Panoramic Bhutan

After breakfast, free to relax and recover from your long flight. Start your day with an orientation lecture about Indian culture, Economics and Politics. Later enjoy a drive by sightseeing tour of New Delhi.

Overnight at the hotel

On arrival at Paro, meet, assist & transfer to hotel. Later we will visit the National Museum, once the watchtower for the Rinpung Dzong, located high on a promontory overlooking the Paro Valley. First constructed in 1645, the Rinpung Watchtower was converted to the National Museum in 1968. While photography within the museum is not allowed, there are numerous photo ops of the exterior and the valley below. This first outing is meant to familiarize you with the history of this amazing kingdom in the clouds, and a visit to the National Museum is the very best way to quickly learn the culture and natural history since it houses everything that is Bhutanese in a very different museum style that will delight you. walk or drive down to Paro Town for lunch in a local restaurant and a walk along the Paro Chu (River) to take pictures of Paro Dzong and the watchtower above. Here we will have photo ops of the covered foot bridge over the river, the huge wooden gate leading to the bridge, and the interior of the dzong. Built in 1645, this massive building now houses the District Administration Office and the Monk Body. A flagstone path leads to the dzong, rising gradually from the bridge that is abutted by two guard houses. The central tower, called the "Utse" of the Dzong, is clad in superb woodwork and is considered to be the nation's most beautiful tower. We will also visit the Paro archery grounds where there is always activity, either a formal match or practice.

Overnight at the Hotel.

Paro – Taktsang (Tigernest) – Thimpu

Rise early and drive about one hour to Chele La (la means pass) for one of Bhutan's best views of the Himalayas. Boxed breakfast will be served at the pass. On a clear day, you can see panoramic views of the western Himalayan mountain ranges. Then we return to Paro and spend the rest of the day hiking (or riding horses part way--you decide) up a forested path to Taktsang Monastery, also known as Tiger's Nest, Bhutan's most famous and scenic icon. The climb is steep and takes about 4 hours round trip, but those who want to can ride sure-footed ponies up (but not down) and we will have our guides to carry for our photography gear and urge us on. An important place of pilgrimage and refuge for more than 1200 years, Taktsang Monastery clings to sheer cliffs two-thousand feet above Paro Valley, and from the most popular vantage points on a rocky ledges directly across a chasm from it we will still need a 200 mm lens and a steady tripod to get tight photographs. The magnificent temple is completely rebuilt to its original glory. Tiger’s Nest is once again the subject of cloud-shrouded posters that say, "Bhutan, Land of the Thunder Dragon." After lunch we descend to the base of Taktsang where your transportation will take you back to your hotel for some refreshment before driving to Thimphu, (7,500 ft.) the capital city of Bhutan. The drive will take you along Pachu and Thimchu Rivers.

Overnight at the Hotel.

After breakfast drive 30 minutes to Dodena to visit Cheri Monastery. Built in 1620 A.D. by Zhabdrung Namgyel in memory of his father, Cheri is now a retreat center for Buddhist students and a popular pilgrimage site. Most students spend three years at Cheri before moving on to higher education. Very few tourists hike to Cheri so the students there welcome us with glee and are eager to pose for photographs. We can also photograph wild mountain goats which inhabit the cliffs behind the monastery. After our descent we will enjoy a full hot picnic lunch on the banks of the Thim Chu (Thim River) next to the picturesque Cheri Bridge. This covered wooden footbridge is one of only a handful of traditional cantilevered bridges left in the Himalayas.

Overnight at the Hotel.

Arise at 0600 (if you wish) and visit the Zangtoepelri Temple (Paradise Temple) in the center of Thimphu, where we will photograph pilgrims who have labored on foot over high mountain passes to worship and seek blessings from the lama there. Local residents flock here in the morning to chant their daily prayers as they walk clockwise around the Temple, spinning prayer wheels as they pass fragrant columns of smoke from smoldering juniper branches that carry a stream of prayers to the mountain deities. Not far from Thimphu lies Simthoka, the oldest Dzong of the land. A nice drive leads us from Thimphu to Punakha. The road is the passport to the Punakha valley & is surrounded by rhododendron woods and about the 3050 m high Dochu La where we can see the silhouette of the highest mountains of Bhutan in good weather. Here we can spend some time photographing the Druk Wangyal Chortens. Built in 2004 to "...celebrate the stability and progress that His Majesty has brought to the nation," this hill of 108 religious buildings in the middle of the pass reflects Bhutan's spiritual and artistic traditions. The amusing situated water castle of Punakha is the winter seat Khempo and accommodates the tomb of state founder Shabdrung Namgyal.

Overnight at the Hotel.

