known as tigers nest) is the poster boy for all tourism brochures. Perched on the side of the cliff at 3,100m it's a 2hour walk for us up into the clouds. We are the only bus in the car park as we set out at 7am, which is a good thing as we miss the rest of the crowds, some just starting as we are heading away for lunch. Security at the top is tight with a full body search - the only place we come across such thing.

Tigers nest, Bhutan

We are fortunate that the clouds part as we near the monastery, photos of clouds would have been a big disappointment. The monastery itself was rebuilt in 98 after (surprise, surprise) a fire. It's actually difficult to tell its so new and with a ban on photography there will be no photos from any of the monasteries. A similar scene however are the various offerings of food and money; cash is generally very low value notes 1 or 10 BHR (equivalent to 1p or 10p), the food either fruit or packaged goods such as crisps, biscuits & even 2 minute instant noodles. The number of water bowls various from place to place depending on the auspicious number 7 or 8 is common but it can be considerably more. Auspicious is a common theme with auspicious days & auspicious numbers.  

wood carving

From Paro it's a 90 minute drive to the capital city if Thimpu. It's one of, if not the quietest capital cities you might ever find. The only dual carriageway in the country runs through here, but it's full of speed bumps, although this seems unnecessary for the low volume of traffic. For a country of only 700,000 people it is never going to have the biggest capital, but this place is just so peaceful.

After another buffet lunch first stop is the School of Traditional Arts.  Here the students are all in classes replicating the same thing, for example all carving the same relief or sculpting the same figure.  There is also silver work, painting, sewing with much of it taking place unsupervised with us, the tourists wandering in & out & taking photos.

Memorial Chorten

We visit The Memorial Chorten, around which there is a constant stream of devotees circulating, ranging from old men with prayer beads to school children. 
In the evening Jim & I venture beyond the confines of the hotel to find the capital nightlife on a Monday night.  First stop the 'winners pub'. Unfortunately there aren't too many winners in Thimpu, so there's 5 people on the sofa singing karaoke but we get to learn more about the tourist industry from a local reeking guide. Then onto 'Om bar' which is only slightly more populated and has a full sized snooker table.  After knocking some balls around the table for a while it's clear that Bhutan's snooker players are probably about as good as their footballers.

Thimpu

Dodging the rain in Paro

Bhutan tour bus

We leave Darjeeling in our mini convey of 3 jeeps in what should have been the last journey before picking up the truck in Siliguri. Unfortunately a landslide in Nepal blocked the road to Kathmandu on 2nd Aug & there is no sign of the road being reopened any time soon. This means we will be the first overland trip to Bhutan - but without a truck. So instead, we'll be taking a variety of different buses, at least one per country.

And so, after overnighting in Siliguri, we make our way into Bhutan at Phontsholing. 

Not much to say about Phontsholing, other than we are definitely not in India anymore. Having cleared immigration earlier than planned there is plenty of time to see the 2 streets and little temple. Apart from the peace & quiet the buildings are very distinctive with painted designs adorning all the houses, shop fronts and even petrol station. 

Bhutan petrol station

We leave for Paro in the morning driving through the green & mountains backdrop, Bhutan has a law to keep at least 69% land forested. We are accompanied by dawja, our local guide and Karma, our driver. It later transpires that Karma's regular job is driving for the treasury minister, one of 11 cabinet posts in the fairly new parliamentary system. Bhutan's 4th king put in place a the present constitution with a democratically elected government, which was agreed in 2005 & started in 2008, after he had abdicated in favour of his son (unsurprisingly known as the 5th king).

Paro watch tower

Our first stop is to see the international airport. Not the most exciting stop, but it's the only one in the country and Dawja at least seems proud of it. The real sightseeing starts at the national museum, the contents of which have been relocated due to fire damaging the original building.  Fire is also a recurring theme as across the country we see burnt out buildings, primarily as a result of the preponderance of using butter lamps in the monasteries.


The rain starts on the evening of day 1 and doesn't really stop for a further 24nrs.  This requires a last minute change of plan as trekking to the tigers nest is considered too dangerous. Instead we head for the Sunday market and the to Paro Dzong. 

Paro market

Dzongs are a large building or series of buildings housing the administrative bodies for the region (town) and a monastery. Originally built as fortresses they have a distinct architectural style making them easily recognisable. 

