This page has many links to pages of words and photos from a 2014 trip to Bhutan.

You can click on any image or heading to get to the respective pages.

Stephen Plume and I spent 23 days visiting this fascinating country. Our trip was orchestrated by Dhamey Tenzing Norgay, who took exceptionally good care of us. If you plan to visit Bhutan, you should definitely check with him.

At the bottom of this page is a map that shows some of the areas we visited.  

Jomolhari Trek In mid-November 2014, Stephen and I did a wonderful six-day trek in the Jigme Dorji National Park of northwest Bhutan. The trek featured spectacular scenery, several very interesting and enjoyable visits with Nomads arranged by our extremely knowledgable, guide, Phub Tsering, and delicious and varied meals.
Paro This Paro page provided a chronological guide to our full trip. You can use it instead of clicking the various spots on this page.		Thimphu The capital city of Bhutan with lots to explore. We did that, day and night and had two great meals with Dhamey.
Drukgyel Dzong with Dhamey We toured the fascinating ruins of a dzong built in 1649 to celebrate victory over Tibetan invaders.		Tiger’s Nest  An iconic spot that we visited on a foggy morning on the last full day of our trip.
Phobjikha Valley and the Black-necked Crane Festival The Black-necked Crane Festival is held every November 11 at the Gangte Goemba to celebrate the arrival of the black-necked cranes to the Phobjikha Valley where they spend the winter before returning to their breeding grounds in Tibet.		Nomads and Caterpillars An unusual caterpillar is destroying, or at least drastically changing, the way of life for the nomadic yak herders of the Himalayan Mountains of Bhutan. Please click the image below to read why.
Haa Valley The beautiful Haa Valley initiated our tour of Bhutan. We stayed two nights in an old farmhouse lodge, took a strenuous uphill hike at 9000 ft our first full day in Bhutan, and were spectators of a spirited game of darts with a target 50 meters distant.		Hike to Kila Nunnery Starting at Chele La at 8 AM we hiked to the beautiful Kila Nunnery. This would provide some rapid acclimatization since we were hiking at 13,000 feet shortly after our arrival in Bhutan.
Bumthang and Jakar We visited temples, a palace, and a dzong in Jakar, the main city in Bumthang and had two pleasant nights at the Swiss Guest House.		Ura Valley One of the unforgettable experiences of our visit to Bhutan was a stay at Dr. Karma’s Farmhouse in the charming village of Ura. From there we did a 10-hour hike to the Tang Valley.
Tang Valley This page is an overview of the valley including our visits to the Burning Lake and the Kunzangdrak Geomba. Please also see pages on the Tang School and the Ogyen Choling Museum.		Tang School We had an educational and very enjoyable visit to the Tang School. Children sang for us in English, and we had many chances to photograph them.
Ogyen Choling Museum In Tang, the wonderful, private Ogyen Choling Museum is a joy to visit and photograph. We spent a good part of an afternoon there and met the curator and writer, Kunzang Choden.		Jambay Lhakhang Festival We spent almost 2 hours watching masked dancers and photographing the brightly clothed people in the Jambay Lhakhang temple grounds in Jakar.
Trongsa Trongsa featured a beautiful Dzong and the Royal Heritage Museum filled with amazing art which unfortunately will not appear on this page — no photos allowed.		Punakha Punakha is located in a mild, relatively low altitude valley east of Thimpu. The beautiful Punakha Dzong sits at the confluence of two rivers.
Puja in Phomdrong A puja is a religious ceremony celebrated by both Buddhists and Hindus. I was very honored to be able to attend one that had both sacred and secular characteristics and meet very interesting people celebrating in a small central Bhutan village.		Phomdrong Nobody visits Phomdrong. Yet it was one of the highlights of our trip. It is a small village of about 20 families. We toured the village, and spent time visiting the home of our driver, Kencho, enjoying ara with his charming Mother.
Ara Ara is a traditional alcoholic beverage consumed in Bhutan. The best ara we tasted in Bhutan was made in central Bhutan from wheat. A bit of information is on this page.		Doma Chewing doma is a deeply embedded tradition in Bhutanese society. Doma is composed of the areca nut wrapped in betel leaves and normally mixed with lime.
Getting to Bhutan and Back This page describes our short stay in Delhi, India and show photos from our flight to and from Bhutan. It also provides links to labelled photos of the Himalayan Mountains of Nepal. The photo below shows Everest on the left and Lhotse on the right.