Drive to Dzong Wangdi Phodrang and reach the excessively wooded black mountains. The most prominent feature is the Wangdi Dzong sitting on a mountain spur commanding an archer's view of two rivers. An excursion leads us to Gantey Gompa where in a very untouched side valley the cloister of the Nyingma of order lies. The 3300 m high Pele La passport is the gate to Zentralbhutan. The original forest vegetation dominates the landscape. On the way we still hold with the Chendebji Chorten built in the Nepalese style. For the end of the today we enjoy an overpowering look at them We will also make numerous stops to photograph yaks and their herders, alpine flowers, lovely picturesque villages, and other roadside and panoramic scenes. After we go through PeleLa Pass (10,825 ft.) we get our first glimpse of the Black Mountains. This drive between Trongsa and Bumthang is one of the most scenic and exciting legs of our journey into the clouds, crossing rivers and streams and passing chortens with water-driven prayer wheels and colorful rock carvings. An hour away from Trongsa we make our first sighting of the crimson-roofed Trongsa Dzong, with the Mangdechu river cascading in one continuous waterfall down through the valley beneath. You will want to use your long lens to capture this scene, then use it again from Trongsa looking back at the road you were just on--the road at the lookout point is carved out of the solid stone mountain.

Overnight at the Hotel.

After spending the morning at the Trongsa Dzong and wandering Trongsa town, we leave for the leisurely four-hour drive to Jakar Village in Bumthang. There will be ample time to stop at a moment’s notice as your photographic eye spots every sort of cultural scene that can be imagined. The route crosses YotongLa pass (10,800 ft.) which is marked by a chorten and an array of prayer flags. If the weather is clear we should see Jhomolhari (23,540 ft.) and other peaks from the pass, which marks the boundary between western and central Bhutan as well as the western border of Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park. Beyond Pele La is Longte Valley where people raise sheep and yaks. We will pass through the village of Rukubji Valley with its big secondary school and Gompa. The houses here are clustered amid extensive fields of mustard, potatoes, barley, and wheat. 

Overnight at the Hotel.

Bumthang counts as the holy land of Bhutan because guru Padmasambhava and Pema Lingpa worked here and founded temple. Jambey Lakhang accommodates a Buddha's statue from the time of Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo (7. Jhdt.). We visit the Nyingma cloister Tamshing and the old temple of Kochhogsum. In addition, we visit a farmhouse and undertake a small wandering to the Tangbi cloister and to the Dzong of Jakar.

Overnight at the Hotel.

The journey takes us through mist-covered ThumshingLa Pass, which at 13,500 feet is the highest pass in Bhutan. On the eastern side of the pass the three-hour drive plunges down through a sunless forest almost 10,000 feet! to the village of Sengor. Then after a few miles of level road we plunge again through what is considered by many to be the most "white knuckle" 12 miles of national highway in the country. Here the road was blasted out of sheer cliffs with a guard-railed edge that drops clear out of sight. After crossing the bridge over the Kuru River, 15 miles further on the climbing twisting road, we come to the ancient trade route stop of Mongar. Since the area is very mountainous with few valleys, Mongar is built on the side of a mountain. The true homeland of the Eastern People, the Sharchogpas, begins from Mongar.

Overnight at the Hotel

This morning we make the sixty mile, three-hour drive from Mongar to Trashigang. We will cross at the 8,000 ft. KoriLa pass and stop along the way whenever crossing a pass. Beyond the pass, driving through corn fields and patches of banana trees, we come to the village of Yadi where we will stop at a farm house and photograph weavers making natural dyes from native plants. After Yadi the road zigs and zags in what seems like never ending switchbacks descending to SheriChu village at the Sheri River. After SheriChu we come across roadside sheds where oil is extracted from lemon grass. After crossing two more rivers the road climbs up to Trashigang town at 3,775 ft.

Overnight at the Hotel.

In the morning we visit the most important Dzong east Bhutans, Tashigang. A long, but very interesting Serpentin route through primeval forests leads us from many passes to the humid-hot Duar level close to the Indian border.  drive to Kaziranga National park, a world heritage site, famous for the Great Indian one horned rhinoceros, the landscape of Kaziranga is of sheer forest, tall elephant grass, rugged reeds, marshes & shallow pools. It has been declared as National Park in 1974. During safari into the national park you can easily sopt animals like the tiger, rhino, water buffaloes, wild bora, gaur, leopard cats, blackbucks, otters, monitor lizard, barasingha and of course wild elephants. Kaziranga has a large population of colorful birds. Some of the birds that can be commonly sighted during your Kaziranga wildlife safari are the flamingoes, cranes, grey-headed fishing eagle, whistling teal, crested serpent eagle, open-billed stork, swamp partridge, osprey, cormorant, herons, marsh harrier and other birds.

On arrival check in & Overnight at the lodge.

Early morning elephant safari to the national park. PM Jeep safari through the park.

Overnight at the lodge.

After breakfast proceed to Guwahati and later transfer to airport for flight to Delhi. On arrival at Delhi domestic airport, meet, assist & transfer to hotel for wash & change rooms, followed by dinner. Later departure transfer to International airport for connect flight to home destination.