Wednesday October 8, 2008
Paro and Thimpu, Bhutan: Temperature Sunny but with a little clouds
Gangtey Palace Hotel in Paro
Druk Hotel in Thimpu
After a long and wonderful sleep it was time for our second day of activities. After a simple breakfast of porridge, delicious tea and toast with the creamiest butter, freshest marmalade and local honey, it was time to pack our bags and check out of the hotel and get ready for our full day of sightseeing.
But because I spent so much money on my Thangka (400$!) we had to go the bank again and exchange money. Since we got there a bit early, Kunzang took me to the post office which was the cutest post office in the world where I send my first two post cards to Jackson and Billy. After getting money it was time for our adventure – the trek to Takstsang (Tiger’s Nest) monastery which is Bhutan’s most famous monastery. Guru Rimpoche who introduced Buddhism to Bhutan is said to have flown on a back of a tiger from Singye Dzong in Lhuenstse to meditate in a cave where the Tigers Nest monastery now stands. It’s perched on the edge of a steep cliff of about 3200 meters in altitude. Because of my bad knee that needs to be replaced, I’m not sure I can make it all the way to the top.
The trip begins with a 30 minute or so drive from the town of Paro. The drive was on a beautiful road along the Paro River where we had to be careful to not hit the cows that were passing by. The road ended at the small parking lot which Kunzang said was crowded but by Western standards was empty as there were less than 10 cars.
The first part of the hike is to the teahouse where you get a magnificent view of the monastery. We took the hike slowly as it was steep and also because we were at about 2500 meters going to over 3000 meters the altitude took a toll. The views from the trail were awe-inspiring. I started getting worried thought, as not sure my knees will make it the way down. After about 1.5 hours we made it to the teahouse and unfortunately I started feeling my right knee hurt near the end. The teahouse was perched at the perfect place where dogs and cats lived happily together. We had delicious tea while having a perfect view of the monastery.
While looking at the monastery and talking to Kunzang about the last 1/3 of the hike up to the monastery, I reluctantly decided to pass as I knew my need would not survive the 800 steps which is the last part of the trail to the monastery. So I decided to hang out the teahouse while Caryn and Margot with Kunzang took the trip to the Tiger’s Nest. But before they took off for the hike, we had a delicious vegetarian meal of different curries with rice. We also finally had the famous chilies in cheese sauce, which was so spicy that it brought uncontrollable tears to my eyes!
After lunch I gave 50NG to Caryn to leave at the monastery as an offering from me and also gave her 100 NG to purchase a Green Tara amulet for me.
View of Tiger's Nest Monastery
Close Up of the Monastery taken by Margot
Our delicious and very spicy vegetarian lunch. No meat is served as its a holy place
After they took off, I hung out by the tea house where I enjoyed some more tea and was treated to an impromptu solo concert of the special long Bhutanese trumpet that folds which makes it easy to carry while hiking up the mountain and unfolds to have a 2 meter long trumpet! I also met a couple from North Carolina who wore Obama pins and we caught up on politics and how scary it’s going to be if McCain/Palin win! Also, the wife had to have the same surgery I need for my knee and she encouraged me to have the surgery as she hiked to the monastery but could not have done it without the surgery. So I’ll have to come back after the surgery and attempt the hike to the monastery again!
The Sleepy Cat of the Tea House and his Dog Friend
I almost also caused an international incident twice while waiting at the teahouse. Once when a British couple returned from the hike and the wife looked at the buffet and said out loud “ I can’t eat this, it looks disgusting!” and the second time when an Indian couple came and they started ordering the waiters at the teahouse around rudely to get them drinks, food, etc. What can I say, there are rude tourists even in Bhutan!
