BPD: Back on the Indian border

(BPD: Back on the Indian border, 1 May '15)

After a good week in Bhutan, I had booked my return for the 1st of May from Paro, by bus.  I was looking at taking a day extension and visiting Punakha valley in Bhutan, another scenic place in Bhutan. However, I had put this off for the next trip and planned to get back on my 7th day in Bhutan, which was the default permit duration. Being a little more informed about the workings, I promptly 'reserved' my ticket at the Paro city bus stop a day earlier, and arrived on time at the designated hour of departure. As the bus rolled out of Paro and crossed the Paro Dzong, small & impressive Paro Airport, undulating mountains and the valleys, I bid my goodbyes, until the next time.

Meeting a varied set of interesting individuals had been happening throughout my backpack journey. Again, in the bus, I was fortuitous to meet another different individual. A man who looked to be in his forties, was actually a retired civil engineer who had worked with the UN and other agencies in a job, travelling around the world. What was interesting however, was what he did after retirement. After observing farming models in Australia, he set out to try his hand at farming, more in an attempt to put his unused land in Bhutan to some use.

Starting with a very small area cultivated with crops and fruit trees, he also bought a couple of cows and chicks to dabble with a new, full-time job as a farmer! As small successes led to excitement, coupled with his stellar entrepreneurial streak, though late in life, he had rapidly expanded in the last 2 years. He gave an interesting account of why and how he tried out different things in his farm, and how he had ended up with a large cultivated area, growing close to a dozen crops and fruits like paddy, maize, banana, pears, lychee, guava. His animal farm had also expanded into hundreds of cattle and a big layer-poultry producing milk, eggs and other dairy products that he sold in the local market. He was also using all this produce in a tourist guest house which he had also set up, to brisk business in South Bhutan and Paro!

His energy was infectious and he spoke more like a man on a mission, who had just begun and was hungry to try out a hundred more new things in his farm. He pointed to the plenty of land still left unused, as if it were another indication of the miles left to go, for him. It was amazing to hear the knowledge he had accumulated in a short span and his eagerness to learn more, in an area completely different from his life-long profession. When he also mentioned about the blueprint he had just drawn up for contract-farming of cattle and how he intends to expand, I saw a lot of similarities in him with Suguna's MD Sundararajan, who had painstakingly and ingeniously carved out a billion-dollar poultry business in India over the last 2 decades.

Deep in conversation, I didn't realise that we had spoken 6 hours and had already reached the Bhutanese border town of Phuentsholing. Bidding good bye, I proceeded back to the same hotel that I had stayed in, on my first day in Bhutan.  By now, I had made up my travel plan for the last 2 days of my trip. I was going to stay put in the border town and just chill out for a day, reading, writing and having a relaxed time, with a change of gear from the continuous travel that I'd been doing. I just reminded myself again, that it was just a vacation and this was what I felt like doing, at that hour!

6AM: Lounging at the park, Phuentsholing	Bird (is also) watching..!

BPD: Scaling the famed Tiger's Nest

(BPD: Scaling the Tiger's Nest, 30th Apr '15)

With rains lashing out the city until early afternoon on 29th April, I had walked around Paro visiting the local places that day and had planned to visit the famed 'Taktsang' monastery the next day, a Thursday. On a clear day its better to start early for the monastery, since it involves a strenuous uphill 4 hours walk and it could get either very hot midday or end up with some early showers, with the weather being unpredictable in the mountains.

Starting at 8 am, I took a shared taxi until the junction where the main road splits towards the base point of the monastery. From there, it was about 4 km to the base, which was a nice scenic, morning walk on a gradual uphill road, meandering across the river and through a small hamlet with completely timber-built houses. Considering the views along the path, I decided to not cover this bit by taxi. After an hour of walking and sneak previews of the Taktsang monastery from afar, I reached the base until which point all taxis ferry the tourists. And there were a decent number them at that hour of the morning.

