Eastern Circuit: Trashigang, Lhaki & the Wild East

Nine days through Bhutan's least-visited valley, from the Lhaki plain to Trashigang Dzong, with village homestays and a dawn on the Aru range.

Highlights

What is included

Day-by-day itinerary

  1. Day 01 — Paro to Trongsa, the gateway to the east A long first day, and a day of scenery the other tours skip: down the Wang Chhu to Wangdue, south along the Mo Chhu, and up the winding road to Trongsa's tapering four-storey dzong, which has watched over the road to the east for four centuries. Night in a lodge above town, with the pass below alre…
  2. Day 02 — The Deep Valley and the Kharchu gorge crossing Walk down into the Deep Valley beneath Trongsa Dzong, where lamas' houses and the workshops that supply Bhutan's lamas are still built in traditional form, then climb out to the road east. The afternoon crosses the Kharchu gorge on a road cut into the rock, with a river and a great deal of noise fa…
  3. Day 03 — The Lhaki plain at the park boundary Arrive at the Lhaki plain, on the edge of Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Park and one of the most important winter habitats in Bhutan. A ranger walks you over the grassland looking for blue sheep, takin and Himalayan serow, and the plain at sunrise is a place with very few people and a great many a…
  4. Day 04 — The Ritsha Ha gorge road into the deep east Leave the Lhaki road and cross into Trashigang over one of the great gorge roads of the east, where the trail drops from the plateau to the forest floor and villages appear in a landscape that suddenly has trees again. Arrive in the evening at a farmhouse in Ritsha Ha, your host family cooking what…
  5. Day 05 — A day in Ritsha Ha: weaving and the gorge A full day in the village with the women's cooperative, whose weavers produce the textiles that carry Ritsha Ha's name, at a loom and at a full working pace. Afternoon walk the rim path above the Ritsha Ha gorge to a viewpoint and a picnic spot, then a long dinner that turns into an evening of ques…
  6. Day 06 — Ritsha Ha to Damxung and the northern lhakhangs Cross the Khurung pass and turn north into Damxung, the valley of the Aru river, visiting the small family temples along the way. This is the least touristed stretch of the trip and the one most likely to be closed by a landslide or a washed-out bridge, so the plan stays loose and the guide will ta…
  7. Day 07 — The Aru valley and on to Trashigang Down the Aru valley past the roadside stupas and forest shrines to Trashigang, one of the largest dzongs in Bhutan, sprawling on a ridge above the Gurichhu. Evening walk the town below it, and an early dinner, because tomorrow is a long road and the eastern hospitality runs late.
  8. Day 08 — Trashigang town, market and the eastern outlook A day in Trashigang itself: the market, the dzong's chapels and the view back west to the peaks you crossed, with the afternoon free to walk out to Thorim, the village on the spur where the eastern dzongs are still lived in. Dinner with a family who will tell you what the eastern circuit used to co…
  9. Day 09 — Trashigang to Yongphulla and the flight home The circuit closes as it opened, by road — a morning's drive to the small airport at Yongphulla above the valley, and a flight west to Paro to connect home. The alternative, if the road ahead is open, is the full five-day return drive over the passes with a night in Trongsa.

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