Day One in Bhutan
On the apron upon arrival at Paro Airport in Bhutan.
After spending a couple moments taking in the scene on the apron at Paro airport the fresh coolness of the morning jolted me into heading inside to go through immigration and get my luggage. Customs when very smoothly and the official even smiled at my terrible attempt at saying thank-you in Dzongkha, the local language. My bag come off the conveyor promptly and I stepped outside to a small crowd of people and almost immediately saw my guide with my name on a board.
After some introductions we went to the small van that was waiting. He presented me with a traditional white scarf of welcome and went over the day’s plan. Tsering explained that we would be together for the next two weeks and he was there to make my trip a wonderful experience. That experience was to start with a 1.5 hour drive to Thimphu the capital city and my first stop in Bhutan. We set out along a scenic two lane highway that wound its way through the valley with tall hills all around. It reminded me of the Kamloops area of British Columbia and heading down the Trans-Canada highway to the Fraser Canyon. The guide and I chatted while the driver navigated the road at a very leisurely pace. It was then I noticed the signs on the side of the road encouraging the drivers to take it easy and enjoy the trip. It seemed that all the drivers were quite polite and for the most part followed this advice.
When we arrived in Thimphu we first went to the hotel which is in the middle of the city. Thimphu is a long city stretched out along a the confluence of two valleys. Tsering explained to me that all the buildings are required to adhere to the Bhutanese traditional architecture. No building is allowed to be more than about 8 stories tall. All government buildings have a red roof while private buildings have green roofs. As we wound our way into the city to the hotel I was quite taken by the architectural style. It was nice not to see a lot of billboards, strip malls and chain restaurants greeting me but then that is part of why I came here.
At the hotel I checked in, dropped my bags and was back at the lobby ready to go. Tsering was no where around. I wandered around a safe distance to the hotel entrance for a couple minutes before he showed up. He encouraged me to take some breakfast but I assured him I was fine but did end up having a hot cup of milk tea which seemed to make him happier. Tsering is a retired guide that now does freelance work. He has been guiding for almost 30 years including doing trekking and mountaineering. I am enjoying talking with him.
Our first stop was to the National Memorial Chorten which we drove by on the way into town. I know a Chorten by the name Stupa but they are a memorial that has a square base and a rounded dome-like top. They always contain some sort of sacred relics and are common in Buddhist countries. This one was built for the 3rd king who died young. His wife the queen had it build after his death as that was his wish. Off to one side were some prayer wheels that we gave a pull to ring the bell and send the prayers contained inside up to the heavens. We then walked around the Chorten. Tsering explained that we should walk around it three times for good luck for all sentient beings. The good luck for sentient beings thing seems to be a theme here. In rather bad form I interrupted him on lap 2 and we had to walk a couple more laps. He explained that we should walk silently in prayer for our 3 laps. I could hear him mumbling a mantra as he walked around. He asked if I wanted to go inside. I wasn’t that interested as I had my hiking boots on and to go in meant removing them. This is a bit of a process with these boots that I wasn’t so keen on. I did go to the entrance and peek in though.
Our next stop was to head up to the large Buddha on the hill above Thimphu. We drove up to it and had an amazing view of the Thimphu valley. This Buddha is made of bronze with gold leaf on it. The large bronze castings were made in China and the main funding was from Singaporean and local donors. Apparently it was all privately funded. It is over 50m high and sits up on a hill looking to the East above the city. Inside there is a temple that has over one hundred thousand miniature buddhas identical the large on. After we had walked around the outside three times we went inside. I did take my boots off for this one and was glad I did. The inside was amazing and there was another large Buddha statue inside along with the rows upon rows of miniature buddhas. For $300 patrons can buy one of the miniature buddhas and have it placed with their name on it into the wall shelves. I didn’t do that but did make a small donation. We then walked down the stairs at the front to where our driver was waiting. The Buddhas itself is completed but the site is still under construction so about half of the stairs didn’t have the granite facing on them yet.
