Posts From Bhutan

We were awake and finalizing our packing at 1:30am this morning in order to be at Bangkok Airport by 3:00 the required 3 hours before our 6:00am flight to Paro, Bhutan. The four and a half hour flight to Paro made a stop in Dhaka, Bangladesh. We thought maybe this would allow us techincally to add Bangladesh to the list of countries we have visited, but transit passengers did not disembark.

There are lots of things to see and do in and around Thimphu, but no visit to this city would be complete without a visit to the Big Buddha, more formally known as Buddha Dordenma. This gigantic bronze statue of Buddha sits on top of a large Buddhist Temple, and has a very large courtyard for the gathering of the faithful. It is located high up on the side of the Wang Chhu valley on a specially built flattened area of land at the end of a specially built road. A massive effort that started in 2006 and was competed in 2015. The statue, which is made entirely of bronze, cost US$47 Million and was paid for by Rinchen Peter Teo a Singaporean businessman and the whole project cost US$100 Million. The temple under the statue makes provision for the Buddhist faithful to make dedications in the form of small statues of the Buddha housed permenantly in the temple. Currently there are 100,000 8 inch statues and 25,000 12 inch statues.

Today we travelled from Thimphu to Punakha via the Dochula Pass and along the way got a lesson in Bhutan History both modern and not so modern. The Drochula Pass is the site of Druk Wangyal Chortens which is a monument consisting of 108 chortens or stupas. These stupas were built to honour the fourth King of Bhutan and the soldiers he led during operation All Clear between December 2003 and Jan 2004 to remove from Bhutan soil a number of insurgent groups from India that were using Bhutanese territory as a safe haven from the Indian Authorities. Now this little bit of history brought up a number of questions.

Our first stop today was the imposing Punakha Dzong also known as Pungthang Dewa chhenbi Phodrang (meaning "the palace of great happiness or bliss") it is the second oldest and second largest Dzong in Bhutan. As I mentioned yesterday this imposing building sits on a point of land right at the junction of the Mo and Pho Rivers. Originally built between 1637 and 1638 it has been enlarged and renovated a number of times over the years.

Today can rightly be named A day on the Wangdi-Trongsa Highway, as we met this east-west highway a little south of Punakha and thereafter it occupied most of the day before turning south into the Phobjikha Valley and our nights accomodation. To say that this was an interesting road would be an understatement. It winds its way along the steep sides of the valley of the Dang Chhu River, twisting in and out of creek valleys until the village of Nubding where it climbs away from the river heading towards Pele La pass at 3300 meters and then onto to Trongsa. The highway is a small part of what is known as the Lateral Road or PN1 which is the highway that crosses Bhutan on a roughly east-west line.

This morning we drove a short distance up out of the valley to the small village of Gangtay to visit a temple named Gangtay Gonpar. It is an impressively large building sitting at the end of a ridge line overlooking the Phobjikha Valley. After the temple we spent a little time exploring the village, one of its general stores (quite well stocked) and the moss growing on the nearby cypress and pine trees. While walking around the village the rain turned, for a short period, into snow/sleet. Later we noticed a spinkle of new snow on the trees higher up the slopes.

Today was a big driving day, we retraced our steps all the way back to the town of Para where we first landed. Since it was a 6 hour drive (for about 160 km) we did not do much else, thus there is not much to say. I will let the photos (and a few related comments) surfice.

The Tigers Nest or Taksang is a monastry built on the face of a cliff overlooking the Paro Valley and the only accessible route to it is by a walking track that involves a climb of approximately 600 meters/ 2000 feet. It is perhaps the most popular tourist attraction in Bhutan. It has been a goal (and perhaps for Nina even the focus of this trip) and a concern ever since we added Bhutan to this trip as an alternative to Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Why a concern? Because we were not sure whether the walking track was within our capability. Well today was the day and Nina got all the way to the Monastry and I got as far as the highest point on the track.

There was no organized sightseeing today. It was a day to recover from yesterdays climb and to spend the little energy we had just generally looking around the town of Paro and taking photographs of random but interesting things; such as meat lying on the counter in the butcher's shop, Rob getting a haircut, a man fixing the road with a hand trowel, a horse parked in the middle of the road.

As I hinted a few days back Paro is currently hosting a festival called Tshechu which is being held in the grounds of Rinpung Dzong (the local traditional fort). The name "Tschechu" means "tenth day" as the festival is held on the 10th day of a month according to their Lunar calendar (It seems not all lunar calendars are the same). As this second link will indicate there are infact many Tshechu festivals in Bhutan many more than one per month, each in a different town. But it seems that the Tschechu in Paro and Thimphu are the largest. Each festival lasts for 4 days with a fixed schedule of events. On the last day of the festival (tomorrow when we will not be here) a large painting (98ft x 148ft) is unfurled.