Accommodation
- I stayed at the
Gangtey Palace hotel. This place has a lot of charm, and a very cozy bar with good views on the valley and the dzong. I didn't see the rooms in the courtyard as they gave me a room in the cottages just outside the hotel. These were OK with basic shower and electrical heater.
- The best place is the
Druk Hotel. It was bought recently by the Four Seasons chain, and they are renovating it into a very expensive hotel. In fact, it's not unlikely that you'll have to pay a surcharge to the 200$ fee if you want to stay there.
What to do?
- The
Paro dzong has a very nice setting on a hill above the river. The inside is also very nice.
- Next-door is the palace, but this is nothing special.
- There's also a field where they do
archery which is very spectacular. Try not to miss it. The distance is 140 meters, and the players actually hit the target quite often. There's also a w
hole ceremony when someone hits it or misses the target.
- The
town itself is nothing special and consists of a big street with some shops, very few of them geared for tourists.
- The
Tiger's nest is of course a must-see. It has become much easier to visit since the fire in 1998. The reason is that for the restoration, they've made a road to carry the supplies much closer to the place, and thus you don't have to climb that much. At this moment, the climb till the cafetaria is 60 minutes, another 30 minutes till the second viewpoint. The way down is 15 + 25 minutes. At the cafetaria you can get a simple vegetarian meal which is OK. If you can't walk to the cafetaria, they hire horses to carry you for 300 Nu.
- The
Drukgyel dzong is 20 km further down the road. This dzong is completely in ruins, so don't expect too much of it.Getting outFrom Paro to Punakha, it is about 4 hours including a stop at Dochu La.
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