Dove Lake boatshed in Cradle Mountain National Park, Tasmania
I’ve been offline for some months, enjoying down-time with family and friends between travels. We wandered so much in 2019 (7.5+ months in total, including 12 countries and a couple of extended U.S. roadtrips) that I got behind on blogging. Also, I wasn’t sure I had much to add to the sea of info out there, and if I don’t think I can add something meaningful, I don’t feel compelled to blog just for the sake of it. That said, I do feel remiss about not sharing the awesome Tasmanian itinerary laid out for us by native-Tassie friends, Gail and Lyndon.
Wombat in Cradle Mountain National Park
We met Gail and Lyndon on our around-the-world odyssey celebrating a big birthday for David. When we told them we planned to visit Australia the following spring (2019), they convinced us to add Tasmania to our itinerary. When I emailed them later to ask for some practical pointers, they immediately wrote back, inviting us to stay a night on either end of our Tassie stay and laying out a 6-night itinerary for us. We were blown away, and ended up following nearly all of their suggestions, constrained only by time and weather. We had a wonderful time and I wish the same for anyone else considering a visit to Tasmania. It’s a unique place, and we were surprised to find that the vast majority of Australians we met had never made the journey. So without further ado, here you go, Gail and Lyndon’s Taste of Tasmania itinerary in their words:
“…As you can imagine there are many and varied things to see and do in this wonderful island state of Tasmania. Local produce, beers, wines, whiskeys and gin are also a must try. So we have focussed on some highlights for your visit.
We have put our thinking caps on and come up with the following suggestion for a “Taste of Tasmania” visit.
Day 1: Arrive in Launceston, travel via Sheffield to Cradle Mountain, Dove and Crater Lakes. Distance 122 kilometres, travelling time 1 hour and 40 minutes. Sheffield is known as the Town of Murals. The first town mural was painted in Sheffield in December 1986. Since then over 60 murals depicting the area’s rich history and beautiful natural scenery have been painted on walls throughout the town and buildings along the roadside. Cradle Mountain is 1545metres high and is surrounded by stands of native deciduous beech, rainforest, alpine heath lands and button grass and is rich in wildlife and is one of the principal tourist sites in the state. The area around the mountain has a large number of day walks. Cradle Mountain offers a variety of accommodation styles available for an overnight stay.
Day 2: Depart Cradle Mountain via Waratah to Strahan. Distance 207.4 kilometres, travelling time 2 hours and 33 minutes. Waratah is a small, scenic town on the edge of the Tarkine wilderness with a rich mining past, a magnificent town-side waterfall and a unique lakeside setting. Call into the Tarkine Interpretation Centre, entry is free. Strahan is nestled on the shores of massive Macquarie Harbour, Strahan is the gateway to the World Heritage listed Franklin–Gordon Wild Rivers National Park and is full of stories from the days of convicts and pioneers toughing it out in Tassie’s wild west. Visit Ocean Beach and smell the freshest air in the world, take a Gordon River Cruise or a ride on the West Coast Wilderness Railway. Stay overnight in the accommodation style that suits you.
Day 3: Depart Strahan via Derwent Bridge to Hobart. Distance 301 kilometres, travelling time 4hours 25 minutes. At Derwent Bridge you will find the Wall in the Wilderness, a carving of 100 metres in timber which depicts the history of the highlands, most of the timber is our rare Huon Pine. Hobart is a beautiful city on the banks of the Derwent River nestled under the imposing Mount Wellington. Points of interest in Hobart would be the Museum of Modern Art (MONA) and Salamanca home to converted colonial warehouses and waterfront buildings which house some wonderful artisan shops and restaurants. Stay in Hobart city or any of her suburbs.
Day 4: Travel from Hobart via Freycinet National Park to Bicheno. Distance 219.8 kilometres, travelling time of 3 hours. Freycinet National Park is loaded with natural assets, including the pink granite peaks of the Hazards Range that dominate the Peninsula and the iconic Wineglass Bay. The short trek to Wineglass Bay lookout is a bit of a scramble, but it’s well worth it for one of Tasmania’s most photographed views. There are many more short walks across the park that are suitable for all abilities and that lead to secluded bays, clean beaches and bird-filled lagoons. Located north of the Freycinet Peninsula, Bicheno sits on Tasmania’s beautiful East Coast. Offshore, the Governor Island Marine Reserve has some of the best diving spots in Australia, with kelp-covered reefs and spectacular sponge gardens. This water wonderland can also be experienced by glass-bottomed boat. There’s plenty to do on dry land as well, with popular penguin tours that let you get up close – really close – to fairy penguins at dusk and scenic walks to Rocking Rock, the Blowhole and along the sandbar to Diamond Island Nature Reserve. At Bicheno you will also find good accommodation.
Day 5: Leave the lovely East Coast via St Marys and the Fingal Valley to Launceston. Distance 170.9 kilometres, travelling time 2 hours and 20 minutes. St Marys is 600 metres above sea level, the township is surrounded by mountains, forests and valleys. It’s also full of colour, creativity and stories of its former days as a convict working station. There are some lovely old buildings along the main street including the original railway station, now a quirky museum of local relics and oddities. The Fingal Valley stretches from Conara through to St Marys, linking Tasmania’s Heritage Highway with its sunny East Coast, and is bounded by Ben Lomond National Park to the north and the St Pauls Valley to the south. The Fingal Valley includes the towns of Avoca, Fingal and St Marys and the smaller villages of Rossarden, Royal George, Mangana, Fingal, Mathinna, Upper Esk and Cornwall. Lovely city of Launceston feels more like a big town and is a vibrant hub for food, wine culture and nature. One of Australia’s oldest cities, Launceston has one of the best-preserved early cityscapes in Australia with its elegant Colonial and Victorian architecture and century-old parks. Just a short walk from the city centre, Cataract Gorge is a slice of wilderness right in the heart of town and Launceston’s star natural attraction.
There are of course places of historical significance such as Port Arthur and Maria Island that you may prefer to see. Tasmania is only a small island but has so much to see and do depending on your interests and the time you wish to travel or relax. I hope what we have suggested helps in some way to you planning your visit….”
So, there you have it: A great Tasmanian itinerary laid out by a couple of locals. We had fun following their suggestions, and found that other locals along the way were super enthusiastic when we told them what we were doing. Tassies are a friendly bunch and proud of their island. They really made us feel welcome.
On our first day in Tasmania, Gail and Lyndon picked us up at the Launceston airport after our short flight from Melbourne, then took us on a driving tour of the surrounding countryside, including a glimpse at the ranch where they’d lived and raised harness racing horses and cattle up until their recent retirement. In the evening, we visited Cataract Gorge in Launceston where we saw our first wallaby before we’d walked ten yards from the car. After walking the trails of Cataract Gorge, we had a first class dinner at The Gorge Restaurant. When we returned from our roadtrip, they again took us touring. This time we headed north to the coastline where we had tea at the Lost Farm Restaurant perched atop a large dune with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the sea and the highly-ranked golf courses of Barnbougle, a drive through a region of Tassie known for its red earth, and a final “champagne” tasting at Clover Hill Winery before dropping us off at the Launceston airport for our flight to Melbourne and on to Uluru and Ayers Rock. (I was nervous about all this touring on a flight day, but Gail and Lyndon assured us that we’d have no problem with a late arrival and breezing through the small Launceston airport. Thankfully, they were right.)
We booked lodging online on my phone from the car each day of our self-drive through Tasmania and were very happy with where we ended up each night: • Cradle Mountain Hotel (We booked a standard room and were given a handicapped room overlooking the parking lot. Disappointing. Asking to be moved to a non-handicapped room and explaining it was David’s birthday found us upgraded to a chic 2-story suite overlooking wilderness. So worth it, even if you have to pay.)
Pademelons on a Cradle Mountain National Park path
• Strahan Stables Rough-Luxe #1, an AirBnB find in Strahan (This 2-story place, across the road from the harbor, and a block down from a park, was totally charming and we’d have loved another night there.)
Strahan, just across the road from our AirBnB stay
• La Riviera B&B on the River Derwent in Granton, a suburb of Hobart, ranks at the top of all the B&B’s I’ve stayed at. Lovely rooms, a warm hostess, an incredible breakfast feast and a water view. She’s thinking of selling, so if it’s still available, go!
Just the beginning of the breakfast feast at La Riviera B&B. So much more to come!Inside Hobart’s unique underground MONA, Museum of Old and New Art [And it’s free from 5pm to closing at 6!]
• Bicheno’s Ocean View Retreat (We had a huge two-bedroom apartment with an enormous balcony overlooking the sea across the road. It’s a tad dated, but clean, comfortable and really spacious. At night, we came home to several kangaroos hopping about in the front yard.)
