In and around Thimphu, Bhutan

River View

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Hotel | "Perfectly Acceptable But Rather Characterless Hotel"

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The River View is one of the best hotels in Thimphu – it must be, my guide book said so. It's not one of the most expensive – 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 two or even one person. And all your hotels are included in your trip cost...Read More

The River View is one of the best hotels in Thimphu – it must be, my guide book said so. It's not one of the most expensive – 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 two or even one person. And all your hotels are included in your trip cost. In theory you could specify that you wanted to stay in a particular hotel but in practice, you won't necessarily get what you ask for, even if you've got a confirmed booking. Not that it's easy to get any information about the hotels even if you wanted to. So my attitude was simple; leave it to the tour company and take what you get.

The hotel sits on the south bank of the river which runs through the city and overlooks the entire city of Thimphu. We had arrived after dark and could see the lights of the city from our bedroom but we didn't really have a sense of what to expect in daylight. When we arrived our guide ordered coffee and tea for us in the lobby whilst porters brought our bags in. The lobby is quite large with attractive art-deco style sofas and coffee tables. There's a small gift shop selling over-priced arts and crafts at one end of the lobby with the bar and restaurant at the other end. Our room was up two flights of stairs which wasn't a lot but we'd just climbed to the Thaktshang Monastery earlier that day and my legs were screaming in pain dealing with just those stairs.

Our room was number 209 and was pleasant and was probably the best furnished and decorated of the four rooms we had during our time in Bhutan but despite that, I didn't really like the place very much. There were two single beds (don't book Bhutan for a honeymoon, I don't think they've heard of double beds) with a small side table between, a coffee table with two arm chairs next to the windows, a desk with a chair, a television, a wardrobe and a suitcase stand. The floors were attractive solid wood and all the furnishings were of a good standard and the decoration was of a good standard with smooth walls and a ceiling with recessed lighting. The TV had a range of international channels as well as a kettle and a water flask. The bathroom was a bit grey and grim with lots of cold grey marble. The sink had a good sized vanity unit and the shower was over the bath with a small water boiler in the bathroom.

On our return later in the week we had another room which was a few doors down from the original and was considerably smaller. I couldn't figure out how the room had shrunk since from the corridor outside it looked like the distance between the rooms was the same. In this smaller room everything was squeezed in a bit too tight and the bathroom was very small with no space around the sink to put any of your toiletries.

One evening our guide had asked the hotel to send up some ice for my knees and a porter bought up a rather pretty ice bucket filled with ice cubes. I'm sure he had in mind that it was for a bottle of wine rather than my ropey old joints.

The restaurant at the River View has spectacular views over the city but the food was awful. We wanted to give our guide and driver the evening off as both lived near enough to go home to their families for the night so it made sense to eat in the hotel. However on our second night we just couldn't face going back for another dreary meal and so booked an early restaurant appointment so we could get away. There wasn't anything I could put my finger on in terms of poor quality or bad taste, it was just that the selection of food on the buffet was really uninteresting. I don't eat meat so my only option was one dull vegetable dish, some rice and some Indian-style flat bread. To be fair, the bread was great but you can't make a meal out of bread. The beers were horribly over-priced and the service was impersonal. Breakfast was slightly less awful but still very uninteresting.

Next morning when the sun came up we could see the biggest benefit of the River View – the fabulous views out over the city. All of the rooms face the city and all have a little terrace or balcony outside the windows. Across the river we could see the Changlimithang Stadium which plays host to most of Bhutan's important sports events and has the country's only proper football pitch. On our return visit at the end of the week we watched people preparing for the Coronation celebrations for the new king which were due to take place about 10 days later. Beyond the stadium we could see the golden spire of the National Memorial Chorten and the grid-like layout of the city in which there are no high-rise buildings.

