Paro
Paro is usually the last stop for the tourists before they leave Bhutan. There are many souvenir shops and cafes on the main street.
Since there are no traffic light, two "traffic circles" facilitate traffic for the intersection at the end of the main street. How cute!
We also visited the National Museum and Kyichu Lhakhang. Below is Paro as seen from the National Museum.
Paro Weekend Market
The weather was sunny and cool. The weekend market was abuzz with locals who'd come to buy/sell their produce. The farmers bring their products to sell in this market every Sunday. It certainly made for a very colourful and vibrant street! Most of the locals use the local woven baskets for marketing.
The market is divided into a few sections:- vegetables, meat, dried goods, etc.
More stalls selling different products :- vegetables and pork.
The traditional way to weigh the blood sausage.
The weekend market visit was a befitting end for our last day in Bhutan.
Bhutan Hot Stone Bath - Local Authentic Experience
After lunch at the rest-stop at TigerNest, we anticipated that we would complete our trek by 3pm and that there would be absolutely no activity, other than dinner at 7pm once we are back at the hotel. We asked the guide if he could arrange a massage. He mentioned that he could arrange a hot-stone bath cum dinner!!! :) Good!We arrived at Eco-Farm Restaurant, which also runs the hot stone bath house in the evening 6pm. The cost of the hot stone bath is 800Ngultrum(~US$12). The owner is very friendly and enthusiastic. After about a 15 minutes wait, she informed us that the bath was ready and led us outside the restaurant.
Totally without expectation, we were 'amused' by the hot-stone bath building.
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| Hot-Stone Bath House |
The women section is to the right of the entrance, and the men is to the left. There are several shower screens and behind each screen is a wooden bathtub.
The owner showed me to my bathtub (No5). It is a wooden bathtub with an extension protruded outside the building wall. She informed us that
The owner showed me to my bathtub (No5). It is a wooden bathtub with an extension protruded outside the building wall. She informed us that
(1) When hot stones are added to the extension, hot water seeps through the 'divider' into the bathtub.
(2) Herbs/medicine have been added to the water.
(3) If the water is too hot, I can turn on the tap. If the water is not hot enough, I should shout 'Number 5, hotter!'. 'Oh great...' manual on-demand hot water.
How I intend to get into the bathtub, how long I'd like to soak are all up to me...
Fortunately/Unfortunately, the place is rather dim. I quickly changed, and then entered the tub.
Before I thought about how to shout for hotter water, the owner appeared and asked about it. She shouted to her staff to add more hot stones. A sizzling sound can be heard, and hot water seeps through 'divider' at the end of the tub. The process repeated a few times, and soon the water is hot and nice. It was a good 20-30 minutes of soaking.
After a bath and a sumptuous dinner, we went 'behind the scenes' to find out about the hot-stone bath.
The stones are heated at a fireplace with local wood sourced from the farmers.
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| Heating the hot stone |
Each of the bathtub within the hot-stone building has the extension where the hot stone can be added or removed.
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| hot stone in the bathtub extension |
The staff adds the stone whenever there are requests from the bather. The evening temperature was near zero, yet the staff were in shorts and t-shirt. Clearly, it is a hot and grueling task to manage the bathtubs!
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| Adding hot stone to the tub |
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| Heating the stone |
I am glad I did this local experience. Even if one is not keen on the bath, the restaurant provides a delicious local meal with their organically grown vegetables.
Hotel
We stayed two nights. The room was clean, spacious with heated flooring and an electric blanket for each bed. When we asked for extra pillow, we were informed that each room can only have two pillows. Maybe she is a new staff...
On the same trip
Bhutan : Thimphu
Bhutan : Punakha
Bhutan : Paro - Climbing the Tiger Nest
Bhutan : Paro, Hot Stone Bath, Weekend Market
Bhutan's Common Sights and Final Note