Bicheno coastline
Endangered Tasmanian Devils at Natureworld in Bicheno
Fun with kangaroos at Natureworld in Bicheno
Wineglass Bay: Hiking on Freycinet Peninsula yields some amazing views
Melbourne is the nearest mainland airport to Tasmania. That worked perfectly for us since we arrived in Melbourne from Delhi, a non-stop route on Air India. There are daily flights from Melbourne to both Launceston and Hobart, the capital of Tasmania. Launceston is closer. Virgin Australia, Jetstar and Qantas all fly non-stop Melbourne to Launceston and Hobart. Google Flights is now showing Tigerair flying non-stop Melbourne to Hobart. We flew non-stop (1h5m) between Melbourne and Launceston on Virgin Australia. There are flights from other Australian cities as well to Tassie. Look for those flights on Google Flights or using the FlightConnections interactive map, one of my favorite travel-planning tools.
We’d been considering a trip to Bhutan for some time, but hesitated because of the requirement that western tourists only visit with government-approved tour guides. The minimum cost for travel to Bhutan is a set $250pp/day, a not insignificant amount for the constant presence of a guide, something we generally don’t like and actively avoid. But still, we heard great things about Bhutan and we’d be in neighboring Nepal, so why not?
I decided a relatively short 4-night stay would be a good way to dip our toes into Bhutan and see how we liked the mandatory guide set up. If the country really entranced us, we could always come back for a longer stay another time. Government-approved guides were an unknown quantity, so I decided to book through kimkim, a company founded by the creators of TripAdvisor and other travel apps. Kimkim brokers local guides and I felt comfortable using them. Kimkim put me in touch with Pelden who was generally good about communicating with me and tailoring a trip to our interests, which meant adding a visit to Bhutan’s first craft brewery/brewpub, coincidentally founded by a former classmate of Pelden.
Our 1h20m DrukAir flight from Kathmandu to Bhutan gave us our second flight past Mount Everest and it was spectacular. A seat on the left side of the plane is the way to go for this special experience.
Flying past Mount Everest is an experience of a lifetime
As promised, we were met in the modern, but traditionally-styled, Paro airport by our guide, Kezang (Pelden’s associate), who took us to a waiting SUV and our driver, Tashi. In no time, we were at our first stop, Tachogang Lhakhang iron chain bridge across the Paro River to a nearby monastery and hermit cave. Foot traffic was no longer allowed across the old bridge, so we used an adjacent newer bridge. The bridge and buildings were interesting, but I have to say that, after Nepal, we were most struck by the wonderfully clean river and fresh air. Such a welcome change!
Tachogang Lhakhang iron chain bridge
From the bridge, we drove to Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan for lunch at a tourist restaurant. This turned out to be one of the downsides of the whole curated experience in Bhutan: buffet restaurants geared towards tourists. They’re over-priced considering how very cheap things are when you can finally break free of you “handlers” and just kind of boring, although clean and modern. Our hotel, Thimphu Towers, sits on the main square in Thimphu and we had a great view of the square and central clock tower.
View of the main square in Thimphu from our hotel room
The room was large and comfortable, our only complaint with the room had to do with the extremely loud Indian family that arrived next door and proceeded to stand in the hall talking loudly, all while the father of the clan talked above the din on his phone. Good grief, go into your room! [India has greatly helped Bhutan develop and the Bhutanese clearly admire their benefactors. We visited a very interesting museum highlighting the relationship between the two countries and Kezang explained how most Bhutanese who get college degrees do so in India. Indian citizens, unlike most of the rest of the world, can visit Bhutan freely and without guides. They sometimes descend in large numbers and seem to really congregate around Bhutanese rivers. We decided they must be even more enchanted by the novelty of clean running water than we were.]
Thimphu Towers hotel room
We wanted to try local beer, and were happy when Kezang led us to a nearby grocery store for locals where we bought a couple of bottles for a fraction of the price asked at our hotel. After wandering the streets a little, we enjoyed the bottles in our room, windows open to enjoy the view. Dinner was another uninspiring restaurant in our hotel. Nice, but hardly “authentic.” We needed to talk to Kezang about dining options.
Bhutanese beer in our room
Our first full day in Bhutan started out at the gleaming white memorial Chorten Stupa, a white structure, circled clockwise by a constant stream of worshippers. We were amused when Kezang, a young married man with a small child described how he lived with his parents and his in-laws and, when he worked at a prior job, he would drop off the two sets of parents at this stupa on his way to work, leaving them there until he headed home at the end of the work day when he’d pick them up again. We asked how they felt about his arrangement, and he indicated a group of older people under an open-air shelter to one side of the stupa and said they liked it. Apparently, this is social time for retired Bhutanese.
Later, we visited the 169 ft. tall Buddha Dordenma statue (which holds 1000 Buddha statues and a temple inside) before hiking the adjacent Kuenselphadrang Nature Park. The hiking trail was well-groomed and easy and we trailed along behind Kezang in his traditional clothes, or visited with him, when the path widened, about life in Bhutan. Kezang was particularly knowledgeable about Buddhism and was a font of stories and legend. His English was good, if not great, with an accent that sometimes caused confusion. David had a hard time, in particular, understanding the words “sentient beings”– which came up a lot in Kezang’s explanations– and which had me whispering the phrase to him repeatedly.
Note: I’m pasting our itinerary and quote as I received them from kimkim verbatim at the bottom of this post. Most things we did as outlined. Occasionally, we swapped timing and we changed one destination entirely, swapping a monk village for a hike to the mountaintop Tango Buddhist University which we really enjoyed.
David and I with Kezang (left) and Tashi (right) (and a group of Buddhist monks and friend to the far left) at Tango Buddhist University
The path and wooden rail cart track to Tango Buddhist University
At our request, Kezang tried to choose restaurants with a bit more local feel, but he was clearly restrained by the parameters of the whole Bhutanese foreign tourist set up. We did share one dinner with him and Tashi in an otherwise empty restaurant which remained open just for us since we’d gotten in late. Since David and I usually ate alone, that dinner gave us a chance to visit more with the two men. Tashi spoke very little English, so Kezang translated.
As with all things travel, I think, some things exceeded expectations and some were less exciting or interesting than they sounded. A much-anticipated visit to see the national animal of Bhutan, the takin, at an animal reserve was fun and interesting, but the rare animals remained at some distance from the fence separating us.
The legend explaining the takin has its oringins in the 15th century when Lam Drukpa Kunley also referred to as “The Divine Madman” arrived in Bhutan from Tibet. After preaching to local people, they asked him to perform a miracle. He agreed, on the condition that they would feed him a massive lunch of a whole cow and a whole goat, which they did. The Tibetan saint devoured the flesh of both the animals, leaving the bones. He then affixed the head of the goat to the body of the cow and uttered a mantra. The animal instantly sprung to life and began grazing on the meadows. He named the animal “Dong Gyem Tsey” (takin).
The Divine Madman is even more famous for his outrageous behavior and sexual exploits. Because of this, large, explicit phalluses adorn many public buildings and homes across Bhutan. The practice raises Western eyebrows and had us laughing and snapping lots of photos. We found it hard to imagine coming home to a front door framed, by giant “spouting” male organs… all in the name of religion, no less.
Special artwork frames the front door of a Bhutanese home
We moved from Thimphu to Metta Resort in Paro for the last night of our stay. The grounds were nice and new and the staff lovely, but the room was a little on the motel side, although new and pleasantly decorated in the local style. The place felt remote, down a long dirt road, seemingly an odd place to house us. It seemed part of a planned new tourist area that wasn’t built out yet. The walls of our room were thin, too, and we listened with aggravation to the people next door to us literally scream, apparently in the course of a phone call.
Particular highlights for us included a stop by Bhutan’s first craft brewpub where David and I enjoyed a long visit with the brewer. David’s been transcribing his recorded interview and I hope he’ll get it posted soon. (We’re behind on all of this, obviously, since we’ve been traveling so much, both for the 3 months of this trip and subsequent trips that now (10/20) have us in Europe for another few months.)
David and brewer Dorji Gyeltshen at Namgay Artisanal Brewery
Another favorite stop for us was at the local archery field. Archery is hugely popular in Bhutan and it’s an activity local men participate in much as Frenchmen spend their time playing boules or petanque. When Kezang saw how interested we were, we adjusted things to linger on the small bleachers watching groups of men shooting at targets placed on opposite ends of a long field. After everyone in the group shot, they’d cross the field en masse to shoot back at the target from which they’d just come, sipping beer and chatting between rounds. Kezang told us he enjoyed this pastime as well, had an expensive bow… and had to cut back once the baby came to appease a wife less-than-happy with his frequent outing with the boys given their new family responsibilities.
The absolute highlight of our Bhutan visit was a hike to iconic Tiger’s Nest monastery. (See top photo.) This steep hike was saved for last to allow our bodies to adjust to the elevation. We’d also been taking medication to guard against any altitude sickness ruining our trip. Unfortunately, weather forecasts called for rain on that final day, our one and only shot at Tiger’s Nest. I went to bed resigned to the possibility –and actually expecting– the hike would be canceled. Kezang remained positive and seemed to think the whole idea of me checking weather forecasts was funny (even the one made specifically by and for Tiger’s Nest).