There's nothing wrong with the River View. The rooms are well furnished, the staff nice enough and the views are great but there's something just a bit soul-less about the place. Of our three hotels in Bhutan, this was the one I find it most difficult to be excited about
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Member Rating 3 out of 5 on February 16, 2009

River View
Dechen Lam
Thimphu
+975 (2) 325030

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National Library of Bhutan

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Attraction | "You Won't Miss Much If You Miss This"

National Library of Bhutan Photo, Thimphu, Bhutan

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There are lots of things to see and do in Thimphu but visiting the National Library is one stop you can easily miss without your trip being any the poorer. I think it's a fair guess that most visitors dont open their guidebook and think "Wow, I must make sure not to miss going to the library" whereas the companies who organise tours are probably rubbing their hands together at the thought of somewhere they can take you that won't cost a penny.To be honest, from the moment we stepped through the doors of the old library building until we left the new library, I was puzzled about what the point of going had been. If you came to visit the village where I live with its population of 10,000 inh...Read More

There are lots of things to see and do in Thimphu but visiting the National Library is one stop you can easily miss without your trip being any the poorer. I think it's a fair guess that most visitors dont open their guidebook and think "Wow, I must make sure not to miss going to the library" whereas the companies who organise tours are probably rubbing their hands together at the thought of somewhere they can take you that won't cost a penny.

To be honest, from the moment we stepped through the doors of the old library building until we left the new library, I was puzzled about what the point of going had been. If you came to visit the village where I live with its population of 10,000 inhabitants, a row of shops, a Saxon church of spectacular significance and a park based around the reservoir, I could probably show you a better time going round the village library than you'll get in Thimphu.

Maybe that's a little harsh – there are undoubtedly some fascinating artefacts in the National Library, but unless you speak the local language and know how to read ancient Buddhist texts, you'll probably wander round like I did, almost totally clueless. It didn't help of course that we'd done a major climb to the Tiger's Nest monastery the day before and the last thing my legs needed were lots of steps, but even in my sprightliest and brightest of moods I would have struggled to get excited in the library. After all, it's just not the 'done' thing to GET excited in libraries.

The library was founded in 1967 as a repository for storing and preserving ancient and important texts in the local language and in obscure Buddhist languages such as Chos skad (I kid you not; I really didn't make that up). The collection has now outgrown its original home and a new building has been built next door. At the time of our visit, the library workers were in the process of moving a large part of the collection from one library to the other in large plastic boxes. The 'highlight' (if that's not too excited a word to use) of the older library building was a copy of the world's biggest book. It must be true – it's in the Guinness Book of World Records and it's a giant picture book of photos of Bhutan.

The new library building contains some books that are slightly more accessible to the browsing tourist - a collection of books from around the world which are about the Himalaya, Bhutan specifically, or Buddhism more generally. I had a browse at a few, took heed of the instructions to not try to re-shelve them and abandoned a few nice books on random tables for someone to put away. Job creation Bhutan-style.

I'm not really sure what I was expecting – not the British Library with its copyright library status ensuring a copy of every single book or magazine ever published. But I couldn't help thinking they might have found a bit more to tempt or intrigue a visitor. What else can I tell you? The staff seemed pleasant, nobody told us to shhhhhhh and the toilets were very clean and modern.

Try not to slam the door on your way out……
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Member Rating 1 out of 5 on February 16, 2009

National Library of Bhutan
GPO PO Box 185
Thimphu
+975 2 324314

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National Memorial Chorten

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Attraction | "Watching the Locals at Prayer"

Plaque at the entrance Photo, Thimphu, Bhutan

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We arrived in Thimphu 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 place of worship that serves as a magnet to the worship and devotion of the locals. In the case of Thimphu, it's the NMC that attracts worshippers more than any o...Read More

We arrived in Thimphu 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 place of worship that serves as a magnet to the worship and devotion of the locals. In the case of Thimphu, it's the NMC that attracts worshippers more than any of the many temples. You see the problem with Bhutanese temples is they are all too often stuck way up on top of hills with a long climb to get to them. It's not as if you could just pop in for a couple of prayers and a blessing in your lunch break. Instead, the NMC is right in the town center and is easy for people to drop in and visit.

It's a routine for many people, particularly the older locals, to go to the NMC every morning with their little prayer wheels and their rosaries, meet their friends to chat and pray, and to walk repeatedly round the building in a clockwise direction chanting their daily prayers. It's a place full of atmosphere that can move even the most cynical atheist.

The true purpose and identity of chortens is something I still struggle with. Also known as stupas in other Buddhist countries, they are built for many different reasons such as to mark a particularly auspicious place or commemorate a great event, or maybe in a position where they can ward off bad luck, such as at the point where two rivers meet or where a tragedy has occurred. In the case of the NMC, it was commissioned in 1974 as a memorial to the life and work of the late third king Jigme Dorji Wangchuk by his mother.