Water Powered Prayer Wheel: In Bhutan water is abundant, thus we saw many of prayer wheels powered by natural water falls
Some Beautiful Flowers Growing Naturally by the Monastery
Phallus painting at Tea House to keep evil spirits away. More on this later, but we saw alot of this:
Shrine at the Tea House
Margot, Caryn and Kunzang returned after about 3 hours and Caryn was able to get me my Green Tara amulet. After some more tea, we started heading down to the car. Kunzang followed me as I wanted to take it slowly down the mountain so my knee would hold up. We made it down in about an hour, met up with Chenchor our driver who patiently waited for us at the parking lot.
We then started the 1.5 hour drive to Thimpu our next destination. The drive to Thimpu was beautiful. We drove by Paro River and then followed Thimpu River. At the intersection of Paro and Thimpu we saw 3 Chortens: Tibetan, Nepalese and Bhutanese. It is also where we had to go through a border check as the border to India was only 140 kilometers away. The highway we took was just completed as a two-way highway to get ready for the coronation of the 5th King in November. It used to be a one-way highway which must have been a scary ride as there are a lot of twists and turns and one mistake can send a car tumbling down a steep cliff. Although the highway was modern, we still saw many cows walk by us. Kunzang said the cows are trained so that after taking a walk and grazing during the day, the go home on their own before nightfall. We also saw many Indian women and men walk on the highway. Kunzang said they are workers who are helping build the infrastructure in Bhutan. I was surprised as Bhutan has about a 15% unemployment rate. Kunzang said that Bhutanese people do not do construction type of labor except for home building.
The scenery along the Thimpu River changed and it reminded us of the Santa Monica Mountains but just at a higher elevation. We learned that we were driving through an area that gets very little rain so the earth is arid and not suitable for agriculture. It was quite a different scenery from the lush mountains lined with rice paddies on the Paro side.
As dusk settled in we went under an ornate gate which is the entrance to Thimpu. Then all of sudden we started to seeing buildings and a lot more cars and we found ourselves in a middle of a traffic jam. There were trucks decorated Indian style and a lot of Toyotas. We asked how people buy cars, as we have never seen a dealer and learned that they go through an agent.
Chenchor was able to successfully navigate through the traffic jam and get us to our modern Druk Hotel by around 6pm. We agreed with Kunzang to check in the hotel and meet him in the lobby at 7pm where we will go to Lemo’s vegetarian restaurant Jampa that is the name of the next Buddha.
Our hotel was modern with basic amenities. It was funny because the outlets were all different. Some were Indian, some were Northern European and others were something we have never seen. Our TV was hooked to a voltmeter and we could not figure out why.
We met Kunzang at 7pm and headed to the restaurant. Again the traffic was crazy but Chenchor got us safely there. It was a beautiful restaurant with exceptional service. We asked Kunzang to join us for dinner but he said that he could only join us in the beginning. We asked him if he wanted to join us for a beer and he asked us what beer we ordered. When we said the local beer Red Panda, he gave us an emphatic NO. We knew what he meant when we tried it. We learned a lot about Kunzang when speaking to him. He has one older sister and 3 younger sisters. His father works in News Programming and Bhutan Broadcast Services but he does not live at home but with a friend, as he wants his independence. We also found out he is an excellent cook and his specialty is a beef and spinach dish. When talking about food I told him the 3 Japanese staples are rice, soy and sea weed, he told us that riverweed is a specialty of Bhutan. It used to make a cheesy soup and he said it is something we will try during our trip! It was then time for him to join his buddies for dinner and we started our scrumptious vegetarian dinner which included a salad, the best roast potatoes I’ve ever had worldwide, a really good dal, a paneer, nan, eggplant and mixed vegetable curry. It was so good! We all thought we would lose weight on this trip but believe the opposite is going to happen! We were so stuffed we skipped desert and headed back to the hotel to crash on our rock hard beds with earplugs as our hotel was in the middle of downtown Thimpu.
It’s a beautiful place, indeed. Whether up close or far away, the Tiger’s Nest is quite breath-taking, no? Pictures are great, but seeing the real thing is a definite treat.