Land of the Thunder Dragon Spring Festival Tour: booked!

Feeling in need of a travel-related highlight for the near horizon, I spotted Wild Frontiers’ Easter trip to Bhutan.

Hazel proved keen too, and after a recce of the alternatives at the Adventure Travel show, we’ve booked on the Land of the Thunder Dragon Spring Festival Tour, which is timed to include the Paro Teschu.

Very excited now it’s definite!

Destination: Bhutan (and India)

Why: Holiday with Hazel, timed to catch the Paro festival

When: March 2008

How: Land of the Thunder Dragon Spring Festival Tour, with Wild Frontiers:

Information

Language

  • Dzongkha (official language of Bhutan)
  • Sharchopkha (major regional language spoken in eastern Bhutan)
  • Bumthangkha (regional language of Bumthang area)

Weather

Average temperatures
Source: http://www.bootan.com/bhutan/weather.shtml

January to June (High/Low °C)
  JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN
Paro 9.4/-5.8 13.4/1.5 14.5/0.6 17.6/4.6 23.5/10.6 25.4/13.1
Thimphu 12.3/-2.6 14.4/0.6 16.4/3.9 20.0/7.1 22.5/13.1 24.4/15.2
Punakha 16.1/4.2 19.6/5.3 21.2/9.2 24.4/11.9 27.2/14.8 31.2/19.5
Wangdue 17.0/4.3 19.0/7.8 22.8/10.4 26.2/12.9 29.1/17.7 29.2/20.1
Trongsa 13.0/-0.2 13.9/0.4 16.7/4.4 20.1/6.6 21.0/11.6 22.2/13.6
Bumthang 10.8/-5.1 10.0/-1.4 16.2/3.5 18.7/3.9 21.3/9.5 22.5/13.5
Mongar 15.5/8.2 15.9/8.3 20.0/11.6 22.8/14.0 25.1/17.4 26.1/19.5
Trashigang 20.4/10.5 21.7/11.5 24.8/14.4 28.3/17.0 30.0/20.6 30.7/22.6
&nbsp
July to December (High/Low °C)
  JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
Paro 26.8/14.9 25.3/14.7 23.4/11.7 18.7/7.4 13.9/1.4 11.2/-1.7
Thimphu 18.9/13.4 25.0/15.8 23.1/15.0 21.9/10.4 17.9/5.0 14.5/-1.1
Punakha 32.0/21.6 31.4/19.8 29.9/20.0 27.8/18.9 22.3/13.0 15.0/7.9
Wangdue 18.4/16.2 29.1/20.0 27.5/19.1 26.1/14.7 22.6/9.6 19.1/6.3
Trongsa 25.3/15.3 23.8/15.0 22.6/14.2 21.8/11.7 19.8/6.4 18.2/2.5
Bumthang 14.1/10.9 23.0/13.7 21.6/12.1 19.5/5.9 16.1/-0.5 12.3/-2.3
Mongar 16.1/15.8 25.4/19.6 24.7/19.4 22.7/15.8 19.9/11.2 15.7/9.5
Trashigang 31.5/23.1 30.2/22.7 30.0/23.9 29.1/17.7 26.1/13.6 23.0/11.6

Forecasts

Delhi to Kathmandu: The photos

I’ve been getting my photos up online, slowly but surely, over the past couple of weeks. Next step: set up my S&S leaving pressie photo printer, and to print off the best. In the meantime, here is my day by day pictorial record of the Exodus trip, Delhi to Kathmandu: 22 January to 5 February 2005.

22 January: Delhi – Humayun’s tomb, Lotus baha’i temple and Qtub Minar
23 January: Delhi – Gandhi’s tomb, Gurdwara Bangla Sahib sikh temple, New Delhi
24 January: Delhi to Jaipur – En route, Narain Niwas Palace Hotel, Jai Singh’s Observatory, the City Palace
25 January: Jaipur – Albert Hall, Palace of the Winds, Amber Palace, Jaipur Old City rickshaw ride
26 January: Taj Mahal, the Red Fort at Agra, Fatepur Sikri and the Magadh Express
27 January: Allahabad, Village school visit, Vindachal Temple Mirzapur, Chunar Fort, Boat ride down the Ganges, Barry’s and Maria’s birthday
28 January: Varanasi
29 January: Adieu India, Namaste Nepal
30 January: Bhairawa to Safari Narayani Lodge Ghatgai, Chitwan, and our first elephant safari, traditional Tharu dancing
31 January: Chitwan – Dawn safari, Canoe trip, Elephant briefing, Tharu village visit
1 February: Chitwan – Elephant breeding centre (Elephants there, canoes back)
2 February: Chitwan to Kathmandu
3 February: Kathmandu – Pashupatinath hindu temple, Bodhnath tibetan buddhist stupa, Swayambhunath “Monkey” buddhist temple, Thamel, Durbar Square and the Kumari, Giovana’s birthday
4 February: Kathmandu – Walking around Thamel, Durbar Marg and Durbar Square
5 February: Kathmandu – Thamel and the Rum Doodle 40,000 ft bar

