An A to Z of Bhutan

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An October 2008 trip to Bhutan by koshkha

T is for Tigers Nest, Photo, Bhutan, Asia

Quote: With so much to say about the country of Bhutan and so many reviews to write, I wanted to provide an overview within the constraints of an A-Z format. We spent a week in this beautiful country in October 2008.

14 Photos

Archery to Ema Datse - A Bhutan A to Z

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I suspect that a lot of people haven't even heard of this tiny Himalayan kingdom and that would be fair enough. Don't beat yourself up if you don't know Bhutan - most people can't find it on a map so you're not alone. Bhutan is tucked away in the Himalaya mountain range, sandwiched between Tibet and India. By strictly controlling who comes in and who goes out, the Bhutanese adopted a tactic that reminds me of Douglas Adams' creation the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal. This creature appears in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy as a "mindboggingly stupid animal" (not that I'm suggesting in anyway that the Bhutanese approach is anything less than wise) which assumed that if you can't se...Read More

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4WD to Jumolhari - A Bhutan A to Z

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~F is for Four Wheel Drive ~The roads of Bhutan are shocking. We were only in the relatively well-developed west of the country but even so we bumped and bounced, swayed and swung for hours to get any where. Take some travel sickness tablets - or buy them locally where they are readily available. We were told that the locals are rotten travellers and spend most journeys being sick so it's not hard to find tablets. 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 u...Read More

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Knees to OAPs - A Bhutan A to Z

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K is for Knees, M is for Mountains Photo, Bhutan, Asia

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~ K is for knees ~As a result of the men wearing the Gho, you will probably see more male knees in Bhutan than almost anywhere else and will almost certainly never see a lady's knees. I'm told that - like a true Scotsman - a Bhutanese should wear nothing under his gho but thankfully I can't confirm that. What I did notice though is that wearing a skirt is not considered by most men as a good reason to keep their knees together. In winter you may be spared the sight of so many knees when they adopt the use of thermal long-johns. K is also for my knees which are dodgy at the best of times (ligament and knee problems caused by too much hockey and ice hockey in my misspent youth). ...Read More

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Permits to Tiger's Nest - A Bhutan A to Z

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~ P is for Permits ~Another reason you'll need to have a guide is that your local tour company is responsible for getting your permits. Almost everything worth seeing in Bhutan is barred to tourists unless they have a permit. You'll notice your guide fumbling in the pouch of his gho for the paperwork he needs to present to the caretaker monk at each old temple. Despite seeing this happen repeatedly, I'm still not clear how it works. When we asked to stop at a dzong which wasn't officially on the itinerary, our guide just popped off to the office to get an old permit photocopied. I liked to think that someone in an office with a rubber stamp had carefully considered whether to allow us to v...Read More

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Umbrellas to Zeppe - A Bhutan A to Z

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~ U is for umbrellas ~We didn't get so much as a sniff of rain but we saw lots of umbrellas - all carried by ladies shielding themselves from the sun. Lest you are tempted to insist that these are parasols and should be under "P is for..." I'll defend myself by saying there was nothing particularly elegant and lacy about these. They were proper brollies. ~ V is for Villages ~Bhutanese life is village life. The capital city has a population of around 30,000 and the second city around 10,000. In each case the figures include the villages around the city. Neither would get city status in the UK. The rest of the population is spread throughout the country in villages. L...Read More