Bhutan 2025

We travelled to Bhutan in March-April 2025. It was last min plan change from New Zealand to Bhutan, I am so glad that we changed this plan and travelled to Bhutan. It is hidden gem and we experienced So many unique things and culture.

About this Blog : I am very happy to share that below blog is written by son, Tatva; who is turning 13 this year. He wanted to publish his first blog without any AI editting, so there is no AI used to write this blog. So enjoy the reading!!!!

======================================================================================  

Recently, my family and I went to Bhutan and Meghalaya for my summer vacation. I will start by telling my day - by - day experience of this 15 day trip. But in this blog I will only cover Bhutan trip.


Day1 - We took early morning flight from Bangalore to Bagdogra. I had slept in the flight after I had eaten my meal, which was Chicken Khow Suey(Noddle in coconut gravy) After 3 hours of flight we got off from flight and started our journey in the car towards Jaigaon(Indian border village) - Phuentsholing (Bhutan border village). I slept in the car again. My parents woke me up for the lunch at some Dhaba place around 1 PM. After lunch we restarted our journey towards our destination. We reached Jaigaon around 3.30 PM. There was a lot of traffic and it was pretty dirty as well in Jaigaon. We met our guide Pema and crossed the border. Me and my mom crossed border while dancing. We checked in to our hotel which was walkable from the Bhutanese border. The hotel name was "Druk Hotel", our guide Pema told us that Druk means the land of thunder dragon, meaning the country "Bhutan". We spent evening roaming around Phuentsholing town, we visited a temple and ate Ema datshi in the evening. If you don't know, let me inform you that Ema Dasti is the national dish of Bhutan. This is very yummy dish and I loved this dish. I ate Ema Datshi every day during my Bhutan trip.

 

Ema Datshi(white gravy) with rice

Day 2 - We had to complete the immigration formalities today. We went to immigration office around 9:00 AM and completed the immigration around 11:00 AM, which was very late, and my mom was getting very angry because of this delay. We set off towards Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan. On the way we stopped at 8 great Stupas, which indicate the 8 main events of Buddha's life. 

• The birth of the Buddha.
• Enlightenment Stupa: Enlightenment under the Bodhi tree.
• Buddha's first sermon in Sarnath.
• Miracles the Buddha performed in Shravasti.
• Commemorates the Buddha's return to Earth after teaching his mother in heaven.
• Buddha's resolution of a dispute among his monastic followers.
• Stupa of Long Life, it commemorates the Buddha agreeing to extend his life for three months.
• Buddha's death and final nirvana.

We had lunch in one over crowded cafe on the way. The food was quite average but the view was very nice from that place. We continued towards Thimphu and we stopped to the view point of where 2 rivers joins, which is called Sangam. In Buddhism it is said that if 2 rivers joins it is a good omen, and meeting of 3 mountains are bad omen. Since this Sangam point was at the joining point of 3 different mountains, 3 Stupas are built to avoid the bad omen. Then we went to Thimphu and checked in to our hotel. After freshing up we went to Central square, where a Thai festival was taking place. We saw many performances and stayed there till dinner.


8 great Stupas





Sangam

Thai festival

Day 3 - Today was set to explore Thimphu. The first place we visited was the Hindu temple. Our guide, Pema said that this was tribute to all the Hindu people by the king of the Bhutan. There was a marriage going on in the temple. It was a Laxmi devi temple. It was structured nicely, surrounded by mountains. The next place we went was the Great Buddha Dordenma. Before going to the giant buddha statue, we trekked on the view point hill nearby. It was easy trek and we finished in only few minutes while my parents were coming slowly. The view point had lot of green mountains and giant Buddha at some distance. Then we went to giant Buddha itself, and it was very huge. We could go inside the Buddha temple which was also surrounded by 10 devotee statue that were making offerings. Inside were a lot of mini Buddhas and the story of his life. We saw lot of interesting things being offered to Buddha in Bhutan, like canned juices, biscuits, choco pie and coco cola etc. We never offer those things in India.
After spending good time at Buddha statue we went to Takin preserve. Takin is the special animal which lives only in Bhutan, it is also the national animal of Bhutan. Takins have head of a goat and body of a cow. It is said that the divine madman had eaten the goat and cow and fixed goat head on cow's body and brought it to the life. We also saw some deer and birds here. Then we went for lunch in a small place, the food was pretty good here. Next, we went to the Simply Bhutan museum, but it was more of a experience centre. It was like mini Bhutan, Every thing about the Bhutan was explained in here. I will tell the step by step explanation of my experience. First we went into the Entry room, there were portrait of all the 5 kings of Bhutan. In the next room there was demonstration of how Bhutanese used to make houses in ancient time. There were some dedicated songs and dance for making walls which used to be 2 feet thick. Next we went to the kitchen, they explained about the Vassals and equipments what ancient people used, they also explained how they used to make butter tea. In the next section, there was live Culture dance and music show. They also served butter tea with some snacks to us. Post their dance performances we also danced with them. I also tried bow and arrow shooting and I realised I am pretty bad at it. After Simply Bhutan, we went to craft bazaar. There we bought dragon mask, some t-shirts, magnets and bag for Rose(my sister).

