Holiday in India & Bhutan (13): Thimphu
October 15th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Monday was the day of the least travel and the most sightseeing of the entire trip. All our day was spent in Thimphu and we had no less than eight events.
We started with the Memorial Chorten which was built in 1974 in memory of Bhutan’s third king, Druk Gyalpo, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck (1928-1972) who is known as the founder of modern Bhutan and the person who opened the country to the world. People slowly circumambulate the shrine and some even lie prostrate on boards in acts of veneration.
Next, we drove up to Buddha Point (Kuensei Phorang) which is the site of the Great Buddha Dordenma: a gigantic Buddha statue built to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the fourth king, Jigme Singye. It is one of the largest Buddha rupas in the world (177 feet or 54 metres) and, astonishingly, inside there are some 100,000 8-inch and 25,000 12-inch tall gilded bronze Buddhas. We were blown away.
Our third venue was the National Institute for Zong Chusum (the term literally means ‘Thirteen Crafts’) which trains young people in the traditional contemporary art forms. We observed a number of these crafts: wood carving, tailoring, silver smithing, clay modelling, painting and embroidery.
The final destination of the morning was the Junhshi Handmade Paper Factory. Here they take the wood of the daphne tree and convert it to desho paper which is then used for a range of objects such as paintings and notebooks.
After lunch, our first visit of the afternoon was to the Royal Takin Preserve. The takin is the national animal of Bhutan and it is unique, rare and native to the country. It looks like a cross between a cow and a yak – not very pretty, to be honest. During lock down, the preserve installed overhead gangways which makes the viewing of the takin and other animals a really accessible experience.
Our next stop was at the Zilukha Nunnery, also known as the Drubthrob Geomba Monastery. This was constructed in 1976 and houses about 60 nuns, all of whom are bare-headed and shaven-headed. We witnessed part of a prayer ceremony with chatting of mantras plus the sounding of long horns, drums and pipes. It was very atmospheric.
Finally, we were given one last chance to do some shopping at a long stretch of craft shops running alongside a major road. Stereotypically, the women in our group were delighted by the Chuphachu market and the men were in despair
We had left out hotel at 9 am and only returned at 4.30 pm, but we were given only 10 minutes to visit our rooms before we were required to be in a conference hall in the hotel. Here all the male members of the group were kitted out In the national dress for men called ‘Gho’, while all the female members were adorned in the national dress for women called ‘Kira’.
We were then treated to a succession of nine dances by teams of men and women in colourful costumes plus an amusing two-man representation of a wild yak. This enjoyable cultural entertainment lasted about an hour and ended a very full, but very satisfying, day.
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Holiday in India & Bhutan (12): Punakha
October 13th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Sunday too was part sightseeing and part travel.
Leaving our hotel at 9 am, we walked through rice fields to the village of Lobesa and up steps and slopes to the Chimi Lhakand Temple and Monastery which was first built in 1499. It has two really odd dedications.
First, it is dedicated to a guy called Lam Drukpa Kuenley (1455-1570) who was a Buddhist master so eccentric in his behaviour that he was known as the ‘Divine Madman’ and the use of his phallus as a weapon of truth led to its description as a ‘flaming thunderbolt’.
Second, it is dedicated to the fertility rites of the tantric tradition and it is popular with women who wish to become pregnant. As a result, local shops sell representations of the phallus in every size and every material and every colour.
As our guide put it: “We don’t have nuclear weapons, We have the power of the phallus”. When group members were looking for a souvenir phallus, one female member said: “I’m looking for smaller one” and I replied “It’s the first time I’ve heard a woman say that”.
Our next destination was utterly different: the Punakha Dzong or Palace of Great Happiness located at the confluence of the Phochu and Michu rivers. It was first built in 1637, with subsequent centuries recording damage by fires, floods and an earthquake, always followed by rebuilding.
It consists of a six-story, gold-domed tower, three wonderfully ornate courtyards, and a stupendous temple with a huge Buddha and a shock of brightest colours (which we were not allowed to photograph). Second only to the Tiger’s Nest, this was my favourite site of the holiday.
This trip has been full of surprises and lunch today was certainly one of them. It was at the Gyatsothang Farm House and hosted by its owners in their spacious garden. To reach the farmhouse, we had to traverse two long pedestrian-only suspension bridges over the rushing river which was easier for a some group members than for others. Jenny and I loved it.