Happily, we woke to a gorgeous day the next morning. (I guess Kezang knew what he was talking about.) Tashi drove us to a sort of “base camp” where we passed through vendor stalls and crossed a field of horses and donkeys for hire to begin our hike. The hike took hours, with one stop at a café along the way for a light lunch before going on. Tiger’s Nest sits over 10,000 above sea level and the thin air was noticeable. My muscles felt the steep climb, but it was more a matter of getting lungfuls of air that seemed to have nothing to it. Give me oxygen! Still, the view along the way was spectacular and we made the ascent more quickly that Kezang expected.
At the top, we were treated to one of those unforgettable travel moments. Upon entering one of the many little temples contained in the monastery, we discovered a musical ceremony just beginning. When Kezang whispered to ask if we wanted to stay longer, we nodded, kneeling on the floor with “front row” seats to the chanting of monks and the playing of traditional instruments including long horns, propped on the floor. Clouds of incense perfumed the room. Magical. I would have loved to have a video to share, but no photographs are allowed inside Tiger’s Nest… and I’m glad to have been able to simply focus on the moment.
Our final night held a final treat; we spent the evening at a restored traditional farmhouse. Our hosts were a young couple with an adorable baby and a friendly cat. The home had been in his family for generations. We began our evening with a hot bath for two in an outdoor shed built for the purpose. Stones heated over a fire are placed in one end of two side-by-side wooden tubs filled with water and herbs. David and I entered the larger side of the shed where we undressed and got in the tubs. Then, our host on the outside added more stones to the far end of the tub beyond a wooden privacy wall and barrier that kept us from actually touching the stones while allowing the water to flow underneath. Periodically, he’d call out to see if we wanted more stones to raise the heat. With herbal steam filling the room, we luxuriated in the water, letting the heat ease muscles tired from the day’s climb to Tiger’s Nest.
Heating stones for our bath
Behind the privacy wall to our tub shed where our host added the hot stones to heat our baths
After our baths, we shared dinner with our hosts in the main room of the farmhouse, sitting on rugs on the floor. We began our meal with Ara, a cloudy homemade alcoholic drink made from rice. Our host and his wife spoke good English and the evening progressed as if among old friends. Kezang knew the couple and ate with us as well, foregoing the traditional clothes he’d worn throughout our stay in favor of sweatpants which he said he preferred to wear at home. It was a delightful way to end our stay in Bhutan.
Bhutanese farmhouse dinner (with cat)
My final takeaway: All in all, we really enjoyed our visit to Bhutan and are very glad we added it to our itinerary, especially since we were “in the neighborhood.” There were downsides, though. The curated nature of the visit required by the Bhutanese government does give the whole experience more of an “in a bubble” feel than we would have liked. Much of the sights in Bhutan are relatively new, too, the country only recently progressed from dirt roads and oxcarts. The expense is a little out of proportion to what you get considering the extremely cheap costs of things locally, but the effect of this on keeping out party-seeking backpackers as have flooded places like Thailand and Cambodia is to be commended. It’s easy to understand how a country would want to avoid some of the abuses and culturally-jarring effects of mass tourism. We were somewhat surprised at how much we were comfortably able to do in such a short stay. Given that we weren’t interested in weeks-long trekking, we’re happy with the scope of our visit. The only thing we’d really want to go back to see might be Chimi Lhakhang, the temple of the “Divine Madman” in Punakha District, an area we didn’t visit, but it’s not really enough of a pull by itself to take us back to Bhutan. We’ve met people who’ve fallen in love with Bhutan and gone several times. I don’t think that will be us. We had a great time, but we’ll probably leave it at that.
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Practical info:
I’ve copied below the original itinerary and quote as provided to me by kimkim and Pelden when I first booked this tour. As I mentioned above, a few things were tweaked or changed on arrival per suggestions by Kezang and our own interests and time constraints, but our actual tour was fairly close to this. The biggest change was swapping a “monk village” at Dodeydra Buddhist University for a bit shorter but very scenic mountain hike to Tango Buddhist University monastery, which we really enjoyed . Also, Pelden encouraged me to let him book our plane tickets due to language and technical issues. Although he indicated that he would book our plane tickets for us at the same cost I saw online, he did charge a fee for that service after the fact, something not huge in the scope of the price, but a little disturbing in principle.:
The flight into Bhutan takes you close to the great Himalayas; offering dazzling scenic views of world’s highest glacial peaks.Whereyou’ll be greeted by Mt.Everest and Mt.Kanchenjunga, and our very own Mt.Jomo lhari and Mt. Jichu Drakey. As you enter the Paro valley, you will pass forested hills with the slivery Pa chu (Paro river) meandering down the valley below the Paro Dzong (fortress) and Ta Dzong (watchtower) on the hill above the town.
Upon arrival you’ll be received by our friendly professional guide who will help you settle into your comfortable vehicle, and then proceed to the capital city Thimphu. Enroute stop to visit the Tamchog Lhakang to take a short break and marvel at Bhutan’s fresh air and rich nature. Walk over the ancient heritage iron bridge reconstructed using original chain link from the famous Tibetan bridge builder TangThong Gyalpo back in the 15th century.
On arrival you will be taken to your hotel for a check-in and short rest.In the evening visit the Memorial Chorten Stupa which is a sacred shrine built in the memory of third king of Bhutan. You will enjoy welcome dinner at the best restaurant where you can enjoy authentic Bhutanese cuisines. Overnight in the resort.
Drive time 1 hour.Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
2Day 2 – Mar 14, 2019
Treasures of the capital city
Let’s enjoy a nice hike and appreciated the bountiful nature of Bhutan. Drive to Kuensel Phodrang where the gigantic 169ft statue of Buddha Dordenma overlooks Thimphu valley. The interior of the statue’s temple is easily one of the most beautiful and unique with thousands of other statues inside. Enjoy a panoramic view of Thimphu city from there. Walk into Kuenselphodrang Nature Park to hoist some flags to send some prayers out in the world. Continue on a beautiful 2-hour easy walk towards motithang. End the hike with a visit to the beautiful Changangkha monastery.
Continue to the Takin Reserve Center in the evening to see the national animal of Bhutan – the Takin and stroll over to the viewpoint that offers great views of Thimphu city. From here, continue to the colourful vegetable market where you’ll really experience local lifestyles where farmers from all around Bhutan will be seeling their produce. It is interesting to see what may seem to you as ‘weird vegetables and forest products’ that actually enriches the Bhutanese palate.
Continue to the Changlimithang Stadium to watch locals enjoying the national sport of Bhutan – Archery – which is played in a traditional style over a 120m long range and always filled with fun and festive moods.
In the evening we’ll have dinner at one of Thimphu’s best restaurants to enjoy authentic Bhutanese cuisines. Note: If you feel like, we can also explore a little but of Bhutan’s urban lifestyles by going to a Live music pub to sample some good craft beers from local breweries and enjoy the local music scene.Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
3Day 3 – Mar 15, 2019
Thimphu easy hike to monk village and to Paro
Visit the Institute of Traditional Medicine to talk to a practitioner here about Bhutanese traditional medical practices.
Drive to Dechenchholing and start the three hours Off-the-beaten track hike to Dodeydra Shedra. The hike is characterized by moderate ascents through Blue-pine forests. A picnic lunch will be served on the way. After the lunch spot, hikers will be rewarded by stunning views of Thimphu city. Currently there are around 170 monks studying and living in Dodeydra Buddhist University, including His Eminence Gyalwang Lorepa and His eminence Yongzin Rinpoche. After a picnic lunch, continue to the temple located at an altitude of 2800m. On the way back, the monks always engage in games like Football and Volleyball everyday as part of their physical education and guests who are interested can join the games and enjoy a game with the monks who are more than happy to welcome guests.
Drive to Paro around 3 in the afternoon. Visit Kyichu Lhakhang – believed to be the oldest Buddhist temple in Bhutan built during the 08th century and then continue to the National Museum to see some of the most treasured collections of arts, artefacts, textiles, stamps, statues, etc. I think one musuem on your tour is recommended.
Let’s go have some craft beers in in the country’s first brew pub that opened recently.
Drive time 1 hour.Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Dochula pass4Day 4 – Mar 16, 2019
Bhutan’s Ultimate Highlight for the end
We’ve saved the best of Bhutan for the last. Today you’ll experience Bhutan’s most valued attractions, and perhaps one of the major highlights of your trip. An excursion to the famous Taktshang monastery –translated as- Tiger’s nest monastery is also a good way to acclimatise before you start trekking. A two hours hike would reward you with a spectacular temple clinging on a 1000 feet cliff. The temple was built in 1692 by a prominent historical figure named Gyaltse Tenzin Rabgye whose reincarnation is now a young teenager and already a prominent figure in the clergy. Your guide will complement the experience with its story. On the way back stopover at Satsam Chorten which offers you nice views of mount Jomolhari.
In the afternoon, visit a farmhouse to soak in a herbal hot-stone bath which is known to be therapeutic and helps ailments related to joints and muscle aches, besides simply soothing your mind and body. Perfect to unwind and goes well with the Red Panda local beer. Here you can also learn hot to play BHutan’s national game, the archery. This is a complimentary value-added experience from Bhutan Travel Club without any hidden costs.
