Truly amazing Bhutan

When we started planning our world tour, Bhutan was pretty much the first place on the list of countries we wanted to make sure we visited. Having seen and heard so many amazing things about this mystical country that had only opened it's borders to visitors in the last twenty years or so we were both really keen to see the real thing.

I had spent many hours during my final weeks at work last year and literally dozens of emails (certainly wasn't doing any work..) with the tour company based in Nepal organizing this part and the next (Nepal and Tibet). Due to commercial criteria imposed by the Bhutanese government ($200 per person per day), it was also one of the most expensive parts of the whole journey so we were both really excited to finally be here.

The final reason we were so excited about this final part of our journey was that from now on we would have guides that would do all the hard work for us like book hotels, tell us where to eat and drive us around. After five months of making these decisions we were now officially "on holiday" and could just go and do what we were told...Happy Days!

Our guide - Gurang - had met us off the train in Siliguri in the far NE of India and driven us to the border town where we stayed overnight. The next morning after a very bad night's sleep in the extremely mucky hotel (India's final farewell to us), we walked across the border into Bhutan.

Thanks to the bug that had kept Tracey up all night, the first thing we did was go to a pharmacy to try and calm her dodgy stomach down and help her get some rest. This accomplished, we set of in a big comfortable Land Cruiser driven by our new Bhutanese driver - Mr Keysang - to drive from the border to the capital city of Bhutan, Thimpu.

The journey took about six hours and took us up in altitude a couple of thousand meters and and a few hundred kilometres inland. The scenery was spectacular with the entire journey taking us along ever winding mountain passes that were covered in beautiful trees. Some of the valleys were incredibly step and the bottom was way out of sight God knows how far down below us. Every now and then we would get sight of a spectacular river or waterfall crashing down through the valleys.

We eventually made it to Thimpu which sits at 2,300m and has a population of just under 100,000 people. After the manic energy of India, it was such a pleasure to walk around the city with absolutely no-one hassling us or trying to sell to us.

The Bhutanese are a very private and conservative people who have traditional values long forgotten in most western countries. Most people still wear the national dress (in fact, when you're working you have to wear national dress) which is again conservative and pretty formal.

Bhutan is also famous as it is allegedly one of the happiest countries on earth. The King famously stated many years ago that as well as the usual financial measures of a successful country such as GDP (Gross Domestic Profit) he was equally interested in alternative measures such as GNH (Gross National Happiness). His claim was simply that financial considerations were not the whole story when running a country and that there were other factors that make a successful and happy country such as quality of life, maintaining natural resources, conserving wildlife etc. To this end Bhutan has no major industries despite being hugely rich in trees for wood, mountains for minerals, and other resources much prized by industry and business. The King refuses to allow the rampant development that has blighted most other countries to destroy the natural and beautiful geography and lifestyle that Bhutan has enjoyed for centuries.

Thimpu is the only capital city in Asia that does not have traffic lights. They tried to use them but the locals complained that they were too impersonal so they now have traffic police that direct the traffic using incredible ballet like movements.

Clearly, since opening themselves up to the modern world, changes are beginning to show. With access to western television and the internet the obvious signs of change are happening with the young people. Football and basketball are taking over from archery as their national sport, and jeans and "hoodies" are preferred over the national dress. Our driver told us when he was younger he happily took a fine from the police for not being in national dress as the fine covered him for the whole day and he spent the entire day and evening in town 'showing off' to his mates.

At one point on our tour of the city, we came across a group of guys on a stretch of wasteland that were engaged in an archery contest.

Tiny targets are set up about 100m apart and the men alternate from one end to the other trying to hit the target. They have three arrows each and if anyone manages to hit the target (most don't) then tradition dictates that they all do a short song and dance to celebrate. Part of the fun includes some of the men kneeling down beside the target and shouting insults at the guy who is about to release his arrow. Clearly this in itself is a pretty dangerous/stupid thing to do as the arrows travel at a hell of a speed and would very easily go straight through a human body. The game will go on all day with the men switching from end to end.

