Bhutan Diaries: Dholi taro bol "Paro"

LIGHTS! CAMERA! PARO!

Once done with exploring the chelela we are back to ground zero and the next stop was paro. Paro was very much conflicting to thimphu. It had a more traditional feel to it as it is older than thimphu.But it still had its own charm.

The Paro Airport, One of most beautiful airports we have seen

PARO MUSEUM

First stop , the famous Paro museum which closes at 11AM on saturdays. The museum is located beautifully but is also prone to thunders as the original museum was damaged after being hit by a thunder in the year 2013. The museum is now shifted in the newly constructed building adjacent to the old one. 

Entry to the museum

The Paro museum shows you the history and present of Bhutan like any other national museum in the world. The most interesting part of it was the display of various birds of Bhutan and the history was also captivating enough.

WoW!!



The actual damanged museum

 



Overlooking Paro from the museum

No we are not going further without feeding our tummy as the driver stopped by a decent yet empty hotel in Paro town for some yummy Bhutanese food. 

Thupka- A local dish

KYICHU LKHANG

Next on the list was Kyichu lhakhang. Believed to be the oldest temple in Bhutan The temple is popularly believed to have been built in 659 by King Songtsen Gampo of Tibet, to pin down the left foot of a giant ogress who was thwarting the establishment of Buddhism into Tibet. Additional buildings and a golden roof were constructed in 1839 by the penelop of Paro and the 25th Je Khenpo.

A Mural

A very small yet historical place

The encrypted wheels

Sometimes the least noticed things are beautiful

The temple is extremely sacred for the Buddhist and it does tell you a story of Bhutan history and old architecture as we see a lots of prayer wheels encrypted on the walls of the temple.


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Bhutan Diaries: Chelela Pass- A Pass worth Passing by..

Next on the list of our dream sojourn was the city of Paro. we were off to Paro, the second most populous city of bhutan and the only city with an airport is about a two hour drive from Thimphu with a fantastic smooth driveway. But wait we are the explorers we just cant think straight when we are traveling.We decided at the very last moment that we will go to the chelela pass,which falls on the way to paro and it turned out to be a blessing .The road to chelela starts about 12KM before Paro and it is 35 KM on the “Ha” highway.

Nothing much to discuss about the way to the top of the pass.It is mostly an empty road with not many vehicles plying and closely surrounded by trees and the beautiful Himalayan monal birds are a treat for bird lovers.However once you reach to the top you are in for a surprise.



Almost there at the top

Chelela surges landscape.It blows your mind away as soon as you step out in exuberance. It is surrounded by hordes of bhutanese prayer flags,cliffs with hordes of forest on one side and a fantastic view of the great snow capped jomolhari mountain on the other.


The irresistible charm of the place stays with you for a long time

The temperature at the top was -2. Most of us were virgins for the minus temperature and had literally our every body part shiver but the sheer excitement overpowered the cold and we were happily sitting in the lap of chelela for a while. 



 Color flags are for the new borns and the white are for the departed

 Breathtaking indeed



The Road goes to HA

 

Witnessing the wonder called chelela



Yes here we are :)

Chelela should be in must visit places of bhutan for the ones planning to travel. Not to mention it was a pass worth passing by :)

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Kuzuzangpo Bhutan- An Experience of a lifetime

 

      
      It all started from having an intense plan and huge back packing of 20-25 days which included a good part of north india , a long sojourn to the north eastern India but for all of us the most exciting part was to explore bhutan, the land of thunder dragons as it is fondly called and the dice were rolled out. The rough plan was there and we were all set to start a journey of our life time.

We took a flight from delhi to bagdogra in west bengal as it is the most preferred way to reach bhutan for indians.Our first stop over was at the queen of hill stations called darjeeling which was roughly 80 KM and a 3 hour drive from bagdogra airport. Then the next morning we planned to leave for phuentsholing , the gateway town to enter bhutan.Wait!! What about darjeeling then? What we did in darjeeling is a story that will be unfolded in another post. It is worth to be told.

Jaigaon is the indian gateway town to bhutan(phuentsholing) and from there we enter phuentsholing. Darjeeling to jaigaon is a 5 hour drive about 200KM going through NH31 and overlooking the beautiful teesta river for a part of the drive. A permit is mandatory to enter bhutan for indian/chinese citizens for others it is the routine long visa procedure. We had to make sure that we reach jaigaon before 10AM as the permit office in phentsholing closes at 11AM and the driver was just the right guy for the task taken straight out of a fast and furious movie. We reached the border town before 10 AM and applied for our bhutan permits.Please make sure you carry a passport/original voter Id, driving license, two passport size photographs along with you to apply for a permit.

The Bhutan Gate at Phuentsholing

 We got the permit in an hour, had breakfast in an indian restaurant and got some local bhutansese currency NU (indian rupee also works in bhutan) and a local tashi cell SIM card as indian networks will not be working here and we were set for the capital city thimphu while one of my friend GK still struggling to find the difference between bhutan and taiwan.:P

We reserved a 6 seater taxi for thimphu from the local taxi stand for 3500INR.Thimphu is 174 KM from phuentsholing, a 5 hour drive from a risky yet beautiful road carved out of mountains.

