We spent two days in Thimphu, the capital city, and home to roughly 1/3 of the population. After a week in quite rural areas it felt a little strange to be in a more developed area again.
As we approached the city we stopped to view Simtokha Dzongna across the valley.
Our first official stop was at the National Memorial Chorten. Built for the third king in 1974, it had three levels, with a beautiful interior.
Next, we checked into the hotel, then walked across town to the Green Weaving Centre. Here we saw a short demo on weaving and natural coloring, including how they achieve certain colors. Up front they had a small store with a number of handmade items at fairly expensive pricing. Leandra picked up a bookmark instead!
From there we crossed the street to the Handicraft Market. Many stalls had similar items, but a few were more unique. Leandra found a small string of flags with the Buddhist mantra (that we have seen in that back window of many cars), an elephant print on canvas, and a singing bowl.
That evening we walked to dinner at Zombala, a well rated spot for dumplings. It was very busy but our guide scored us a table while she ate with a friend. We ordered fried beef momos (excellent) and thukpa, a chicken broth and noodles dish that was very good! The chili sauce on the side was a reasonable amount of spicy.
After dinner we went to Alchemy Pub for drinks where we got a New York Sour (red wine float) and a Whisky Sour with the local K blended whiskey. Very reasonable at 850 (~$10) total. The local music videos on display were a fun bonus! We realized later that we probably shouldn’t have had ice – thankfully it didn’t cause us any problems.
The next day started a little later, 10am, to avoid the morning traffic. The weather was overcast all day, threatening rain but only a few drops ever fell. However, the wind at higher elevations was definitely cool so we kept adding and removing layers as we went up and down hills.
First up was the Great Buddha Dordenma, featuring a colossal 51 meter tall statue. This was the largest indoor temple we’d seen, with carvings and paintings everywhere plus 100,000 small Buddha statues. It was especially busy with a devotee festival (who stay up to a month, camping on site!) including cars lining the road up to the site. The festival featured monk chanting that was quite mesmerizing.
Our second stop was the Royal Takin Preserve, where we saw blue deer, a Himalayan goral, and of course, the namesake takin. The largest male takin was VERY interested in a particular female, lots of huffing and following her around.
The park had a nice cafe, so we stopped for an eclair and peanut cookie, plus a flat white for Leandra.
Our third stop was for a hike, the Sangaygang – Phajoding Trail. Starting out there were a massive number of prayer flags on the hillcrest, then we proceeded (mostly) downhill through dry pine forest to the Wangditse Lhakhang temple. From there it was a fairly steep descent to get to our pickup point.
On our way through town we stopped for takeaway from Zombala Restaurant, then on to eat our lunch in the Royal Botanical Garden Serbithang. Besides the beef momos (steamed and fried this time), we also ordered pastries from the garden cafe (almond croissant and chocolate marshmallow).
After eating we explored the gardens, but they were rather unkempt and underwhelming. However, we did have a nice experience in the orchidarium with a Swedish-American who volunteers here and was working on getting the orchids cleaned up again. He pointed out several in bloom that weren’t easy to spot.
Our itinerary had us scheduled for the postal museum, but we opted to stop at the relatively new Chang Yul Park instead. The rose garden here was gorgeous, and the whole park was very nice overall.
Our final stop for the day was the Centenary Farmers Market, which was much bigger than we expected, two very modern levels. Probably one of the largest and brightest markets we’ve been to, including our European adventures. There was a lot on offer here, including tons of fresh vegetables, fruits, rice, spices, meats, mushrooms, etc. and so many chili peppers!
We had a few hours on our own before dinner, so we checked out a few stores where Leandra found a small bottle of the Bhutanese red wine she liked, plus a small can of Pringles bbq flavor.
For dinner this evening we choose the Mountain Cafe, which was just two blocks from our hotel. The matar paneer was rich, aromatic, not too hot, and the naan with a masala and cheese dosa was also good. Both of us got a lemonade, Leandra with the mint version. Everything was really good here!