The Hindu Temple


Big Buddha from the trek point




The big Buddha


Taskin - National animal of Bhutan





Simply Bhutan


Simply Bhutan

Simply Bhutan

Day 4 - Today, we set off for Punakha. On the way we stopped at the famous 108 Stupas. They call it 108 stupas but there are actually 112 stupas. They all are situated in small mountain and places evenly all over the mountain. In the close-by mountain there were trek and caves. which was very nice experience. These caves were made by saints who used to do meditation there. We also went to the 4th king's garden. There were 16 steps to reach that garden, symbolising that he become king at the age of 16; also there were 34 spokes, symbolising that he ruled for 34 years. There were also the caves made by the queens.
We reached Punakha and went to fertility temple, Well, my parents did, not me; I was playing games in the car. Later we visited Dzong and suspension bridge. My mom saw pain puri stall, so we ate panipuri as well, it was nice to eat panipuri in Bhutan. The Dzong was very beautiful. Later we spent some time in the close by river, I also selected my award winning stone in the river. That was the end of day 4.









Caves at 108 Stupas

Our hotel in Punakha

Punakha Dzong


Inside Punakha Dzong




Suspension bridge


Suspension Bridge

My Award winning Stone



Day 5 - Today we set off from Punakha to Paro. On the way we stopped at Rhododendron park, Royal Botanical Park in Lamperi. Over there, an exciting festival was going on, showcasing Bhutan's culture called annual Rhododendron Festival. It was hosted by a small school, to a tribute towards the Rhododendron flowers and the life it supports. The event started with the Dance by Women, then school children, Soon after some people wearing masks came. Each mask represents a Zodiac sign like Dragon, deer, fish etc. Their dresses were very colourful and unique. To be honest, the dance was pretty boring, but I enjoyed it. My parents took good photos and videos. We explored the garden and played some local games.
Then we visited an offbeat location, a riverside mountain, where we were joined only by a few local people. We trekked to the mountain and enjoyed the serene riverside. By night, we reached our hotel in Paro and went to sleep.


Punakha Hotel

Day 6 - Today was big day, we planned "Tiger nest" (Taktsang) trek. It is a long 10-11 km treks which takes around 6-7. Can a hungry Tatva complete a long and hard trek almost before everyone? YES, he can and he did. We started the trek at 7.00 AM with the packed breakfast. We set off and I was with my parents only for first 2 minutes. I thought the climb would be short but it was really long. It was combination of going up and then doing down and again going up. I did not like that and. I also did not like last stretch of the trek which was full of stairs. The temple is based on Guru Padma Sambhava, Who came here in a wraithful form to banish the evil sprit on a tigress back. This is reason for naming this temple as Tiger Nest temple. Before going back, this hungry Tatva needs breakfast; So we had breakfast on the way back. For lunch we went to a farmhouse, they served massive cuisine in a big thali which was supposed to be shared by all of us. After finishing this very filling lunch we went to Paro Dzong, this is also the first place where our driver came with us. We clicked some funny pictures with him. We had lot of fun and we finished our day with hot stone bath. It is a concept of relaxing your body with wooden tub filled with water with some herbal leafs and flowers. This has 2 compartment one for us to lay down and other section to put hot stones which makes the whole water hot. We are suppose to relax in that water for around 30-45 min. I was feeling very relaxed and energetic after this. This was very nice experience for me.


Yeyy! tiger nest is visible after 2 hours of trek





















Day 7 - It was out last and sad day, because we were leaving Bhutan. First we went to souvenir shop. They also had traditional Bhutanese dresses on rent for pictures. My father and myself did photoshoot with those dresses. I also bought 3 headed dagger from that shop. The three-headed ritual dagger in Bhutanese Buddhism is called Phurba, a ceremonial tool representing the ideology of transforming the "three poisons"—ignorance, attachment, and aversion. It is not a weapon for physical harm but a spiritual implement used to pin down and neutralize negative energies and obstacles on the path to enlightenment.
On the way back we stopped at the airport view point. Bhutan has only one airport and have flights only to limited countries like India, Thailand, Sri lanka. We reached Phuentsholing in the afternoon, though I was not hungry but I wanted to eat Ema datshi before leaving Bhutan. So we went to one small shop and had an awesome Ema Datshi. Then we crossed border and reached India back.