At 2.45 pm, we set off from Punakha to retrace much of our road route of yesterday but in reverse. So we climbed bend after bend up to the Dochula Pass and then descended bend after bend down to Thimphu. Yesterday there was so much mist at the Pass that we could not see the Himalayas and today the mist was even worse. But at least the cafeteria at the Pass served coffee and biscuits to keep us going until we arrived at the splendid Druk Hotel at 5.40 pm.
Thimphu – nicknamed Shangri-La – was founded in the 13th century when a huge fortress was built there. The small town only became the national capital in 1961 when it was moved from Punakha. The current population is about 50,000. It is said that Thimphu is the only world capital without traffic lights (in the daytime, traffic is directed by policemen and, at night, drivers sort things out for themselves).
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Holiday in India & Bhutan (11): Paro To Punakha
October 12th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Saturday was part sightseeing and part travel.
According to the original programme, this morning we should have visited the National Museum – something recommended to me by a friend. But the museum was closed, so we were taken instead to an archery contest. Now archery is the national sport in Bhutan and astonishingly these guys were aiming for a target 145 metres (475 feet) away. Whenever someone managed to hit the target, everyone in the team did a little song and dance in celebration.
Next stop was the fortress monastery of Rinpung Dzong This was first constructed in 1646 and damaged by fire in 1907. The monastery is home to almost 200 monks and has 14 shrines and chapels. It is a festival of colour: the building exteriors, the walls and the rooms are a kaleidoscope of intricate symbolism and bright colours and our guide Jigme gave us a detailed explanation of the tree of life and the process of reincarnation.
Our next visit was to a place called the Phuba Mandala Display Center. Now a mandala is a geometric configuration of symbols which one finds in the eastern religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Shinto.
In this particular part of Bhutan, there is a version known as sand mandala which uses dyed coloured sand to create the design. This is done by picking up and placing the grains of sand with two fingers and the process can take hours, weeks or months. Then the art work is swept up, placed in a plastic bag and thrown in a river as a symbol of the Buddhist notion of the impermanence of all things. We were invited to create our own mandalas and take them away in little plastic bags.
At this point, we had a very pleasant surprise. We knew that lunch was in Paro, but we found that it was outdoors by a river in warm sunshine. After throwing our mandalas in the river, we ate well. I was enjoying a conversation after the meal when I felt myself sliding backwards and to the ground as my chair broke and collapsed. After all this Buddhist talk of the wheel of life and the idea of impermanence, I was brought down to earth.
At 1.45 pm, we left Paro and headed east and then north to arrive at 5.30 pm in Punakha. It was an up and down journey with a break at the highest point, not just of this ride but of our entire holiday: the Dochula Pass which is 10,236 feet (3,120 metres). The site is special for being the location of no fewer than 108 stupas – 108 is an especially auspicious number in Buddhism – created in 2005 at the instigation of the Queen Mother.
Our hotel in Punakha is the fabulous Green Resort which, as well as as the largest bedrooms and bathrooms of our entire trip, has such convenient accessories as a four point extension lead for all our electronic devices.
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Holiday in India & Bhutan (10): Tiger’s Nest
October 11th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Today – it was Friday – I experienced the toughest climb of my life and the most stunning view of my life. This was because we visited the so-called Tiger’s Nest.
Paro Taktsang, the proper name for the Tiger’s Nest Monastery, is a sacred Vajrayana Himalayan Buddhist site. According to legend, Guru Padmasambhava flew to this location from Singye Dzong on the back of a tigress and the place was consecrated to tame the local tiger demon.
We were told by our Bhutanese guide Jigme that the first temple was established here in 1508, that a second temple was constructed in 1645, and that the structure as we know it today was built between 1691-1694, renovated between 1961-1964, seriously damaged by fire in 1998, and completely reconstructed in 2005.
The monastery is located 6 miles (10 kms) to the north of Paro and hangs on a precarious cliff at a height of 10,240 feet (3,120 metres) about 3,000 feet (900 metres) above the Paro valley, on the right side of the Paro Chu (‘chu’ in Bhutanese means ”river or water”). The rock slopes are very steep (almost vertical) and the monastery buildings are built into the rock face.
Viewing of the monastery requires a hike in three sections, The first section, up to a viewpoint and cafeteria, is steep and rocky and can be undertaken by donkey.The second section is a little shorter but, if anything, steeper and rockier. The third second consists of concrete steps with handrails, but it is especially challenging because one row of steps down is followed by another row going up and this pattern repeats itself endlessly, running – forgive the pun – to some 700 steps in total.
I would personally assess the difficulty of the climb in these terms. On the upward climb, section one is very tough, section two is very, very tough, and section three is very, very, very tough. On the descent, section three is awful (those 700 steps), section two is very tough, and section one is merely hard.
