Pinewood Hotel Thimphu

... br>day you can get spectacular views of the Himalayas. After lunch you<br>will drive to Punakha, the former capital of Bhutan, and visit Punakha<br>Dzong, which is noteworthy both for being one of the most beautiful<br>Dzongs in Bhutan and also for having been built by the first Shabdrung<br>in 1637. On the way back, you will stop at Metshina Village and take a<br>20 minutes walk through the rice fields to Chhimi Lhakhang, which is a<br>fertility temple, where you may ...

... services and education are provided by the government for free. Other examples of how tourism earnings get to the local communities: 1. Repairing and maintaining trekking trails. In many instances, park managers award contracts to local people for the maintenance of foot bridges and trails. 2. The rest and community houses along trekking routes, that were built by the government prior to the privatization of tourism, have been handed over ...

... to use the spa and then returned to the dining area to have a lie down. I was attended to by the most welcoming and friendly staff, who saw to my every needs, hot water, choclate cake, tea nothing was ever a bother, the term &#8216;what great service&#8217; jumps to mind time and time again, the staff are trained to look after your every whim, want and need. <br><br>Having followed the philosophy of &#8216;feed a cold and starve a fever&#8217; and weighed down by a ton of chocolate ...

... with a crumpled van on its side, that had obviously fallen from the road above onto our section below. Fortunately there was noone in it, but we spent the next 4 hours gazing over the side of the raod at sheer drops of over 400m to the rivers below. We were glad to make the border, if only to get off that road. After organsising our bus to Siliguri we crossed the border into India and instantly, the stress we had escaped for a week in Bhutan flooded back as we were hassled for ...

... the rest of the world. I guess those barriers fell in the 60s, but the country has worked to maintain its cultural history by limiting the number of tourists. There's a real fear the place will be a tourist mob scene like Nepal, so there is a high visa fee which limits the number of travelers. In 2007, I just heard, there were 23,000 tourists in the country. Given the high costs, it's unusual that a "young person" is traveling here, as most people who visit ...

Today I woke up late as there's some weird ass half hour time change from Gaya, India to Paro, Bhutan. I ate breakfast quickly and power packed my bag. Sangay and the driver met me promptly at 9am and we went to the National Museum. The museum was really interesting - it was in an old fort (you can see the picture of the round building). There is no photography allowed inside, as there is a concern that the country's cultural heritage and design will be ...

... suspicious (as well as my jar of jam), so the security people said that "they would have to confiscate it for the time being, but would return it when I landed in Bhutan." OOOOOOO K! Whatever. ;) (Amusingly, halfway through the hour long flight, the flight attendant returned them both to me). So I arrived in Paro, Bhutan easy peasy. The flight had only about 25 people on it, though the plane was much larger and could accommodate about a hundred passengers. There ...

... monks were performing some rituals in advance of the scarf ceremony that we were to take in later that day. Eventually, we needed to head back to the hotel so that we could get ready for the scarf festival. This entailed putting on our traditional Bhutanese outfits that we had purchased yesterday. Thankfully, Sonam our guide had arranged for us to get some help with dressing. Getting the Goa on was not an easy thing. Basically an over-sized ...

... the smallish terminal building was done in a fantastic Bhutanese style, a cross between a pagoda and a gilded swiss-style house. We were ushered into the terminal building and lined up for customs, which was quite an interesting affair. Basically, you hand over your passport and printed Visa, and the customs guard cross references your name and travel details with a binder that is organized by tour company. There were no issues entering ...

... and you must never miss to visit Bhutan this year with Bhutan Enigma Tours and Treks as we offer comforts and care for our visitors to be in the celebrations with the people of Bhutan. Mr. Tashi Dorji Tenzing from Bhutan Enigma welcomes you to the Kingdom of Bhutan. Visit bhutanenigma.com for more details and we are there for you to assist you to plan your trip to Bhutan.