Farewell dinner at a great restaurant and proceed to your resort for the night.Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Pricing details
Bhutan quick and easy
$3,469.60
Service fee
$173
Total
$3,642.60 USD
Paid
Price includes
• Bhutan Tourism Royalty/Levy ($65 per day per person) • Visa Fees ($40 per person) • All necessary permit fees • All transfers and sightseeing with entrance fees • All meals and evening tea • Drinking mineral water in the car • All accommodations in 3-4 star hotels • English-speaking tour leader and driver • Excellent SUV vehicle • Hot-stone bath (value-added with no extra cost) • Airfare to Bhutan
Price excludes
• All personal expenses like laundry, telephone, tips, shopping expenses • Spa Charges (except for the traditional hot-stone bath) • Travel and Medical insurance
The one daytrip I really wanted to make from Sofia was to Rila Monastery. It’s one of the, if not the, Bulgarian site most touted when I was doing my pre-trip research. (Rila Monastery even made an appearance in an audiobook I enjoyed, Street Without a Name, by a Bulgarian woman who left Sofia as a teenager shortly after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and returned years later to her much-changed country.)
Lots of tour companies offer day visits to the monastery from Sofia, many of them combining the monastery with a stop at Boyana Church, another UNESCO site. I settled on Traventuria, a company that operates mid-sized motor coaches from near the Aleksander Nevsky Cathedral to Rila Monastery and Boyana Church.
In less than an hour, we arrived at Boyana Church which didn’t open its doors for 15 minutes after our arrival. We stood outside the gates in the chilly morning as our guide explained a little about a war memorial in front of the church. Once inside, David and I opted to just take in the gardens and the exterior of the small medieval church. While the church is known for its frescoes and we admired the photos we saw of them, we didn’t feel particularly moved to pay the entry fee and be herded through in a group. I like to think of it as one of the luxuries of having traveled and seen so much; I don’t feel much pressure regarding the touted “must-sees” and “must-dos,” especially of the variety on offer at Boyana. (“Some of the best preserved frescoes in the Balkans” just didn’t pull that hard on my curiosity.) On the other hand, I guess there’s a little sadness, or at least inevitability, to that raised bar for interest that comes with age and experience.
Boyana Church and the grave of Queen Eleanora of Bulgaria
Leaving Boyana, we drove through fields, vineyards, and wooded mountains up to Rila Monastery. We arrived to beautiful weather, a gift given the weather forecast and the frequent chance of clouds and rain in the mountains. The entrance to the fortified monastery, through an arched gate and under a wide pair of antlers (lead photo), is entrancing. (There are two, nearly identical entrances to the monastery.) This place had my full attention. It was impossible not to just rotate in the spectacular courtyard, trying to take it all in. Four stories of residential apartments overlook the courtyard and surround a central church and square tower. We headed for the church, drawn by the eye-catching paintings covering the vaulted arches and walls of the striped portico. Too soon, our guide was assembling us in the courtyard for a history lecture. The stories were interesting and worth hearing, but it was hard not to be impatient to just go exploring.
Rila Monastery is located at 1300m (4200+ft) in the Rila Mountains. The monastery was founded near where Saint Ioan (Ivan or John), a 9-10th century ascetic monk, lived for twelve years in a cave and then for another seven years on bare rock in the open air. Saint Ioan is the preeminent Bulgarian saint and Rila Monastery is its preeminent monastery.
After visiting the interior of the church with our group and guide, we headed off on our own to the small museum which houses various religious artifacts along with the monastery’s prize treasure, the Cross of Rafail. The cross is made of a solid piece of wood (81×43 ccm). It is named after its creator, a monk named Rafail who carved 104 religious stages and 650 small figures into the wood, a process that took him more than 12 years. The work finished in 1802 when Rafail lost his eyesight.
Back outside, we discovered that our gorgeous day had given way to a downpour. It was actually beautiful to watch the rain pour off the surrounding buildings while we ate a picnic lunch (bought in Sofia on the advice of Traventuria whose tour info warned us that the only dining options were notoriously slow). We visited a surprisingly lavish period monk’s cell that even included an attached room for a novice/servant who cooked and cleaned for the monk.
When the rain passed, we spent our remaining time exploring the monastery courtyard, grounds, Hreliov’s tower (a defensive structure built in 1334-1335 and the oldest surviving building in the monastery), and impressive kitchen. The far room of the kitchen boasts a 20m tall, room-sized chimney of amazing construction that, along with enormous pots and utensils, converted the entire room into a giant cooking area.
Practical info:
The cost for the Traventuria 8-hour tour (9am-5pm) with English guide was €30pp and does not include the 10 lev entrance fee to the church or the entrance fees to the various for-pay sites (museum, kitchen, etc.) on the monastery grounds. Our guide’s English was decent, if not great. Pick-up and drop-off is available for a fee, but must be at a hotel with a 24-hour desk. If staying at an apartment, etc., guests need to meet Traventuria at a qualifying hotel. We walked to the meeting point since it wasn’t that far from our AirBnB apartment.
There are shared and private rides available to the monastery from Sofia as well as a public bus. Info on those is on the monastery website.
Entrance to the Rila Monastery and church is free. Entrance to the monastery church is 8 lev ($4.48 US). Entrance to the monastery kitchen was, I think, 3 lev ($1.68 US). Entrance to the Tower of Hrelio, Ethnografic museum, Bulgarian renaissance guestrooms and Monastery farm is 5 lev ($2.80 US).
It is possible to stay at the monastery, but this is geared primarily for people on pilgrimage. The monastery also owns a hotel. 150′ from the monastery.
Viewed from Vitosha pedestrian street: A streetcar passes in front of the Sofia Courthouse. Sofia has one of the longest tram systems in Europe, some of the cars dating back 50 years.
I added Sofia, Bulgaria, on whim to the 8-night side trip I’d planned for us before our latest house- and cat-sit in Antwerp, Belgium. It was really a matter of “as long as we’re in the area (Bucharest, Romania), why not?” I didn’t know much about either Sofia or Bulgaria before then. Pre-travel research confirmed my general impression of a less-than-wealthy Eastern European capital, still recovering from Communism and still relatively new to the EU. As of the latest census I could find, Sofia has a population of 1.2 million people as compared to Bucharest’s 1.8 million. Bulgaria is both the poorest country in the EU and the fastest shrinking population in the world.
We flew Romanian Tarom Air from Bucharest to Sofia. Arriving at 5:30am at the Bucharest airport, we found a long (albeit fast-moving) check-in line and a bustlingly busy airport. When we arrived in Sofia at around 9:40am, passengers on our flight were the only people in the baggage claim. Following online advice, we used an airport-sanctioned OK Supertrans taxi from the queue and had a friendly (non-English-speaking) driver with a working meter. It was a bargain 10 lev + 2 lev tip ($6.80 total) for the ride along a wide, straight boulevard into the center of Sofia and our AirBnB apartment.
First impressions were generally good. The wide, smooth boulevard turned to yellow glazed brick roads (Yes, the yellow brick road is real! :D) as we entered the older center of town. Boring residential architecture further out gave way to elegant and imposing public buildings with grand columns, arches, fountains and statuary. Less than a block from our apartment, a wide pedestrian street, named Vitosha after the mountain that rises above the city, bustled with people enjoying the many cafes and shops that lined it.
Facing the pretty open courtyard of a Spanish restaurant, our apartment boasted a much more appealing entrance than our lodging in Bucharest. Self check-in was a breeze using an electronic fob and keys left for us in a small safe locked to an adjacent shop gate. The one-bedroom apartment itself was spacious and modern with a remote that opened electric privacy shutters on windows and doors on two walls that opened to a patio and narrow side path. Nice!
We settled in and were back out the door by 10am our first day. Early flights have their benefits. After a quick run by the local grocery store to stock breakfast supplies, we headed back out to explore. Turning left at Vitosha, away from the pedestrian street, and putting the imposing Sofia Courthouse on our left, we walked toward the large Sofia statue, a personification of the city. Using the metro entrance to cross under the big intersection there, we popped up at the Serdika ruins which date back to ancient Roman settlers. The ruins are open-air and free and worth a look. David, more hungry than impressed with history, pushed for a lunch break so we left the ruins to settle into shady seats at upscale Largo Bar and Dinner under the high-arched portico of the adjacent Constitutional Court of Bulgaria building. An elegant lunch of grilled shrimp appetizer and a chicken pasta main course for David and seared sesame-crusted tuna salad for me along with local beers was tasty and reasonably-priced at 52.10 lev ($29.45 US).
The awnings of Largo on the left on the Constitutional Court building, plaza Nezavisimost on the right and the Sofia Concert Hall in the distance.
Happily fed, we continued on to the number one site in Sofia, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The cathedral, in classic Eastern Orthodox style, was a tribute/thank-you from Bulgaria to Russia and is named after a Russian national hero. The elaborate painted interior of the cathedral with its huge dome is impressive. Entrance to the cathedral is free, but there’s a charge for photography. Two smock-clad guardians busily tut-tutted anyone snapping photos (even those waving their receipts) and scolded anyone who looked like they might even be considering wrong-doing of any sort. Since kissing and touching icons is a big part of religion in this part of the world, I had to wonder what was going on when these guards seemed to complain about people getting too close to certain items.