Rains added zeal to the beautiful drive

As we enter the serene environment of bhutan we are greeted with a cold breeze and a peaceful noise of the surroundings. You immediately feel that you are in for something soothing and also exhilarating. 

A view from an eatery on the way

The highway to heaven, as it is called was a masterpiece by the creator and also by the bhutanese government as the road is neatly carved out between mountains and makes for a decent yet risky ride, surrounding the nature. There was a calmness in the air one which reflects in the title given to the country, the most peaceful country in south asia. 

Bends were quite sharp and also smooth at times

 As we were having this discussion the driver proved it right by revealing that he has been happily married for almost 15 years with two wives, living with both of them under one roof for these many years which was something astonishing for all of us. It is more of a tradition in bhutan and there are many such examples . I challenged him to marry “once” in india.:P

WELCOME TO THIMPHU

We entered thimphu city after a 5 hour drive and what we saw was large houses with similar bhutanese/tibetan architecture , clean roads, probably the cleanest we have seen.

 Impressive isn't it?

 The city had a very calm yet happening vibe. We had to complete a tough task of finding cheap and best hotels in the vicinity called as the clock tower. We found one called as tashi delek which was priced at 950 INR per room. Please note that there are hardly any hotels offering rooms at ground/first floor and you will have to to shell out a lot more to get a room on lower floors.However we got one on the third floor and it was a never ending climb to the third floor after an almost 400KM long cross country drive.

 The street where we stayed

 Next Day of the plan was to explore the every nook and corner of Thimphu.Basically to know about the traditions and culture that represents this beautiful country. Thimphu, as i mentioned is the most populous city in Bhutan which also means that there were enough people to interact. The men were extremely welcoming, the women equally beautiful. Karthik already began to work his charm, while lalla was still finding ways to start a conversation :P 

         We took two local taxi’s as all taxi’s in Thimphu city are only small 4 seaters and we were 5 and we first went to the national library of Bhutan.

The library

It was surprisingly closed on Saturdays and Sundays and we clicked pictures from the outside and moved to zorig chusum, a government backed institute in providing education in embroidery, sculpture, painting, weaving, carving, etc to aspiring students to provide them with skills to boost their employment opportunities in the future.

 Local Bhutanese art

The school had an annual orientation going on as it was good to see an assembly of school kids after we were last part of it a decade back. Wow!!A decade!! i just realized. Time flies. 

Nostalgia

Closer to the school was national folk heritage museum which was an exhibition of the heritage of Bhutan, Also depicting how ancient bhutanse used to live.We were out after a short visit to the place, which was an education of Bhutanese history, culture and traditions and took a taxi to the most famous tourist place of Thimphu called National memorial chorten. 

The gate to the chorten

 Believed to be built in memory of the former queen’s brother the place is right in the center of the city and is mostly visited by old monks for their prayers and to relax.

Golden work for the tips of the temple

Little did we knew, that the next place we were going to was this spectacular.It was the giant buddha dordenma golden statue, which is not yet completed from the inside .Upon completion this will be one of the largest buddha statues in the world.

One word "stunning"

Geographically it is perfectly located.The statue will be visible from a very long distance as we can see the buddha shining in gold and also overlooking the whole city of thimphu from the top of the cliff. The place is hugely spacious and also windy and while rohith found some Chinese company who looked astonished by his fluent Chinese, we moved on to spend some quality time at the place.

Overlooking Thimphu from the Buddha 

If you go to a different country make sure you see its animal species.That is what we did next.The takin preserve was the place which houses the national animal of Bhutan, takin.You can see a lot of them here and you can cover this place in quick time as it is only a conservatory for takins.

This is the closest we can get to them

 After the whirlwind tour of these places without a break , we had to do the most important part of the day, FOOD!!!! And what better than some local Bhutansese food. We went to a restaurant called as “Ama” on the same street of our hotel as ordered Thupka, kewa datshi , Ema datshi, Thai rice, Chicken chilly, Veg crispy, Veg fried rice. All this for an astonishing N.U 900. That was the best part of Bhutan, It doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket when it comes to food.

Halfway mark!! It was cleaned up eventually

We spent the rest of the evening wandering on the streets of thimphu, while GK and lalla were at their usual “loving” antics and a couple of us decided to hit a local hangout spot called vivacity and then back to the hotel as we had to be early for a long yet exciting, exhilarating, extravagant day of exploring waiting for us tommorow.   

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Apne Hone Par Mujhko Yaqeen Aa Gaya..

Pighle neelam sa behta hua ye sama

Neeli-Neeli si khamoshiyaan

Na kahin hai zameen, na kahin Aasmaan

Sarsarati hui tehniyaan, pattiyaan

Keh raheen hai ki bas ek tum ho yahaan

Sirf main hoon

Meri saansein hain aur meri dhadkanein

Aisi gehraiyaan, aisi tanhaiyaan

Aur main sirf main

  Apne hone par mujhko yaqeen aa gaya

Travel diaries of RoRboyz -1

This 25 days of Backpacking trip has made us to pause our lives and rediscover ourselves..This is just a glimpse of our scintillating travel experience. Soon we'll be uploading few more videos with different shades our incredible journey...


