There aren’t many things more relaxing and satisfying than a long, uninterrupted hot bath in the springs of Bhutan. Especially if that bath has healing and rejuvenating properties as well. The menchu (medicine water) or a hot stone bath is an age old practice wherein a person soaks in fresh river water that is mixed with local Artemisia leaves and heated with river stones roasted on fire.This ritual has been used by native Bhutanese for years as a cure for skin diseases and several other ailments.

But nowadays, several monasteries, farmhouses and hotels offer the bath as a form of spa to visitors. However, the beauty of this bath lies not in exotic hotel bathrooms, but in rustic locations with a view of the valleys overlooking the mountains.