Previously…
Delhi to Kathmandu: Part 2
Delhi to Kathmandu: To summarise ….
Home sweet home
Delhi to Kathmandu – interim report from Varanasi
Delhi to Kathmandu resources
Delhi to Kathmandu, here I come!
Holi- Holi- Holiday?

January 2012: Following fotopic’s demise, I’ve uploaded my photos for this trip onto Flickr: Delhi to Kathmandu, January/February 2005.

Delhi to Kathmandu: Part 2

The Safari Narayani Lodge was a lovely place to relax and to do safaris by elephant and canoe into the Royal Chitwan National Park, where we saw rhino and crocodiles. We also go to enjoy traditional Tharu dances and a visit to a local village where Kirsty and I were kept busy giving swings.

The drive to Kathmandu was beautiful, even if it featured a few frightening sheer drops as we climbed from the enchantingly named Mugling (fresh spicy samosa, 6 for 30 nepali rupees) along the Prithvi Highway into the high Kathmandu valley.

We couldn’t go to Pokhara – a combination of the Maoists declaring a No Travel day, and putting a bomb under one of the main bridges on the road to Pokhara. So no views of the marvellous Annapurnas, and no treks 🙁

I loved Kathmandu – the Royal Singi Hotel was in a great location in Durbar Marg, close to Thamel, to old city and the amazing Durbar Square. And there is Kasthamandap Bazaar just over the road: a great quasi-department store, with a food hall-cum-Woolies in the basement.

We had a great day of informative tours with our local guide Suresh, starting with the hindu temple at Pashupatinath (I didn’t know that Nepal is the only hindu kingdom, although buddhism and hinduism do seem to blend easily for most nepalese), then the tibetan buddhist stupa at Bodhnath with its busy courtyard and beautiful sunshine lighting up the golden spire, and prayer flags fluttering in the breeze. Our last stop before lunch as the monkey temple of Swayambhunath, with its golden stupa and temples on a hilltop with views over Kathmandu and towards the mountains that encircle the valley.

After a great lunch al fresco in the Dechenling Beer House garden, where I had my first taste of Everest Beer, Suresh let us wander through Thamel and down through streets busy with the activities of daily life, before giving us a fascinating guided tour of Durbar Square, including an appearance by the Kuamri, the living goddess.

The rest of our time in Kathmandu was freetime, mainly spent wandering the streets of Kathmandu, and trying not to buy too many souvenirs….

I want to go back to Nepal sometime, all the more so after Michael Wood’s The search for Shangri-La programme yesterday. Not sure when though.

All telecoms were off during the week we were in Nepal, but once in Kathmandu we go to see BBCWorld reports telling us that “people who can are fleeing the country” and occasionally saw groups of armed soldiers hanging around on street corners, but other than that you wouldn’t have known that the King had just made another step towards increased despotism.

Home sweet home

After the tortuous return flight from Kathmandu (the killer stage being the 6 hour stop over in Abu Dhabi – home of the world’s most uncomfortable airport seating – from 9.40pm to 3.30am), it’s been a nice but weird day back in London. Phil met me at LHR, which was really really lovely, and once back in the Barbican and after unpacking and starting the washing marathon we headed over to Warwick Avenue for a very tasty lunch at the Prince Albert Pub and Formosa Dining Room, organised by Tom Coates.

Time for a bit of a veg session now catching up on all the telly Phil’s videoed in my absence (USA-tastic: The OC! The West Wing! Desperate Housewives!). Then I’ll think about getting my stuff together for day 1 at Norton Rose…… Sorting holiday pics will have to wait a while.

(In the end, I didn’t do anything with my photos (a task for this weekend methinks), but I did manage to stay awake all the way through to midnight, largely thanks to C4’s “100 greatest pop videos”….. )