Bhutan : The Punakha & Exclusive Private Festivals

• A special PQA exclusive: A private festival/cultural program in Ugen Choling and Mongar where yak herders from Merak and Sakten perform Buddhist and folk dances for us to photograph.
• Photograph the annual Punakha Dzong Festival
• Spend a total of 15 days traveling in Bhutan, exiting into India. Only 200 foreigners a year are allowed to travel this way.
• Private photo shoot with two monks on Cheri Bridge that is covered with colorful prayer flags.
• Each pair of travelers has their own driver and personal photography assistant or Bhutanese guide. This gives you the freedom to ask the driver to stop as frequently as your photographic eye demands. The photography student is eager to carry your gear, set up your tripod, and serve as a cultural guide and interpreter.
• Participate in an archery tournament with local farmers.
• Gain entrance and photo permission to many places where most tourists do not have access.

Itinerary

March 3 – ARRIVE PARO from BANKOK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Transfer from Bangkok International Airport to Gangtey Palace Hotel. Afternoon excursion to the National Museum, once the watchtower for the Rinpung Dzong, located high on a promontory overlooking the Paro Valley. After lunch in Paro town, photograph the covered footbridge and wooden gate. Overnight at Gangtey Palace Hotel. (D)

March 4 – PARO, TIGER’S NEST AND THIMPHU

One hour drive to Chele La (la means pass) for one of Bhutan’s best views of the Himalayas. Boxed breakfast will be served. 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 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).
Lunch halfway down the mountain at the “Cafeteria.” After lunch we return to our hotel for a brief break before continuing to Thimphu, the capital city of Bhutan. The drive will take you along Pachu and Thimchu Rivers.
In the evening, dine at the residence of our Bhutanese hostess, Sonam Wangmo.
Overnight: Hotel Jumolhari

March 5 – THIMPHU VISIT/PUNAKHA

Arise at 6am to 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 lamas well as local residents.
After breakfast drive 30 minutes to Dodena to visit Cheri Monastery. Cheri is now a retreat center for Buddhist students and wild mountain goats, which inhabit the cliffs behind the monastery. Enjoy a full hot picnic lunch on the banks of the Thim Chu (Thim River) next to the picturesque Cheri Bridge. The bridge is festooned with colorful prayer flags. Afternoon, begin our journey to the East, en route stopping at 10,500 ft. Do Chula pass for tea and biscuits and enjoy our first view of the eastern Himalayan Mountains. Here we can spend some time photographing the Druk Wangyal Chortens, proceed to Punakha Valley. The drive to Punakha takes about 3 hours.
Overnight: Dragon’s Nest Resort in Wangdue or Zangotepelri Hotel in Punakha

March 6 -PUNAKHA ANNUAL FESTIVAL (TSECHU)

After breakfast, drive to Punakha Dzong to see the Festival which is held in the courtyard of the Dzong. Built in 1637 between the confluence of the Po Chu (male river) and Mo Chu (female river,) this fortress monastery is the winter residence of Bhutan’s spiritual leader, the Je Khenpo or Head Abbot, and the central Monk Body.

Lunch will be served at a typical farm house in Lobesa Valley. After lunch hike a short distance to Chimed Lhakang (temple). This is a Fertility Temple built by a 7th century saint who is known as the Divine Madman.

Beyond Lobesa lies Wangduephodrang—shortened to Wangdue by the locals—where the most prominent feature is the Wangdue Dzong sitting on a mountain spur commanding an archer’s view of two rivers. Another half an hour drive and we check in at Kichu Resort on the edge of the rapids of the Dangchu River.
Overnight: at Kichu Resort on the edge of the rapids of the Dangchu River.

March 7 – WANGDUE TO TRONGSA

After breakfast, drive for the long journey to Trongsa. We will make numerous stops to photograph yaks and their herders, alpine flowers, lovely picturesque villages, and other roadside and panoramic scenes. Overnight Yangkhil Resort

March 8 – TRONGSA TO JAKAR AND BHUMTANG

Morning walking/photography tour in Trongsa town. In the afternoon, leave for the leisurely four-hour drive to Jakar Village in Bumthang. Stopping en route to photograph the endless cultural scenes. Continue on to Jakar, the central town of the Bumthang district. As you enter the Chhume Valley (the first of the four valleys that comprise the Bumthang Valley) you will visit a center of Yathra , the name of the locally produced hand-woven woolen cloth that we can photograph. Overnight River Lodge

