Author Archives: Andrew

Well I did it! This is Paro Taktsang, otherwise known as the Tiger’s Nest, a monastery founded in the 15th Century which sits on a cliff edge over 1000m above the floor of the Paro Valley. Apart from the obvious visual attractions, this particularly appealed to me as it’s one of the main inspirations for Ra’s Al Ghul’s lair in Batman Begins. I’ve stood where that was filmed (in Iceland, about 150′ above sea level and about 100 yards from the car park :)), and wanted to visit the "real thing".

The story is that the monk Padmasmabhava changed one of his concubines (yes, I know…) into a tigress and flew up to the top of the cliff, and after they had each meditated for three months they started building the first temple. All I can say is that a flying tigress would probably be easier…

The walk up to the Tiger’s Nest is hard work, but really worth it. Horses take you up about 400m, where there’s a convenient cafe at a viewpoint. You then have to walk up another 500m to the top viewpoint, down steps carved into the cliffside about 200m, across a tiny bridge and up the same again on the other side to reach the monastery. Going back is the reverse, so there’s another 200m ascent before you reach the high point for the last time. Think of doing Snowdon one and a half times, but starting at twice the height of Ben Nevis!

My knees hold up reasonably well, and afterwards, by the time I’ve walked all the way down (no help from the horses in that direction), our guides have organised another excellent al fresco meal under the pine trees. Very pleasant.

In the afternoon the only thing we’re good for is a bit of shopping in Paro town centre, and another visit to it’s nice little coffee and cake shop. The "last supper" is uproarious, and emphasises what a great group this has been. Up early in the morning for the flight back to Kathmandu.

Another fairly early start. I’m feeling a bit wobbly, as are some of the others, but we put this down to maybe a bit more beer than ideal last night, as a form of anaesthetic after the long drive.

We have another stop at the Drochula Pass, which is definitely one of my favourite locations of the trip. This time is in bright sunshine, and we were able to include Bhutan’s highest mountains into our compositions, rather than the swirling mists of the outward stop.

I’ve been a bit challenged on food today. Breakfast was a couple of pancakes with honey, and then lunch in Thimpu was a bit of a disappointment – very spicy and nothing I could eat apart from some more bread-like stuff (green…). Dinner at the Tiger’s Nest Resort is a bit more edible, even if the main protein is Tofu! The upside is my trousers are feeling quite loose, so hopefully the trip has had the right effect on  my weight!

We do the horse ride and hike to the Tiger’s Nest in the morning. Fingers crossed.

Typical roadside shot. Note the vehicle coming the other way… I’m full of admiration for our driver, Chorten, who has managed long drives in very difficult conditions, safely, accurately and as smoothly as the roads and vehicle allow!

These friendly fellas were just sitting on the roadside yesterday, part of a larger troupe, but this is one of the best shots. Apologies for the somewhat obvious maleness of the one on the left, but given the number of phallic references on this trip, it sort of fits… 🙂

Some of you will know that I have an unerring knack to home in on bread, wherever it is and in whatever form. I couldn’t possibly miss this shot!

We have a 4.30 start for the long drive back to Punakha. I grumble a bit but this turns out to be a good call and our misty and cold but unaccompanied drive to Tsonga completes in an hour less than in the other direction on Friday.

After coffee we get an hour to wander around the Tsonga Dzhong, and then back on the road. If anything the next stage of the journey is rougher than on the way down and we suspect that the bus may have lost a shock absorber, but we make good time, including photoshoot of a troupe of cooperative macaques sitting at the roadside. However it’s still almost 6 when we finally get to the hotel in Wangdue, Punakha. We arrive with the hotel in darkness, but power is restored quite quickly.

The rest of the drive after that was very tiring, and we’ve arrived at a hotel which has no desks in the rooms and almost no Wifi cover. However I get an excellent night’s sleep, probably aided by an extra Druk 11,000 (the local beer).

