The Smallest Capital...in the highest hills.

Advantages: Everything
Disadvantages: Nothing...unless you're some-one who shouldn't really be here.

...their Gho-pleats in the reflection of the hotel windows: uniforms evident in the specific check of the Gho and the like-coloured stripe of the female kira. Children, office workers, street sweepers alike, all paused by the prayer wheels in their elaborately carved, brightly painted wooden cage, to give them a spin. Whether this is an act of devotion so deeply ingrained it needs no thought, or merely a habit to which none is given, it's impossible to tell. ~ Trying to see Bhutan in a ridiculously short space of time, enough of it at least to get a feel for the country, our stay here would be woefully short, so only the merest of glimpses can be offered to tempt you: THE BASICS: Thimpu has been Bhutan's capital only since 1961 and currently has a population of approximately 50,000 and growing rapidly. It straggles along...

hiker 07.01.2007 · Read review
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Review of Thimphu (Bhutan)

Bhutan - an A to Z of a Lost Kingdom

Advantages: Spectacular scenery, stunning architecture, weird stuff
Disadvantages: A bit over-sanitised and unreal - like Disney does Asia

.... The country is only something like 200 miles from east to west and 100 from north to south - yet a journey from the capital Thimphu to the east of the country can take 3 days or more; it's a bit like the M25 on a Friday. From Thimphu to the border in the south, took us seven and a half hours due partly to the roads not being very good to start with and partly to the already-not-very-good roads having loads of landslips and undergoing patching-up repairs. Ladies, consider taking a sports bra. Driving in Bhutan is like galloping on a camel! G is for Gho The Gho is the male national dress. It looks a lot like a dressing gown and is tied tightly around the waste to give a big kangaroo-like 'pouch' at the front in which men keep all sorts of handy things. They've no need for rucksacs, they just stuff everything in tehir gho. You aren...

koshkha 15.11.2008 · Read review
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Review of General: Bhutan

A Little Bit of Everything from Bhutan

Advantages: A pot pourri of Bhutanese life
Disadvantages: Remember you're the client and if your guide is boring you silly, just move on.

... The Museum Bhutan's National Museum is not located in the capital city of Thimphu, but in the second city of Paro. It's housed in a round building which started life as the watchtower for Paro Dzong, the fortress-monastery that sits below it on the hillside on the outskirts of Paro. It was built in 1641 and converted into the National Museum in 1968. For most people taking a tour of Bhutan, the museum would be visited on the same day as the Dzong, but our first day in town was a Monday and the museum is closed that day. Consequently our visit was taken after climbing to see the Tiger's Nest monastery and before leaving for Thimphu. Sitting in the car on the way to the museum I was feeling a bit nervous. My legs were aching from the ascent we'd just done and I didn't fancy the walk up the hillside to the Museum. Luckily I need...

koshkha 07.07.2009 · Read review
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Review of National Museum of Bhutan

The ruins that made Bhutan finally seem real

Advantages: Amazing sense of peace and calm.
Disadvantages: In most countries someone would want to rebuild this

...Toward the end of our first full day in Bhutan I was feeling a little bit flat. I'd wanted to visit the country for 12 years, ever since someone I'd met in India had told me it was their favourite place in the world. It took a while to get there because it's such an expensive place to visit and quite difficult to get to. With such a massive mental (and financial) build-up the reality seemed almost sure to fall short of the dream. There was nothing actually wrong with what we'd seen and done, indeed it was all very lovely, but there was a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that it wasn't quite what I'd expected. I have an aversion to places that are just a bit too clean, ordered and smooth-running and Bhutan was starting to feel a bit TOO perfect and a teensy bit 'Disney-fied'. I always bristle when people tell me "We had a lovely...

koshkha 22.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of Drukgyel Dzong, Paro, Bhutan

Watching the Locals at Prayer - Bhutanese Style

Advantages: Offers insights into the daily worship of Bhutanese Buddhists
Disadvantages: There's not REALLY all that much to see

...During our tour of Bhutan last November we visited many different temples and monasteries but it was relatively rare to actual see real people (i.e. not monks) interacting with their religious surroundings. The National Memorial Chorten was one big exception to this pattern We arrived in Thimphu, the country's capital city, after dark and so had no idea what to expect when we opened the curtains of our hotel room the next morning. Directly in front of us was a river and then beyond the river lay a pristine city with the streets laid out in neat rows. One building caught my eye for its glistening golden spire and this turned out to be our first destination on our tour of Thimphu. It was the National Memorial Chorten or as I'll refer to it for this review, the NMC. In major cities there's often a particular church, mosque or other...