Of our group of 16 (including our British guide), 14 completed the first section to the viewpoint and six managed to complete all three sections and reach the monastery itself. Jenny and I were pleased that we went to the very top where we viewed two of the six chapels.
But it was so hard. The temperature was not the problem we feared, but the steepness of the climb, the irregularity of the terrain, and the high altitude were so tough. However, we were thrilled to have done it, because the views on the climb were glorious and the views of the monastery were breathtaking.
For the record, it took Jenny and I an hour and a quarter to complete the first section which involved ascending from 8,465 feet (2,580 metres) to 9,022 feet (2,750 metres). Then it took us another three quarters of an hour to complete the second section and another half hour to reach the monastery at 10,240 feet (3,120 metres).
Just before arriving at the monastery, a large water fall, which drops by 200 feet (60 metres) into a sacred pool, is forded over by a bridge.
So we did it with two and a half hours climbing, but with a break – never did black coffee and biscuits be so welcome – at the viewpoint. The descent involved a brief stop at the cafeteria and took about two hours. The group arrived at the base of the climb at 7.45 am and we left there at 2.30 pm, ready for a late lunch and a bit of free time in Paro.
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Holiday in India & Bhutan (9): Paro
October 10th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Thursday was largely a travelling day, but a much easier one than our other travelling days. The journey was from Phuntsholing, just inside Bhutan, to Paro, a town south of the capital of Bhutan in the west of the country. Our guide in Bhutan is called Jigme (which means fearless) and our driver in Bhutan is called Karma – so we knew we would be fine.
We left at 7.40 am and arrived at 1.20 pm, so it was a journey of about five and half hours. But there were two checkpoints (requiring provision of passports), two comfort breaks, and several photo opportunities. The weather was wonderful: sunny with blue skies. The scenery was spectacular: soaring hills, rushing streams, verdant greenery.
As soon as we arrived in Paro, we had lunch at a restaurant. This included the choice of the national dish of Bhutan which is called ema-datsi and is made of chilli cooked in cheese – something of an acquired taste.
Suitably refreshed, we then made a visit to the Namgay Artisanal Brewery which produces seven types of beer, each of which we could sample in a small quantity before choosing the best for a full glass.
Back in the centre of town, we were turned loose for an hour of free time. Jenny and I browsed the souvenir shops and each of us bought several gifts, before we had coffee and cake at a delightful place called “Brioche Cafe”.
At 5.20 pm, our minibus rolled up to our accommodation just outside town. This is the highest accommodation of our holiday: 8,000 feet (2,450 metres).
It is not just called the Tiger’s Nest Hotel; you can see the Tiger’s Nest from the hotel. Tomorrow we will climb up there. It will be the highlight of our tour, but the most most challenging feature of the tour because the climb up to the monastery is so tough and none of us knows how we will cope with the ascent at such height and at such altitude.
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Holiday in India & Bhutan (8): journey to Bhutan
October 9th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Wednesday was totally a travelling day. In our convoy of six SUVs, we left the Mayfair Hotel in Darjeeling, India (where we had spent three nights) at 8.45 am and finally arrived at the Phuntsholing Hotel in Phuntsholing, Bhutan (where we will spend one night) at 6.30 pm India time and 7 pm Bhutan time – a journey of almost 10 hours.
We did stop three times: a comfort stop at the delightfully-named Mungpoo, another comfort stop somewhere between Anywhere and Nowhere, and lunch at resort called Sinclair’s Retreat in the town of Chalsa.
The real problem came shortly after we left Chalsa. The road we intended to take was closed by the police and we had to take a massive detour though a succession of tea plantations.
When we made it to Jiagon on the Indian side of the border, it was already dark. Here we had to show our India visa again, have a departure stamp in our passport, and then have the passport examined by a second set of officials. Both sets of officials wrote our details in notebook and there was no computer in sight.
We pushed our way through a local market and then, miraculously and mysteriously, we found an entry point in a wall which took us to Bhutan passport control, where we had to show our Bhutan visa and passport (they used a computer to note the details) before entering the country at the border town of Phuntsholing where it was raining and there was thunder and lighting.
It was all a bit like ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’ – but we are here.
The people of Bhutan call their nation Druk Yul which means ‘the land of the Thunder Dragon’ because of the constant storms which roar in front of the Himalayas. The United Nations only recognised Bhutan as a country in 1974 and Bhutan only allowed (limited) television and internet access in 1999. It is the only country in the world that measures Gross National Happiness.
