Dear Anand, Thank you for your request of a review for our tour with Wind horse that Tracy put together with you for us.First up the tour leaders were wonderful. Special thanks to Neyma in who took care of us in Tibet.
He took me and another friend to Lhasa hospital the day after we arrived and organized a consultation with a Doctor as we were so ill. My husband came too and helped us, we were so grateful to Neyma for this. (We had bad flu and altitude sickness). We were very grateful for the treatment we received and how Neyma went out of his way to help us.
We were surprised with so many of us being affected by altitude sickness as we had been in many areas in Peru with no ill effects.Then Neyma cared for us so well all the way through to Nepal, yet he took us to many monasteries, stupas palaces and places of interest as well.Our accommodation was fine and the food was good. Especially as a lot of the time we weren’t hungry. The lunch stops with soups were especially good.
It was good to talk to Neyma as he had much knowledge, we found him very interesting.And we loved that he was a Tibetan Opera singer, as well as a monk, making our visit even more interesting! Our bus driver there was very good too.
Our Nepalese guide did very well to inform us so much about Nepal in a very short time.He managed the difficult walk across the landslide as best he could. We found it fascinating that out of the chaotic traffic people really can get to where they want to go! We were glad to be in the bus with a good driver!
I enjoyed doing some shopping for pashminas there and would have liked more time.I enjoyed the artists making the mandalas, fascinating work and so exact.The Yak and Yeti hotel we voted the best!
Our guide Yonten in Bhutan was very good, and we really admire the driver (?Mr Gotyre) and Yonten for their handling of the traffic hold ups by the road workers, they managed the situation very well. Our driver there was excellent. Again, Yonten got everyone to see most things, although some of us stayed back towards the end as we couldn’t have walked and kept up.I found the artist’s school, the sculpture school and the weaving schools really interesting.
I was amazed by the women weaving at another center for the Queen, their work was perfect each time the shuttle passed through, never a mistake anywhere in their work. The patterns so complicated, especially as they were working with silk. I really enjoyed watching them.I would have liked some shopping time to buy some woven products!The visit to the Hospital museum was very interesting.The archery caught everyone’s attention! Our accommodation was very good and we were looked after by the staff with food and being able to stay back.We were really well looked after.
I think the only comment Alan and I had was that perhaps there was too much emphasis on Bhuddism as it became confusing when going from one monastery to another, each with different aspects of Buddhism.
Perhaps we could have visited the main monasteries or stupas every second day, interspersed with visits to other areas.Some ideas have been mentioned below.
We would have liked an afternoon to just walk around in the main shopping area (of Lhasa or Thimpu) and meet up later. Perhaps we could have had contact with a farmer and his yaks and cows, to get a closer look at them.Or even to watch the process of making incense, using the different herbs.
However, overall we feel very lucky to have had the guides and drivers we did on our journey and the people in the hotels, as they all really helped and informed us as well as taking us to many places we could never have known about. They were very thoughtful, especially with illness. We enjoyed our journey very much.
The archery caught everyone’s attention!
- Person Name Eve & Alan Lowson
- From Australia
- Trip Name The archery caught everyone’s attention!
- Travelled Date Sept 18-Oct 05,2014
- Destination Bhutan
- Guide Yonten Phuntsho
- Hotels Lhasa - Kyichu Hotel
Gyantse - Gyantse Hotel
Shigatse - Hotel Manasarovar
Shegar - Qomolongma Hotel
Tingri - Rongbuk Guesthouse
Zhangmu -Zhangmu Hotel
Kathmandu - Hotel Yak & Yeti
Thimphu - Khang Residency
Punakha - Meri Phuensum Resort
Paro - Tashi Namgay Resort
- Ratings