five first days - amy's impressions

First Impressions of Bhutan - we have been isolated from email for the first 5 days, since we have been on the road and in towns without much access.

Today is day 6 for us, and we are in the valley of Bumthang, and we are just returned from hiking a short ways to an overnight stay in the next valley over, up at Ogyen Choling, a medieval feeling stone manor high on a mountainous outcrop with its own small village full of very kind people. This lovely place which overlooks an extensive river valley full of fields being tilled by oxen teams, is in a high alpine area with pine woods, some oaks and lots of green meadows. There is a five storey fortress type main building, which is now a museum, very elegantly decorated but still quite basic, an adjacent temple within the fortress courtard, and out back, overlooking the valley, the two story 'guesthouse' where we had a little suite of rooms to ourselves on the second floor.

Bhutan has impressed me so much. I was expecting, when people described it as 'going back in time', and knowing that it was quite agriculturally based, to think hardship and poverty. quite the contrary. Bhutan has been well governed and did have to move from a feudal type agricultural society to its present form in about 50 years, but the way the transition was handled, it seems to have gained most people a very comfortable, even affluent feeling, way of life. The government taxes, but gives back generously; every 25 years a family can be given the wood supply to build a house, and so most bhutanese live in very comfortable two or three story wooden houses, built and decorated with loving care. There are soft polished wood floors, small gothic type windows in all directions, verandas and lovely beams to look up at. Most houses are separated from each other a bit so there is greenery and pleasant small vegetable gardens and small wooden fences protecting cabbage patches and roses from the cows who roam freely. So what you see is not urbanized, and not degraded; there are clean freeflowing rivers and creeks everywhere and lots of open space with apple and pear orchards and fields of dryland rice, red millet, potatoes. The muddy dirty areas you do encounter are that way because of cows tromping through, so that people do have to create stone walkways or plank walkways to stay dry; but even though farm life takes a lot of energy, the material comfort is quite high. So it's like going back to the best of our agrarian past; not the bad crowded parts. And the mountain scenery is absolutely stunning.

Although most bhutanese live far from roads, those that do live along the main roads can journey pretty easily and many have access to cell phones, and many can hear international music on the radio; many have electricity; all the houses we see are of generous size, many with a small car beside them; and from what we have learned, most Bhutanese have access to a good education, even though there are not that many jobs outside of the agricultural sector.

The Bhutanese government similarly seems very enlightened. They have built hydropower plants in large sizes, to export power to India; but in their own towns, they are using small water power.

Recapping our journey, so far:

Day 1

the first day in was impressive just for the flight in. Our journey from Thailand stopped briefly in Dacca, the capital of bangladesh, and then in about 45 minutes came up adjacent to the Himalayas and turned east; and we, sitting on the left side, had the breathtaking experience of looking at a horizon full of white peaks, and most stunning being so obviously Everest, it's a shape we've all seen and learned without knowing it. Then the flight in, the plane needs to fly into a canyon, then turn ninety degrees left into a deeper canyon, and really, it feels like the wingtips are about to touch the hills on either side.

The fresh air when the plane door opened was amazing, there is a very soft breeze which is typical of the afternoons, the landing strip is lined with open fields, and there is a river just to the left of the airfield which runs wild and free, kind of like landing along the upper stretches of the Yuba or American rivers here in California. The airport is, like all Bhutanese buildings, built in very elegant proportions with peaked windows in abundance, the woodwork glows and the beams, decorative strips and window frames are all covered in decorative and protective paintings in red, green, blue, yellow and white - the protective colors of bhuddism. There are paintings of protective spirits at the corners. The architecture is built so that the roofs, which are often covered with glistening grey slate held down with rocks, have very generous eaves. The windows are placed in parallel, moorish type arches, of 3 or 4, outlined in red background pain with detailed symbols.

Our very first day as we drove to Thimpu we experience some of the nice themes of the country: crossing gently swaying suspension bridges wide enough for two, between decorative and protective gait houses, over rushing streams; visiting temple complexes that you must circle clockwise for maximum spiritual benefit and forgiveness, lined with prayer wheels you can turn as you walk; lots of bhutanese enjoying the sport of archery; lots of people wearing their best clothing, the women in glowing colors and the men in rich red/orange plaids. We were lucky to catch the final day of a festival in Thimpu, as soon as we get back we can post pictures of the crowds of richly dressed bhutanese and the central area filled with dancers in great costumes, performing to traditional music from enormous long thibetan horns and cymbals and drums.

In all our pictures, we strove to keep out the phone lines and cars and TV dishes; but the real beauty of Bhutan is that these things are present, AND the culture is still being supported and defended against the changes these things usually bring. Mostly. However our first night, we were treated to being in a hotel room overlooking the main square which normally might be quiet, but was hosting a 'dance competition' which the young people loved. It was all pop music and rock and roll and rap, and we never saw the dancers who were competing, but they had light shows and dry ice. So not all in Bhutan is traditional that's for sure! Also along the streets, vendors were selling plenty of western clothes and shoes and the folks were eating it up, buying a lot of new things to wear while they were in town for the festival.

Thimpu is a really nice town. None of the guidebooks really prepared me for it. It is in a wide sloping river valley, so the town is not flat, it's got a lot of character and everywhere you walk, the buildings are beautiful and the glimpses of the mountains in the background are even more beautiful. Most of Bhutan is lower elevation so not that many mountains are snow covered; mostly, being in Thimpu feels like maybe being in a small town in Idaho, or Wyoming, or in the Sierras - but without all the ugly advertising and garishness of an American town of the same size.