March 9 – BHUMTANG TO UGEN CHOLING

After breakfast, tour the Jakar Dzong and a few other important sites. Depart to the remote eastern side of Bhutan, the Tang valley and the village of Ugen Choling. Stop at a roadside temple and a nunnery at Bapzor village then drive to the end of the road at the village of Kesum. After a picnic lunch, pack horses will meet us for a one-hour hike over a suspension footbridge through farm fields and cluster villages and up a “hill” to the mystical Ugyen Choling Palace where we will spend two nights in the owner’s guesthouse. Its remote location makes it one of the less frequently visited historical sites in Bhutan, hosting fewer than two hundred guests per year. In the evening, join the villagers in visiting the Palace for an evening of cultural entertainment. Overnight: Ugencholing Guest House

March 10 – UGYEN CHOLING

Participate in the celebration and frivolity as our guides and drivers have a formal archery match in the center of the village and a formal lawn dart match next to the Palace. A private photo shoot has been arranged of a local lama and villagers in the courtyard wearing the masks and clothing worn in the local festival. Explore the village of Ugyen Choling and the surrounding countryside. Just take a guide to carry your gear and strike out from the guesthouse in any direction—all paths lead to photo ops. Beyond the village are farmhouses and fields for cultural exchanges, mountains and meadows for landscape photography, stroll through the village and observe the daily life of the Bhutanese. Experience the hospitality and a welcome honor to enter any farmhouse to see how the Bhutanese live their lives. Overnight: Ugencholing Guest House

Lodging

Bhutan is not for travelers who expect five star accommodations and world-class cuisine, but rather for adventurers who are hardy and flexible. We will stay in first class Western-style hotels in Paro, Thimpu, and Wangdi, but as we move further eastward, expect homey but ‘rougher’ hotels. In the East, beds are thin mattresses on wooden platforms. Bathrooms are simple and showers are sometimes nothing more than a hose with a shower head protruding from the wall and a cement floor with a drain. At one 16th century monastery guest house on top of a mountain, a plastic pail of hot water is delivered to your room for a morning sponge bath.

We have sought out upgraded hotels when available. In these better hotels you will still enjoy Bhutanese ambiance, but with greater creature comforts. (In Shingkhar and Ugyen Choling you will experience true Bhutanese guesthouses just as ancient travelers did—except for the Western toilets.)

• Gangtey Palace Hotel (1 night)
• Hotel Jumolhari (2nights)
• Kichu Resort (1 night)
• Yangkhil Resort (1 night)
• River Lodge (1night)
• Ugencholing Guest House (2 nights)
• Shingkhar Lodge (1 night)
• Hotel Druk Zhongar (2 nights)
• Kelling Lodge (2 nights)
• Hotel TLT (1 night)

Cost per person

$7499 per person (Based on Double Occupancy) from Bangkok

Limited to 14 participants

Single Supplement Additional $950

PLEASE NOTE: Reservations for this Quest should be made as early as possible to insure space on Druk Air flights into Bhutan. Once these flights are filled, there is no other way to get into the country.

Terms and Conditions

Included:

• Quest workshop fee
• All lodging at approved hotels and guesthouses
• Airfare Bangkok-Paro-Guwhati-Bangkok
• Your own Bhutanese guide and driver throughout the trip
• Bhutanese visa fee ($20)
• Bhutanese Tourism Development Fund fee ($10)
• Bangkok Airport Tax ($20)
• Meals and bottled water (excluding bar bill and soft drinks)
• All transportation by motor vehicle and horseback
• All fees associated with special events listed on the itinerary
• Photo Assistants to assist you and carry gear

Mirjam Evers

Mirjam Evers is a Dutch freelance photographer specializing in environmental portraits, travel, documentary and adventure photography. During the course of her career she has traveled to over 50 countries capturing the diversity of people and cultures in some of the most exotic places in the world. Her photographs have been published in American Photo Magazine, Popular Photography Magazine, Hamptons Magazine, Photographer’s Forum “Best of Photography Annual” and International Expeditions. Corporate clients include Epson and Visa Card. Mirjam is based in New York City and is a member of ASMP and PPA.

Quest Leader’s website: www.mirjamevers.com

Facts About Bhutan

GEOGRAPHY

Bhutan is bordered by Tibet, China, India, near Nepal and Bangladesh. Bhutan is a landlocked country. It is about 47,000 kilometers – roughly the size of Switzerland. It is located between Tibet in the north, Indian states of West Bengal and Assam in the south, and Arunachal Pradesh in the east.

Bhutan is a land of soaring snowcapped peaks, alpine meadows and densely forested hills and ravines abounding in exotic flora and fauna. From May to August, hills are covered with an awesome variety of flowers decorated with waterfalls and streams gushing in wild abandon.

