Around South Asia: Part Five
In which I travelled to the international airport city
06.11.2025: Tour Day4, City2
Good morning from Punakha! I woke up at 06:30am, got ready and had puri breakfast at 8am. Luggage was loaded in the bus. Fellow travelers were clicking photos with the river backdrop till the time we left the hotel at 08:45am. We reached the base of fertility temple at 09:30am at the Lobesa village. Jimmy elaborated on the story of Divine Madman. We walked through the uphill muddy path for 15mins to the main temple.
Chimi Lhakhang
It is known for blessing couples with children and warding off evil spirit. The monastery is the repository of the original wooden symbol of phallus that Kunley brought from Tibet. The tradition is to strike visitors on the head with a 10-inch wooden phallus. There is an album of photos of couples with newborns. While we were clicking photos with the surroundings, we saw a couple with their newborn baby had come to visit the temple.
We walked downhill through the muddy path and reached the base at 10:30am. There were souvenirs shops and small café. We enjoyed mango juice and drove ahead to the Dochula Pass. We had a pitstop at noon only for washroom break. We drove towards Paro, enroute we stopped at the iron bridge at 01:30pm.
Tachogang Lhakhang Bridge
It is a chain suspension bridge built with iron and wood, out of compassion for those who drowned while crossing the river Paro Chu to reach the monastery. We watched greater coucals on the river bank. We spent around half an hour here and then drove to the Le Meridian hotel for lunch at 02:30pm. I had lunch with Shilpa and Shradha.
Situated in west Bhutan, at an elevation of 7200ft, Paro is best known for the Tiger’s Nest monastery and the only international airport. We passed by the airport terminal housing Drukair and Bhutan airlines.
It’s one of the world’s most challenging airport, nestled deep in the Himalayas at an elevation of 7,332 ft. It offers bird’s eye view of Tiger’s Nest monastery, Paro Dzong, etc. Only a handful of certified pilots are allowed to land on the limited runway due to the steep descent, tight turns, and narrow valley. There is no direct flight from Mumbai. We need to take the flight from Delhi or Kolkata. Hence, we arrived through the back breaking road route. The flight landings and take off are a delight to watch for.
Post lunch we went to the Dress for Hire shop at 03:45pm. It was a souvenir shop and also had the gho and kira, traditional dress. I got dressed in the attire and clicked photos with the group with the backdrop of Paro Dzong.
We drove towards the Hotel Paro Grand through the rice fields pathway. It felt like the pilot (drivers are called pilots in Bhutan) is taking a shortcut to the hotel. We reached the hotel at 05:45pm. Another birthday on the tour, Happy 60th Birthday to Dipty Kachalia. Today we got dairymilk as treat along with tea-coffee and pakoda. Rooms were allotted; my room no was 308.
It was a chilled night walking to our room building. We were back to restaurant in the main building for dinner at 08:30pm. I had dinner with Soniya and Pranali. Shilpa had to visit the local clinic since she was unwell. She was back in the hotel at 9pm. Post meeting her, we went to our rooms, got the bag ready for tomorrow and dozed off. Some sightseeing’s were postponed to next day. Actually, we should have had made the most of today so that tomorrow would wrap up early. All can have a proper rest before the trek.
