TID 648 Marianne & Stein Bhutan Tour with Snow Leopard Trek (Mar 22- Apr 02 2013)

Dear Wind horseSorry it took us so long to get back to you.Our main impression of our 10 days stay in Bhutan from 22 march to 2 April is that it fulfilled our expectations and even more in some ways. The hotel facilities were very good, the cultural program interesting, the personal attention and service we got was excellent and the nature and the people of Bhutan – extraordinary! However there are some areas of improvement as far as we are concerned. Our guide Ugyen Dorji did a very good job with all the cultural programmers, the travelling/transport and the organizing of the whole stay. As for the 6 days we spent trekking we did not feel the same all the time. We are very experienced trekkers/skiers/mountaineers and we have great basic knowledge about trekking/mountaineering. We even have quite some knowledge and experience of trekking in high altitude. There were a couple of situations on this part of the trip were Mr. Ugyen took decisions we found to be not good. On day two he convinced us that it was quite ok to walk all the way from camp 2 to camp 3 without stopping for lunch. This turned out to be very bad as one of us ended up with a severe headache. Walking for 6 hours (we had told him we would walk slow as we were gaining lots of altitude this day) without proper food is not a good advice! Up at base camp Jomolhari we got to know that we may not be able to follow the planned route through the Bhonte La as the snow conditions might be bad. This ended up in a long discussion back and forth where the arguments for doing this or that had little consistency. In one moment Mariannes health would be used as an argument for turning back and later it was suggested that we would go for the pass and if we had to turn around we would go back all the way to camp 2 and continue to Soy Yaksa (would make over 30 km in one go).When this is said; the trekking trip ended up good. We turned around, went up to Soy Yaksa and continued on the original route from there.

Mr. Ugyen also put some effort into fulfilling a personal wish we had to visit a hydro power plant on the way from Thimpu to Phuentsholing. Unfortunately we did not have the time for this as we got stuck in a road block.He was also very helpful with all the paperwork with crossing the Indian border. The driver was very friendly and kept the car totally spotless. The food on the trekking was the best of the whole stay and the personal service very good. Coffee brought to us in tent in the morning and warming bottle for the sleeping bag in the evening is certainly not something we would expect. And the horseman would, with Ugyens help, invite us into his house for butter tea in Jangothang. Very authentic and nice experience.All in all we are very satisfied with our trip to Bhutan and would not hesitate to recommend Wind horse to any friends of ours.

Best regards
Stein J & Marianne Hoem R