Today we had a fairly early start as we
were driving over the mountains to Punakha, the old capital. On the way we passed the large Buddha we’d
visited the first day – gives an idea of just how large it is.
The weather when we got up to the Dochula Pass wasn’t very nice, with very low cloud which was a shame as it is a 360 deg viewpoint.
The Memorial Chorten built there was commissioned by the old King’s mother in 2003 in tribute to those killed during a terrorist war? and consists of 108 individual stupas.
The Memorial Chorten built there was commissioned by the old King’s mother in 2003 in tribute to those killed during a terrorist war? and consists of 108 individual stupas.
108 is an auspicious number in Bhutan’s
arm of Buddhism (maybe every type for all I know) and comes up repeatedly; the
number of teachings, beads on a rosary etc etc.
It was quite cold.
We had a wander round and then went for
a coffee and as we were sitting there skies began to clear and we all dashed
out to see the view of Bhutan’s bit of the Himalayas.
There was still a lot of cloud about but it was a beautiful sight nonetheless.
I should imagine it looks glorious in the summer, there are loads of pink and white chrysanthemums and orange tagetes planted everywhere.
All too soon, the mist rolled back in again.
We drove on down the other side of the mountain, the road is still being built in places and is very rough. A lot of it is single track but that doesn't seem to stop most drivers hurtling along and missing each other by inches.
We stopped for lunch at a place overlooking the flat agricultural plain which was a super view. The area is famous for phallus worship and willies are painted on a lot of the houses.
After lunch we took a walk across the
fields to a nearby monastery and spent a bit of time chatting to the young
monks who were supposed to be studying but some bright spark (tourist no doubt)
had given them balloons so not much studying was going on.
There were a few people working in the
fields by the time we headed back to our minibus and these schoolgirls kindly
stopped for a photo. Unfortunately we
were a bit short of time as apparently we’d stayed too long photographing young
monks (Tenzing never tells us how long we’ve got) – I would have liked a few
more of the field workers.
We then went to another Dzong which was
the original seat of government built by the Tibetan Warlord who built all the
other dzongs and unified the country in the 1600s. Actually it took a little while to work out
what some of these wood clad buildings reminded me of and it finally came –
Elizabethan England!
This shows just how steep the steps are into this fortification.
As we crossed back over the covered wooden bridge, these 3 little old ladies were watching some white water rafters in the distance – I think they’d opened a book on which boat would win.
After that we went to see
the 2nd longest suspension bridge in Bhutan! Having watched Tenzing hop over the stile I
promptly fell flat on my face trying to do the same.
It’s like a triangle and when you get over
the apex there’s nothing to hold on to so I just launched myself – no damage
done though!
The scenery is absolutely stunning, but
I don’t think it shows up too well in the photos as I don’t have time to tweak
the colours.
These young lads were spending ages
taking a group selfie and then kindly posed for me.
