We’ve had a few weeks back from our epic Bhutan adventure and it’s taken a bit of time to reflect on our fabulous trip!
We knew very little about Bhutan before deciding, on a whim, to visit. From experience we knew that great holiday experiences come from encounters with local people as well as the spontaneity of tiny things around each corner – this is what informed our approach to finding an agent we wanted to engage with. After a bit of internet research we discarded the super expensive tour operators, ones which were not Bhutan based and those which seemed to come back with an off the shelf itinerary. We found Bhutan Homestay by searching for Bhutan Homestays! We were very lucky to find a great fit with Bhutan Homestay who absolutely got what we were looking for from the outset.
Soon afterwards we were talking to Ulli via Zoom to refine and add to our basic idea. Very quickly she curated a 6 week itinerary that was a mix of hiking, culture, mid range hotels and homestays, travelling from West to the much less visited East. She already had in mind our guide and driver and as soon as we met them at Paro Airport we were confident that we would all still be talking 6 weeks later! Our limited experiences with guides and drivers in India meant that we arrived with fairly low expectations. We left knowing that both Tshewang (our guide) and Cheda (our driver) made all the difference to our stay. Their generosity of spirit, which seems to be a key characteristic of all Bhutanese, was evidenced every day in a myriad of small kindnesses. Andrew only succeeded in being able to open the car door twice! and we really didn’t expect our walking boots to come back having been cleaned overnight courtesy of Cheda. We could see from the itinerary that there were lots of options of various treks and visits. We soon deferred to Tshewang who we thought was best placed to judge what would work best for us.
We were able to experience a village archery competition in the middle of nowhere and a Tshechu in a local monastery a very long way from Paro with far fewer people and therefore much more authentic with no other tourists. We navigated altitude, unseasonal snow, cold and lots and lots of mud in good cheer. The biggest highlight was often Cheda emerging at the other end with a flask of coffee and biscuits! But this was beaten by the cheesecake Tshewang had secretly organised for when we finished our mini trek.
The opportunity to stay in homestays that brought us very close to lifestyles which are so different from our own was incredible. It was so lovely to witness multi generational families living in ways that won’t have changed very much over 100’s of years. It was a privilege and pleasure to visit people in their own homes, and the hosts and their families were incredibly warm and welcoming. The hosts provided freshly prepared, usually homegrown, food and didn’t mind if we couldn’t eat too much of the chilli cheese! Tshewang took us for lunch at his family’s farm and to his school in Yadi, having got to know Tshewang and a bit about his background it added an extra dimension and gave us more insight to how it must have been being born and raised in a rural part of Bhutan.
We left, Tshewang, Cheda and Bhutan at the land border with India at Samdrup Jongkhar with genuine tears and sadness and were soon back in the chaos of India, which only served to emphasise what a unique place, with its people, Bhutan is, long may it stay that way !!