Manas National Park Trekking, Bhutan (accommodation)

Manas National Park Trekking, Bhutan

  • Paro, Thimphu, Punakha, Trongsa, Gelephu
  • Active & Adventure

from $1,800* per person10 DaysOctober-February
Comfort accommodations 10 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms
Operator: Nature Tourism-Bhutan Comfortably sleeps 16

Bhutan’s Crown Jewel, the Manas National Park represents the largest example of tropical and sub-tropical ecosystems in Bhutan.

This park has only recently been opened to the public and offers thousands of animal and plant species, many of which are globally endangered, it is not only the most diverse protected area in the Kingdom but also noted as one of the world’s biologically outstanding parks.

Lying in south central Bhutan, Manas is connected at the southern border with India’s Manas Tiger Reserve, a World Heritage Site. To the north it borders the Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park. Royal Manas was designated a wildlife sanctuary in 1966 making it Bhutan’s oldest protected area. The area was upgraded to a National Park in 1993.

There are wide climate variations in Royal Manas. The May-September monsoons bring up to 5,000mm of rain. Rainfall is negligible in winter and the climate is extremely pleasant from November till March.

Manas is also extremely rich in wildlife species, including the highly endangered Royal Bengal tiger, Asian elephant, greater one-horned rhinoceros, clouded leopard, Himalayan black bear, gangetic dolphin and pangolin. Found virtually nowhere else in the world is the especially rare golden langur, a primate of extraordinary grace and beauty with its long, silky blond fur.

More than 365 species of birds have been officially recorded in Royal Manas National Park with an additional 200 believed to be in residence. Species found here include the globally threatened rufous-necked hornbill, Pallas fishing eagle, great white-bellied heron, spotted wren-babbler, blue-headed rock thrush and emerald cuckoo. Many of the park’s more than 900 types of plants have commercial, medicinal, traditional and religious significance.

WWF and Bhutan’s Nature Conservation Division jointly developed a five-year conservation management plan which includes training and equipping park staff, improving park infrastructure, and supporting biological and socio-economic surveys and park monitoring programs.

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Bhutan

0 testimonials about this accommodation.

3 testimonials about the provider, Nature Tourism-Bhutan:

  • Reviewer: Howard Nielsen located in Phnom Penh, USA
    I've just returned from a 2 week trip to Bhutan that I put together for friends and family. Using Nature Tourism-Bhutan, I requested that they organize a trip combining bird watching and cultural tourism. This required a fair bit of travel (over 1000 km during the trip) and the arrangement of 7 hotels and 3 campsites. All the hotels were comfortable and the camping was easy with dining, bathing, and toilet tents erected for us.

    I relied on Karma Jamtsho's advice for the itinerary and it produced 223 species of birds, as well as 3 kinds of monkeys. He timed our trip to coincide with the annual religious festival at Paro, organized a visit to a rural farmhouse, and had numerous temples and monasteries included in the itinerary.

    Our group was given excellent support from 2 guides and the camping staff had their daily routine down pat. Camp food was brilliant.

    Our group traveled in a roomy Toyota bus and the driver supplied was excellent and cautious on the mountain roads.

    I'm happy to recommend using Karma and Nature-Tourism Bhutan to organize and customize an adventure to Bhutan
  • Reviewer: Cathy McFadden and Paul Clarke located in Claremont, CA,

    With Cathy on sabbatical for the 2004-05 academic year, we decided to take a birding trip to somewhere best visited in the spring, a time of year during which we ordinarily cannot travel for any extended period. We were both intrigued by the idea of birding the Himalayas and set our sights on Bhutan, a remote mountain kingdom that is becoming a popular birding destination – unlike neighbors Nepal and India, Bhutan is politically stable, relatively free from western influences, and the natural environment is still largely intact. Bhutan regulates tourism by charging a flat rate of $200/person/day to stay in the country (all accommodations, food and local transportation are covered by this fee), and requires tourists to be accompanied by a Bhutanese guide at all times. We assumed initially that the only feasible way to bird the country would be to join a regularly scheduled group trip run by one of the major American or British birding tour companies, most of whom have Bhutan on their schedules. We were, however, reluctant to do this – we dislike group birding and also prefer that the money we spend traveling go directly to the residents of the countries we visit rather than into the pockets of western tour operators. Happily, a bit of exploration on the web turned up three Bhutanese tour agencies advertising custom birding tours led by Bhutanese guides. We requested further information, and ultimately chose Karma Jamtsho’s company Nature Tourism-Bhutan (http://www.naturetourismbhutan.com/;nattouri@druknet.bt), whose sample itinerary was virtually identical to that followed by the major birding companies. We were very pleased with this choice and highly recommend Nature-Tourism to anyone wishing to bird Bhutan on their own. Karma runs an extremely professional operation and we never experienced even a minor hitch in any of our travel or housing arrangements – not at all the usual third world travel experience! Even with a $30/person/day small-group surcharge imposed by the Bhutanese government, our total cost (including airfare from Los Angeles to Bangkok) came to just $5000/person, a savings of over $3000/person compared to the fees charged by most major birding companies.


