Bhutan, India, Sikkim Tour

Dear Amit,

We were very happy with the Complete Bhutan tour.  A good guide can make such a difference in one’s enjoyment of a tour and Sonam was wonderful.  He’s very open and friendly and we learned a lot about Bhutan from him, not only about the places we visited, but also the food and customs and religion.  Gudu was an excellent driver and also a pleasant traveling companion.  We were very fortunate to have good weather almost the whole time.  We found the Bhutanese to be friendly, particularly the children.  We were happy with the accommodations; we were prepared for a different standard in the eastern part of the country, so that was okay, too.   The least interesting part of the trip is the drive from Trashigang to Samdrup Jonghar, but that should change when the road work is completed.

Bhutan is a beautiful country made more so by the art, architecture and customs of its people.  We have many great pictures to ensure we wont forget our visit.  We highly recommend this tour.  (In fact, we met a Canadian couple in Lachung and gave them the Windhorse website and phone number since they were interested in Bhutan).

Our visit to Sikkim was not so successful, but weather is unpredictable.  I think March is not the best time to tour there.  Our guide, Naresh, was excellent – amazingly, he was our guide in Darjeeling for 2 days in 2006 and he and I remembered each other right away.   Driving the terrible roads is less tedious when you have good weather and great views of the mountains, which we never did.  It was especially disappointing to drive all the way to Lachung and then be prevented from reaching the Yumthang Valley by snow at the pass!  However, we did see some beautiful monasteries and we could appreciate the lower parts of the mountains with rivers, waterfalls and terraced fields. The accommodations were always good, as was the food.   Our drivers (mostly Santosh, but also our driver for northern Sikkim) did a great job navigating the difficult roads.   We would like to take this tour again some day, but definitely would come in October or November!

Finally, we really appreciated your efforts on our behalf when our flights were canceled in Guwahati.  We also have to praise the Jet Airways people there, who were amazingly helpful, from taking us to a guesthouse the first day, getting our train tickets the second day, and then driving us from the airport into town.  You all made a bad situation so much better than it would have been if we’d been left on our own.

We want to thank all of you at Windhorse for an enjoyable and memorable vacation.