Bhutan: Land of the Thunder Dragon
Nov 3-23, 2024
by Lynn Salmon <>{
by Lynn Salmon <>{
Known for its Gross National Happiness, the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, is perched in the Himalayas between India and China. I've read that one reason the British never were able to incorporate it into their Empire --- It is just so damn hard to get to Bhutan! Even today, only three roads lead into the Land of the Thunder Dragon.
I chose to fly, and it still took a while to get there. JFK to Doha -- Qatar to Bangkok -- and finally a flight on Drukair to Paro. The landing at Paro International Airport is said to be one of the most dangerous in the world, and only a few certified pilots can navigate it. Our pilot, Karma Shedrup Tshering, happened to be the nephew of our Bhutanese guide, Hishey Tshering. He expertly piloted between the mountains and made the final sharp turn, finding the runway with ease.
Arrival in Bhutan was a breeze. I changed some dollars into Bhutanese Ngultrums, bought a phone sim card good for a month for 500 Nu (about 6 bucks), and found myself out of the airport and meeting our guide Hishey in a blink of an eye. Five our our group, Shelly, MB & Hugh, Janet, and Candy were on my flight to Paro from BKK, and Jim and Judy, flying from Kathmandu will join us after lunch.
We piled into the comfy bus which transported around the country over the next 3 weeks with expert driving from Kota. Additional guides accompanying us included Chimmey, plus Rabgay who drove the little orange car that would shoot ahead to scout birds or set up meals for us in the field.
Heading toward the Hotel Eutsholing in Thimphu, we made one birding stop along a small river, the Paro-Thimphu hotspot according to ebird. My first bird sighting in Bhutan was a Russet Sparrow glimpsed near the airport as we were driving. The river stop yielded 14 species including 9 life-birds for me including River Lapwing, Eurasian Hobby, White-capped Redstart, and a Himalayan Buzzard. Also saw the first mammal of the trip, a smooth-coated otter.
Our Hotel Eutsholing was a little over an hour away, in Thimphu, the capital and largest city in Bhutan. It is at nearly 8,000 ft elevation, so I welcome the elevator to get to my third floor room. This is the only elevator I will see on the trip, though I fortunately acclimatize to the altitude after a day or two. Bhutan is one of the world's highest countries, with an average elevation of 10,760 ft.
We've all had a long day and it isn't even lunch time yet! That's what a 5am departure will do to you. After lunch at the hotel, we headed out for a visit to the Royal Takin Preserve. This zoo-like setting was built in 1974 as a genetic reserve for Bhutan's National Animal, the Takin (Budorcas taxicolor whitei). It has expanded to function as a rescue and rehabilitation sanctuary for other wild animals and some endemic birds including the Blood Pheasant and Himalayan Monal were in captivity here. I also ebirded a few bird visitors in the area including the Spotted Southern Nutcracker which I got a nice shot of flying away with a pine cone in its mouth.
Before it got dark, we had time to drive up to visit the Thimphu Buddha perched high above town. This gigantic Buddha is one of the largest seated Buddhas in the world at 177 feet (54m). My photos won't do it justice.
With jet lag, I was in bed by 8 and up super early the next day which gave me plenty
of time to sort my socks and figure out how to get the shower to work. Thank goodness for
my engineering degree. Breakfast was great with omelets, sausage, fruit, and cereal
with warm milk. Feed me well in the morning, and I'm a happy camper.
Today's lineup included visiting the main cultural attractions of Bhutan's capital city of Thimphu. We began at the General Post Office which included an extensive postal museum as well as a large collection of commemorative stamps for sale. Having been an avid stamp collector in my youth, I spent some time going through the collection and picked out a number of stamps to purchase, focusing on those with wildlife and cultural sites we are likely to see on this trip. Also picked up a few postcards to mail home.
Next stop, the Jungshi Handmade paper factory. We were allowed to take pictures of the workers, and it was cool to watch one woman roll out thin (almost invisible) sheets of paper. The paper is made from daphne bark, some of it is infused with flowers and other plants.
