Traveling J - Bhutan and India: Drive to Punakha

Wednesday the 5th. Elections are over in the US, ballots counted and perhaps some significant changes happened. But here in Bhutan, we haven't been in a place to check the results, and why would we want to ruin the fun of being out of touch for a while.

Today we had an early start, much earlier for me as even with my comfortable couch I still woke up at 3:30am and couldn't go back to sleep.

We headed out from the hotel before seven and headed out of town and up the mountain toward Punakha. It was cold (until we asked for Sangay the driver to turn up the heat) just before we hit the sun coming over the mountain. It was windy and bumpy the entire way up the mountain as well as down with hardly a smooth or straight spot anywhere. Near the top we had an immigration check point to make sure we had the right permits to head out of Thimphu.

And as we headed up the mountain Tshering started her spiel on the Dochu La Pass, the war with China, the hundred eight stupas, the monastery, and as we come over the pass we take that all in, the early morning sun and the Himalayas as the stunning backdrop. Truly my first wow moment on the trip (although the landing at Paro is quite impressive).

Everyone had a wow moment. The picture taking commenced as well as the wandering about the differing areas as well as just gazing, gazing out at the distance.

The view of the Himalayas included the tallest and third tallest peaks in Bhutan, the monastery was built recently, is beautiful, but nothing was happening unlike some of our other visits in Thimphu.

Then we headed down the mountain toward Punakha. The long and windy road was relentless. After stopping for lunch, we walked down the hill through rice patties, then up through part of the small village on our way to the Chime Lhakhang monastery, this one established by the Mad Dog. Fertility is this monastery's specialty so the phallus symbol is all over the village.

The monks were busy with prayers while we were there. Tara gave the gifts of school supplies as she mentioned she would. She 'interviewed' one monk. Monks start around age seven, and some want to become monks on their own, but others are sent by their parents for various reasons. One of these very young monks was nodding off and the others picking on him, just like any other kids might. I can't imagine Liam joining the ranks in a few years, or Chloe of her own accord ever.

Walking back through town we gave more gifts to a few kids. The kids said goodbye more than any other word, even instead of thank you in their language.

We were privileged enough to get a personal tour of Tshering's Great Aunt's house, and were honored with traditional butter tea and a lesson on how to make the 'national' dish ema datse, chili and cheese, with all of us coughing from the chilies. Nine people live in that tiny house, they all sleep in the same room except for the grandfather, his status conferring him his own room. Only the grandmother was present as all others were in school or at work in the fields. After our visit we moved along back to the restaurant for tea, and as Randy and I were waiting outside a couple dogs came and kept my feet warm (they are much nicer than the dogs I met in Latin America) and after the first kid asked for money and got pencils, we had a few more come along before we headed out.

Dochu La Pass