The Trans Bhutan Trail

 

The Trans Bhutan trail is a 250 mile or 403 km historic pilgrimage and trade trail (originally part of the Silk Road). It has been carefully restored during the country’s two and half year’s closure to covid and is now open to the tourists. Completing it takes 27 days and it runs from east to west. 

No matter how interesting and historical the the whole route is, a lot of camping is involved (which I’m not a fan of), add the daily tariff of approximately $240 with single tax, and it’s not in the conversation. However, I really wanted to do a part of it so Sarah and I did the section formerly known as the Divine Madman’s trail. 

It was great fun! The video above shows our route with our snack stop (first picture) and it isn’t  difficult but it does take 4 hours at a good pace. It starts with a 200 metre drop (600 plus feet) then an ascent of about 500 metres (1600 plus feet).

Cows everywhere!

Ride paddies 

Sarah on the trail

They have barcodes which provide information on temples and the route via your mobile device.

Prayer flags, rivers and streams

The hills of the Himalaya

Views of Punākha 

Prayer wheels keep turning using river power. 

After the trail and a picnic lunch, we headed off to see a Buddhist nunnery.

Sarah turning a prayer wheel

Finally we headed to our hotel. We stayed in the Como (first stop) Metropolitan in Bangkok (I had heard great things about their Michelin starred restaurant). This is part of the Como chain called Uma. It’s quite nice with good views and excellent service  Our meals are limited to these hotels because we’re quite remote and the food is quite good with a choice of western or Bhutanese cuisine. 

More hiking tomorrow and we are going white water rafting in the Himalaya!