Saturday 14th Feb. Thimphu, Bhutan.
Up and off to the airport for a morning flight to Paro, Bhutan. The flight was with Drukair, Royal Bhutan Airlines. Lovely flight. Paro is the country’s only international airport, and has a difficult approach. They come in through the 6,000 metre ranges. The pilot gave a warning and said not to be worried. It was fine. And it was.
We got off the plane to THE nicest airport anywhere. Stunning looking with all buildings being in the traditional style. You walked into a calm area with gentle music playing. No pushing or shoving at the carousel. Art works and murals everywhere. The police and immigration all smiled and welcomed you.
Our guide met us and off we went. Our first stop was Tachogang Lhakhang Bridge, an iron bridge designed and built in the 15th Century by the Tibetan architect, physician, blacksmith and civil engineer Thangtong Gyalpo. He travelled around this area building iron bridges as he wanted to stop the danger of crossing the rivers and the isolation of the people. He is known as the Leonardo of Tibet. The bridge is no longer in use but is still up. There is a newer one next to it. Stunning.
There was a lovely temple next to it and a monastery high up on the mountain behind it, as they are all mountains in Bhutan. The bridge is at 2280 metres – a few metres shorter than Kosciuszko.
We then drove on to Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan. Through lovely countryside. Terraced farmland. Houses built in the traditional ways. All two stories. The animals used to live on the ground floor. Most are built of mud daub.
Little stalls were all along the way selling fruit and cheese. The cheese is made into small cubes and sold on strings. Looked amazing.
Thimphu has no buildings over 6 stories and they have to have traditional looking windows. Even the mechanic’s place was beautiful.
It is the only capital city with no traffic lights. Instead they have a policeman on point duty on the one busy corner. His point box is as elaborate and beautiful as all the buildings here. And he is so entertaining. Gesticulating and waving around. We watched him at lunch for an hour and he didn’t get any less dramatic.
The food markets were the next stop. A two story market with a marble floor. Upstairs was all of the local produce. Like all markets, there is an amazing array of quality food. But so many Chilli shops. 40 varieties of rice as well as some processed – popped, crushed.
At one of the cheese shops I bought a block of the cheese. It’s really hard and was like a cross between parmesan and haloumi. They laughed when I bought a bit, but were happy to see I could eat it.
The meat section was…. Not really to my liking. Dried and hanging. Blood sausage. Boiled hide. And strips of pork that were 95% fat.
All of the fish was dried.
Down stairs was the imported produce, from india. Things that it was too cold to buy here. Great markets!
Lunch was at a local place…. And damn can they eat chilli!
Next was a traditional archery championship. Fantastic! Two teams of 8 took turns of shooting at a target…..140 meters away. You could barely see the target. Two from the team would be at the shooting line. The others at the target. They would all stand really close – really close to help the archer aim. Sometimes they would run, other times they would stand their ground as it just missed the target or hit it. If it hit, they would then dance a routine with much cheering. If it missed they would give signals to tell by how much and where.
It was amazing and such a special thing to see.
Followed by a visit to a Buddhist Nunnery where they all sat on the floor, all day and read the Tripitaka, the sacred texts of Buddhism. They had been there all day reading a different section each. The room was so pretty with great artwork (no photos).
Wow! What a first day. What an amazing country. It’s like a polar opposite to Nepal. As much as I love Nepal it is chaotic. This place is so relaxing, peaceful and stunning. No bruises from bouncing around in the car today.
Sunday 16th Feb. Thimphu, Bhutan.
First stop today was to the Royal Takin preserve. A Takin, or a Drong Gintse is a mountain creature that was created by renowned saint, Lama Drukpa Kuenlay (1455-1529), also known as the “Divine Madman”. At a feast in his honour they wanted a miracle to prove himself. After eating the goat and the cow on offer, he took the bones and created the Takin. Part cow, part goat.
Pretty weird creature. Not unlike a wildebeest but not related at all.
This was a rehab and breeding center. All the young are released. They now rehab many Bhutanese species including a few birds.
Yak, Himalayan Serow, Blue Sheep, Himalayan Gorel and Himalayan Monal birds.
As we walked past a Bhutanese family the 7 yo ish boy says. “Look, Tourists!” Haha
Pretty cool to get to see the national animal and national bird in one session.
We then headed up to visit the Big Buddha – Dordemna. Impressive. Completed in 2015 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the 4th king at a cost of $100 Million US. At 54 meters it’s one of the biggest Buddahs in the world. Inside are 100,000 eight inch tall and 25,000 12 inch tall guilded bronze Buddahs.
It was pretty spectacular.
And up, up and up again to Dochula Pass to look at the Himalayas. Up at 3,150 meters.
You can see Everest from there.
But it was not to be. Cloud had come in but very excitingly it was snowing. Yay. And you don’t mind loosing a view to cloud. It’s when it’s to smog that I object!
Coming down we saw monkeys huddled in groups of three or four hugging for heat.
Lunch was at a place high on the escarpment over the valley. Pretty spectacular. We watched guys (way down below) doing archery, this time with compound bows.
A visit to Punakha Dzong, an impressive fortress on the the join of the Mo Chhu and the and the Pho Cchu rivers. You entered via a sensational covered bridge over the river.
