Rainbow Photo Tours of Bhutan

10/04/2024

What is UFOs are just billionaires from other planets?

11/03/2020

Let's celebrate November with the Black-necked cranes. This beautiful endangered bird species migrates to Phobjikha valley in the west and Bumdeling in the east of Bhutan every winter from the high Tibetan Plateau.
The graceful birds are the only Alpine crane species in the World. According to WWF there are less than 11000 Black-necked cranes in the World.
In Bhutan, the bird is considered a sacred bird and its arrival is celebrated with the annual Black -Necked crane festival in Gangtey every November.

📷

02/15/2018

Five individuals who were convicted in choeten vandalism cases by the Mongar dzongkhag court in Nove...

01/19/2018

Yongphula Airport is finally open! I am a foreign travel agent that has led 33 tours of high-end dollar-paying adventurers to Bhutan since 2001. My tours begin in Paro and cross the country to Samdrup Jongkher where we spend the night and then drive by taxi to Guwhati the next day. Each time I passed the locked gate of Yongphula airport I dreamed of the day when we would no longer need to spend two days of hard travel to get back to Bangkok.

Beginning with my next tour in April we can enjoy a picturesque flight back to Paro and spend two more nights at NakSel Botique Resort and Spa before flying back to Bangkok. These last two nights at NakSel will be a pleasant way to cap off our tour to Bhutan, "Where Happiness is a Place." An added bonus is we can hike to Tiger's Nest at the end of the tour when we are more acclimated to the altitude.

The opening of this new airport gives me and other travel agents another good reason to advertise travel to the eastern side of Bhutan--I have already made reservations for three 2018 tours of 16 people each, some of the very first tourists to take this flight.

Addressing the recent conversation about discounting tours that go to the Eastern side, it is my humble opinion, la, that this will not encourage more foreign tour operators to go there since discounted tours are not why high quality, low impact dollar-paying tourists go to Bhutan in the first place. Further, there is a probability that the savings will not be passed along to the tourists. The government should delay a year or two after Yongphula airport opens to see if there is an uptick in tourists going beyond Ura and then crossing the breadth of the country on a newly widened road capped off with a flight back to Paro. If marketed right this should be plenty of incentive to entice dollar-paying tourists to cross the country leaving a trail of dollars in their path.

Instead of discounting the royalty, la, there should be a scheme wherein the royalty beyond Ura continues to be collected, but then instead it getting lost in the fog of countrywide budgets pass it along to fund Eastern schools, farm roads, health centers and other underfunded areas of Eastern Bhutanese infrastructure. Whatever the voters decide, I already have incentives enough to continue to fill my cross-country tours-- the proposed discount would not make it into my purse anyway.

06/11/2017

Here is a link to the new page about our guides and drivers, the best in Bhutan! Comments and pictures by past participants welcome.

http://www.rainbowphototours.com/rainbowtoursGuides.html

06/01/2017

Here is a link to the new page about our guides and drivers, the best in Bhutan! Comments and pictures by past participants welcome.

http://www.rainbowphototours.com/rainbowtoursGuides.html

05/09/2017

03/23/2017

I'm excited to announce that the new Lonely Planet Guide to Bhutan was just released and my tour is once again recommended. That's four editions in a row since 2006!

03/05/2017

09/08/2016

All of our tours stop here (Jakar Village in Bumtang Valley) for lunch. The little white squares on a string hanging in the window are hardened yak cheese strung together--they roll them around in their mouth like jaw breaker candies. The painted phallus is in reverence to the Buddhist saint known as The Divine Madman, Drupka Kunley--he slayed (not a mispelling) evil demonesses with it. Photo by past participant Tom Osborn of Australia.

09/04/2016

08/17/2016

Buddhist Whirling Dervish

In Bhutan, masked dance festivals are held every year in
most major villages to honor Buddhist heroes and vilify
demons. They have a deep spiritual impact on those
believers who witness them. Using precise and
complicated choreography passed down through the
centuries by master performers to novice monks, the
sacred dances teach moral messages and promote
understanding by reenacting Buddhist history.

Those who witness the dances also get a preview look
at what each hero and demon looks like so as to better
recognize the players after death.

This photograph is an image of a masked
dancer spinning and whirling his way across the temple
courtyard in the cluster village of Ura in central Bhutan.

Photo tip: Always use a tripod when taking long exposures. Like a ballerina doing a pirouette, this dancer stopped his face for a split second within his fast-moving whirl. Set your camera on shutter priority (slow--like 1/20), burst mode (memory is cheap!) and wait for that thin sliver of time. Anything in motion will be blurred and anything not moving, even for a spit second, will be in focus.