Normally chortens are receptacles for 'offerings' and in Bhutan they always contain some kind of religious relics. I'm led to believe they originated as the burial places of small bits of the remains of the Buddha – tiny pieces of bone from his cremation for example. But by now there must be far too many chortens and stupas for the Buddha to have been spread far too thinly and some contain things like written prayers and particularly nice stones or pieces of turquoise for example. The NMC is different from the other chortens we saw in being big enough to go inside – most were just small structures to walk around.

The NMC is built in the Tibetan style with a golden spire atop a mostly white dome. There is a chapel with three shrines and lots of paintings of tantric Buddhist iconography which I assume are inside the structure although we were kept outside and I didn't actually see anyone going into the chorten.

We parked outside the entrance and saw the only beggar of our entire time in Bhutan sitting on the ground just outside the door. Once through the archway we saw a large bank of prayer wheels off to the left-hand side, a statue on a covered plinth directly in front and behind that the Chorten itself. It's an impressive and sparkling structure with stepped profile and a spire of sinuous curves and it does look unusual in a country where the straight line is much more common than the wavy line. Together with our guide we walked around the chorten three times before sitting down to watch the locals. The joy of a familiar habit shone through on the faces of many as they circumambulated the building, chanting and swinging their wheels. Many of the older ladies were sitting in small groups enjoying the sunshine and chatting to their friends. We sat and watched for about 15 minutes then got up again to complete another three circuits of the chorten before we headed back to the car.

Would I say it's a life-changing and moving experience? In all honesty, no I couldn't say it's all that memorable but it is a pleasant way to see the locals engaging in something that clearly means a lot to them.
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Member Rating 3 out of 5 on February 1, 2009

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The Gentle Attractions of Mothithang Hill

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Entrance to the Transmission Centre Photo, Thimphu, Bhutan

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The centre of Thimphu town lies in a flat river valley but you can't go far before you hit the hills again. And as you might expect for any city with hills, there's always a favourite viewpoint where tourists go to look down on the town. On our first day in Thimphu we were told that we could get a good sense of the lay of the land by going up to the Sangaygang Transmission Tower which provides the city with the Bhutanese Broadcasting Service's programming and can be found in the Mothithang district of the city. Our driver set off to wind up the hairpins, climbing to a final elevation 2865m. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting but it was probably some kind of official viewing point – ma...Read More

The centre of Thimphu town lies in a flat river valley but you can't go far before you hit the hills again. And as you might expect for any city with hills, there's always a favourite viewpoint where tourists go to look down on the town. On our first day in Thimphu we were told that we could get a good sense of the lay of the land by going up to the Sangaygang Transmission Tower which provides the city with the Bhutanese Broadcasting Service's programming and can be found in the Mothithang district of the city.

Our driver set off to wind up the hairpins, climbing to a final elevation 2865m. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting but it was probably some kind of official viewing point – maybe even a small tower to climb up and take photographs. So we were a bit surprised when we came to the end of the road and found barbed wire fencing and 'keep out' signs. Don't think, as I did, that a trip to the television tower actually means a trip to the television tower – it's a trip to the car park just outside the compound where the television tower is located.

Once the disappointment of not climbing a tower was out of the way, we focused on having a good look at what there was to see. You don't unfortunately get the whole of Thimphu because you can't see the side of the hill that's blocked by the BBS but you do get a good view of about half of the city. In particular you can see across the valley to the location where the Fifth King's new residence is being built – a lovely spot where he should be able to sit on the patio with a glass of beer and look down on his city although it looked a bit of a lonely spot tucked into a clearing surrounded by heavy forestation.

We also watched building work going on in the valley directly below us where a major construction project was taking place to build homes for the parliament's new MPs. One of the major changes brought about by the Fourth King was the introduction of the country's first democratic elections in March 2008 in which 47 new members of parliament were elected. It's not likely to be a particularly dynamic parliament with 45 of the MPs from the same party and just two from the opposition so I wasn't surprised when I read that they've been banned from taking laptops into the chamber because several had been caught playing computer games when the assembly was in session. However, in a country where it can take all day to travel just 60 miles or so, many of the MPs represent constituencies that are 3 days drive away so all have to be given new homes. From the hillside it looks like a super-luxury housing estate of matching villas – each has to be as grand as the next so there can be no favouritism. It's a stark contrast to the shacks and tents of the Bengali building workers propped up along the edge of the building zone.