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
Interior of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
After the cathedral, we meandered our way down boulevards and through parks on our way back to the apartment. I wanted to scope out the park meeting place for the free food tour I’d booked for the following day.
The free food tour turned out to be big fun and way more than I expected from a free tour. We ate lunch (at another health food stop for a salad to counter all that hearty Balkan food) beforehand, and I really should have skipped it. The two-hour food tour stopped at five locally-owned restaurants and shops, each of which offered us hearty tastings. The tour was so well attended that we were split into two groups. The guide for our 16-person tour was an eloquent 23-year old student named Ioan. At Supa Star, an all-soup diner, we were given cups of tarator, a traditional cold yogurt soup made with cucumbers, dill and garlic. Bulgarians are very proud of their unique and healthful yogurt and eat it and cheese in a myriad of dishes. We were surprised to descend into a pedestrian underpass on blvd Vasil Nevsky in front of the Ministry of Youth and Sports for our next stop at a shop selling national-favorite banitsa, a coiled savory pastry. The lady baker cut us generous portions of the fresh-from-the-oven pastry, filled with fresh farm cheese.
The least picturesque of our stops, but we had really tasty cheese-filled banitsa at this little shop.
We had a non-traditional bonus stop at Skaptoburger, a hamburger joint (one of a small locally-owned chain and very popular) where we each got a quarter of a hamburger. After that, it was off to Sun Moon, a well-known vegetarian restaurant and bakery where we sampled toasts spread with two classic toppings, one predominantly tomato and one eggplant. Sun Moon grows and grinds their own grains for their breads. Our final stop was at the impossibly-named Hadjidraganovite izbi, a Bulgarian tavern restaurant set in a wine cellar with traditional decor. There we were treated to a shot of a pelin, a celebratory wine-based absinthe drink, along with three types of bread-with-topping appetizers. As a final send-off, we joined hands to form a cramped ring as Ioan taught us a traditional dance.
As we walked from restaurant to restaurant, Ioan explained life in Sofia. When we came across this post-wedding gathering, he explained that the crowd was shouting “Bitter! Bitter! Bitter!” until the couple kissed to make things sweet.
I’ll save the rest of our Sofia stay, including a day trip to Rila Monastery and a cooking class in the apartment of a charming local hostess, for separate posts.
Practical info:
Find the free food tour (and other for-pay tours) on the Balkan Bites web site. Reservations aren’t necessary, but they will guarantee you a spot. This is a popular tour, so book if you know you want to go. Two late-comers were almost sent away the day we took the tour. Meet for the tour every day at 2pm by the large head statue in Crystal Garden (a/k/a Crystal Park).Although the tour is free, do tip. These guides put a lot into a full 2-hour tour.
The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is open 7 days/week, from 7am-7pm. Entry is free. There’s a10 lev ($5.66 US) charge for photos. Find photos and a virtual tour on the cathedral web site.
For fresh salads in a casual small lunch spot, we liked Greens near Vitosha Boulevard.
Bucharest viewed from Closer to the Moon rooftop bar
I admit I had low expectations of Bucharest. I’ve been to many former Soviet bloc countries and there are certain less-than-positive aspects to them all: the ugly over-sized Brutalist architecture (so often built on the site of historic buildings that would be a treasure now), abundant graffiti (which my dad plausibly chalks up to unleashed freedom of expression), and infrastructure and common areas suffering from the financial costs of Communism. Bucharest definitely has those aspects, but it still boasts a wealth of gorgeous French-style architecture, a picturesque old town, and lots of restaurants, cafés and bars (beyond the “drink till you puke” bars and strip clubs that some Eastern European cities use to entice westerners looking for cheap thrills). Despite some streets still holding onto that grubby party vibe and derelict buildings scattered amongst the pristinely restored, Bucharest has the feel of a city moving up and offers many charming streets, elegant boulevards, and cosmopolitan shopping and dining options at great prices.
Stavropoleos Monastery Church in Old Town
Our AirBnB apartment was Bucharest in a nutshell: Located steps from the picturesque old town with a view across the river that included the enormous Palace of Parliament, the apartment was spacious and totally modern. To get there, though, we entered through a graffiti-covered front door near a corner where residents had piled trash that was not collected during our 4-night stay. Still, the rest of the sidewalk as well as vast majority of those in the city were very clean, more so, in fact, than many Western European cities. There were grocery stores, shops and cafes in easy walking distance and we never felt unsafe wandering the city. We wanted to spend most of our time in Bucharest just rambling and exploring. Warm, sunny September weather made this a winning plan.
David by the not-so-charming front door to our AirBnB building. Fortunately, all was lovely and modern inside and the neighborhood was great for exploring.
I really didn’t have many must-sees in Bucharest itself other than the Palace of the Parliament (formerly “the People’s House”), the second largest building in the world after the Pentagon. The palace was built on the orders of Nicolae Ceaușescu at a staggering cost, a cruel expense considering the deprivations endured by the populace in that era. Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena, were executed before the palace was finished so never got to enjoy the lavish apartments they planned for themselves there. Today, the the building houses the Romanian parliament as well as conventions and diplomatic events, but 70% remains vacant decades after its construction. English language tours are available daily by calling the day before. I tried calling two days before, since we had a day trip planned the following day, and was told it was impossible to book then. The day before means the day before. I guess a little of that strict Communist attitude remains. The tour of the Palace of the Parliament took 2 hours and we only saw a small fraction of the building. Yes, it was a criminal waste of money, but it is a beautiful neo-Classical building nonetheless and showcases materials and craftsmanship from around Romania. Enormous chandeliers, lush carpets, parquet floors and marble cover the vast rooms, hallways and sweeping staircases.
Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, the second largest building in the world. It takes about an hour to walk the circumference.
My one big must-see while in Romania was Bran Castle a/k/a Dracula’s Castle. Yes, I knew the connection between Bran Castle and Vlad the Impaler was tenuous. Yes, I knew the interior retained little of Vlad’s time and that its exterior gets all the praise. But, still. It’s “Dracula’s Castle”! And, the Romanian’s are proud of it and the exterior is everything it should be. There are lots of tour companies offering tours of varying sizes to Bran Castle. I did my research and settled on a small mini-van tour with a maximum of 8 guests and an itinerary that included Peleș Castle and the medieval town of Brașov. This itinerary makes for a long day, but all three of these destinations are worth a visit.
Our tour started out fine with our guide, Bogdan, picking us up at 7am as promised in a nice, modern mini-van. He then picked up a Spanish woman and her two adult sons, then headed to pick up the final couple whom he’d tried to pick up before us but couldn’t find. Thus, began a nearly 1h 30 min. frustrating bit of chaos as he tried to find the missing couple. Clearly, there was confusion about the meeting place, but the problem was magnified by the tour company owner’s insistance on acting the middle man between Bogdan and the missing couple. Apparently, the owner refused to give the missing couple’s phone numbers to Bogdan either to safeguard his business from poaching (a ludicrous precaution if so since Bogdan would spend the day with these people) or as some form of protecting the privacy of the clients (again, silly given the situation). After circling through clogged Bucharest traffic, leaving, getting a call from the boss to return, and repeating the same three times, we finally located the pair of equally frustrated Italians and headed out of town. We could have slept another hour and had the same departure time! Oh well, we were on the road at last.
The road turned out to be a wide, modern highway…at least for a portion of the drive. It narrowed to two lanes later, but remained in excellent condition. –EU money at work in Eastern Europe and far cry from the potholes and ox carts that greeted travelers not so long ago. Despite the decent roads, it was still nearly two hours to our first stop, Peleș Castle.
Peleș Castle was built by King Carol I and his wife, queen Elizabeth, in the 1870’s. It was a miracle of modern technology in its time, boasting the first central heating in Romania along with such wonders as electric lighting and an enormous skylight that opened with the push of a button. The palace is gorgeous inside with elaborate carved wood paneling in the German style and beautiful Romanian marble throughout. Peleș (“pelesh”) is beautifully preserved and not to be missed when exploring Romania.
Peleș Castle music room. Peleș is more a palace than a castle.
We enjoyed a cheap and tasty pizza and local beer lunch in the palace café before heading on to Bran Castle some 40 minutes away across the Southern Carpathian Mountains and into the Transylvania region of Romania. (Romania consists of three regions: southern Walachia including Bucharest and Sinaia, central Transylvania and northern Moldova.) As promised, the view of Bran Castle from below the rocky promontory on which it sits is imposing and impressive. It’s easy to imagine it as the foreboding abode of Vlad or Dracula. Inside, however, things are a bit different. Dowager Queen Marie remodeled the old castle in the twenties. Later her daughter Princess Ileana ran a hospital there during WWII (and later moved to the U.S. where she became a nun). Nowadays the interior is more homey than spooky; two overstuffed couches and a fireplace warm one large stone room.