07/17/2016

L. Dorji, my Bhutanese brother and assistant lead guide, had just moved his family from a crowded apartment in Thimphu to the countryside and was reporting how much he loved his new home next to this river. Today he sent me these pictures of the only bridge leading to the piece of land where he and his neighbors live on an "island" surrounded by river. As you may know it is monsoon season now.

He and his family are safe. I know all of you will wish him well. With the road widening in the heartland and the National Highway closed for the last two weeks due to a landslide near Trongsa, there is no telling when the government will see to their plight.

Today:
Yesterday on 16th, the bridge that we use to get to our house got collapsed when the truck full of sand load was trying to cross that bridge. Luckily the driver was safe but that was the only bridge for us to get to the other side. We are now stuck on an island.

A week ago:
Well, right after my tour was busy shifting my home 8km away from Thimphu town in a village (Rama) way towards Paro side. It has kept me busy almost for three weeks with packing up all our belongings and shifting. It is a peaceful place with no crowd and a good place for me and my family to stay. We hear only birds and river sounds which is the good place to live although it’s far for my daughter to school and my wife to work. You must visit our new home in your next tour and i am sure you would like it since it is along the river side and you will get to see a beautiful village.

If it weren't for the swollen river, villagers--probably led by L. Dorji--would have already built a foot bridge to the other side.

The last picture is of the National Highway near Trongsa. Nobody was hurt. These events happen frequently during the monsoon season. Fortunately traffic has been diverted through a large tunnel dug for the new hydroelectric dam nearby and I am sure the "highway" will be drive-able by the end of September when I will again pass through the area.

07/17/2016

The Flowers of Gross National Happiness

These flowers are floating in a huge antique
brass cauldron at the entrance to the
Gangtey Palace Guest House in Paro,
Bhutan.

When I first focused my camera on the bowl
it had just a few flowers floating in it. When
the girls of the hotel staff saw what I was
doing they all scurried about the courtyard
picking more flowers, then spent considerable
time arranging them just so, tee heeing and
trying to artistically out-arrange each other.

The Fourth King of Bhutan, married to four
sisters, has said that the first priority of
government is to create Gross National
Happiness for the population of 600,000
in a country about half the size of Indiana.

07/07/2016

Sculptured Butter Painting

Wherever one travels in Bhutan, a Buddhist
temple is nearby. On the altar are offerings
to praise deities and honor saints. A common
offering is a sculptured painting made of
clarified yak butter known as ghee (considered
a symbol of purity) mixed with natural dyes.

This sculpture was on the altar of Kurjey
Lhakhang (temple) and is only 12 inches tall.
The human face you see in the middle
is the size of your pinky fingernail.

These paintings are sometimes left in the
sun to melt, proving the Buddhist belief
in the impermanence of all things.

This photograph was used on the cover of
Tashi Delek Magazine, the in-flight
magazine for Royal Druk Air.

06/29/2016

I met this monk many years ago at Tango Monastery, just north of Thimphu, where he was studying for a degree in Buddhist philosophy. The following tour I gave him a gift of his portrait and a book written by the Dalai Lama. He then reciprocated by writing a wonderful letter to me, sent to my home in Florida. The text of this image is an excerpt from that letter--it was written in calligraphy, one of his many areas of study that includes dance, art, debating and several other Buddhist teachings.

05/19/2016

Video of Dance of the Lord of Death, Domkhar Festival, Bhutan, April 2016 while on a 15-day cross-country tour with www.rainbowphototours.com. (Cklick on the video for audio

The local lama used to wear the mask of the Lord of Death but he was promoted to the head of the Monk Body in four valleys so now they use a straw man to wear the robes and mask until a new lama is appointed.

Terton Karma Lingpa (4th century) introduced this masked dance called Raksha Mangcham to teach observers during their lifetime what to expect after death. Unlike the huge festivals in Thimphu and Paro where thousands of locals and tourists sit on concrete bleachers, many seated a hundred yards from the action, we are treated to a great observation point like this just outside of the temple entrance.

Photography tip: Be quick to recognize the dance is about to start when the atsara (clown) runs around bringing everyone to their feet and the horns start to blow because once it starts you won't be able to get a closer vantage point. A good photography guide will always be your advocate by anticipating where the next good vantage point might be--he/she might be frantic about it and pull you by the elbow but better you don't miss a once in a lifetime photo op.

05/11/2016

Our lead guide Wangdi gave this to me, a cell phone video of a young Bhutanese monk having wayyyy too much fun. I love the two seconds he looks out of the window to see if the lama is coming and then gets back to his mischief. This would go viral if I just knew how to make that happen. Click it on to make the music work.