The village en route to Tiger's Nest Monastery (partially visible on the cliff behind clouds)

Timber-built houses in the village	Interesting sign at a monastery, on the way

The base point has some makeshift tourist shops selling knick-knacks, apart from other minor refreshments. There are no elaborate arrangements at this place for meals or any additional facilities, hence its better to come prepared to directly start hiking from this point. Considering that the route turns out to be a tough hike for first-timers and old aged people, they have an option to use mules. However this option is only until a midpoint during the journey, and from there one must hike through some narrow pathways, that are best covered only on foot.

The route up the mountain has a well paved, wide dirt track for the horses and those preferring a gradual incline, while there is also a steep trail that saves some distance but involves steep, tiring climb. The total distance up to the monastery is about 5km or 3 hours from the base point, and at various points we saw small sets of tourists turning back as they couldn't make it up further. The heavy rains from the earlier day were partly playing spoilsport, with the path becoming wet & slippery.

Model of the water-bell setup
& actual one (Botanical garden)

While I started the climb up, I was surprised to hear some voices in Tamil, not a usual occurrence in such a faraway place. This was a businessman from Chennai who was travelling with his family on their annual vacation to this mountain Kingdom and had covered Thimphu and Punakha valley, which is rated as the next most scenic place in Bhutan, after Paro. Chatting and walking together, we crossed a place where the waterfall flowing from the top of the mountain turned into a small stream at the base. As with the standard Bhutanese architecture, they had built three domes on the stream's path, each housing a large prayer bell that gets operated and pushed around by the water flowing around a paddle that's fit at the bottom of the bell. With the continuous flow of water, the bells perpetually chime away to glory, and the simple but ingenious mechanism with the chiming sound is a sight to behold. Such water operated bells can be found throughout the country and many of these are of considerable antiquity.

Prayer bell domes at Taktsang base	..and the stream water exiting the bells

Flowering Rhododendrons

Right at the midpoint where the horses halt and bid goodbye, there is the 'Taktsang' cafe that serves tea and coffee with sugar-coated biscuits, to give a small break from the walk. The views of the monastery from this point are click-worthy. At this point, the family from Tamil Nadu decided to stay back, not wanting to risk the climb with kids and the middle-aged lady. While I moved ahead, the driver who was accompanying the family joined me, for the last leg of the journey. The final leg of the hike up from there is at almost the same altitude as that of monastery but goes around the mountains. The walk is on rock-cut steps over a series of zig-zag paths going up-down, amidst rhododendrons in full bloom and offering stunning views of the monastery, of the high waterfall and also of the steep drop down into the rolling valleys beneath. The view at several places got so beautiful that I stopped taking pictures, since I realized it was impossible for the pictures to do justice to the views unfolding! I just stood by and tried to internalize the beauty.

View at the midpoint, near Taktsang Cafe	View of Taktsang from Cafe

The more one looks at the monastery it makes one wonder how monks could have made it up here in the earlier ages, let alone complete a full-fledged construction at such an elevation, against the sheer drop of the cliff. The path to the monastery, across the mountains has been developed well for tourists and made safe with solid iron and concrete railings added. Construction of this path would have also been a tough, expensive and time-consuming affair.

Yet another shot of the cliff..	..and the stone-cut steps in the path

Reaching the monastery at 12.30 PM, we just had 30 minutes to complete the prayers before the temple closed for the hour-long lunch break. The monastery has large and majestic statues of Guru Rinpoche, also called Guru Padmasambhava in the main and assumed forms. Legend has it that the Guru flew onto this cliff on top of a winged tigress, meditated and took a ferocious form to tame the local evil spirit and turn it into a protective deity.

