Special Bhutan! Thank you so much for arranging a…
Thank you so much for arranging a really lovely private tour. Very detailed information given to us prior to the set off made the preparations easier, especially for people who have little time to do detailed research. The pace of the tour was just nice, not too packed, not uneventful. There was care to spread it out so that it wasn’t 2 similar things back to back. This helps in our appreciation, and also takes into consideration that physical fitness of the travellers. Our guide Yeshey Dema was so lovely, knowledgeable and gave us space to also take pictures or interact with the environment. She managed our expectations about what to carry from day to day or even what to wear. It was also useful to know how long we would take to climb up to Tiger’s Nest Monastery, which is the crown jewel of the trip. Our driver, PG, was attentive, always anticipating if we needed help with making it up a slope or offering to help us with bags or a forgotten jacket left at a restaurant. Truly the hospitality of the Bhutanese is unmatched! Our guide took us to a local home for lunch one day. It was the best meal of the trip, prepared by the host and her parents. The wind at the farm/hillside was also unexpectedly strong. It was quite a thrill to walk along irrigated farmland to get to the house. What an experience! The host markets her homestay on TikTok. I would say some things for travellers to perhaps understand is a Bhutanese meal for tourist tends to be a buffet. In this spread of about 5-7 dishes, only 1 dish might/will be a meat dish. If you are a meat eater, you may need to be prepared for this. And when choosing accommodation, it would be great to have more pictures or videos of the various hotels to pick. The one we stayed at in Punakha made an impression on me: Dharma Siddhi. Again, very personalised, very quaint place, big rooms, lovey mountain location which gives you a fantastic view of the fortress esp at night. They even lent us a spare SIM card when our internet connection was less than stable with e-SIM. Also, while Druk Air is the national carrier, and the pilots very skilful, it’s good to know that the plane is a small one. This could be one of the reasons why you would always experience at least some turbulence when landing at Paro Airport. I managed to do whatever I wanted to for a week’s itinerary, except maybe the rafting down Mochu, the Mother River at Punakha. Bring extra clothes if you’re doing that cos it’s quite irresistible to jump in. But when you get out of the water, it will be cold. The wind will make sure of that!