The Start

27 Sept 2018

The flight to Paro from Kathmandu gave us great views of the greater Himalayas from Everest to Kanchenjunga. Then after a small gap, Jhomalhari appeared above the cloud and is one of Bhutan’s 7000m mountains that form it’s northern border with Tibet. Along Jhomalhari was Jitchu Drake which proved to be more illusive in the early part of our trek.
Paro airport was like a monastery, calm, organised and proudly displaying the words “Happiness is a Place”.

We checked in to the most enormous hotel room we have ever experienced with splendid views across the Paro Chu valley to the Dzong.
Dzongs were originally protective forts but now serve as administrative and spiritual centres for each of Bhutan’s twenty districts. The Bhutanese language “Dzongkha” literally means language of the Dzong.
The headline 50% completion rate of the Snowman Trek has lead to some alterations in recent years by our trekking company as many people got sick due to rapid altitude gain. One, modification, recommended by the king who has completed the journey himself, is to complete an acclimatisation day to Taktshang Goempa or “Tiger’s Nest Monastery” (3120m).

It is on the itinerary for just about everyone who visits Bhutan but, before heading off to trek, it should be done on foot rather than being tempted by the highly hazardous horse ride most of the way up. We witnessed a Chinese woman being thrown from her horse just at the start of the track, fortunately with only minor injuries. Many of the other tourists we encountered were from India as they are able to travel visa-free and without the high daily tariff that is charged to the rest of the world.
We were a group of 7 clients and a trekking team of 7 to match, one for each butter lamp glowing beneath the Buddha in all the Goempas or monasteries we visited- very auspicious! Our journey was about 300km with 11 passes and taking 26 days with 3 rest days.
“The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground”
The Buddha 

Horse and Yak teams have to come from different districts so we had 4 different teams of animals which, as will be revealed, can cause issues.

Comments

  1. Unknown27 October 2018 at 09:06

    Love this! Thank you Nick and Sue. I am looking forward to the next instalment.

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    1. Unknown27 October 2018 at 18:20

      This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Sue and Nick Morton27 October 2018 at 18:25

    Thanks, all posts are now published, click the left arrow next to Home at the bottom of page

    ReplyDelete

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