Bhutan: Bumthang to Punakha

6th April 2013

Previous posts:
Flying to Paro
Thimphu
Punakha
Punakha to Bumthang
Bumthang

Sitting in the balcony of the hotel in Bumthang, I was thinking about my itinerary. When I planned a trip to Bhutan for 10 days, several people asked me what is there to see in Bhutan for 10 days. And I was struggling to fit all the places I wanted to see in these 10 days!!


One way to exit Bhutan from Bumthang is to travel further east to the town of Samdrup Jhonkar bordering Assam. From there head towards Guwahati. But that needs three days of travel thourgh the hilly regions of Bhutan. The travel would be long and tedious, which would be too demanding for my daughter. And there is no fun just to rush than spending time to see places. I need a week to just see few places I had in mind.


So, we will be heading back from Bumthang. During onward journey, we had only few stops on the way as I was not sure about the time it takes to reach Bumthang. Now that I know the travel time, we could stop at places I had mentally mapped two days ago.


April is the time of Rhododendrons, which we saw throughout the journey.


In Trongsa, we stopped at the watch tower overlooking Trongsa Dzong. This was built to find out any enemy attack. That was during the days when various small kingdoms were fighting amongst themselves. The significance of watch tower is lost during peaceful times and hence it is now converted into National Museum.  It contains belongings of royal family, describes deities, costumes and religious artefacts.


Trongsa Dzong from watch tower. This is how they could find the enemies nearing in.


There were many waterfalls near Trongsa. Few of them were on the road side.


 Another one.


This must be somewhere near black mountains. I remembered seeing a two stage falls while coming but could not see it now. It cannot go dry in two days, so I missed it!!


Skies cleared a little when we were climbing down Pele La. This is what I could get.


Again we were struck at a traffic jam near Nubding town.


A typical farm in remote Bhutan.


Some hills are covered with flowers.



We were back in Punakha at the same resort in the evening. This time we went to river side which resembled a white sand beach. 


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