The Tiger's Nest Monastery, finally from up-close

Amongst the temples and butter lamp hall, we were surprised to see a small opening in the cliff labeled the 'tiger nest'. Not finding any tourists going in and unaware of the significance, we ventured into the completely dark cave that was damp and slippery with water continuously trickling into the rocks. The opening led into a cave with a steep drop of almost 2 floors inside that had to be covered by crawling down a slanted wooden panel, then on a make-shift ladder, and finally squeezing oneself to get past a huge boulder in the way. This path finally culminates in a small dark corner in the cave, that had the Guru's picture and a small lighted lamp. We learnt later that this was the place where the Guru had meditated for 3 years, 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days & 3 hours in the 8th century! Before climbing out, we tried coming out on the opposite end of a rock crevice that showed some light streaking into the otherwise dark cave. This brought us onto the edge of the cliff that was a vertical drop, and gave a clear, unobstructed view of the valley and snow-covered mountains on the other edge of the Paro city, bordering Haa.

Lunch at Champaca cafe, Paro city

After scrambling out of the 'real' tiger nest cave, we made it out of the monastery, just in time for the monastery's lunch break. After a short pause to meditate in the serene and heavenly surrounding, we were on our way back. This time, the way down was covered mostly on the steep walking path that needed a little, careful maneuvering to avoid twisted ankles. The journey down was covered in 1 hour flat, to get us back to the base point, completely exhausted but fully invigorated. Once back in Paro city, I headed straight to the Champaca cafe for a sumptuous lunch of rice with kidney beans dal and vegetable salad.

BPD: Paro, a Paradise on Earth

(BPD: Paro, a Paradise on Earth, 29 Apr '15)

Paro, is about an hour from Thimphu, at a distance of 55km and the closest city to the capital. Though a smaller town with lesser business activity than the capital Thimphu, its a much more beautiful place with pristine and natural, breathtaking landscapes. It also has the famed 'Taktshang' or Tiger's Nest monastery, that is the unofficial symbol of Bhutan for tourists, and a single look at which would make one want to visit the country.

Paro is covered on all sides by mountains, and the valley in between is a fertile land cultivated by the Paro Chhu river that runs through the length of the city. Its truly a sight to see the vast number of fields that grow paddy, wheat and a variety of other crops that give its fields several shades of green, brown and red interspersed. This city, like the rest of Bhutan is sparsely populated and only the main Paro city has a continuous line of houses, hotels and shops, which is anyway just 3 streets wide! The city has a calming influence on people and the only sound is that of the occasional plane touching down or taking off from the Paro airport, which is an equally impressive tourist sight, unlike perhaps any other airport in the world.

Arriving at Paro on the night of 28th April, I had about 2 days to spend, before I started my journey back to the border on the 1st of May, until when I had the visa. I started the day with a breakfast of Bhutanese fried rice and freshly prepared spicy pickle, amidst a heavy bout of rains. The unseasonal rains had been playing hide and seek throughout my backpacking trip, but the weather Gods had been considerate enough to not foil or majorly alter any of my plans, anywhere. I decided to spend the day visiting the Paro Dzong and the natural history museum, apart from walking around the city and possibly hiking up one of the many mountains around.

The National Museum of Bhutan is housed in the ancient and renovated Ta Dzong, which is a 7 storey tall watch tower built in the shape of a conch-shell. This structure is currently under renovation following some damages due to the 2011 Sikkim earthquake that rocked the entire Himalayan region. The museum has a good set of antique paintings apart from detailed notes and video on the traditional Masked dances of Bhutan. There are also some ancient bronze artifacts and other exhibits, dated thousands of years old, that trace the culture of Bhutan. However the highlight of the museum is the abundant information painstakingly put together on the natural history of Bhutan, its varied climatic zones, different types of forests in the country and the associated flora and fauna. There are some well preserved taxidermy exhibits of several animals and exotic birds.