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Holiday in India & Bhutan (7): Darjeeling
October 8th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Jenny and I missed the sunrise yesterday but today (Tuesday), together with Gavin and Ann from our group, we caught it. Rising at 4.45 am, it was a mere 10 minute walk from our hotel to a local viewing point for the sun’s appearance at 5.33 am.
It was a magical experience: only a few local people there and clear skies with just a few lines of cloud. Once the sun was up, the birds tweeted and girls from a nearby school sang.
As well as the sunrise, we had wonderful views of the world’s third highest mountain, Kanchenjunga (28,189 feet or 8,586 metres). The only higher mountains are Mount Everest (29,032 feet) and K2 (28,251 feet).
Kanchenjunga means ‘the five treasures of the high snow’ and the local Lhopo people believe that the treasures are hidden but reveal themselves to the devout when the world is in peril. This would seem to be the right time for such a revelation, but clearly we are not devout enough.
Starting at 9 am, our tour group spent the whole day in downtown Darjeeling. The weather was mild (20C) and the town was bustling with celebration of the Durga Puja festival which starts today. We seemed to be the only tourists.
Our Indian guide Kiran took around and provided information. A highlight was the Chowk Bazaar with stalls side by side and opposite each other on narrow lanes selling all kinds of food and clothing especially. We had one stop for tea tasting at a place called “Golden Tips”. A few colonial buildings remain, including the Anglian church of St Andrew’s and the main post office which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
After this morning tour, we had a free afternoon. Jenny and I had lunch with some other group members at a restaurant called “Glenary’s” which was founded in 1885. Then we strolled around, making a few purchases and having a drink at a former colonial building which is now the Windamere Hotel. We were back at the hotel soon after 4 pm so it was a less busy day.
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Holiday in India & Bhutan (6): Ghoom and Darjeeling
October 7th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
On Monday, hardy members of the GRJ group were out at the incredibly early hour of 4 am to travel to a location called Tiger Hill to view the sunrise, but Jenny and I did not make it.
Travel was at a minimum today.
First, we returned to the ‘toy train’, this time reversing our travel to make the short trip (about an hour) from Darjeeling back to Ghoom with a brief scenic stop at a place called Batasia. The main difference from the previous day’s rail travel was that today we had a steam locomotive. One of our group, clearly a rail enthusiast, told us that this steam engine was built in 1925 at the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow and carries the name ‘Iron Sherpa’.
Next, at Ghoom, we visited the Yiga Choling Monastery, the oldest in the area, having been established in1850. The main distinguishing feature of this monastery is the Maltreya Buddha who is the Buddha of the future, born to teach enlightenment in the next age. It dominates the interior, standing 15 feet (4.6 metres) tall.
Darjeeling is a motorists’ nightmare and today we spent an inordinate amount of time with our convoy of six cars reduced to limping mode, when we were not actually halted still. It took us so long to drive from Ghoom back to our hotel in Darjeeling and it took the hotel staff so long to process our simple lunch order of toasted sandwiches that we finished up eating in the cars on the way to our afternoon destinations.
These two locations are co-located in the same grounds.
First, we strolled around the Himalayan Zoological Park where saw the red panda, the black bear, the Sonbar deer, the blue sheep, the yak, the Mishmi takin, the common leopard, the snow leopard, the snow tiger, the Himalayan wolf and – my favourite – the Royal Bengal tiger.
Next, we had a quick look around the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute whose exhibits include objects from the first expedition to conquer Mount Everest. On that historic occasion in 1953, the British Edmund Hillary was accompanied by the Nepalese-Indian Tenzing Norgay and the latter has his tomb and a statue outside the museum.
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Holiday in India & Bhutan (5): journey to Darjeeling
October 6th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Next day (Sunday) was essentially about transferring from our hotel in Siliguri (where we spent just one night) to our hotel in Darjeeling (where we will spend three nights). Part of the journey was by road when we were transported by a convoy of six cars. Part of the journey was by a very special railway.
But first we visited the Buddhist shrine of Salugara Monastery just outside Siliguri.This is believed to have been built by the Tibetan Lama, Kanu Rinpoche, and it is notable for its ‘super’ stupa of 100 feet (30 metres). Here our local guide took the opportunity to give us a short talk on the recent history of the region and the main features of Buddhism.
We then started our road trip and stopped after about an hour to stand in a rice field where our local guide gave us an explanation of how the British brought tea cultivation to the region and how there are different types and different flavours of tea.
At this stage, the terrain changed dramatically and we rose steeply though a series of no fewer than 27 steep bends on a single-lane road, which necessitated much hooting or horns and squeezing past other vehicles. It was sometimes hair-raising and stomach-churning, but it was always scenic and exciting.