Places covered in this video are:Bhutan-Thimphu, Buddha Dordenmo, Chelela pass, Dochula Pass, Paro, Tigers monastery, Ta Dzong, Kiyuchu llakhang, Arts school, National library, National Memorial chorten, Punakha Dzong, Phuentsholing, Gangtok, Tashi view point, Ganesh tok, Gangtok Ropeway, Darjeeling, Lachung, Lachen, Katao Border, Nathula pass, Tsomgo Lake etc.,..
Stay tuned folks..

Weekend getaway to Warangal

Warangal is around 140kms away from Hyderabad. Once Warangal is the capital of Kakatiya Dynasty. It’s been a longtime for us to spend some time in peace away from the hustling-bustling city life. So, we planned a weekend getaway to Pakhal lake to refresh ourselves. Anyways we were in need of this break from a long time. We arrived Warangal at 8:00am(we already missed the sunrise at Pakhal lake which was quite fascinating it seems). So we thought of checking out the Ancient Warangal fort. 

Kakatiya Kala Thoranam is a historical arch and symbol of Kakatiya Dynasty in South India.
It is also called as Warangal gate

Mesmerizing Warangal Fort:

Warangal Fort appears to have existed since at least the 13th century CE. Although precise dating of its construction and subsequent enhancements are uncertain, historians and archaeologists generally accept that an earlier brick-walled structure was replaced with stone by Ganapati deva, who died in 1262, and that his successors – Rudramadevi and Prataparudra – added to its height and added gateways, square bastions and additional circular walls prior to the latter's death in 1323.

Intricate carvings of Kakatiyas not only tells us the truth but it makes us to feel the truth,
that their taste in arts & architecture is unique..

This fort is the testament to the greatness of Kakatiyas.

Art has no death..Remnants of Warangal fort.

There were many modifications took place between 15th and 17th centuries, comprising principally the addition of barbicans to the four gates in the stone wall and the creation of gates in the outer wall. Later ASI has listed this site as an monuments of national importance.

These Ornate pillars represents the grandeur of Kakatiya kingdom..

After so many ravages of man and nature these remnants
still didn't lost their Charm..

The ASI has listed the remains as a Monument of National Importance.

Pristine Pakhal lake: 

After having lunch in Warangal we started to Pakhal lake. Our main motto was to visit Pakhal lake which is a man-made lake in the Pakhal wildlife sanctuary. It is about 50km east of Warangal and is well connected by road passing through Narsampet which is about 12kms away from the lake. It is one of the best spots for Bird lovers in Telangana. I would call this place as an Ornithologists hangout place.This lake is situated amidst undulating forest land hills and watching birds is a popular retreat for the tourists. This lake is constructed around 1213 A.D. by Kakatiyan Ruler, Ganapati deva and spread over an area of 30 km2.

This place is a paradise for nature lovers like us..

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better..

When nature speaks one have to listen..

The shores around this lake is the Pakhal Wild Life Sanctuary with an area of 839 km2. It is a dense forest shelter for a variety of fauna. We did not find any animals other than wild dogs, languor and monkeys. This place is a hub for snakes, didn't even remembered how many snakes we saw on the road while we were cruising the forests.

In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence.

Storks..Watching these birds was kind of refreshing for us..

Learning the secret of flight from a bird was a good deal like learning the
secret of magic from magician -Orville Wright

Camping at the Pakhal lake:

There were more monkeys than tourists in this place. Till evening, monkeys were always interfering in our business. By the time monkeys gone into the wild it was already dark. Then we thought that this camping will be more awesome than Laknavaram. But there were so many insects and bugs. I would rather use a superlative degree to mention it, there were millions and millions of insects which
literally showed us hell. We are preplanned for this camping as we know that camping in forests is not a joke, So we carried ASV's, DDT's, and some chemicals as a precautionary measure with us.
 Everything and every attempt made by us to kill those insects gone in vain.
'What to do?' was the question raised by everyone.we waited and waited but there was no use.
 Around 9pm, we packed up & escaped from this hell.Then we shifted our camping to some
place near Narsampet which was good one but not memorable like Laknavaram or Goa.

RoR machine-The car we drive say a lot about us.

Camping at this place was really not upto our expectations..Snakes, Dogs, wild bugs and insects
 made our camping really an unforgettable experience(in otherway)

The stars have their own language, you know. If you're careful, you can learn it. 

Our Passions.....

Life without a passion is like a curry without spices. A passion is born when you catch a glimpse of your true potential. Try to be more passionate about the things which you love. If you follow those passions, no matter what they are you'll start loving yourself. Remember one thing nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate and do them passionately. 

These are the passions which drives RoRboyZ... .,