All around the Transmission tower the hillside is decorated with prayer flags fluttering in the breeze. It's not clear if these are to bless the city or to ensure uninterrupted TV transmission. In an attempt to preserve local heritage and keep its people doing healthy worthwhile activities instead of vegetating in front of the box, Bhutan didn't actually introduce television until 1999 making it the last nation on earth to do so. A few years later the TV was being blamed for a crime wave of unprecedented proportions (still pretty tame by Western standards I'm sure) so maybe the flags are to ward away evil influences. Perhaps going from no TV to 46 channels overnight was a bit too much for anyone to cope with in one go. We chatted about the elections, watched the bulldozers, took a few photos and that was it, visit to the TV tower well and truly completed.

You might be thinking that's not much excitement to justify going up the hill but there's another special attraction on the way back down the hill that's worth a stop, though admittedly not a long one. It's the Takin Preserve, possibly the world's lamest animal experience but also a bit of a giggle.

Thimphu used to have a small zoo focusing on local wildlife until the Fourth King decided that such a place wasn't really in keeping with Buddhist principles. So the zoo was closed and rather than taking the critters off to a field in the middle of nowhere and sending them on their way, it seems they just opened the gates and let them out. After many years of incarceration, some of the animals were unable to adapt to freedom and stayed in the area, wandering around begging for food and causing havoc on the roads of the city. Once it became clear that they had no intention of going quietly on their way, the fences went up again to protect the animals, and the zoo was renamed as the Takin Preserve.

The Takin is an indigenous animal which looks like a combination of a gnu and a musk deer (I admit I didn't come up with that comparison, I was told that's the official simile). Legend says that it was created by Lama Drukpa Kunley, a colourful character of Bhutanese Buddhism who's better known by his nickname of 'The Divine Madman'. It is said that he went to a feast where he ate a whole cow and a whole goat. With a burp, he stuck the head of the goat on the bones of the cow, commanded it to stand up and created the Takin.

In addition to Takin, the reserve has several deer species including reindeers and muntjacs. One of the reindeers had three legs and the muntjacs made us giggle because they're also quite common in the UK where they are best known for the damage they can do to your car if you hit them. If you are hoping for Bengal Tigers and wild elephants, you will be disappointed by the Takin Preserve.

We parked up outside the Preserve and headed in. There's no fee to go and not an enormous amount to see but the preserve is laid out very well with metal walkways around the perimeter and small gaps in the fencing where you can take photographs. The takins weren't playing friendly and stayed well away in the middle of the compound but the muntjacs were happy to come over to us for grass and leaves. Somewhat unnervingly the last part of the walk around the preserve goes right through the middle of a family's farm and we felt we were intruding a bit as we strolled past the chickens and through the main farmyard. Nobody batted an eyelid. The animals had plenty of space, appeared to be well cared for and weren't exhibiting any signs of incarceration stress.

We left the preserve and headed back down the hill, a bit under-whelmed by these two attractions but also quite amused. Can you imagine any other major city where standing on a hill and looking at disabled deers would be a highlight of the city tour? Mind you, at that point we still had the National Library to look forward to – but that's another story!
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National Folk Heritage Museum

Best Of IgoUgo

Attraction | "Who Can Resist Nosing Around in Someone Else's House?"

National Folk Heritage Museum Photo, Thimphu, Bhutan

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Many of the attractions we saw in Thimphu, the capital city of Bhutan didn't really excite or interest me as much as they perhaps should have done. The National Library was dreary, the School of Traditional Arts left me thinking that 7 years learning how to make a statue and do a bit of embroidery left the students less fitted for the 21st century than a couple of years learning to use a computer and I also had a bit of a giggle at the so-called mini-zoo with a bunch of deer and deer-like critters that had either been too tame to run away when they tried to shut the zoo, or - like the three legged reindeer - found it a comfy place to see out their days. However one of the outstanding attra...Read More

Many of the attractions we saw in Thimphu, the capital city of Bhutan didn't really excite or interest me as much as they perhaps should have done. The National Library was dreary, the School of Traditional Arts left me thinking that 7 years learning how to make a statue and do a bit of embroidery left the students less fitted for the 21st century than a couple of years learning to use a computer and I also had a bit of a giggle at the so-called mini-zoo with a bunch of deer and deer-like critters that had either been too tame to run away when they tried to shut the zoo, or - like the three legged reindeer - found it a comfy place to see out their days.

