Beautiful Bhutan - Part 6

Stopped on the way 

Waking up leisurely and after packing our bags, we went for breakfast at the restaurant attached to the hotel. They were kind enough to give us some Poha and Paratha accompanied by fruits, bread toast, cornflakes etc. By 9 a.m., we left Punakha and proceeded towards Paro which was 115 kms away. We had to go all the way back to Thimphu and then take a detour towards Paro. We stopped enroute near a river and took some photos at that scenic spot.

On the way, we saw the same sights that we saw while coming to Punakha – the 108 Stupas at Dochula pass, the Sitting Buddha at Thimphu etc. It took us about 3.5 hours to reach Paro and as we approached the town, we could see the International Airport which was not very busy. We were put up at Paro Grand hotel which was beside a small river. This is a very good hotel although the rooms are compact compared to other hotels that we stayed in this trip. From our hotel, we could get a view of the flights as they took off from the airport.

View from our hotel at Paro

After resting a while, we had lunch at the restaurant in the hotel. The food was good and even here we were provided with Satvik food specially prepared for us. The cook turned out to be an Indian from Rajasthan who knew the taste of tourists from India (especially Jains who insist on food without onion & garlic). Speaking of food, the Bhutanese people are mostly non-vegetarians – they eat everything from poultry to seafood to meat. However, one interesting thing is that there are no slaughter houses in Bhutan as it goes against their philosophy of Ahimsa or non-violence. All non-veg raw stuff here is imported from other countries (mainly India). I wonder how they reconcile themselves to eat non-veg while professing to be against all kinds of violence.

View from our hotel at Paro

In the afternoon, we went to the National Museum of Bhutan which is actually located inside a refurbished old watch tower. This old watch tower was once used to keep a watch over the Rinpung Dzong (monastery) above which it is built. Now converted into a museum, this houses a large number of artifacts dating back to over 1500 years. It captures the history, culture, costumes etc. of Bhutan in a very nice way. One can also read about the royal family and the important monks of Bhutan. There is a nominal entry fee to visit this museum to take care of the expenses of maintaining the place. We spent a good hour here exploring the various rooms which are at different levels.

Restaurant in hotel

After this we visited the marketplace where we did some window shopping. The place was good to spend some time walking around. More than 50 well maintained shops are here but most of them sell the same kinds of articles. There are also some nice restaurants here including pure veg places. We discovered a shop which was located slightly away from the market but which seemed to be a big hit with tourists. Here we went and purchased some items to be given as gifts to our friends.

Then we returned to our hotel for dinner after completing evening prayers. Dinner was as excellent as the lunch was. We decided to sleep early as the next day was going to be quite eventful with a long trek in the morning. More about it in my next blog.