Iconic Bran Castle a/k/a Dracula’s Castle
For an extra price, Bran Castle offers an exhibit of medieval torture devices, something I’ve seen plenty of and would have skipped if David hadn’t been interested. I have no desire to spend time with memorabilia of man’s inhumanity to man. The exhibit turned out to be uncomfortably warm as well, although less crowded than the narrow and packed castle corridors and roofed battlement walks in the rest of the castle. I ended up feeling nauseous and headed back out only to be blocked by throngs of large, slow-moving tour groups. I finally threaded my way through the crowds and threatened to faint until a stubborn old guard let me exit through the entrance into the blessedly cool mountain air. A few minutes outside and all was well. Oh well, we’d been warned that the interior of Bran was nothing remarkable in the way of castles and I have to agree. Still, I’m glad we made the stop at Bran and enjoyed seeing the imposing castle looming above us like something straight out of Stoker’s book.
Brașov town square
Our last stop on this long day was Brașov, a picturesque Transylvanian village which is home to one of the largest churches in Romania, the Black Church, so named after a fire blackened its walls. We wandered the streets admiring the embroidery wares of a peasant woman and stopping for a light meal in one of the many cafes circling the expansive main square. We bought a piping hot kürtős kalács (“chimney cake” or “stovepipe cake”) from a food cart to eat as we walked. The big, hollow croissant-like pastry is similar to trdlo we’ve had in Czechia, but the caramelized exterior of this Romanian version, fragrant with orange peel, was something different and delicious. A stroll through a park past a medieval city gate wrapped up our visit to Brașov.
The kürtős kalács stand. Delicious!
As the only English speakers, the others invited us to sit up front with Bogdan as we had the easiest time visiting with him. I enjoyed talking about Romania and life philosophies on the two hour ride back to Bucharest as David nodded asleep against the window. Bogdan is twenty-six and has some of that familiar Eastern European mixture of frustration, self-deprecation, and hope that I so often hear there. He was well-spoken, thoughtful, and curious about many things including Protestant Christianity and how it differed from his own Catholicism. It was an interesting conversation as we drove on in the dark, finally arriving back in Bucharest around 9:30pm.
Caru’ cu Bere outdoor seating in Old Town Bucharest
We spent the rest of our Romania time in Bucharest. Visiting the Palace of the Parliament, exploring the streets and parks, churches and restaurants. We had a well-prepared lunch in the large courtyard of the oldest operating inn in Bucharest, Hanu’ lui Manuc (Manduc’s Inn). We put off eating at the well-known but super touristy old beer hall, Caru’ cu Bere, until our last day, then caved after hearing that they really did offer authentic versions of traditional dishes. True to the billing, we enjoyed skinless sausages, cabbage rolls, hunter’s stew, and the local polenta-like corn mash with the house-brewed beer. The beer hall itself is beautiful and the outdoor seating on a cobbled street in Old Town is delightful in good weather. On our last evening, we headed to the charmingly-named Closer to the Moon rooftop bar for a sparkling water before a return visit to Energeia, a restaurant focused on healthy food (and awesome gin-and-tonic craft cocktails) where I could indulge a craving for greens with round two of a huge kale salad. Balkan food is tasty and hearty, but really short on green vegetables!
We used One Excellence Tours for our “Transylvania Castles Day Trip” from Bucharest to Peles Castle, Bran Castle and Brasov. The tour is in a minivan with a maximum of 8 persons. The cost was $128.80 US for the two of us not including admission fees which are normally 70 RON pp for both Peleș and Bran, and I booked online with Viator. I used Viator, a Tripadvisor company, both because I trust them and the price was good, and because I could book through Topcashback for a rebate. (I’ve gotten over $800 in rebates from Topcashback on things I’d buy or book anyway just for using their links.) Entry to Peleș Castle is normally 30 RON (lei) ($7 US) per adult, but One Excellence Tours comped our entry as an apology for the confusion and late start.Entrance to Bran Castle is 40 RON (lei) ($9.31 US) per adult. Both castles offer reductions for students and seniors.
We paid a total of $217.28 for four nights in our AirBnB apartment, on the corner of Calea Vitoriei (a main road and a great place to be) and Splaiul Independentei.The apartment was a spacious and modern one-bedroom in an excellent location and run by a responsive host. I’d happily stay there again.
Uber works great in Bucharest, but we did have some issues connecting with our driver when we arrived at the airport. He only spoke a few words of English and while Uber directed us to wait upstairs by Arrivals at the big airport parking lot, he waited downstairs by Departures. We did finally sort things out, but it wasted some time. I read lots of warnings about Bucharest taxis, so was hesitant to use them. We had an early flight when we left and I worried about using Uber since I’ve had them cancel before in the States and couldn’t risk that at such an early hour in a place where we didn’t speak the language. I ended up booking a private ride with Transport Air Bucharest a top-rated company on Tripadvisor. I paid 85.09 RON ($19.81 US) in advance on the Internet and communication with them was excellent. Our driver was waiting with a new, immaculate sedan when we exited our building pre-dawn. The cost was not all that much more (maybe $5) than we would have paid for pre-booking Uber or a taxi.
We weren’t interested in trekking, but I did want to see a little more of the Kathmandu Valley while in Nepal. Research narrowed it down to Nagarkot or Dhulikhel. Nagarkot is popular with tour companies, has more hotels and boasts the possibility of glimpsing Everest in the very far distance on a clear day. Since we planned to (and did) take a plane trip past Everest, that last selling point didn’t mean a lot to me, especially with the well-known vagaries of weather. Everything I read said that having an Everest view from a Nagarkot hotel was a rare thing. Dhulikhel, on the other hand, was the smaller, less touristy option, something that appeals to me. It also reportedly had pretty awesome Himalayan views itself plus a temple or two in walking distance and the very intriguing Namobuddha monastery a short drive away. (See top photo and below.)
Namobuddha Monastery
We both paid for a flight past Mount Everest and saw it, just as clearly, on our flight from Kathmandu to Bhutan. Seeing Everest as a dot in the distance from Nagarkot just didn’t weigh much in my calculations. I liked that Dhulikhel is smaller and less touristy, and didn’t mind at all the small number of restaurants and hotels available in Dhulikhel. I found a small new boutique hotel with its own restaurant that sounded good and booked it via Agoda.
Getting to Dhulikhel from Kathmandu was another challenge. I debated using a local bus, so we made a trial run by the bus station to gauge just how hard it would be to find the right one. It didn’t take long in the small, but chaotically packed bus “station” lot to rule that out. The buses themselves looked passable if not enthusiasm-inspiring, but there were no signs at all in English on the buses or in the area and asking several people and bus drivers about buses to Dhulikhel got us nowhere. While I’m game to try local options, this was a situation where hiring a local driver seemed like a no-brainer expense (and hardly a budget-buster, in any event). Our hotel in Kathmandu could arrange a driver, but on a hunch, I called the hotel in Dhulikel and they offered an even better price (around $35, I think) and I liked having a driver who knew for sure where he was going.
Although the distance between our Kathmandu hotel and our Dhulikhel hotel was only 19.5 miles, the trip took over an hour. Most of the delay was due simply to traffic in Kathmandu. The road between the two was actually not bad and offered beautiful views of the Himalayas.
The really bad road–the worst of our three month travels–came when we hired a driver the following day to take us from our Dhulikhel hotel to the nearby Namobuddha Monastery. Wow. It’s hard to describe just how teeth-jarringly bad the road is. We felt sorry for our driver and the incredible wear the road must put on his car. The road distance is only 7 miles, but it took us over half an hour, most of that spent on the last stretch of road.
Our driver was friendly and spoke good enough English that we could commiserate about the wear and tear on his car from journeys such as this. The monastery turned out to be beautiful. The main temple area (photos forbidden) was elaborately stunning and the views breathtaking.
The following day, we walked through town past a sports field with the Himalayas looming beyond. We walked up meandering stairs to the hilltop Hindu temple of Kali where more spectacular views awaited. On the way up, we passed small groups of students who stopped us to ask for pens. We had no pens, but still had some colorful pencils we’d bought in Myanmar for just such occasions. The kids were very happy with the pencils, thanking us with big smiles. I wish we’d had more.
Practical info:
I found The Longest Way Home blog to be really useful in researching Nepal, especially my Nagarkot vs. Dhulikel dilemma. Many thanks to its author.
We stayed at Dhulikel Boutique Hotel. The hotel was new and our room spacious, stylish, clean, quiet and well-equipped. But, there wasn’t a view of the himalayas as I’d hoped. The best view was from the hotel’s outside dining, and that was across a valley into lesser mountains. Staff was friendly and great about booking us reasonably-priced drivers both between Kathmandu and Dhulikel and to the Namobuddha Monastery.
Kathmandu fabric market with a Durbar Square temple rising in the background
I spent the flight from Delhi to Kathmandu re-reading a funny-but-dire blog post I’d saved on my phone about all the horrors of the Kathmandu Airport: How I should have gotten a visa ahead of time instead of relying on the airport machines which are always broken, how the customs and immigration lines were horrible, how airport staff were rude, and generally what a miserable time we were going to have upon landing. Meanwhile, the flight was smooth, the airplane clean and new, the staff friendly, the food good (in the realm of economy seat airplane food) and the Nepalese beer free.