Thimphu's National Textile Museum had many interesting exhibits. Alas, no photography was allowed inside. I remember seeing several examples of traditional dyes that reminded me of my work with fading of Chinese Plant Dyes. There were also a number of museum videos, including one explaining how the national dress for men and women is donned and fastened.
Just before lunch we visited the National Institute of Zorig Chusum Zorig Chusum translated means "13 crafts" and the Institute teaches students traditional art skills including Traditional Painting (Lhazo), Sculpturing (Jinzo), Wood Carving (Shagzo), Calligraphy (Yigzo), Paper making (Dezo), Bronze Casting (Lugzo), Embroidery (Tshemazo), Weaving (Thagzo), Carpentry (Parzo), Masonry (Dozo), Bamboo and cane weaving (Tshazo), Gold/Silver Smithy (Trozo), and Black smithy (Garzo).
After lunch was the days highlight: a visit to "Simply Bhutan". Simply Bhutan is an interactive museum that showcases various aspects of traditional life in Bhutan. Visitors can sample various activities such as archery, coin tossing, earth ramming to build a wall, and sample yak butter tea, among other things. Watch out, if you hit the archery target, as I did, you have to do the traditional celebration dance. Not following the proper steps, I threw in a little Macarena with mine.
Simply Bhutan also has the Wangchuk Chenmoi Dumra (Garden of Phallus). Phalluses are a common sight in Bhutan The symbol is meant to bring good luck, promote fertility and harmony, and ward off evil spirits. They are painted and carved in and on buildings throughout the country, and for sale in most tourist knick-knack shops. The symbol was popularized by the "Divine Madman" in the 15th century when Drukpa Kunley brought Buddhism to Bhutan
Today wasn't about birding, but I was pleased to snap a photo of a Himalayan Buzzard flying over Simply Bhutan. That was probably the most oft seen raptor of the trip.
Off to an early start, left Thimphu at 6:30am and drove to the Druk Wangyel Chortens (Stupas) about an hour away. These 108 Chortens at the Dochula pass, just over 10,000 feet, are an important destination for both tourists and for locals, because the pass is a popular spiritual destination. Bhutan's highest peak, Mt. Gangkar Puensum can be seen from the pass. We did a bit of birding before breakfast at the pass, and continued birding and visiting the site for another hour or so after breakfast.
By 10am we reached Our next stop, the Royal Botanical Park. Here we took 2 hours and 19 minutes to bird a 1.26 mile loop. That's how birding goes, you don't walk very far or very fast. I really enjoyed this park, even though most of the birds were hard to get binos on. One, the Red-billed Leiothrix was heard only, but I recorded its cool sound. Here we also enjoyed seeing a Eurasian Otter and an Orange-bellied Squirrel.
Stopped along the Trashigang Highway and tried to make sense of a mixed flock of little flitty birds high in the trees. One with an amusing name is the Orange-bellied Leafbird. Amusing, because "leaf bird" is what we often call a sighting of a leaf that looks like a bird. This area also had a Striped Squirrel, but the little sucker was too fast for me to get a photo.
I think we had lunch in the field and did a little birding on our way to the "lowlands" (around 4,000 feet). We're spending only one night at the Dragon's Nest Resort in Wangdue. My room had a lovely view of a river lined with palm trees. After checking into our rooms, we went back out for a couple more hours of birding along the river. First ducks of the trip seen, Ruddy Shelduck. Overall, this trip was not very ducky.
At dinner, while reviewing our bird list, we heard a Scops-Owl calling outside the hotel. That brings my life bird list up to 1685 with 60 new Bhutanese birds so far on the trip. Plus an additional 6 added during my Bangkok stop-over on the way here.
Early morning start with another good breakfast. We had a long drive today along the Puna Thsang Chu River with warmer temps down in the flatlands. A portion of the drive was along the border with India, and I noticed a fork in the road into that country. I believe it is the only land border crossing currently open into Bhutan.
Frequent birding stops today. By now the sound of the Collared Owlet is becoming seared into my brain. It's the call our guides play to get the attention of birds in the field. Similar to what we do back home, but using the Eastern Screach Owl call in NY. Later on the trip today, we heard the Collared Owlet answer back.
