Grand Cultural Tour ( Penjor Lhendup) guide
Hello Anand,

Thank you for your interest in hearing about the experiences we enjoyed and our suggestions on what would have made our trip to Bhutan  more memorable.

We enjoyed our trip very much and found the Bhutanese people and culture to be fascinating and wonderful.  We visited several areas of your beautiful country, visited many dzongs and temples, and heard a great deal about the religious significance and history of each.

We enjoyed the hikes to the Tiger’s Nest, and especially the hikes to Dzongdrakha and Khamsum Yuley Chorten since we walked through farming areas where we were able to catch a glimpse into the daily lives of Bhutanese people.  We would have enjoyed the opportunity for more personal connections to people living or working in places visited.   Such personal engagements can be provided by a tour given by a local representative.  A tour of a place such as a school or nunnery can provide a great deal of interesting insight and cultural information that is memorable and supplementary to what a general guide can provide.  We are aware that these sort of tours are available.  We would have enjoyed such an opportunity.

In general our accommodations and food were good.  We particularly enjoyed the accomodations of the Khang residency.  We found a few of our lunch time meals to be less than desireable, for example we did not care for the Yin and Yang restaurant in Thimphu.   You may want to consider providing guides with a list of suitable options.  Also, there was a farewell dinner listed in our itinerary and we are not sure what that referenced.

We feel lucky to have been there for the lead up to the fourth King’s birthday.  We were able to see some of the preparations for the celebrations and found them to be very interesting and enjoyable.

We found the road trip from Bumthang to Punakha to be grueling due to the very poor condition of the road. We were not provided with accurate information regarding the difficulty of this portion of the trip.

We appreciate all the help and personal service provided by Ugen planning our trip.  Once again, we enjoyed our experience in Bhutan and also really appreciate the services provided by the staff at Windhorse Tours.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions.