Bhutan, the happiest place on earth

Hi Sonam,

Thanks for your email. In fact i was going to write to you to tell you of our experiences.

It was a great trip. Bhutan is truly beautiful and we really appreciated the fresh air, picturesque views of the Himalayan Mountains, the Bhutanese culture and friendly people.

Everywhere we went the service staff were always quick to act and friendly. The hotels we stayed in, Hotel Galingkha, Hotel Lobesa and Metta Resort & Spa were good. Below are my thoughts:

1) My only "complaint", with the exception of Metta Resort, is that the other 2 hotels had only the standalone heaters that could not warm the room and we were freezing cold especially when taking a shower. Unless you were standing next to the heater, you can't feel the warmth. I would suggest having the blower type heaters instead.

2) Also with the exception of Metta resort, one suggestion would be for the hotels to provide bedroom slippers in the rooms as we were walking on cold floors all the time and we didn't realise we had to bring slippers along. Metta provided us with disposable bedroom slippers and we were pretty impressed with their attention to details.

3) Metta Resort was the best hotel during our stay. Their attention to details were impressive: bedroom slippers, blower heaters in the room and bathroom, having bedside reading lamps, having desserts as part of our meals, the owner coming to chat with us and asking for suggestions for improvements, etc. After a few days we were craving for Singapore food and we had our local fare of samba eggplant, porridge with black bean dace, etc. They even have bak kut teh, mee sua soup, etc on the menu.

4) We had great views from our rooms at Hotel Lobesa and Metta Resort. Rooms were big, beautiful and comfortable. Hotel Galingkha was not bad, was spacious, and have a view of the streets outside.

Some tips to future travellers:

1) Bring bedroom slippers
2) Bring cup noodles, if you know you will crave for local food after a while
3) Invest in a good and comfortable pair of trekking shoes as you will be doing lots of walking and you need good grip when going up and down the mountains
4) Bring medicated plasters if you have not been physically fit as you may experience aches and pains after trekking
5) Don’t be alarmed if you feel breathless and dizzy due to the higher altitudes on the first day, you will feel ok after that.
6) if going in winter, wear layers when trekking and slowly peel layer by layer off when you feel warm, so as not to catch a cold. I made the mistake of wearing just a shirt underneath my thick jacket, in no time i was perspiring during the trek but dared not remove my thick jacket for fear of catching a cold.

In addition, my friends and I would like to give special thanks to Chunjur and driver (sorry i forgot his name). They were so thoughtful and mindful to details:

1) My friend was not well and wanted to stay back in the hotel to rest while we proceeded on to tiger's nest. Chunjur immediately thought of how my friend would have his breakfast and lunch and immediately went to make arrangements for him.

2) We didn't want to go to Gangtey to see the crane and he immediately made room changes and cancellations, etc.

3) We didn't feel comfortable in our initial vehicle for the first 2 days and he immediately made arrangements to change our vehicle.

4) The driver always kept the vehicle neat and clean for us and was always quick to adjust the seats for us to get in and out of the cold weather.

5) My group was not so fit, so we took longer than expected to get up to Tango University, but Chunjur was always patient and slowed down for us, chatted with us, joked with us, and made us feel comfortable.

In all, we truly enjoyed our visit to Bhutan. We brought back with us a greater appreciation of the Bhutanese culture, the political and religious beliefs and most importantly, we established great friendships with all you Bhutanese. We will be back again to the happiest place on earth!

Kadin-Chhey La