It was a drive of about a further half hour to reach the town of Kurseong which is located at a height of 4,864 feet (1,483 metres). Here we had lunch at “The Cochrane Place”, a former British colonial house full of all sorts of memorabilia.
Kurseong is a major station on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. Completed in 1881, the the rail line was the brainchild of Franklin Prestage, the agent of the East Bengal State Railway and today it is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Compared to most of the country’s railways, this one is narrow gauge: just two foot (0.6 metre). Unlike other railway line, this one has a tiny, steam-driven locomotive which is used for some trips, although our particular locomotive was diesel-powered but still small.
Over its full length, the railway climbs from about 330 feet (100 metres) above sea level at New Jalpaiguri to about 6,812 feet (2,076 metres). The train hits its zenith at Ghoom,the highest train station in India at 7,407 feet (2,258 metres) before trundling the last four miles (6 kms) to Darjeeling.
We travelled on a single carriage train – with no toilet – over the stretch from Kurseong to Darjeeling which took us almost three hours.
Since the railway is followed by a single-lane road, right alongside it, and since it runs through many small towns, almost brushing houses and shops in those settlements, the piercing warning hoots are continual. Since it is an effort for the small engine to pull carriages and passengers up this constant incline, the steelwheels continuously shriek on the tracks.
As if this wasn’t atmospheric enough, there was the weather: sometimes it rained, sometimes it tried to shine, and the rest of the time it was overcast with thick mist. The journey invited photographs but movement, weather, vegetation and buildings made it really hard to take good photos. However, I did make a short video.
The most notable feature of Darjeeling is its altitude: 6,811 feet (2,076 metres).
In the early 19th century, during East India Company rule in India, Darjeeling was identified as a potential summer retreat for British officials, soldiers and their families. The narrow mountain ridge was leased from the Kingdom of Sikkim, and eventually annexed to British India.
Experimentation with growing tea on the slopes below Darjeeling was highly successful. Thousands of labourers were recruited chiefly from Nepal to clear the forests, build European-style cottages, and work in the tea plantations.
Today, the city is sandwiched in a corner of India – known as ‘the chicken’s neck’ – with Nepal to the west, Bhutan to the east, China to the north and Bangladesh to the south. It is has a small population of about 120,000 which includes a large community of Tibetans exiled from their homeland following the Chinese occupation.
Having left out hotel in Siliguri at 9.15 am, we reached our hotel in Darjeeling – the splendid Mayfair Hotel – at 6 pm, so it was another long day but a really enjoyable one.
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Holiday in India & Bhutan (4): journey to Shiliguri
October 6th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
There is an early start and then there is an EARLY start. On Saturday, my plan was an alarm at 3 am, bags out at 3.45 am, gather in hotel reception at 4 am, and bus to leave for the railway station at 4.15 am. That was the plan. The phone in my hotel room rang at 4 am. I had forgotten to set my alarm! So, no shaving, no showering, no coffee (!). In 15 minutes flat, I was dressed, packed and down in reception, feeling both confused and embarrassed.
We arrived at Howrah Junction in good time to face a fascinating scenario: a huge railway station with thousands of people, literally hundreds asleep on the floors, baggage of every size and description, and announcements of all sorts barring forth.
Compared to my last experience of an intercity train in India (2003), this was a revelation: on the Vande Bharat Express, we were in an air-conditioned carriage with Executive Class seats, Indian and Western style toilets, food and drink (although our guide advised us to stick to the hotel-provided breakfast pack), and even WiFi (if you had an Indian mobile to receive a passcode).
We left Kolkata promptly at 5.55 am, travelled north, and reached New Jalpaiguri (NJP) at 1.35 pm (just 10 minutes late in a journey of seven and a half hours). The views were scenic but repetitive: mostly one green field after another after another, originally rice and then tea. As the journey progressed, we left behind grey sky and the sun came out in a blue and clouded sky.
NJP was like a scene from a Bollywood movie: an undulating sea of colourfully-dressed people jostling for position. Coolies took our suitcases out to the car park, two on each head. We were followed by little children begging, touching us and then their mouths. A set of hired cars took the group members from New Jalpaiguri to the town of Siliguri where we checked into the Lemon Tree Hotel.
We arrived over an hour later than scheduled (3.10 pm) so, after a very early and very basic breakfast, we had a very late, but satisfying, lunch. The rest of the day was free and Jenny and I walked to a local shopping centre where there was a Marks & Spencer and a Starbucks – the reach of global brands.
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