Bhutan bliss at great heights
My husband and I decided October 2017 was our year to trek in Bhutan. Mid August my daughter decided she would come to Bangkok sometime in October or November on an extended buying trip for her online homewares business around Southeast Asia. We all decided why not kill two birds (so to speak) with one stone and have her come on the trip with us. This way she would get to trek in Bhutan; something she had always wanted to do and we would then have three people trekking on the same country passport and would not just have to pay as if there was a third person.
My daughter, even though she loves travelling and has been all over the world, is terrified of flying. We did not want to tell her that there were only eight pilots qualified to land in Paro. The route into this airport is very challenging. They weave through a narrow valley coming within a few feet of clipping dozens of houses during the landing. We thought it was best for her to discover this as it was happening and she could literally do nothing. There were times as we were landing where I felt like I could reach out and touch the sides of the mountain.
The fright of the landing was all erased by the beautiful architecture of the airport building after we landed. This is the first time where people took their time on the runway after disembarking and wandered around taking pictures. No one seemed in any hurry to get into immigration or pick up our luggage.
We left Bangkok in the wee hours of the morning and arrived into Paro around 8 or 9am. We were taken to our hotel where we were given some breakfast until our rooms were ready. We chose a heritage hotel, called Gangtey Palace,which was a lovely old Bhutanese hotel, not glamorous or very modern but we liked the fact that it was historical and had a beautiful view across the valley to the biggest Wat and City Hall, which were both lit up at night.
As a warm up for our trek and to get acclimatised to the elevation we hiked to the Tiger’s Nest Monastery the next day which round trip is 6.5kms with 600m elevation gain. It was a spectacular hike even though it was very crowded. We ate lunch at the halfway point on the side of the mountain looking at the Tiger’s Nest. Unfortunately, on the day we hiked up an older man with a heart condition, who perhaps should not have been making the hike, as it is quite strenuous, died.
There were many people making the climb that really did not seem prepared for the hike. Some were in flip flops and bare feet, much older adults carrying young children who were capable of walking themselves. It is very steep in spots and a continual uphill climb the entire way until reaching the Tiger’s Nest. What a Wat once you get there.
How they accomplished building it is beyond thought. All the materials to build the Wat were hand carried up the mountain by monks to build it.
Once we hiked down from the Tiger’s Nest we stopped in Paro and bought some supplies. Some snacks to take on the trekking trip with us. I bought some chocolate and some cereal bars that were vegan friendly but little else. We found these Bhutanese potato chips “Happy Chips” that were fantastic. We wished we bought more to take with us.
For our meals for the trip we decided that it was easiest to eat vegetarian since our daughter is a vegan. This meant that they would have eggs and cheese for myself and Ken but not for Alyssa. When you plan your trekking trip you must have a guide and it is required by the Bhutanese government for each foreigner to spend $250.00/day/person. The tour company we decided to go with was recommended to us by a friend who organised our tour in Nepal – Mountain Journey Tours and Treks. They organised a private trek from Paro to Thimpu for the three of us five days and four nights with a guide, cook, camp assistant, outfitter and pack mules for equipment.
The first day’s trek was about 10 -12km. We trekked up to 3500m and camped in a slightly lower valley. It was a beautiful hike and we arrived at our camping spot mid afternoon. It was a comfortable temperature for hiking even if the wind was blowing and it is cool because the trekking is a good workout but once you are done for the day by the time the sun sets it cools quickly. We brought some wine we hadn’t finished in the restaurant and we said it would have been nice to have a couple of more bottles for some of the other nights.
If you don’t like tea and coffee you have a problem. Our daughter learned to drink a lot of hot water to keep warm. I have a gluten allergy so eating bread is not great for me but I just didn’t worry about it. Most of the time we had rice. We did have eggs in the morning most mornings – they didn’t seem to understand that my daughter didn’t eat eggs. We made do with what they gave us to eat, not gourmet but certainly good.
On the first night we met a couple from Austria and they were doing a similar trek to us. As it happened we ended up trekking with them most of the way although we camped in different locations. We shared several lunches where the guides would combine our food together with theirs and we would have a hot/warm buffet on the trail. If it sounds luxurious it was. The second day we hiked across a high pass and to a lake. At the top of the pass we stopped to have lunch. After lunch we had just started out walking when out of nowhere three huge yaks came hurling toward us.
