Rainbow Photo Tours of

After an early breakfast we drive to Punakha Dzong stopping as many times as you like along the way, just learn to ask quickly when you see a photo op and then wait for the driver to find a safe place to pull over. Never leave your car door open! We have lunch in a restaurant that overlooks the Divine Madman's Temple, Chimi Lhakhang. In this area you will see many paintings and carvings of a phallus referencing the Buddhist saint Drupka Kunley, (1455-1529.) So how did a drunken womanizer become one of Bhutan's most worshiped saints? He achieved sainthood by subjugating many female demonesses with his phallus. (There is much more to that legend! Of course.)

You can drive to the temple first and then walk downhill through farm fields back to the restaurant, or vise-a-versa.  After lunch we visit Punakha Dzong, the most beautiful dzong in all of Bhutan. The new covered foot bridge (the longest cantilevered bridge in the world!) leads us to interior courtyards with colorful intricately painted doorways and temple exteriors. 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 Chief Abbot, and the central Monk Body of 350 monks in total. Overnight halt and dinner, Zingkham Hotel overlooking the dzong.