A very nice Nepal Airlines airplaneAlways cool: a new beer!
Happily, upon landing, we found the airport to be just as modern, clean, and efficient. All the visa machines worked just fine. We were first to them thanks to the blogger’s accurate description of the location, so had no wait to use the machines either. In no time, we were through passport control, had collected our luggage and were in a taxi. A great start.
I chose the Ambassador Garden Home in Thamel for our first nights in the city. Thamel is tourist central in Kathmandu and, while that may be a mixed bag in many cities, it seemed to be the best option for westerners staying in Kathmandu. Restaurants and shops abound around Ambassador Garden Home and traffic is limited so that only specially-permitted taxis could drive right up to the hotel.
We were greeted with a drink on arrival at the hotel and told to wait on a couch in the small lobby which opens onto a pretty courtyard that serves as the hotel’s dining room. Check-in documents were brought to us and we were soon in our standard room. The room was comfortable, if cozy, with a view onto the courtyard and a quirky shower. The hotel covers a few floors (no elevator) and is comfortably and tastefully decorated with the feel of staying in a period manor house. A large brass padlock served to lock the door when we left. As soon as we were settled, we headed out to explore the bustling streets.
It was a less than 20-minute walk from the hotel to Kathmandu’s Durbar Square at the historic center. Years after the devastating 1915 earthquake, we saw damage everywhere. There’s a $15US entrance fee to Durbar Square (and also just to pass through unless you have a resident’s pass) and we saw no point, happy to survey the square from the main road. Here and elsewhere we wandered in Kathmandu and beyond, the destruction, pollution and poverty was shocking despite all the reading I’d done before our trip. (I recommend Little Princes, written by Conor Grennan, an American volunteer and organizer at a Nepalese orphanage where many of the “orphans” still had parents from whom they’d been separated during the civil war.) Although there is an exotic beauty to much of it, we found that every bridge we crossed assailed us with the smell of an open sewer and smoke and smog pervaded the city.
Katmandu street
On one long walk to the hilltop Hindu “Monkey Temple” or Swayambhu Maha Chaitya, we wore surgical facemasks to block pollution in the worst stretches. Climbing the steps to the hilltop stupa, we found fresher air, colorful worshipers and lovely views of the city.
Steps to the Hindu “Monkey Temple” or Swayambhu Maha Chaitya
On another day, we hired a driver to take us to Pashupatinath Temple and the Boudhanath Stupa. The temple complex at Pashupatinath is vast and we’d seen smoke from there when we drove past it from the airport. Although we could not go inside the main temple, we wandered the grounds on our own (declining the offers for paid guides). A festival of some sort was going on in one area and girls gave us free boxed lunches we were welcome to share, picnic-style, with others gathered. Having just eaten, we took ours back to our driver who was happy to have them. One of the would-be guides had told us the smoke in the distance was from funerals, but we wondered if we’d understood him correctly given the size and consistency of the smoke. Sure enough, we later came upon many funeral pyres set up along the river with bodies burning and more being brought in regularly. Shrouded bodies on pallets were carried on the shoulders of mourners to the sound of a horns, deep and resonant like blowing on a conch shell. People sat on a long bench behind the pyres observing the proceedings while vendors sold drinks and snacks. Across the river, more observers sat on large bleacher-like steps. We walked to a bridge that we were told separated the common folk from the VIP’s to look down on a pyre only yards below. We could see a foot sticking out from the flame and hear the sizzle. It was disturbing and fascinating at the same time. I took video and photos, but opted not to share them here. We were the only westerners there at the time, but no one seemed to mind or find our presence odd.
We drove from Pashupatinath to Boudhanath Stupa, one of the largest spherical stupas in Nepal. The stupa sits on the northeastern outskirts of Kathmandu and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We wanted to be there at sunset to witness sunset prayers as crowds circle the massive stupa, spinning prayer wheels, making offerings or simply walking clockwise. The experience was a highlight of our stay in Kathmandu.
Sunset at Boudhanath Stupa
We found Nepalese food tasty and very similar to Indian food. Ambassador Garden Home offered good food in their courtyard dining area. We liked Fusion Himalaya Restaurant so much we ate there twice. We enjoyed chatting with the friendly owner and even tried local Divine wine that was spiced and sweet. I read rave reviews about the momos (regional dumplings popular in Northern India, Nepal and Bhutan) at Fusion Himalaya so had to try them both fried and steamed. We had a more upscale dinner at Third Eye (Indian and Continental cuisine) just down Chaksibari Marg from Ambassador Garden Home.
From Kathmandu, we headed to Dhulikel to see a little more of the Kathmandu Valley. Dhulikel and the Namobuddha Monastery are up next.
We were in and out of Delhi three times on this trip. Given this, I wanted to try different areas and types of lodgings on each stay. I settled on the following: First up, was Hotel Bright a moderately-priced Indian business/tourist hotel right in Connaught Place, the large, arcaded shops at the colonial center of New Delhi. For a two-night return between Bhutan and Dharamshala, I chose the new Aloft Hotel in the modern Aerocity enclave near the airport. Finally, we used some free Hyatt nights for a stay in the elegant Hyatt Regency Delhi in the more removed southwestern part of the city. Each had their pros and cons and we enjoyed each in their own way. I’ll leave it to others to go in depth about Delhi and New Delhi (There’s lots out there.) and just touch here on a few highlights and useful bits.
Fortunately, we’d been prepared by TripAdvisor reviews for the eyebrow-raising entry path to Hotel Bright. After passing under the white-columned arcade of the outer ring of Connaught Place, we climbed a security guard-monitored flight of stairs to pass through an open area with a pile of abandoned couches and other junk. Graffiti on the wall proclaimed, “THIS PROPERTY BELONGS TO ME.” Just beyond this less-than-welcoming space, we opened the door to the pristine small lobby of Hotel Bright. Our windowless room was nicely decorated, if somewhat dated, clean, quiet and well-equipped. A simple included breakfast was delivered each morning. The location within the arcades of Connaught Place was excellent.
Connaught Place is a great central location with a myriad of high-priced-for-Delhi shops and restaurants. A stroll through the shady arcades of Connaught Place with pale skin will net you a never-ending supply of companions wanting to steer you into said shops and restaurants. Some people genuinely seemed to want to help or to just ask curious questions, but we remained on-guard for the ubiquitous scams and hustles. Mostly, it just got exhausting never being able to stop and look at anything without being descended upon.
We found a wonderful haven from the constant attention at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, a massive and beautiful Sikh house of worship. The Gurdwara is a fifteen minute walk down Baba Kharak Singh Road from Connaught Place. The Sikhs at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib welcomed us warmly. We left our shoes at a cloakroom where a lady for some reason loved speaking Spanish with me when she heard I was from the U.S. After walking through cleansing water, we donned borrowed head gear (a scarf for me and a scaled-down turban for David) and entered the main temple to watch prayers (conveniently translated into English on an overhead screen) before circling the temple then heading outside to a sacred pool. With true Sikh hospitality, we were offered food and drink at stalls set up outside. Entrance to the temple is free and, in addition to the pond and courtyards, there’s a museum on site. I highly recommend a visit.
Gurdwara Bangla Sahib
We walked twelve miles around colonial New Delhi our first full day there. The spring weather was sunny and warm, but lacking the heat we’d feared (and that would make an appearance by the time we made our third stop in the city). We enjoyed the walk which both puzzled and annoyed the non-stop parade of tuk tuks and taxis that rolled slowly beside us, trying to convince us to ride instead. We admired the elegant buildings along broad avenues and joined throngs of others at India Gate (lead photo).
We rode the relatively new Airport Express metro line out to the airport and were happy to find it air conditioned, clean, much faster than a taxi would have been given the horrific traffic, and not crowded at all. [The Shivaji stop on this line is very close to Gurdwara Bangla Sahib making it easy to visit on a layover. We also walked to this stop from Hotel Bright in Connaught Place to ride to the airport for 60 INR/pp (85¢ US).] We used this same line on our return to Delhi from Bhutan to ride one stop to the swank Aerocity complex and the Aloft Hotel. I highly recommend the Aloft Aerocity for short stays near the airport. The staff there are wonderful, the hotel chic, and the selection of shops and restaurants in the secured Aerocity center extensive. Security around the entire Aerocity enclave makes it an area apart from the rest of Delhi. It’s comfortable and safe, but in no way “authentic” Delhi, nor does it try to be. Still, it was a pleasant, pampered stop with an easy return to the airport for our flight to Dharamshala in northern India. Since the baggage allotment for our intra-India flight was a mere 15kg, we bought a cheap duffel in Bhutan and off-loaded things into that and stored it at Aloft, free of charge. When we returned to Delhi, we just hopped the metro to Aerocity, picked up our bag, then had the hotel call us an Uber to the Hyatt Regency. (Our phones still would not connect to Uber in Delhi.)
