World Bhutan Punakha

My Quest to Become the Queen of Bhutan 2008

Yak attack (no blood or gore involved) Nov 17, 2008

Nov. 16th – Bumthang to Punakha

It’s a very chilly morning; even the resident dog has frost on its back! We’re all loaded on the bus and ready to go when we hear some yelling from above. All of our hotel rooms have locks on the outside of the doors, and poor Karla was in the bathroom and was accidently locked in. She’s lucky her room was at the front of the hotel so she can flag us down from her window.

We start on the long, long drive back. There’s only one main road across the country, so the way there is the same as the way back. I think we’re a little giddy from all this driving so we entertain ourselves by madly taking pictures of yaks as we drive by them (our frenzy is quickly nicknamed yak attack). You would think it was the elusive snow leopard rather than a common yak! While we’re not lucky enough to see a leopard or panda, we do get too see a small troop of monkey’s called Grey Langurs. Very exciting for this nature girl!

Almost 10 hours later, we arrive in the town of Punakha. This region is sub-tropical with lots of birds and noisy insects. It sounds like the jungles I’ve been in. We have a beautiful hotel and most of us hang out in Ghislaine’s room to have a few drinks before dinner. We have a new veggie at dinner; fern fronds! After dinner we all make a bee-line for our rooms. It’s not even 9:00 and we’re all exhausted. We have 3 or 4 power outages before bed and enjoy the candlelit room.

 

Nov. 17th - Punakha to Paro

It’s a very foggy morning and we head out on the rural roads of Punakha along the river where we see many bird including ones that are turquoise, orange, black and white. This is an area I would love to come back to some day and explore. Today we’re going on a hike to Khamsum Yuelley Namgyal Chorten (a place of worship), which is perched high on a hilltop overlooking the Punakha Valley). The hike starts at a suspension bridge over the Mo Chu River and then continues through a rural area full of rice paddies, hay stacks and hard working families. It then steepens and enters into a blue pine forest where there are huge webs over our heads filled with giant spiders. Yuck! The fog has burned off and its hot and sunny out with superb views of the valley. At the Chorten, we climb to the very top for a rooftop view of the valley. The Chorten was built to ward off negative forces, promote peace, stability and harmony.

Afterwards, we stop by the Souvenir Production Training Centre where disadvantaged girls are trained over the period of a year to produce handicrafts and learn all the ins and outs of marketing and production. Then we head to Punakha Dzong, also known as the Palace of Happiness, and arguably the most beautiful temple in all of Bhutan. I venture off on my own and find a set of stairs in one of the temples. 4 sets of stairs and 2 sets of ladders later and I’m all the way at the roof of the temple. There’s a tiny latched door at the top, which I open for a view of the grounds and the river below. I am now up in the attic and there are 2 small shrine rooms tucked away from the public. One of them has a constant drumming coming out of it and my curiosity gets the better of me and Miss Snoopy Pants has to take a peek! There is a monk inside that indicates that I must leave. I then check out the other shrine, which is very dark with demon or devil looking symbols on the door and inside. It’s a little spooky in the dark room and I feel that there could be potential spirits lurking about!

Afterwards I head to the main temple, which is enormous and ornate with giant Buddhas and deities. Outside, there is a gang of mischievous young monks clowning around like every young boy should. Its good to see that even monks get to just be kids at times. After leaving the Dzong, we go to the confluence of the two rivers, Mo Chu and Po Chu which are said to be male and female. Of course Pema points out that the colour of the male river dominates the female river.