Bhutan - Lindsay Brown [117]
The RSPN initiated and sponsors the annual Black-Necked Crane Festival on 12 November, the day following the king’s birthday. It’s primarily an effort to instil conservation values into the people of Phobjikha, but tourists are welcome to watch the festivities, most of which are folk dances staged by school children.
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Across the valley from Tabiting is the Khewa Lhakhang, which has a tsechu on the first day of the ninth month, when local men (not monks) do the dancing.
Sleeping
Telephone connections are patchy in this sparsely populated valley and most of the electricity is solar-powered. Bring warm clothes and a torch.
Dewachen Hotel (Map; 490007; s/d 1900/2400) Built in conjunction with a US travel company, this huge stone-and-wood building in Tabiting village has large and stylish rooms and a good restaurant with floor-to-ceiling bay windows that offer great valley views. There’s electricity between 6pm and 9pm. Dewachen is the ‘Pure Land’ paradise of the Buddha Amithaba.
Gakiling Guest House (Map; 490003; r Nu 900) For something more intimate, try this new wooden guest house just behind the Black-Necked Crane Information Centre. Family run, it’s the only locally-owned guesthouse in the valley. There are bukharis in all the rooms, plus attached bathrooms and great views from the upper-storey balconies.
Phuntsho Chholing Guest House (Map; 490011; s/d Nu 800/1100) Next to the Dewachen, this large Bhutanese-style house was converted to a hotel in 1994. It has creaking wooden floors, traditional wall paintings, a cosy sitting room and even a chapel on the 2nd floor, though the rooms themselves are pretty basic for the money. Still, if you value experience over mod-cons this is a good opportunity to get a close-up look at the traditional architecture and domestic lifestyle of rural Bhutan. Hot water comes in buckets.
Thegchen Phodrang Guest House (Map; 490024; s/d Nu 700/800) Opposite Gangte Goemba, this concrete monastery guesthouse is a last-ditch option, though rooms do come with a private bathroom and renovations are planned.
Amankora Gangtey (Map; 490049; www.amanresorts.com; full board s/d US$925/1000) A side road branches 1km to this top-of-the-line lodge from just below the goemba. Rooms are identical to Bhutan’s other Amankoras and the views, service and style won’t disappoint.
A new resort, possibly called the Yangkhil Resort, is being built by the bridge at the base of the Gangte hill.
Getting There & Away
The road to Phobjikha diverges from the main road below the Pele La. It’s then a 1.5km drive through forests to the Lawa La (3360m), where you may encounter a few stray yaks. There are also barking deer and serows in this area. After the pass the trees disappear and the scenery switches dramatically to low-lying marsh bamboo as the road descends to Gangte Goemba. From the goemba junction the road switchbacks down, past the turn-off to the Amankora resort, to the green expanse of the valley floor.
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CHHUKHA DZONGKHAG
For travellers Chhukha district effectively consists of the winding road that drops from the mountains through the lush tropical foothills of southern Bhutan to Phuentsholing, the primary land crossing into India. There’s little reason to take this route unless you are headed to or from India, but it’s a dramatic ride and gives you a sense of geographical continuity that flying into Paro doesn’t. En route you’ll pass gigantic ‘Lost World’ ferns that spill into the road and dozens of silver-threaded waterfalls, cascading off high cliffs into the mist.
Along this winding and dangerous 1½-lane highway you may want to point out to your driver the superbly cheesy Indian signboards that remind travellers, for example, that ‘Speed is the knife that kills life’, ‘Speed thrills but kills’, and ‘Impatient on Road, patient