View of Paro Dzong overlooking the city	Painting in the fort

The Paro 'Dzong' or fort is nearby, within walking distance of the museum and houses a massive structure with an imposing central dome that raises up 5 floors, and for quite some height above the surrounding structure. Since most 'Dzongs' are converted into regional administrative offices, there is little tourist focus and no information provided on the history or significance of the forts, which was a disappointment. Taking cue from several forts in India where sound and light shows are organised daily, it would be a great means to explain the rich cultural and historical significance of these structures.

Inside the Paro Dzong..	Ancient dustbins made of tanned animal skin!

Guided by some locals, I decided to descend the fort through the back-entrance, that is generally used only by locals commuting to this part of the city. This route offered some stunning views of the entire Paro valley, along with the mountains in the backdrop that stand out with varied shades of pine and fir trees. From the heights of the Paro Dzong, one can clearly see the pristine waters of the Paro Chhu river entering the Paro city at a distance, running through the series of paddy fields on its path towards the fort, and eventually snaking its way along the fort walls and under the ancient foot-over-bridge towards the route that eventually takes it out of the city.

River Paro Chho flowing by the fort

Rear view of the Paro Dzong..	Picture-perfect landscape.. view from fort

Descending from the fort and crossing the wooden bridge, I got onto a street that houses the art gallery with some of the best 'thangka' paintings that I had come across in Bhutan. 'Thangka' is a traditional Tibetan-Budhist painting done on cloth depicting a composition of several minute religious figures. Detailed with vivid colors it appeared to be machine printed to perfection, though in reality all paintings in display had been created over weeks and months of effort by the local artists. Stepping into a painters working room, I could see several in-progress works of thangka art and the kind of detailed sketching and preparatory work that goes into making each masterpiece, which typically takes anywhere from a couple of months to over a year.

I then walked right through the paddy fields to some more breathtaking views and passed some truly rustic homes. Reaching the other end of the valley, I decided to hike up the first visible mountain through a dirt track, which I learnt that eventually goes up to the Chele La pass, bordering the Ha valley. The mountains in the pass were now visible and exhibited fresh snow deposited from the morning's change in weather.

A walk through the paddy fields	..its lush green everywhere!

A set of rustic homes near fields	A serene place near the house

As I started hiking up, I passed some children who were getting back home up in the mountains, after their day at school. Soon there was no sign of people movement and almost an hour of hiking alone got me to an area where I was greeted with some barking by a pair of wild mountain dogs. I moved perilously past the dogs after picking up a couple of stones to scare the dogs, or rather give me some false comfort! Walking further ahead, I crossed a small village with few huts, and to some louder barking, this time by some domesticated guard dogs in the village homes. Not seeing any people movement in the village, I moved ahead, towards a small monastery that I had heard about being on this route.

After covering some distance, the pack of wild dogs were growing stronger with a couple more additions and all patiently started following me, some wagging tails and others not giving any indication of friendship, or otherwise. Feeding them with some cookies didn't seem to work with all the dogs, as the friendly ones ate them all up, making the others sulk more. There I was, walking like a pied-piper with a pack of wild dogs following me! Finally, with the monastery in sight at some distance and dusk setting in, I decided not to push my luck further and turned back on the way down. This time, I took the steep trail going down the mountain and managed to converge to the route inspite of missing the half-visible trail at several places. Back amongst some mountain homes I encountered a bunch of little enthusiastic kids who were spending their evening playing near their homes. They promptly greeted me and asked a lot of questions on my whereabouts, but also regaled with their knowledge of Hindi cartoon characters and their dialogues - Chota Bheem, Motu Patlu, Doraemon and the likes seemed to be the most popular Hindi versions that they watched!

View of paddy fields on the way back	Kids getting back from school

Coffee & pastry at Champaca cafe!

Reaching Paro main city, I checked into the Champaca Cafe, an outlet serving great coffee, good food, a warm ambiance with a mini library and free WiFi - all great ingredients to attract travellers and there they were keeping the cafe busy through the day. While in Paro I spent a lot of time lounging around this cafe drinking loads of coffee, chatting with the travelers, reading and writing.