Bhutan Cross Country Cultural and Festivals Itinerary

Bhutan  Previous Page  Previous Page  Next Page
Day 5 — {date5s}

Phobjhika to Trongsa

Bhutan Cherry Blossoms
Monk circumambulates a Bhutan temple in the correct Buddhist clockwise direction.

After breakfast we leave for a six-hour drive to Trongsa, again through very scenic terrain. We're not in any hurry so we play a game of leapfrog, passing our fellow travelers, stopping for photographs and meeting at the final destination, Trongsa. 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 snow-covered Black Mountains far off on the horizon. This drive between Phobjekha and Trongsa is one of the most scenic and exciting legs of our journey into the clouds, crossing rivers and streams, passing farmlands and villages as well as primordial forests that have never been inhabited because of the deities believed to reside there.  (Look across the deep valley to the uninhabited steeply inclined forest that seems to go on forever and ask your guide to explain the legend.)

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. Take a picture of the dzong from here then take a picture of the carved-from-granite road you were just on from across the chasm— this is a good example of, one minute "as the crow flies' but one hour as the car drives on Bhutan's famous National Highway.  Overnight halt and dinner,  Yankhil Resort.

Invitation into farmer's humble kitchen
National Animal Bhutan
Yaks Butting Heads
Bhutan  Monk Reading
We have special permission to take pictures inside most temples we visit in Bhutan.
Bhutan  Voted
Mark on the index fingernail indicates the person voted in Bhutan's elections.