However one of the outstanding attractions which I really enjoyed was the National Folk Museum which I thought was probably the best museum we saw in the country. What I particularly enjoyed was the opportunity to see inside an authentic old Bhutanese house and get a picture of how people lived 100 years ago, and indeed how many people still live today especially in the countryside. There's something slightly 'Disney' about the perfection of Bhutanese life that leaves you yearning to peek behind the perfectly painted windows and see beyond the charming flower beds to understand more about the people beyond.

The highlight of the Folk Museum is the farmhouse. It's over a hundred years old - which isn't THAT old by European standards - but it doesn't need to be older to illustrate a way of life that's been unchanged for many centuries. When you enter the museum you find yourself in a large garden edged by some museum buildings and a small shop. The garden has examples of a water driven grain mill and an millstone for extracting seed oils. There is a small kitchen garden with vegetables and some fruit trees. Passing through a doorway, you reach the farmhouse - a massive many-storied building that at first makes you think it must be the home of a very wealthy man but then you realise that this isn't just a family home - it's where the animals live, where the crops are stored, where your food is cooked, where your gods are worshiped and where your very large family spend the coldest times of the year.

Starting on the ground floor of the house there's a small courtyard with a burner to prepare incense for daily worship. Animals would have been kept in this courtyard which was partially covered. In olden days, the animals would have moved into the house and occupied the ground floor in the freezing winter months but legislation now prevents people from keeping their animals inside the house for health reasons. The courtyard and ground floor had lots of old agricultural implements and storage baskets and bins for keeping crops. Wine was stored in bamboo bottles of similar design to arrow cases used for the national sport of archery.

Heading up the ladder-like stairs, we found a massive grain bin on the first floor for keeping the harvest of grain dry and safe from rats and vermin. Another large room was also given over entirely to food storage. Up on the second floor we found the kitchen - the heart of the home and the only room with a source of heat in the winter months. The kitchen was large with a large range and plenty of pots and serving dishes that wouldn't have looked out of place in a British home, but unlike our cosy lifestyles, the Bhutanese family would have had little choice other than to move into the kitchen to live and sleep through the winter. Across the corridor from the kitchen was the main living room which was decorated with lots of personal effect - bags, and clothes were hanging from pegs around the room.

The final room on this floor was the altar room decorated with Buddhist statues and a small shrine. This room would have been used for worship and to house any visiting monks. That might sound like a strange idea, but most families in Bhutan even in the 21st century still send several of their sons (big families are the norm) to the monastery to become monks. A small bathroom with a 'long drop' toilet was in a tiny room off the side of the altar room and discharged directly outside - probably for the pigs to eat up the mess.

From the second floor we stepped onto a balcony and looked out at the garden. There was a small chorten (a religious building) in the garden as well as a big sunken wooden bath divided into a small and a large part. We were told this was for the traditional 'hot stone bath' and sure enough, next to the bath was a large pile of stones on what looked like a campfire. The bath would be filled with cold water and then stones heated on the fire and dropped into the small part of the bath to heat the water for washing. Another steep ladder led up from the balcony into the roof space where further crops could be stored.

Entry to the museum was 10 Ngultrums (about 12 pence) for locals and 150 Ng (about £2) for tourists. However, this is generally included in your tour cost and not something you'd have to pay for yourself. Disappointingly, photography is NOT allowed inside the farmhouse and you'll probably find a museum employee keeping an eye on you at all times, so don't be tempted to sneak a few pictures.

We particularly enjoyed being the only people in the museum throughout our visit - I think we must have arrived just as it opened after lunch. As we left a large tour group arrived and I was glad to not have to share the place with them, especially with so many steep ladder staircases to get up and down. For that reason, this wouldn't be an attraction for anyone who's not too stable on their feet, but for anyone else, it's a great way to experience a way of life that's very alien to most of us.

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Member Rating 5 out of 5 on January 27, 2009

National Folk Heritage Museum
Pedzoe Lam
Thimphu
+95 (2) 327133

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