koshkha 03.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of National Memorial Chorten, Thimphu

The View's the best thing about the Riverview

Advantages: Great views, quiet location
Disadvantages: Boring food and no real character

...Fame At Last The River View is one of the best hotels in Thimphu ? it must be, my guide book said so. Even Ciao had it listed without me having to even request it. That doesn't happen very often with the places where I stay. It's not one of the most expensive hotels in Thimphu ? apparently that accolade goes to the Taj Trashi which is still being built and is said to be likely to cost about $1000 a night. But who needs that much ostentation on their holiday? Not me. Actually despite being good enough for the Lonely Planet to know about it, I have to be honest and say that I don't think the hotel's as good as it thinks it is. However it's in a country where no hotel really needs to try very hard. You can only go to Bhutan as part of an organised group, even if the 'group' is just one or two people. All your hotels are included...

koshkha 09.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of Hotel Riverview, Thimphu

Weaving and Threshing

Advantages: ~
Disadvantages: ~

...to be wasted. THE TOWN & THE VALLEY: Paro is where most visitors will get their first taste of Bhutan. The country's only airport is here. On our arrival, we'd pretty well by-passed the town heading straight for the capital, Thimpu ~ so our real experience of the place was to be by way of departure. Sitting in the centre of the Paro River valley it looks as though it has grown dark and gnarled with age. The heavy wooden shop-fronts with their small windows and dark interiors hidden behind, the alleyways, the half-demolished/half-built (it's hard to tell which) constructions resting precariously on their bamboo scaffolds, all speak of tradition and settlement, and of a placed getting on with its own ancient life in spite of the modern western encroachment. Turns out most of this is scarcely 20 years old. It is both...

hiker 21.01.2007 · Read review
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Review of Paro (Bhutan)

Slumming in Bumthang

Advantages: Enlightening, beautiful, interesting...
Disadvantages: ...the Hotel!

.... No-one was impressed. Some were disgusted and angry, others (after the initial reaction) amused and philosophical. A certain amount of the laughter that evening may have been something akin to nervous hysteria. I fell into the philosophical camp, but I am also told that I had one of the 'best' rooms. Some took it as part of the experience, others I've no doubt composed their letters of complaint there & then. I had said all along I wanted to see Bhutan "if it meant sharing a yurt with the Yaks" ~ and I meant it. This was OK. It wasn't brilliant. It wasn't what we might expect for this kind of money. But this is Bhutan. And then, possibly unlike many of my companions, I have actually stayed in worse places. Let me give you the facts: TSCD Lodge is about a kilometre or two from Jakar town centre. It sits at the end...

hiker 19.01.2007 · Read review
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Review of Bumthang (Bhutan)

In the Home of the Thunder Dragon

Advantages: The country, the people
Disadvantages: Some of the accommodation

..."But the real question is:" my dad said, "Did you find him?" "Who?" "The young man who ran away to become a monk?" "?because the yaks keep falling off the mountain and your dad shouts at you" I finished with him, smiling. I was surprised he remembered. That was the start of it. A television programme some 20 or 30 years ago about this fascinating country in the Himalaya, where being a monk was still an occupation of choice, where travel was difficult, and the scenery astonishing; where there was no distinction between myth and history. That was it. I wanted to go to Bhutan. Years passed, and the dream trip lay simmering somewhere buried in that maelstrom of unvisited places that forms the focus of my ambitions. I went to Nepal. I read Seven Years in Tibet. Then, there it was, hidden on the website, not greatly drawing...

hiker 25.01.2007 · Read review
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Review of General: Bhutan

Daphne and her Paper Factory

Advantages: Educational visit
Disadvantages: It's not exactly Disney Land

..."Would you like to see the paper factory?" our guide asked us as we wandered around the tourist attractions of Thimphu, Bhutan's capital city. We'd just left the National Library and he'd clearly realised that all his attempts to explain to us what sort of plants were used to make the paper used in the historic volumes had failed completely. "It's made from Daphne" he said and we looked at him vaguely, with absolutely no idea what or who Daphne was. He tried and failed to explain and eventually realised that, unlike more horticulturally savvy guests, he'd landed himself a pair of ignorant dodos. We were clueless on plants appropriate for making paper. And so, heading back to our hotel, the River View, we pulled off the main road and scuttled up a rather rough looking side road and parked up outside a small building with a hand...

koshkha 15.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Jungshi Handmade Paper Factory, Thimphu