However, this is all given an extra "frisson" as they also drink the whole day so everyone gets increasingly sloshed as they are firing arrows from end to end. By the time we found them they had been playing for quite a few hours and there was a real party mood, especially when we turned up to watch. Witnessing a bunch of blokes who could hardly stand squat down beside the target and shout drunken abuse at each other while arrows came raining down around them within inches of heads and limbs and with not a hint of a twitch, was terrifying. I was convinced were going to witness serious injury at the very least. However, they have clearly been doing this for many years and clearly didn't care at all. Inevitably, I was roped into giving it a go and despite what I thought was a pretty poor effort all my new friends seemed genuinely impressed by my 60m attempt.

One highlight of Thimpu, was a visit to the local zoo which only has two animals in it. This is because the Bhutanese, who are Buddhists, do not approve of keeping animals in captive. However, the two animals they do have are well worth the visit. The main attraction is the Takin which is unique to Bhutan. In fact it is so unique it doesn't have any direct relation to any other animal so has a latin name all of it's own. It looks like a cow with a goats head and is the result, in Bhutanese legend, of one of their divine saints Drupka Kinley (the divine madman - more about whom later) who, after being asked for a miracle to prove he was in fact divine, ate a whole cow and then a goat and threw the bones on the floor. He then commanded the bones to get up and start moving around which they did and hey presto..the Takin was created. It is an evolutionary anomaly as it is extremely lazy and can hardly be bothered to eat, drink or reproduce so there are very few of them and the odds of them surviving seem very small. However, it is the national animal of Bhutan and that is why it is in the zoo, to try and give it a better chance of survival.

Back on the 'Buddhist' theme, as Buddhists don't believe in harming animals, we presumed the majority of Bhutanese would be vegetarians. However, they enjoy meat so get over this little problem by importing their meat ready-killed from India. To his credit, our guide looked a little embarrassed when he told us this.

We eventually left Thimpu and started our tour around Bhutan. The rest of the country we saw was equally stunning. The whole country is covered in woodlands, massive valleys and huge mountains that run up to the high Himalaya.

We visited a number of towns around the country all of which have "Dzongs" at their centre. These are the original walled fortresses that were built as the administrative and religious centre of the town. The national language of Bhutan is called Dzongka and means "the language that is spoken in the Dzong.

Every Dzong is based on the same design. It is a huge and imposing place surrounded by walls with a single entry point. The interior is divided into two parts that reflect the way the country is run. One half is administrative where the "politicians" and local governors work and the other half is religious and is inhabited by monks and religious leaders. The two parts of the complex are joined by a courtyard and the building is generally extremely ornate with all the walls covered in either carvings or beautiful and colourful religious frescoes depicting the life of Buddha or the stories from the countries myths and legends.

The main Dzong outside of Thimpu, and probably the most beautiful Dzong in Bhutan is in the town of Punakha which used to the capital of Bhutan until 1955 when Thimpu took over but is still a very important religious centre. The top monk in the country, the Je Kempo, moves here with his huge entourage for the winter months every year and lives in the Dzong. The building sits in a remarkable position at the confluence of two rivers and in a beautiful valley. The building itself is huge and stunning. The frescoes are extensive with all four walls inside the temple portraying the entire life story of the Buddha. The courtyards are expansive and while we were there we even managed to peer into a room where a group of Buddhist monks were practising their chanting and music. They created an eerie sound with their low groaning and intermittent banging of drums on tall sticks as we lurked in the gallery above and peered over the edge to watch them.

Of all the amazing things we saw and witnessed in Bhutan, two definitely stand out as real highlights of our trip.

The first was a night we spent in the Phobjika Valley. This is a remarkable glacial valley that sits hidden amongst the Black Mountains at about 3500m. The valley itself is totally enclosed and feels very isolated. Even by Bhutan standards this place is in the middle of nowhere. The people who live here have an incredibly basic existence. In fact the winters are so harsh they move down to lower ground for a few months.

However, despite this place being one of the most beautiful and remote places on earth the main reason for coming here is not the geography. It is the winter home to the very very rare Black Necked Crane. The bird is on the endangered list and this valley is one of a handful of places it can be found. They come here from Tibet for the winter months and then head back north again for the summer. In keeping with Bhutan's policy of protecting it's natural treasures, the entire valley has been designated a conservation area to protect the birds. There is no electricity in the valley in case the overhead wires interfere with the bird's flight. Even the locals are involved in looking after the birds and the area attracts hundreds of serious bird watchers every year. Whilst birds don't exactly get my blood racing I have to applaud the efforts that the country and the locals make to ensure that these birds survive.