  • Reviewer: John McAllister and Elize McAllister located in Wakkerstroom, South Africa

    Our initial planning started way back in early 2003 when Elize and I were looking for a reasonably affordable place to spend our Silver Wedding on 31st May 2004.  Our first thoughts turned to Nome or Point Barrow in Alaska – icebergs after all seemed suitably silver in colour.  This proved to be way too expensive, particularly with the weak South African Rand of the time. 

    It took the visit of two Sri Lankan birders who were working in Mafikeng, South Africa, to our B&B in Wakkerstroom, to turn our thoughts to the East.  This rekindled a boyhood dream of mine to one-day visit the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon – Bhutan). 

    The next step was to invite close friends Jo and Shirley Johnson from Cape Town and Dries and Julia Laubscher from Johannesburg to join us.  In the event Jo and Shirley and their daughter Lisa joined us, but Dries and Julia were unable to do so.

    In Bhutan we followed a very well organised itinerary arranged especially for us by Nature Tourism-Bhutan.  It was really two itineraries in one.  The Chicken Chasers were very ably guided by Tshering and driven in a Toyota Hi Ace van by star driver Shatu.  The Culture Vultures were guided by Karma himself and driven in a Musso 4-wheel drive vehicle by Dawa.

    Accommodation and food

    While accommodation establishments and restaurants in Bhutan are often somewhat frugal by western standards they were always adequate.  Contrary to trip reports we had read, we found the accommodation very comfortable.  In stark contrast to the comments in the Lonely Planet Guide we found the food in Bhutan very good indeed.  If you do not like spicy food however it might be a bit bland when these are omitted from the cooking.  Jo, Elize and particularly me enjoy spicy food and thoroughly enjoyed the different cuisine.  My favourite dish was a concoction of bracken shoots, cheese and chillies.  I even managed to eat cabbage and cauliflower – something I’d never dream of doing at home – when they were prepared with cheese and chillies.  I never managed to follow Tshering’s example and eat raw chillies with salt though.  Butter tea was drinkable, but nothing to write home about.  The tea was generally great if drunk black, but unfortunately the coffee was all of the instant variety.  The camping on the Lingmethang road was a bit rough (smallish tent with a sleeping bag laid on two ‘duvet’ type things on the tent floor).  Foodwise Leki and his camp crew excellently catered us for, however. 

    In both Bhutan and India all the accommodation establishments were extremely birder friendly.  Everywhere there was staffs available to make and serve us breakfast at whatever time we wanted it – whether it was at 04:00 or 10:00.  Nowhere were we told that breakfast is only served between certain hours only.

    Climate and Birding

    While the trip was definitely a birding trip it was primarily organised as a celebration of our 25th Wedding Anniversary.  This meant that we were limited to May/June, which was far from the ideal time of the year.  India in particular was extremely hot and waiting desperately for the onset of the monsoon.  The TV news consistently reported maximum daily temperatures of 450 C and over for the Gangetic plains (Delhi and Agra) with minimums in the low to mid 30s.  In the higher altitudes of northern India and Bhutan the temperatures were quite pleasant with maximums in the high 20s for the most part.  In Bhutan it rained most days and this disrupted the birding somewhat although we were able to get at least some in on each day.  The high Himalayas were always under a heavy blanket of cloud so we got none of the views of the high mountains mentioned in the Lonely Planet Guide Book for Bhutan.  On the return flight from Paro to Kathmandu, however, the weather cleared and we got wonderful views of Jhomolhari Bhutan’s highest peak, and a whole range of peaks in Nepal including Kanchenjunga, Makalu and Everest itself.  There was a load of other peaks whose names remained unknown to us.