05/11/2016

As these pictures show, there is road construction going on in Bhutan on a grand scale. The plan is to widen and resurface the road from east to west over the coming three years. It has lead to some very bumpy stretches of bone jarring travel for what I estimate to be 50% of the way. The good news is that we travel in modern SUV vehicles like Toyota Pradas and our drivers are the safest in the business, mature family men who know every inch of the way. Within the immediate area of the road is something of a moonscape but the panoramic vistas of pristine forests that Bhutan is known for are still all in the field of view.

There are no long waits for construction because the Prime Minister has issued a policy of night work only so as to not cause road blockages. Bhutan, as always, remains the road less traveled but now is also the road more bumpy. Remember, Bhutan has no streetlights, no trains, and no tunnels and the road was just carved out of the mountains in the early seventies.

Most experienced world travelers will view it as just another part of the wonderful experience that is the the Land of Gross National Happiness.

Photos by previous travelers: Karen Mickel (1, 2), Nop ( 3,4,5) and Andy Tarrant (6)

05/02/2016

Just back from the Spring '16 tour which was great! The big news is that we now leave Nak Sel for Tiger's Nest at 0330 hrs so that we get there by first light. These days over 1,000 tourists a day go to Tiger's Nest, no room in the parking lot for our 8 cars among the many tourist buses, and bumper to bumper (so to speak) crowds hiking up, much like Machu Picchu. We were the only ones looking across the chasm with a cup of tea in hand and a hot breakfast brought up by our guides. We saw langour monkeys, mountain goats and the birds were quite noisy--they all hide during the day. Coming down we passed many people who were in heat distress, huffing and puffing, asking, "Am I there yet?"

Here is a picture that kinda says it all about the road--nothing new there except lots of construction for widening. And Chris is taking a nap beneath prayer flags, such Nirvana! The Fall 2016 tour is already sold out and we are already making plans for the spring 2017 tour. Tashi Delek!

04/03/2016

CheliLa Pass connects Paro district to Haa district and at 12,500 ft (3810 meters) is the highest motorable road in Bhutan. A few years back an entrepreneur poured a footing for what was to be a restaurant but when the king happened upon the construction site he nixed the idea and had it removed--it remains a very peaceful place.

Within a short hike of the pass is an area still used by a few Bhutanese for the ancient custom of "sky burials." (Today, most practice cremation.) Buddhism teaches the transmigration of spirits known commonly as reincarnation so there is no need to preserve the body as it is now an empty vessel. The function of the sky burial is simply to dispose of the remains in as generous a way as possible, including providing sustenance to ravens, vultures and wild animals.

Did you know that La means pass? So ShangriLa is really Shangri pass and Chelila is realla Cheli pass.

Click on the image for a larger, easy to read version.

We leave next week for our 31st tour to Bhutan since 2001. Our Sept. 20, 2016 departure now has only six seats left.

03/29/2016

This is an email just sent to a professor of Veterinary Science at UC Davis. If you know of anyone in the veterinary world please forward to them.

Hi Peter,

I am hoping that you can direct me to a manufacturer of mange medicine (Bayer?) that would have a division that makes donations of outdated products to out-of-country veterinarians. (I could also purchase bulk supplies if they were cheap enough, but shipping and customs inspections are usually a problem.)

I am speaking of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, the only carbon negative country in the world, truly the last ShangriLa. I have been there 30 times since 2002 and have seen the devastation that these parasites cause to free-roaming dogs. Since they are a Buddhist country they do not believe in euthanasia but rather any dog or sentient being who is in dire straits is there because that is their destiny from a previous life and who are we to interrupt that cycle by saving their life--it is meant to be. (Simplistic explanation, I know. There are some that would respond to with a much deeper explanation but since I am not myself a Buddhist this is the best I have been able to discern.)

The veterinary community there are all government employees who take good care of large animals, cows mostly, and are not equipped nor have the inclination to treat these poor street urchins. Plus, their budgets do not allow for treatment of dogs as they serve the farmers and herders through free government services. There are no private veterinarians in the entire country.

But if they had the proper medication they would certainly administer it.

So I am trying to find the right connection.

Can you help?

Robin Smillie
Tampa, Florida
www.rainbowphototours.com

p.s. If you are not familiar with Bhutan here is the Prime Minister in a recent TED conference presentation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCLZT5m6jaA

03/22/2016

Land of the Thunder Dragon. Join our Bhutan Fall 2016 Cross Country Cultural and Festivals tour. Sept. 20 - Oct. 5, 2016. Read our complete itinerary http://www.rainbowphototours.com

03/22/2016

The Fall 2016 Tour from September 20 - October 5 is now booking Join us in Bhutan and go where others don't!.