HISTORY

Bhutan’s early history is steeped in Buddhist tradition and mythology. Bhutan’s medieval and modern history was a time of warlords, feuds, giant fortresses and castles. The visit of Padama Sambhava in 747 AD is the important landmark in the history of the country. The kingdom’s recent history begins with a hereditary monarchy that was founded in the 20th century and continued the country’s policy of isolationism. It was under the leadership of the third king that Bhutan emerged from its medieval past of serfdom and reclusion. Despite the speed of modernization, Bhutan has maintained a policy of careful, controlled policy of development in order to preserve its national identity.

Though known as Bhutan to the outside world, to the Bhutanese, the country is known as Druk Yul, ‘land of the thunder dragon’. The people are known as the Drukpas.

RELIGION/CULTURE

The State religion is Drukpa Kagyupa a branch of Mahayana Buddhism. It has been institutionalized in the Dratshang (Central Monk body), headed by the Je Khenpo (Chief Abbot) who is chosen from among the most learned lamas and enjoys an equal rank with the King. Bhutan is the only country in the world to have adopted Mahayana Buddhism in its Tantric form as its official religion.

The Buddhist faith has played and continues to play a fundamental role in the cultural, ethical and sociological development of Bhutan and its people. It permeates all strands of secular life.

PEOPLE

Bhutanese are a mongolid race of people who originally migrated into and settled the country in the 7th Century AD. A nomadic and pastoral society at first, they gradually turned to agriculture in the fertile valleys.

There are three main ethnic groups – the Ngalongs in the western and central regions are the descendants of Tibetan immigrants who arrived in Bhutan from the 9th century. The Sharchops who live in the east of the country, are recognized as the original inhabitants of Bhutan. The third group is known as Lhotshampas. They represent the Nepali speaking ethnic group. The total population of Bhutan is about 600,000.

Climate and Clothing

Spring is arguably the most beautiful time of the year in Bhutan. March temperatures average in the 60s to 70s, so clothing is a layered affair. Light clothing, ranging from T-shirts, sweaters, sweatshirts and a weather/rain proof jacket are essential. Pants are fine, even for ladies in temples and monasteries—shorts are not acceptable. Also, you’ll want to bring a bathing suit for the hot stone bath.
Shoes: We have three strenuous day treks: A hike to enter Tiger’s Nest Monastery—1 1/2 hour hike straight up a twisting trail. Another hike is a couple of hours getting to Ugen Choling, over a footbridge and up strenuous trails with rocky beds. The third hike is up to Tango Monastery, a 45-minute climb up a switchback trail. Good hiking shoes are recommended, ones that are broken in prior to these hikes. A second pair of comfortable walking shoes will work fine for villages, temples, dzongs and markets.

Health and Medical

No Vaccinations are required for entry in to Bhutan. We recommend that all travelers visit with their personal physicians 4-8 weeks before departure.

Food

Bhutanese food is exciting—at first. All meals are served buffet style and the breakfasts are quite good. (The buckwheat pancakes in Bumtang are great but a little gritty from the stone-ground grain.) Almost every evening you will see some sort of potato and rice, cooked vegetables and meat. (They like to whack the chicken up with a cleaver so it’s hard to discern white from dark meat.) You might get tired of a steady diet of the same thing for several days, so consider bringing dried fruit, snack bars, and small packaged foods like oatmeal, etc., where you just add boiled water, which is available everywhere we go. Bottled water is not a problem—the guides always have an adequate supply on hand in the cars and in the hotels. Remember: no ice or uncooked vegetables or fruits that you can’t peel, only bottled water—even when brushing teeth, etc.

Camera Gear

• Digital SLR with back up camera that will fit your lenses
• Battery charger
• A few extra batteries
• Memory cards (bring plenty!!!)
• Sensor cleaning supplies
• Flash with plenty of batteries

Lenses

• 12-24mm (for the 1.5x sensor size cameras) or 17-35mm (for full frame shooters) lens for landscapes and cityscapes; also for environmental portraits
• 28-105mm lens or similar for street shooting and portraits; a nice lens to have shooting busy markets.
• 70-200mm lens for portraits and nearby wildlife; VR or IS lenses are very helpful.
• 70-300mm or 100-400mm lens for more distant wildlife
• 1.4X tele-converter for telephoto lenses
• Polarizing filter(s)v
• Lens hoods for all lenses
• Lint-free cloth to clean lenses and blower ball for dust
• Fish-eye lens (if you have one, very creative lens!)
• Lensbaby if you have one or else you can try ours!

Computer / Digital Accessories

• Laptop with charger and Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom (not mandatory)
• Storage device, such as an EPSON P5000, or portable hard drives like Lacie hard drives
• Card Reader
• All cables for drives, computer, card readers, storage devices, etc.
• Power converters/adapters for all International Quests