Travelling East, Travel sickness and thank goodness no more chilli, cheese and rice

With the trek finished and filed into the memories catalogue we jumped into the suspension-less Toyota Hilux and headed east to the Bumthang Valley. A 250km of continuous one lane pot holed, hair-pinned bends, 3 mountain passes and cliff edges. A hair raising journey at the best of times even more so with the random large trucks going both ways. I think Douglas will return with significantly less hair. Douglas counted the bends, 16 on average per km for the whole 250km.

 

It is hard to describe the fun of travel to the east in Bhutan, especially if you suffer from motion sickness. Each of the three high passes we had to cross got steeper as we headed east. The steeper they got the more drastic the bends in the road got. We essentially turned each 25km of distance into 70km of driving by traversing across the hills continuously. It took 2 hours to get from valley bottom to mountain top and 2 hours down again. So that’s like doing the Rimutaka hill road out of Wellington or the Takaka hill road for 4 hours three times in a row. Joy!

 

The three valleys we visited were all full of history. All had been peopled for at least 1500 years. However, the great Buddhist migration to Bhutan happened in the 14th and 15th centuries and the huge fortresses and religious centres almost all appeared in the 17th century. In the 17th century a leader united Bhutan again Tibet and this structure resulted in the British Raj abandoning it’s efforts to establish control in the 19th century. The Bhutanese claimed to have kicked the British butts in a short war. I think they got fed up crossing passes at 4000m on donkey trails. We visited the many monasteries and fortresses they are truely spectacular!

   

Of course getting to the Dzong when built accross a river can be interesting

Luckily they are building a new bridge in Bhutan style!

 

The first night was spent in Yangkhil hotel, a new hotel built into the side of the very steep valley. With views across to the Trongsa Dzong. The candles in the room were either going to prove to be a considerate attempt to add some romance or an ominous sign. The power went out at 7pm and we ate our dinner by candle light. It obviously happens on a semi regular basis.

Life reverts to medieval standards as your leave Thimphu and gets more so the further east you go. Weaving cloth for clothes on traditional looms, guiding oxen to plough fields for rice and maize and grind stones to make flour run by water wheels were standard in Bumthang.

  

Of course you have to mend the roads

And hold the roof on

Many have switched from growing rice to potatoes as these are easier to grow in the colder areas and fetch better prices in Bhutan and India. However, to protect your potato crop you must sleep in a tiny raised hut with woven bamboo sides and roof and chase away any wild boars that come to eat your potatoes. You are not allowed to kill them as the Departments of Agriculture and Conservation protect them. So you best plan appears to be to tie a large number of old petrol cans to a top of a pole in the middle of your fields and run long strings back to you hut so that you can bang the cans together which will of course stop the pigs eating your potatoes. The good news is that you only have to do that for 5 months of the year.

The pig watching hut is the small one dead centre left-right in the photo

But there is always time for archery

Jumolhari Trek

Hello again, Internet spots have eluded us for over a week now. This tends to happen when you head into the more remote areas of the Himalaya. Well remote as in far from civilisation but P1 (Pony Highway 1 was actually a very busy track).

The trek was to climb 3 days to the base camp (4080m) of Jumolhari (7350m) and then on the 4th day cross the “Bonte La” pass (4900m) over to another valley and cover the distance back to the road end in only 2 days going down. This route is normally an 8 day event with the 4th day as a rest day. We had of course scoffed at a rest day and decided the down could be done faster … so we had 6 days.

Our team was myself, Keren, Richard (Keren’s dad) 62, Nigel (friend of Richard, ex amazing mountaineer) 68, myself, Namgay (Porter), Damcho (Guide), Tashi (cook), Pony driver’s son, Camp helping hand, Pony driver and 10 ponys. Richard and Nigel didn’t make the attached photo.

We knew we were heading UP and there was a good chance that we would get some altitude issues. We knew that it would be cold, we knew we had to cover about 70km each way and gain/lose about 2500m both ways. We obviously thought this was all too easy so … I decided to get food poisoning the morning we started, didn’t sleep and vomited several times by the 8:30am start. Nigel caught the flu and gave himself a chest infection, and Keren caught a cold so that she couldn’t breathe through her nose just so she didn’t feel left out.