We had success finding our main target, the White-bellied Heron, one of the world's rarest bird with only about 60 of them left in the wild. I saw one flying down the river and lost sight of it when it landed in the rocks. I then couldn't find it with binoculars, but miraculously got a picture of the bird by shooting at that area.
We visited and had lunch at the White-bellied Heron Conservation Center in Sunkosh. More info at Royal Society For Protection of Nature. In addition to facilities with a few captive birds, there is a small museum with information about the birds. Currently, White-bellied Heron are critically endangered with <60 mature individuals and fewer than 5 breeding pairs in the wild.
Mammal sightings today included some type of mountain ghora, Macaques, and the Golden Langur (Trachypithecus geei), an old world monkey found in this area. They are currently endangered with a decreasing population around 6,000.
We now have two nights at the Marigold Hotel in Gelephu. As seems to be the trend in Bhutan, the bathroom door is secured on the outside with a heavy dead bolt appropriate for Fort Knox.
I love the smell of sewage in the morning. You guessed it, we made an early morning visit to the Gelephu Sewage Treatment Plant - a must stop for most birders! It was a great stop, my kind of birding with many larger birds and others down where they are easy to look at rather than flitting around among tree leaves. Saw Lesser Whistling Ducks, Pond Herons, mynas, babblers, barbets, rollers, and my biggest ebird list of the trip so far with 35 species and a lot of pictures. After a couple hours birding, we returned to the Marigold Hotel for breakfast, a yummy curry, some puffy bread thingies, eggs and other stuff.
Out for more birding around Gelephu until lunch time, back to the hotel for lunch and a siesta to avoid the heat of the day, followed by another birding excursion along a road in the area. Highlights included elephants crossing the road and an Oriental pied hornbill.
After dinner at the hotel (a nice potato curry and pork belly), we walked a short distance for owling and found a Brown Boobook. Love that bird's name. I didn't take my camera for this outing, but was able to take a photo with my phone of Hishey's phone attached to his scope with the bird on it.
Early start in the morning as we head up to Tingtibi. With lots of stops for birding, I add 12 more ebird checklists and get at least 30 new species this day. We have a couple of multi-species blasts with many small birds flitting about and it's very hard to get on some of them, but I manage a few photos. Best shots include a Collared Treepie, Green-billed Malkoha, and Long-tailed Sibia.
We stopped midway for lunch at Hotel Reng and rolled into our lodging at TWang around 5ish as it was getting dark. TWang is our most basic accomodation of the trip. Hishey described it as "camping with walls" but it is a simple hotel room with an attached bath, albeit one with a squat toilet and no hot water. My room is very small, with a single bed, small chair and one tiny table for furniture. But, I have working wifi since my room is located directly above the lobby. Much better than camping!
Next morning I'm up again at 4am. I went to sleep at 8pm, so that's a full 8 hours. We're meant to have coffee at 6:15am and be out birding by 6:30, but I make some instant coffee in my room (glad I brought that electric kettle) and have an early morning snack.
We drove and birded, and drove and birded, eventually stopping for breakfast in the field around 8:30am. The meals in the field have been very good with tables and chairs set up for the group and lots of hot food choices carried with us. Breakfast included eggs, rice, and buckwheat pancakes with local honey.
More birding after breakfast until we returned to the TWang for lunch and a break
before another round of briding in the afternoon.
The Salmon life bird list at the end of the first week in Bhutan has increased by 167 new bird species seen in Bhutan.
Another early start with a full day of driving with occasional birding stops along the way. We continue to see Golden Langurs along the way. This morning, a large group were along the side of the road licking the rock edges for minerals.
We had another relaxing lunch stop next to a small stream near the Dangdung bridge. Special bird visitor at lunch time was a Hoopoe. The spot had more of the usual lovely scenery near a small building with a prayer wheel. A group of young people seemed to be making a music video of some sort nearby.
Around pi-time (3:14pm) we reach the Yotongla Pass. The highpoint for today at 11,237 feet. We stop and walk for about a mile looking for birds, but it is quite windy and quiet along this stretch of the road.
Afternoon stop with Lemon-Honey tea.
Kaila Guesthouse, Bumthang.