Paro Dzong

Drinking Tea in Darjeeling

Arriving into Siliguri in the morning the sun is already doing its best to keep reminding us we're in India. Jeeps are already waiting to take us to the cooler climbes of Darjeeling. It takes a few hours to wend up the mountain paths to the centre of town. Initial impressions are of a sprawling city cutting an ugly scar into the hillside. In retrospect it is quite a nice compact town. The bakery is the first port of call for a late lunch & of course a cup of tea.

Japanese pace pagoda, Darjeeling

The afternoon sightseeing activity comprises a walk to the Japanese peace pagoda. This is extended a little by an unintended detour as its still somehow possible to hide a temple on a hill. We time our visit well as the monks come out to perform a couple of laps of the pagoda & then into the monastery for some chanting. We also enter the temple & there are spare drums to join in which is a replaxing activity apart from my low tolerance to kneeling for any length of time.

knitting

The next morning the whole group walks out to the Tibetan refugee self help centre. A community project that began in 1959 and is full of, mainly old, Tibetans producing hand crafted goods.  The full range of the wool process can be seen, from spinning, to dying, knitting and carpet weaving, alongside leather goods and painting.

Next up, a visit to the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, which for no obvious reason is situated within the zoo & entry requires you to also buy a ticket for the zoo.  Here lie the remains of Tenzig Norgay, the first man up everest with Hilary plus a selection of gear from various expeditions in the past 60 years - those pioneers really were in a different league.

Snow Leopard, Darjeeling zoo

The zoo specialises in animals of the region, & with a number of different big cats it is a strange mix of excitement to see such amazing animals as the snow leopard & clouded leopard & hypocrisay at supporting an institution where these creatures are restricted to a fraction of their normal habitat.

Kachenjunga from Tiger Hill

Starting at 4 am the next day to get to Tiger Hill for sunrise & a view of the Himalayas, in particular the worlds 3rd highest peak of Kachenjunga.  Luck is on our side as the few clouds that linger by the time we leave at 6 have cleared by the viewpoint on the return journey.
There is still time to fit in a trip to Happy Valley tea plantation to see the process of the hand picked tea leaves being dried, sorted and packaged for export - Happy Valley provide all their tea to Germany, Japan & the UK (exclusively to Harrods)

1st pick, 2nd pick & blend Tea, Happy Valley Darjeeling

Sweltering in Kolkata

Kolkata, located in the Southern tip of West Bengal, Northern India, the gateway to the next adventure.

Kolkata streets

Stepping off the plane after a short hop (2.5 hr) from Bangalore the increased temperature and humidity was instantly obvious. 

With a prepaid slip in hand (£2.75) I joined the queue for the massed ranks of classic yellow cabs and ended up in a little white Nissan for the hour long journey into town. Most of this hour was the final 2km navigating the blaring horns and gridlock of the city centre streets. 

Wandering the streets was a discovery of old colonial buildings in various states of disrepair. When the rain started I ducked into the Indian museum, a rather grand building although I was to later discover, the cause of some resentment locally due to the amount if money spent on it. 

Victoria monument

I made it to the Victoria monument just as it was closing but persuaded the chap on the gate to let me in for a quick photo and returned the next day to walk the gardens properly. By just wandering down the wrong path I came through the workers residences, a rather grand word to describe the incredibly basic living conditions of what looked more like a series of concrete cells in stark contrast to the extravagance and cleanliness of the neighbouring white marble edifice. 

market trader shaving

An afternoon stroll along the banks of the Hooghly river brought some respite from the busy city streets, past a succession of bathing ghats. 

Ultimate destination was the 24-7 flower market beneath Howrah bridge. A photographers dream
location with the colours & characters of the market. I also met a local chap particularly keen to show me the burning ghats. This of course being the location for cremating your dead, sure enough the was plenty of action, with a head and set of feet sticking out either side of a 6ft pyre, one fire just finishing & another body on the side awaiting their turn. I declined the opportunity to wait & see the stomach explode but learnt the cost is around £200, compared to £500 for an electric cremation - I can't validate the source of my information but it sounds very expensive for a country in which you can eat a good meal for less than £1. 

Sunday night I met a couple of my tour group for food & drinks on the 9th floor of a hotel to watch night fall

South Park Cemetery

Monday morning, after a group meeting & some paperwork completed there was time for some further sightseeing. First stop the South Park Cemetery, no sign of Kenny however many times he died.  Just one block across was the Scottish cemetery, however this was significantly  less well maintained than the South Park one, but was notable for containing crosses, the lack of these in SP only became noticeable after the event.

Flower market

A taxi ride around the streets eventually took us back again to the flower market and after a ride on the metro & dinner it was time to board the overnight train to Siliguri.