So with perfect skies and the team in tip top condition we made for camp 1 at 2800m. Camp 1 was an easy 18 km mostly on dirt tracks. It was all gradually up (funny that) and some others we passed on the track were taking it far more casually than we were, suit and umbrella anyone? I felt CRAP and the call was made that if I didn’t eat a good breakfast the next morning, I would have to return to town and miss the trek.

Day 2 to camp 2 (3400m) was 22km of nasty walking on river rocks, luckily I was able to hold breakfast down and given the OK to carry on. The day was meant to be 9 hours, we knocked it off in 7 hours but the thinner air was starting to make itself felt. 7 hours of up hill and dodgy footing was not fun, but we got our first sight of Jumolhari at camp 2. Oh and we saw our first yak at the camp site.

Day 3 to base camp Jumolhari (4080m) was a much easier track as we left the dense forest behind and climbed above the tree line into the more barren valleys surrounded by snowy peaks. Nigel described us as ‘well oiled slugs’ which i thought was a very telling description of our progress. Luckily we were all acclimatising well and I was eating properly again. We met 2 other small tourist groups each with 10 ponys and 5 helpers at base camp. To try and help our altitude preparation myself and Nigel climbed another 500m that evening into a side valley towards the glaciers and the base of Jumolhari. The ruined monasteries on the large rocks and the peaks around us made for stunning views.

Day 4 we headed to the Bonte La pass. All our fingers and toes were crossed as the snows had not yet receeded much and the groups that had tried to make the trip a few days previously turned back. The frozen lakes, yaks and metre deep snow on the pass made it a beautiful days tramping but also meant we failed to cross the pass . So back to base camp we headed puffing like steam trains and camped down to another cold night. At least we made it to 4660m … a reasonable effort. Ironically the mountain we came to see refused to clear from behind the clouds the entire time we were there, so we only have partial photos. Still very worth it.

Day 5 and 6, it had snowed over night, giving some great photos

but we only had 2 days to make it back to the road end … so we aimed for 40 km back to camp 1 on our first day down. It was a long day but the breathing got easier and we made it with 3 hours of daylight left.

Soon we were out and got a good nights sleep in Paro town before we started a 4 day drive east across the endless valleys and passes of Bhutan … see next installment (might be later today).

Takin and Archery

Today we did another short walk and discovered the local dumping point for prayer flags. The number of flags you can see in the picture is about 1% of the flags on this ridge. They litter the ground everywhere too as the wind has destroyed many of them.

We also visited a local reserve for “Takin” the Bhutanese national animal/cow. The story of how these creatures were created is attached in a photo .. hope it is readable.

 

Finally I had a go at the local archery. I wasn’t quite ready for the local standard range to be 145m!!! So I will be going back ready for the heavy bows and with binoculars to see the other end. The locals wander infront of the target to put each other off. But the locals are mad. The white spec in the photo is the target face which is about 20cm across.

After the archery, which was a long way up a very rocky road and not quite the right terrain for a little Suzuki Alto, we headed to Richard and Caroles favorite local restaurant. The five of us ordered 7 mains, a mix of Bhutanese, Indian and Japanese style dishes with roti and rice plus a few beers. The food was delicious and all for the bank breaking amount of $30!

Tsechu and Taktshang

We just spent 2 days in Paro town so that we could go to the Paro festival (Tsechu) and the Tigers Nest monastry (Taktshang). Spending 2 days in Paro turned out to be a fairly luxurious affair. Carole had booked us into Gangtey Palace, which literally was a palace until 1907. It was an amazing old style building with the loft for drying your straw and chillies and a bar/restaurant with great views over the city. You can make a guess which we spent the most time in. Attached is a photo of part of our room, which was hand painted beautifully. I’m not quite sure what the Bhudda painted above the bed was intended to … improve … but I would hope they might warn guests if it is meant to grant triplets to all who sleep under him. I have no idea what his intentions for the deer and geese are either.