All three of us jumped out of the way luckily in the right place so we wouldn’t get trampled. This was our first real encounter with yaks. Later we came across a lot of them scattered all over the hillside and across our narrow path. The guides were careful to tell us to stay close because they said the yaks are very unpredictable and will charge at you. There were several young calves, one chased us for a while. I believe he was testing his masculinity.
The lake where we camped the second night was beautiful about 4000m and fortunately for us the yaks were up in the hills. Again we hiked the next day reaching over 4200m about 10 -12km everyday. This day we decided to camp by a small lake because there were several large groups of people camping in the area where we were supposed to camp. The lake was in the hills and we were surrounded by yaks. It was so cold that night that we asked if we could eat our dinner in our sleeping tent. My daughter had a tent to herself and my husband and I had a tent. It was our practice before dinner to have a nap and warm up all in our tent. We decided not to leave our tent for dinner as we had already managed to get marginally warm there.
At every campsite they set up a latrine tent for us which was basically a hole dug with a toilet seat over it and a tent covering the whole thing. A luxury when you are out backpack camping. We also had a tent where we ate our meals and of course there was a cook tent. The outfitter who looked after the mule pack slept with all their gear in the eating tent and the rest of the people slept in the cook tent. They didn’t worry about being too cold as the tent was always steaming from the gas stove heat. Once the mule pack are unloaded and their gear removed they are set free to roam for the evening until the next morning.
After dinner it was too cold to do much else other than read by our headlamps or flashlights, hiking was quite tiring so we didn’t usually have a problem with being asleep usually at the latest by 8pm.
Flashlights or headlamps were definitely needed to get to the latrine in the night. On the evening when we decided to eat dinner in our sleeping tent we were surrounded by yaks not far in the hills. Once we were finished dinner Alyssa went back to her tent to read and took my flashlight with her. At the beginning of the trip I had given each person a flashlight and Ken and I had headlamps. Our headlamps were burning out but we weren’t worried since this was our last night and we would be hiking out the next day.
About midnight Alyssa told her dad from her tent that we were surrounded by yaks and that was the snorting and snuffling we could hear. Ken thought it was the mules but in fact when he looked outside the tent it was yaks 100’s of them. They were coming through our area.
Alyssa had our flashlight so she was using it to illuminate the tent and told us to do the same however all we had were headlamps that were burning out and we could not find the flashlight that I gave Ken. Consequently, it got left in the suitcase he left behind in the van in Paro, a fine place for it! Plus I had all the batteries and Alyssa in the other tent had the other flashlight. The yaks ran over the latrine, the cook tent and the dining tent.
We were fine only because we managed to keep some kind of light going until they moved through which was well over an hour. It is quite something to be on the ground when a one ton animal leans into your tent and snorts. We were all very scared to say the least. Our Austrian friends camped about a few miles further on and they had two bull yaks fighting and trampled through their tent. Their tent was demolished but they were unharmed which was a complete miracle.
The next day we reached our highest point of the trek at 4330m and then started hiking down to the capital city of Thimphu. It was a long hike down. We stayed the night and the next morning we toured an art and weaving area, the national Stupa and the world’s largest sitting bronze Bhudda. We also saw the national animal, a Takin, which looks like a cross between a mountain goat and yak. We then drove back to Paro and once there my daughter was insistent on having a hot stone bath she had heard about. It was very interesting.
You have little or no privacy if that is important. The water is heated by hot stones which are loaded into your wooden tub from the outside. There is a wall separating you and the people loading the stones. The water doesn’t look overly clear and they put herbs in the water. You are separated from the people you are with by some very poor shower curtains. When you want more heat you just yell at them to add more stones. It was an experience.
Trekking in Bhutan is not for the faint of heart but it is something I would do again in a heartbeat before it becomes too westernised. It was as beautiful as Nepal and much different because it was more about trekking through nature rather than through villages. The length of time we took seemed exactly right not to strenuous but challenging enough.