Delhi Airport Express Line
The Hyatt Regency Delhi is vast and elegant, but the location is removed from most sights, restaurants, and shops. The hotel itself has several nice, but expensive restaurants and we blew any “deal” we had using our free nights to stay there on a wildly expensive, but excellent, Chinese dinner at The China Kitchen. We discovered budget fare the next day when we ventured out into the rabbit warren of little streets that extend behind the hotel away from the main highway. We’d have surely been lost without Google Maps and it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but we had fun exploring and found both a cute sandwich shop and a small grocery store (Anil Super Shopee). We also discovered many popular outdoor eateries amongst the tech shops in the complex just east of the Hyatt.
We arrived in bustling Agra in the afternoon after spending the first part of the day touring our way from Jaipur via Chand Baori and Fatehpur Sikri. Our driver threaded his way through the jumble of vehicles, pedestrians, cows and trash as we headed straight to Agra Fort. Hurrying to meet a waiting guide, we didn’t even have time to drop off our luggage.
Agra street scene
A UNESCO World Heritage site, Agra Fort was the main residence of the emperors of the Mughal Dynasty until 1638, when the capital moved to Delhi. The semi-circular fort occupies 94 acres and sits behind 70′ walls on the Yamuna River. Part of the fort is occupied by active military so tourists only see a small portion of the huge complex. From the main tourist courtyard, we could see soldiers atop the wall separating us from the military area.
Agra fort is impressive with multiple royal residences, courtyards, massive gateways and public buildings, but for us, the highlight was our surprise first glimspe of the Taj Mahal 2.5km away. What a moment! (The ladies in the top photo above are enjoying the same view.)
Agra Fort courtyard
Probably the most beautiful portion of Agra Fort is the Musamman Burj, the elaborate marble apartments of Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal. Shah Jahan spent the last years of his life under house arrest here, held prisoner by his son, Aurangzeb. The story goes that his son imprisoned him to prevent him from bankrupting the country by building a proposed black marble twin to the Taj Mahal as a burial place for himself. According to legend, Shah Jahan envisioned his black tomb sitting across from the white tomb of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Shah Jahan lay on his death bed in the Musamman Burj gazing at the Taj Mahal.
After leaving Agra Fort, our driver drove us the short distance to Coral Court Homestay, our lodging for the next two nights. I’d read great things about this homestay, liked the idea of a family-owned homestay, and the location was ideal, within walking distance to the Taj Mahal.
The first turn onto the Coral Court’s street was less than encouraging: a dirt road, free roaming livestock. Our guide and driver seemed a little concerned when we pulled up to the locked gate. This turned out to be “Coral House Homestay,” belonging to a relative of our host, but not affiliated. The owner sent us a few doors down to Coral Court Homestay. Our guide went in and came back, much more satisfied, with someone to help with our luggage.
Despite the dirt road and cow, the Coral Court Homestay street and neighborhood turned out to be fine. (And it’s a short walk to the paved road and wide sidewalks leading to the Taj Mahal entrance.)
We were shown to a cheerful, turquoise-walled waiting area and offered refreshment while we filled out the necessary paperwork. Then, we were led through the dining room and upstairs to our room. We ended up really enjoying Coral Court Homestay. The delicious vegetarian food was made in the kitchen adjoining the dining room and served at communal tables. We made friends at dinner with two Frenchwomen from Asnières-sur-Seine and laughed when we found out we’d all stayed at the same wonderful hotel in Jaipur. (I blogged about Pearl Palace Heritage Hotel earlier and really recommend it for both amazing design and great value.) The rooms (we tried two due to availability issues when I booked) were comfortable and spotless. The walk from Coral Court Homestay to the Taj Mahal was easy and down a wide, limited-access road that kept the usual throngs of hangers-on blissfully at bay. There are several restaurants and shops along the way, too. We enjoyed good, reasonably-priced Thali lunches at two of them.
The rooftop area at Coral Court Homestay really made it for us, and we even ended up skipping a final wander before catching our evening train to Delhi, preferring to lounge on the roof and watch nearby neighborhood life. One evening, David hammed it up with kids playing in a courtyard below, one boy flexing his muscles and waiting for David to copy him before laughing and striking a new pose for David to mimic. Another group of older boys and young men were occupied shoeing large flocks of pigeons attempting to roost inside open buildings. The white domes of the Taj Mahal gleamed in the golden sunset.
Rooftop view from Coral Court Homestay in Agra
It’s funny, I’d expected to like Jaipur more than Agra, to find the former more elegant and the latter more rough-and-tumble, but I came away really liking Agra and actually preferring our time there. I’m sure a lot had to do with Coral Court Homestay and its neighborhood.
Practical info:
Agra Fort is open sunrise to sunset. The entry fee is 550INR/adult ($7.67). We found our guide to be informative and useful, but a guide isn’t necessary, especially with a guidebook, info on cell phone, etc.
At Coral Court Homestay, we paid 4718.82INR ($65.83 US) for a “King Suite” and 2799.10INR ($39.05 US)for a “Deluxe Double Room.” Both prices include goods and services tax. I booked using Booking.com through Topcashback for a rebate. (I get extra cashback if you use this link and you can get $10. As of today, I’ve gotten $833.40 from Topcashback on hotels and purchases I would have made anyway. I’ve got more ready to claim and more beyond that pending confirmation. It’s an easy and fun way to save a little cash.)
Admiring the Taj Mahal from the shade of the southern portico
Our guide from the previous day’s visit to Agra Fort met us at Coral Court Homestay to walk with us to the nearby entrance to the Taj Mahal. Visiting the Taj was a highlight of this 3-month travel extravaganza, but I worried a little that the iconic landmark would be a let down after the countless images I’d seen over my lifetime. I needn’t have worried. The Taj Mahal was spectacular and we loved every minute of our leisurely visit on a gorgeous day.
View of the huge gateway leading to the Taj from the grassy courtyard just inside the main entrance gate
We opted to skip sunrise at the Taj, something that’s touted a lot, but which sounded to me like a gimmick…and I just plain didn’t want to get up that early. Besides, we’d put off our visit to the Taj until this year so that we’d see it just after the major cleaning that had its domes covered in purifying mud for much of 2018. I had no particular desire to see it turned pinkish by the rising sun. I wanted to see its freshly-restored gleaming white. The choice turned out to be a good one. We chatted with fellow guests at Coral Court Homestay who got up for a sunrise visit and said they were disappointed to find the entrance queue long and the Taj Mahal grounds crowded. They said it was pretty, though. We arrived around 10am to find only a short line and sparse crowds. And the Taj a brilliant white in the sunshine. The April weather was ideal, too: warm in the sun, cool in the shade. Fantastic!
Just beyond the gateway shown in the previous photo
Our guide, paid for and included in the Jaipur to Agra drive and touring we’d hired from Pushpendra (see my earlier post), had tried to talk us out of using his services at the Taj. We’d arrived too late from Jaipur the day before and had only been able to tour Agra Fort, having to put off the Taj Mahal for today. Despite the guide’s obvious reluctance (Why work another day when he could pocket the pay and do nothing?), he turned up to walk us to the Taj then provided cheerful and informative service. He delighted in posing us for what seemed like dozens of touristy photos and tended to speed along when I wanted to just stop and gape and take my own photos. We were glad we insisted on using him, but also happy to send him on his way after we toured inside the mausoleum so we could just stroll and sit and admire the incredible beauty around us.
We mounted stairs to the vast raised plaza where the Taj Mahal mausoleum sits, flanked by two mosques (one in use and the other primarily for symmetry and show). Separate tickets were required to enter the mausoleum and we joined a short line to file through. Photographs weren’t allowed inside the mausoleum where two replica cenotaphs sit in an ornate upper room of intricately carved marble and semi-precious stones. The real sarcophagi are in a lower room at garden level.
Back outside, we explored the wide terrace with its view of the river below and park across the way. Large flocks of black kites, eagle-like birds of prey, swirled and glided around the towers and central dome of the Taj. Indian tourists in an array of colorful regional clothes added to the overwhelming beauty of the place.
Black kites (birds of prey) circling a Taj Mahal minaret
Colorful locals near one of the identical mosques that flanks the Taj Mahal
View from a mosque flanking the Taj Mahal
After a quick visit to the mosque, we bid good-bye to our guide and set out to explore the square gardens with their central fountain and a small museum on the west side of the complex. We ended up strolling a long red stone portico that joined with the grand entrance at the south end of the gardens. Exhibits depicting historic and architectural sites around India lined the portico. We enjoyed browsing the exhibits, then gave over to the ultimate pleasure of the place: just sitting in the shade admiring the Taj Majal.
Red stone portico connecting to the grand gateway leading to the Taj Mahal. The exhibits depict architectural and historical sites around India.
Practical info:
Taj Mahal tickets are available at both the Western Gate and the Eastern Gate (where we entered) from one hour before Sunrise up to 45 Minutes before Sunset. Tickets are 1100INR ($15.34 US) for foreigners plus another 200INR ($2.79) to enter the mausoleum. There’s a 50INR (70¢ US) discount on the general ticket for buying online. We found the guide informative and helpful, but not a necessity. Allow plenty of time just to bask in the beauty. The Taj Mahal is not the place to rush.