The Tsechu is a religious festival consisting of 5 days of ritual dancing and the unveiling of a huge likeness of Bhudda. It is also an excuse for people to meet from all over the country and catch up. We went along in traditional Bhutan dress, which is compulsary for all Bhutanese nationals attending. We got a very friendly reception much more than the other foreigners. Unfortunately the male standard dress is a “Gho”. It is kind of like a giant woolen dressing gown/ bath robe. It is also damned difficult to get it tied correctly. Even with the parents help we struggled and luckily the hotel staff came to the rescue. It took 3 locals to get it right! Keren wore the Kira (much easier to fit). About 60% of people wear these clothes as their standard around town clothes and all school uniforms are Gho and Kira. Of course I still didn’t get the special scarf that matches the Gho correct and since I obviously looked hopeless, more people came to my aid . see piccies.

  

We braved the crush inside and outside the Rinpung Dzong (read monastic fortress) in Paro.

 

We watched the long crazy dances, and wondered why they seemed to cage all the young monks. See piccy of dancing skeletons with monks gazing on. I think we were the youngest tourists there.

 

Afterwards we decided to climb up a steep valley 700m vertical to visit the most famous Bhutan building. The monastry called Taktshang – Tigers nest. This monastry is built over a cave about 200m up a cliff. Supposedly the Guru who brought Bhuddism to Bhutan decided that climbing a cliff and hiding (sorry meditating) in a small hole the size of an office cubicle would aid his enlightenment. Then some further enlightened monks decided building a large monastry, out of large trees and stone, over the cave on a tiny ledge, way up a cliff, would be a fine way to spend 6 years. So they did! Piccies attached. It is one of the most crazy pieces of engineering I have ever seen and the natural rock makes up many of the floors and walls.

 

In the land of the thunder dragon

Well it was 28 hours of airports and airplanes with no real sleep, including 6 hours wandering Bangkok’s new airport and trying to sleep on the cold marble floors at 2am. But, finally, we are in Bhutan at Keren’s parents place just outside the capital Thimphu. Immigration required our address, which we have discovered is Jungshina, turn right just over the bridge, opposite the cowshed! Photo of cow shed attached below . The lady feeding the cow is one of the landlord’s wives. They are fairly wealthy as far as Bhutanese are concerned but that doesn’t get you off mucking out the cows! The smaller cow is called Santa, a common Bhutanese name but named by Keren’s Mum as it was born on Christmas eve. We’ll post a link to the story she wrote the event and had published.

I have only got 30k connections that are not reliable at our base so photos may or may not be with each posting. Will try to find faster links, I’m told they do exist!

First impressions are of really friendly people who seem mostly to speak some english (at least in the city), dry mountainous scenery covered with cedar forest and bhuddist “chortens”, amazing looking houses with great decorations, huge temples “dhzong”,  CRAZY driving and dogs everywhere.

We had an awesome flight down a deep valley in a 737 which made me wonder when we would hit the ground. Keren, being far less of a wuss, found this less nerve racking. We arrived at the building (airport) in the header bar picture and found it covered in scaffolding which was being deconstructed in a manner OSH would shut them down for. See piccy.  

Tomorrow we are walking to Taktsang monastry (the tigers nest) 2 hours up a mountain edge and the Paro festival is on and we will get some great shots of local dance and crazy costumes.

Trip to Bhutan and Thailand

Hi there, this is where in one weeks time, myself and Keren will start posting about our trip.

We are heading to Wanaka for a few days tramping the hills of New Zealand then straight to Bhutan for just over 3 weeks visiting Keren’s parents who are volunteering there for a year. Bhutan’s hills are higher than NZ’s and could pose some interesting challenges when we wander around them. Bhutan is also primarily Buddist and so remote that Internet and TV only arrived in the last decade. Google maps seems to think there is only one town and one road in the whole country, should be a real eye opener for my pampered westernised bum.

<>Oh, and if we survive 25 days in the Himilayas we are going rock climbing in Thailand on the way home.