The night we were in the valley we stayed in a stunning hotel that had it's own generator so we could look forward to the luxury of lights and hot water. However, when we arrived we were informed that the generator was broken so it was back to basics for us. No lights at all so we ate in the hotel restaurant and then prepared for bed by candle light. We had a wood fire in the room, which we had to keep going by stuffing logs into it at regular intervals, and our shower consisted of asking for a bucket of hot water from the staff, and then throwing them over each other.

It was bollocking cold but the beds were huge and piled up with big heavy warm blankets and duvets so we both had an amazing night's sleep. The next morning we woke up and opened the curtains to what must be a contender for the most breathtaking view from a hotel room..in the world! The whole valley stretched out in front of us with the sun slowly coming up over the mountains. Memories like that stay with you forever.

The final highlight of Bhutan was also the most famous place in the country, and adorns pretty much every tourist poster and brochure.

Taksang Monastery or "Tiger's Nest", sits at 3200m and hangs off the side of a 700m verticle cliff above the Paro valley. It is by far the most famous place in Bhutan and understandably so. It seems to defy all logic and to this day nobody is certain about how the hell it was built.

It is stunningly beautiful and is well worth the grueling hike you have to make to get to it. You can hire donkeys to carry you part way up but that was considered cheating so we off we went with our driver showing us the way. The climb, despite being on a path, is extremely tough and we had to make numerous stops to try and catch our breath before carrying on. It was gratifying to see that even Mr Keysang was struggling a little. Some of this is due to the altitude as we were starting at 2300m and climbing to 3120m. However, my extreme unfitness and a streaming cold probably played a part as well. There is a cafe half way up where they give you a very welcome and free cup of tea before you brace yourself for the final ascent to top.

Unfortunately, the monastery is closed to visitors at the moment so we had to make do with sitting on a rock outcrop on the opposite cliff and look at it from there. Still, it was worth the effort as even from here it is truly amazing and stunningly beautiful. On the way down Mr Keysang kept us entertained by playing music on his mobile phone. My particular favourite was the traditional Bhutanese classic...a dub/rap version of Last Christmas by Wham!

Although, as we mentioned, the Bhutanese seem to be very conservative, there were a couple of peculiarities that made us think perhaps they were a bit kooky after all.

Firstly, there is the divine madman. This man was famous for banishing demons by bashing them around or knocking their teeth out with his huge phallus (no joke). As a result, many Butanese paint large phalluses on their houses to keep the demons away. Additionally, many childless couples travel to the 'fertility temple' built in rememberance of the divine madman and are blessed by what appears to be large wooden dildos.

Secondly, they eat outrageous amount of chillies. We thought we were pretty used to spicy foods having spent the last 4 months eating curry in India and Sri Lanka, so we poo-poo'ed our guide's warning that the food what quite hot. Hot?? They use BAGS of chillies in their food. The heat was UNBEARABLE. These crazy Bhutanese even buy mashed chillies by the bag and chew on them like sweets. Unsurprisingly, the biggest cause of hospital admissions is gastric disorders...

All in all we loved every minute in Bhutan. Our guide and driver Gurang and My Keysang looked after us brilliantly. They were incredibly knowleadable about every aspect of their country and didn't seem to mind being asked stupidly basic questions about the culture for the umpteenth time I'm sure. We loved the food in Bhutan which was really fresh and tasty and all the hotels we stayed in were all superb with the Pobhjika Valley hotel being exceptional. The country is stunningly beautiful and the people are incredibly friendly.

Bhutan has just had it's first ever general election at the request of the King who is committed to giving more power back to the people. So it now the world's newest democracy. The people are understandably very nervous with all the change that is going on, but excited about the opportunities that come along with a more open policy. It desires the benefits that come with opening its borders to the world, but is terrified of losing its essence and destroying the very qualities that make Bhutan such a special place.

I cannot recommend Bhutan more highly as a place to visit but please...don't all go at once and please tread very carefully while you are there...