Our next stop was to go to see the central Dzong (fort) in the city. It is a spectacular building that dominates the city when you look down from the surrounding hills. It is interesting as it is half a religious site and half a government office. Surrounding the Dzong are all the offices of the ministries. Nearby is the kings residence and across the river at the upper and lower houses of government. We went inside and were allowed to see the temple side but not the government side of the imposing building. The original fort was build in the 15th century and still exists inside. We went into the temple and I decided that I would take my boots off and go in. It was not as spectacular as the one on the hill but it was interesting inside. Tsering explained all the iconography and who all the people were in the various wall paintings and statues. He also explained the three thrones in the main hall and noted the relative heights. There is one for the current king and one for the leader of the religion that are both at the same height. Then a bit lower is a throne for the retired king and then on the other side are lower thrones for the 4 senior religious officials. I am rather amazed that I am even remembering it all now that I am writing as there is a lot of detail that I am being told about.
On the way to lunch we passed by the central stadium and also the archery grounds. Since it was a Sunday there were people doing archery there so we stopped to watch it. It took me a while to figure it out and I was impressed. Archery is Bhutan’s national sport and it is played around the country and they have some international level archers as well. The archery we were watching was the traditional style. The target are 150m apart which is a long way! They play as two teams of 12 people. Each person gets 2 arrows per round which they alternate between the teams. They were using bamboo arrows and bows. The bows were made with two pieces of bamboo lashed together to form a bow. They are shooting by feel without any sites on the bow. They do have some of their team at the other end calling out where they are hitting. They would all shoot one way and then move down to the other end and shot back the other way. A bullseye is 3 points the middle ring is 2 points and the outer ring is 1 point. First team to 25 wins. When we arrived one of the teams had an arrow in the outer ring. While we were there we watched two rounds and didn’t see anyone hit anything. It was fascinating watching it but lunch was beckoning so we moved on after watching two rounds.
Lunch was at a non-descript restaurant where there were a couple other tour groups also having lunch. It was good with a mix of dishes. They brought way too much food and we were only able to eat about half of it. There were a couple local dishes but the rest was a non-descript generic sort of cuisine. It all tasted good though so I was happy.
The next stop was to go to the central market. We started with the newer section that was where all the food stalls were located. It was on the top floor of the building and the lower floor was being renovated. We walked around and Tsering said hi to various people he knew while he talked about all the different types of produce available. I recognized just about everything so there weren’t any mystery things. The food all looked very fresh and Tsering assured me was all locally organically grown. We then walked across the river to the old market that had clothes and household goods in it. It will move to the lower level of the market when it is done. It was interesting to walk around and see all the stalls with their wares. Again, Tsering knew lots of people and said hi as we walked around.
After this I was brought back to the hotel. It was about 3pm and I had a couple hours before dinner which I was told was at about 7-7:30pm in the hotel restaurant. I was worried about what to do for a couple hours considering how jet lagged I was. I managed to do a blog post, read a bit, watch some YouTube videos and just barely avoid falling asleep before making it to dinner at 7:15pm. I was impressed that I was still awake at the point. I made it down to dinner in the hotel restaurant. The wait staff were very friendly and I was initially the only one there till another couple arrived a few minutes after me. I wasn’t sure what was going on but rolled with it. Apparently there was some sort of set menu set up for me. I started with some hot black tea to drink and asked them to just leave me the pot as I was going through it pretty quick. The meal started with a lovely cabbage and carrot soup that was spiced with ginger and was really quite good. After that a bunch of dishes started appearing. There was minced pork with beans, chicken mornay (I actually got her to spell this as I wasn’t sure I heard it right), fried noodles, mixed steamed vegetables, a mix of crispy potatoes and bitter gourd and a large bowl of rice. It was all good except the potatoes and bitter gourd was a bit odd. Both the potatoes and bitter gourd had been fried till they were quite hard. The meal was finished with some sort of Indian rice ball in a very sweet syrup. The wait staff were very friendly and the service was great. As I left I let them know I would be down for breakfast around 8am in the morning. They thanked me for letting them know. I got back to my room just after 8pm and pretty much went right to bed. As I fell asleep I fully expected to be wide awake at 2am and so I was surprised when I slept through the whole night only waking up a bit before my alarm at 5:30am ready for day two in Bhutan.