Well, Bhumtang may well be a land of breath-taking sweeping vistas and intriguing details, but my room overlooks the local timber yard, and it looks very cold out. I start the day with a bath.

The hotel is a triumph of style over substance, and over night I have discovered errors of design (fiddly lighting, bed corners which bark your shins if you brush against them) and execution (a very slippery bathroom floor, and nowhere to put the soap and shampoo). Some of these will probably be rectified as the hotel gets some serious use. Others will annoy future travellers for some time to come…

While it looks cold as the sun comes up, it’s clearly going to be another day of sunshine, cloudless skies and warmth at least in the sun. So much for needing the waterproof trousers in Bumthang.

First stop of the day is the local secondary school, where we are allowed to photograph the assembly and the students getting themselves sorted out for lessons and exams. It’s amusing how many behaviours are absolutely universal for children of a certain age. It’s also refreshing for a group of people all mid-fifties or older to be allowed to wander around a school taking photographs. At home we’d be arrested, but we’re not doing anything improper and that’s recognised, whereas at home paranoia sometimes trumps common sense.

After breakfast it’s back up the pass to a small village which specialises in weaving and textile crafts. We’re also invited into a couple of homes, and free to wander around photographing the farms and common buildings. I finally find some appropriate recipients for the contents of the "goody bag" which Frances prepared, and hand these out to much squeaking and hilarity. It’s very interesting how quickly one boy, aged I reckon 3 or 4, picks up the words "goody bag"!

After lunch a couple of us decide to walk into the centre of town, to see what makes it tick and photograph the shops. (The others decide to go and visit another couple of temples, but I’m getting a bit temple’d out.) As I observe, it has the feel of a very small town in the midwest of the USA, with a similar single main street and lots of small shops carrying a very wide range of goods, but Asian.

Tonight we’ve been invited to the birthday party of the hotel owner’s daughter, and then it’s an early start tomorrow for the long drive back to Punakha.

After a somewhat later start, we drive up a steep mountain road to Nalanda Monastery Institute, basically a training school for Buddhist monks, with several of the initiates only 6 years of age. It’s ironic that these boys are entering a lifetime of study and meditation, and we have them working as models… However they are very welcoming, and the results are excellent in photographic terms.

The visit gives me an opportunity to reflect on another surprising dimension of Bhutan. Most of the older students and teachers speak excellent English. Bhutan seems to have decided that if it is going to have a successful high-value tourism industry, and also act as a “thought leader” in areas such as environmentalism despite its tiny population, it needs to operate in a globally-understood language. Unlike, say, the tourist coasts of southern Europe this runs a lot deeper than just the point of contact with tourists. Children take most of their school lessons in English, and it is rapidly becoming the primary “public language”. Most road-side signs are either bilingual, or English-only. Businesses have signs in English, even those with an “internal” focus. Behind the bar in a cafe all the health & safety notices are in English, except for maybe a couple of lines of preamble. All this despite never being part of the British Empire or Commonwealth.

It’s a fascinating contrast to Bhutan’s much larger southern neighbour, who while exploiting their skill with English for commerce, seem to be equally determined to drop English as an official language, with its colonial connotations.

Back to the photography, the second site of the day is a beautiful mountain village with the splendid name of Nobgang! From here we can get views with the village in the foreground and very high Himalayan peaks behind.

We are expecting to take lunch at a hotel back in the valley, but half way down the bus turns into a delightful picnic area under the pines, and we’re treated to another elegant al fresco meal.

After a couple of free hours in the afternoon, we gather for our guide, Yishi’s, “surprise activity”. This turns out to be an archery competition, in the dark, with alcohol! Great fun and fortunately no-one loses anything except pride. I am happy to report that thanks to a last minute bulls-eye by the most short-sighted member of the team, England beat the Rest of the World (Wales, Ireland, Australia, Germany and Bhutan) on aggregate, despite some outrageous cheating (such as having done it before) by Bhutan! 🙂

Long drive tomorrow, into the colder and wetter areas, so maybe some of the other gear will get a bit of use.