Paro and Phobjikha
In a farmhouse yard, river stones heat in a wood fire until they glow. Then they go into a wooden tub of water, and you climb in. The Bhutanese call it a dotsho.
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What it is
The tub is wooden and the water scented with khempa, a local artemisia. The stones go in behind a wooden partition at one end, hissing as they drop, and the water turns hot.
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Timing
The fire takes hours, and no farmhouse can do it at an hour's notice. So ask in the morning. On a Taktsang day your guide phones from the cafeteria on the way down, so the stones are in the fire before you reach the car.
Photo: Mohamed Abdul Rasheed
In the tub
Sit at the end away from the stones. More are lowered in while you soak, so the water keeps getting hotter the longer you stay. Then dinner by the wood stove.
Photo: Rama Krushna Behera
After the climb
This is the bath's best evening. You have climbed to about 3,120 m (10,240 ft) and back, and you soak while the climb leaves your legs.
Photo: Truly Bhutan / Unsplash
A fair warning
Anyone told to avoid hot baths, or worn out by a long day at 3,100 m (10,170 ft), does better with an early dinner by the wood stove instead.
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Planning
In Phobjikha in winter the bath is in a family's farmhouse, the chimney smoking against the frost. If a farmyard is not for you, Zhiwaling Heritage's Menlha spa in Paro has an outdoor tub. Either way, we book it with the day's plan, never at an hour's notice.
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