Farmhouse Dinner and Hot Stone Bath
Overview
Spend an evening with a farming family in a traditional Paro farmhouse: rammed-earth walls, carved wooden windows and painted symbols for good luck. Your hosts show you around the house, often with its own altar room, and serve a home-cooked dinner, usually red rice, ema datshi (chillies in cheese sauce), vegetables from the fields and butter tea, with a taste of ara, the local spirit, if you like.
Before or after dinner, soak in a dotsho, Bhutan's traditional hot stone bath. River stones are heated in a fire for hours, then dropped into a screened compartment of a wooden tub of water, often with fragrant leaves added. The stones crack and hiss as they warm the water, and your hosts add more as it cools. Bhutanese families use the bath to ease aching joints, and after a day's hiking it feels wonderful.
The fire must be lit hours before, so the bath has to be booked in advance. Facilities are simple and part of the charm.
Highlights
- Home-cooked dinner with a farming family
- Red rice, ema datshi and butter tea
- Dotsho: river stones heated in a wood fire
- A soak that soothes legs after the Tiger's Nest
- See inside a traditional painted farmhouse
What's included
- Farmhouse visit with your guide
- Home-cooked dinner
- Hot stone bath
- Drinks other than tea, unless stated
- Tips
Location
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Frequently asked questions
Swimwear and a towel. The tub is in a separate bathhouse or screened area, and the hot stones sit behind a wooden partition, so they don't touch you.
Bhutanese food can be hot. Tell your guide in advance and the family will make milder dishes; vegetarian meals are easy to arrange.