    Many Himalayan birds are altitudinal migrants and move up to around 5000 m during the summer months.  Intra- and inter-continental migrants are for the most part winter or passage migrants to the area.  The best time to visit the area appears to be during March-April with the winter months being a close second.  Once the monsoon starts in mid-June I would imagine that many places become totally inaccessible.  Corbett National Park is closed during this period.  In spite of all this we still managed to see a total of 323 birds, which from the trip reports seems to be about par for the course for a three-week trip.

    Contrary to what some trip reports and promotional material suggest we did not find the birds tame and easy to see – not by African standards at least.  Many were super skulkers that were very vocal, but took a great deal of time and patience to see.  The one exception was Keoladeo where the birds were indeed easy to see.  This must be a wonderful birding spot at the right time of year and I look forward to returning sometime using Nature Tourism-Bhutan.


     

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Special information

  • Family oriented accommodation.

Itinerary

Gomphu is the first eco-camp located at an altitude of 1457 meters above sea level. Gomphu can be reached from either Zhemgang or Gelephu. From Zhemgang, it takes 3 hrs to reach Gomphu and from Gelephu it takes about 5 hours. The eco-camp at Gomphu is located in the forest just above Gomphu Park Range Office. The facilities include two eco-lodges, two bathroom and toilets, dinning, kitchen, water supply and camping facilities. The facilities are built using local materials such as wood and stone.

The hike from Gomphu to Pangtang can be either along the traditional route which takes approximately four and half hours or along the motorable road, which takes about an hour. The eco-trail passes through mixed broadleaf forests and thick undergrowths with numerous birds such as barbets, hornbills, bulbuls, doves, wood pecker and cuckoos.

Day 3: Shilingtoe to Pangbang

Shilingtoe is located at an altitude of 420 meters above sea level. The camp is on the way to a village and provides a good view of the area due to its location at a higher alleviation. Birds such as bulbuls, barbets, thrushes, hornbills, kingfisher, cormorant, wagtails, trogons and many other species can be seen along the trail between Shilingtoe to Pangbang, Annexure 4.. The hike from Shilingtoe to Changazam suspension bridge takes about 3 hours and on the way one can see religious cave, bat cave and a twin waterfall (Lelang). From Changazam, there is a motorable road to Panbang which connects to Indian Manas Tiger Reserve.

Besides the services and products mentioned in the Annexure 3, the Powgi lodue which is celebrated by Pangtang community is also celebrated by the Shilingtoe community. Tashibi village which is about an hour walk from Shilingtoe celebrates an annual tsechu on the 14th and 15th day of the 10


th.


The same road is also one of the entry and exit points into Royal Manas National Park from the Indian Manas. Panbang communities celebrate annual tsechu from 8th to 10th day of 11th Bhutanese month. Various mask dances are performed at the Sonam Choeling Dratsang.



The other attractions at Panbang and Bhutan Manas include boating, river rafting, elephant rides and wildlife watching. The Park Range Office at Manas coordinates these services. While boating and river rafting along the Manas river, one can see goral, capped langurs, cormorants and many other bird species besides the beautiful landscape.



Bhutanese month.

Day 4: Pangbang to Norbugang

The camp site at Pangbang is located at a place called Anilademba at the junction of Mangdi Chhu and Dangme Chhu at an altitude of 160 meters above sea level. It is now connected with motorable road to Panbang which connects to Indian Manas Tiger Reserve.




Day 2: Pangtang – Shilingtoe



Pangtang lies at an altitude of 239 meters above sea level. The camp is located on the right bank of Mangdi chhu while trekking towards Shilingtoe thus, overlooking Pangtang settlements and the river itself. The trail starts with gentle descent and occasional short climbs. The entire trek will take about four hours and the last leg before reaching Shilingtoe ecocamp is a climb for over half an hour. The trail is very rich for bird watching with many birds such as thrushes, drongos, hornbills, partridges, pheasants, bulbuls, tree pies, barbets, eagles, fowls and many other species



The traditional route starts with a descent for about an hour and half and ascents for another hour before gentle descent again. The road has well maintained slope and is much easier than the traditional route. One can even ride a bike from Gomphu to Pangtang.


Mamung is the spot where people usually stop for lunch. It is approximately half way to Pangtang. With small settlements in Mamung, fresh oranges are available during winter. The trekking trail actually descents further until Pangtang which is at the level of Mangdi chhu. It is a beautiful valley with settlements and government offices.



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