It was built in 1637 to house and protect a relic brought out of Tibet.
It isa truly amazing complex of stunning building. There were no nails used in the construction. All joint work.
It was a winter monastery and the administration place of the county until the capital moved.
The detail is incredible. Everywhere you look is a piece of art. Even the 400mm floorboards.
Up under the eves were huge wild bee hives. Left to live in peace.
On the way to our accommodation we called into a darts match. Not like our darts, although a few similarities – “here hold my beer”.
This was more like the archery. Play out door with two teams who danced when they got a target and sang and heckled the other team. They stood 25 meters away and launched these heavy projectiles. About 300mm long with a 75mm point (looked like a 4 inch nail).
They all stood around the tiny target as it came it. Scary. But no one was punctured. One guy had his head grazed.
The crowd had braziers and drink stall and all had fun.
Amazing.
Our up hotel was on the edge of the escarpment with fantastic views for amazing rooms.
Monday 17th Feb. Punakha, Bhutan.
Chini Lhaghkng Temple was built because of The Divine Madman (the guy who created the Takin animal).
He was here and was teasing a demon. The Demon killed a dog and took over its body. The Divine Madman subdued the dog and trapped it in a rock. They built a stupa (temple) on top of the rock.
The Divine Madman advocated the use of phallus symbols and used foul language. This led to the temple becoming a fertility temple. People with fertility problems come here and make offerings. If a child is sick they will often bring it here before the doctor.
Thus dick street down below selling all kinds of phallus objects. Some were 600mm high.
A prickly pear grows as a native here. Thin and weedy. I should have realised that it grew here, as Boloo from The Jungle Book, sings
“Don’t pick the prickly pear by the paw
When you pick a pear
Try to use the claw”.
On the path up there were gardens on either side. Lovely rustic bee hives, so different to ours being robbed. The comb wasn’t on frames like we do but in natural shapes.
Also saw a few birds. Got a better look at the Red Vented Bulbuls and saw Eurasian Tree Sparrows.
They have amazing wood piles here – it gets cold, but also have fantastic lumber piles.
As we drove back through Thimphu, the capital, we had to travel for about 100 metres behind a mob of ponies.
Back up to 3,150 metres to see the views of the Himalayas and of Nepal’s highest peak, third in the world and the highest unclimbed peak in the world. This is to respect the wishes of the locals as it is sacred.
Better than the view was watching the wind blown snow tinkle down from the trees
Look at the stunning photo of Everest and all the others. It was 4 degrees at 1pm.
This was my view of Everest and the Himalayas. See the Yeti running up the hill in the lower right. How luck was I!
Then over to Druk Wangyal Chortens. A collection of Stupas. On a hill was one large stupa and 108 smaller Stupas, built to recognize the Bhutanese soldiers killed in military action.
It looked absolutely beautiful in the mist with the prayer flags flapping and passed many rhododendron plants growing in the forest.
We looked at the famous runway where the planes drop in between the range.
And off to bed.
Tuesday 18th Feb, Paro, Bhutan.
Today was hard! We were going to do some of the walk to Paro Taktsang aka Tiger’s Nest, a sacred Himalayan Buddhist site. It’s believed a holy man flew there on the back of a tiger. It was built in the 16th century. A meditation centre was built later.
When they say it hangs on a precarious cliff at 3,120 metres they are not joking.
Getting there is “moderately difficult” with a steep ascent. Well….. Moderately difficult for the 30 year old people who trek all over the world. For me….. Not so moderate.
I had no intention of walking all the way. All the way involves the first half followed by almost 2000 stairs – with no rails. It’s on the other side of a steep valley – so down, then up and repeat.
Plus of course you are doing this at altitude. I climbed up to 2,900 meters.
I walked up for 2 hours. And gained about 300 metres. Not really stairs, over rocks. A bit beyond where I stopped was a steep hand and knee scrabble.
You could ride a mule up – but when I got there they were not mules but tiny 13hh ponies.
But it was amazing. The forest was stunning. A number of trees had signs and were over 100 years old, mainly Blue Pines. Lovely Stupas along the way.
There were more local people than tourists walking up. Smiling and chatting. One was carrying two kilos of butter (for butter lamps) and a few kilos of bananas to make an offering at the Nest. Just walking along with two shopping bags as if she was carrying the groceries in.
Another man was carrying his child. About 2 years old in a carrier.
It was a brilliant experience – if not a hard one.
We then went to lunch, at 2.30. We said we wanted real Bhutan food, not tourist food. We went to a place that translates to Pigs Head. And it was amazing.
Our awesome guide ordered all his favorites. Amazing. We had:
Panggu – Pigs head.
Goep – that horrid dried cow skin we saw at the markets.
Shakam paa – super dried dry beef we saw at the markets.
A few fermented cheese dishes, vegetables, and of course rice. It was all amazing.
They don’t do yogurt. I was to mix butter into my rice to cool my mouth – because they love their chili and use buckets of it.
We then called in to the local brewery and had a sample tray. Beers made with red rice, with burnt barley, with pineapple juice and many others. Mist were foul. The Pale Ale was OK.
And then home to collapse.
Tomorrow back to Kathmandu, Nepal.
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