Here and there are a few really bhutanese surprises - especially, the large trucks gaily painted with gold and red and blue and green designs, with prayer flags up on each side of the cab, with the sign "GOODS CARRIER" over the front, with paintings of protective animals along the side and catchy phrases naming the particular truck, and on the back of each one, the phrase, "BLOW HORN!" This dates to when so few cars were on the road, that not everyone knew how to behave to pass. Or something.

We have a very nice guide, Tshewang Dorje, who is 25 going on 75, a source of great wisdom. In Bhutan, since you are paying for a guide, you get this incredibly relaxing experience, you need to make no decisions if you don't want to, every car door is held open for you, and everything you need to know is explained. Very useful since Bhutanese Bhuddist traditions are about as complicated as I can have imagined! Sorting out the stories of the incarnations of the buddha and his main reincarnation, Guru Rinpoche; the many truth seekers, the many traveling missionaries, and the many special phrases, like the 3 jewels, the 4 principles, the 8 fold path, etc etc, is truly bewildering.

Day 2

This day, we drove a long way to get closer to the eastern valleys. we went up and down and up and down multiple passes, through all kinds of different woods; some piney, some full of cedars, some hardwoods, with early red and yellow leaves turning. In most of the gullies, brisk creeks were running, and most of the running creeks are bridged by a small building that houses a prayer wheel being turned constantly by the water. Each pass, and many outcrops, has fields of prayer flags. On many bluffs and outcrops are fields of 108 tall posts holding white prayer flags, all fluttering together, to earn merit for someone who recently died. On each pass, the trees for acres around are festooned with strands of rectangular prayer flags, in the sacred colors, with prayers and magical figures printed on each flag. We are beginning to learn about the prayers and the religious buildings, how to walk clockwise around everything, and how to give a small donation and accept a blessing of holy water and pray whenever we are invited in to a temple to see the religious statues and paintings.

In our drive, much is mountains; but if you look way down below the roads (which always seem to run at least half way up the mountains, not down low), you can see the valley bottoms have rivers and often have many farms. The farms stretch up in to the pine lands, there are farmhouses surrounded by fruit orchards.

Because we are being so well cared for by our guide and driver, we are often stopping for cups of tea. Each tourist-oriented restaurant is different but they are mostly extremely charming, in very romantic places and the decoration and the tea and the people are all great to take in.

This day, we drove from Thimpu, over a high mountain spectacular mountain pass with views of the himalayas, and down to a major glacial outwash river near the town of Punakha (which we will visit later), up a bluff to the fortress town of Wangdu something, up another more spectacular pass apparently that was covered in a hailstorm, down another deep valley where they filmed the movie, "Travelers and musicians", and finally after many short stops to pet yaks and drink tea and avoid cows, into the very deep canyon which contains the fortress town of Trongsa. Of our hotel in Trongsa, I will only say it is here that we learned how very MANY tourists are visiting Bhutan this october, and how hard Bhutanese beds can be.

Day 3

The hard beds and overcrowded dining room meant nothing when we woke up to sunrise in Trongsa. The clear morning sunlight picking up the high snowy peaks and the deep valley below us with its white fortress -- incredible.

We climbed up our 3rd major pass, Kiki La, through deep forest, and then had a surprise descent right into the most beautiful open farmland, with people threshing millet, it looked a LOT like paintings from the 1800s, van gogh and so forth, from rural france. We went through several delightful valleys full of apple orchards and weaving shops and finally reached the main part of the Bumthang valley with an enchanting small town (where we are now) that has many, many little shops on its one main street selling lots of a little of this and a little of that to the locals. Outside town a few miles is the Rinchenling resort, which was home for the next 2 nights; very cozy, very lovely, our windows were tapped by apple laden trees, the people were extremely nice, the fellow tourists not too bad and the 'hot stone baths', which are basicaly hot tubs in Ofuro tubs heated by hot granite stones, were incredibly soothing.

Bumthang has a wealth of religious temples and we really enjoyed each visit. At many of the temples are older ladies who make their clockwise rounds around the whole buildings twirling their hand prayer wheels and chanting and gossiping, fairly tolerant of us. Each of the temples has lovely stone paved courtyards with multiple chapels off them, and in each lovely courtyard is at least one friendly sleepy dog. Mostly fluffy black with brown tips above the ears and on the paws. Each one has legends of being built to commemorate the saints subduing the ferocious ogres, and and sites where saints left their hand or foot or forehead prints in the stone. In each chapel, where you enter barefoot onto polished wooden floors, there is a glowing delirious colorful world: the altars in front of carvings or paintings of the saints are covered with ornate dishes, candles that are lit, lines of multiple sets of 7 brass or copper bowls filled with holy water, and delicate colorful 'butter offerings'. The surrounding walls have holy paintings. The roof is draped with protective banners and multiple fabric ornaments hang from the ceilings. The chapels often have windows on the glorious world outside and most of the time, a lama dressed in red is there to help you receive a blessing or even, on very special days, a holy thread to wear around your neck until it falls off. You can't take photos inside holy places, so it's going to be left to your imagination.

We have also gone for some walks in the valley and met some hilarious young school girls who danced and sang for us, once we had danced and sung for them. Once craig has this up on youtube, I'll attach it here

Day 4 - festival day

Today we walked up the valley to a temple hosting a multiday festival, we can best describe this with photos, to come later. What I loved best was watching the watchers: in the upper stories of the temple, kids and monks were hanging out to see the sights. Around us, many bhutanese crowded in and we made many friends with small children

The costuming in these festivals was amazing. the main presiding lama (we think) was dressed, for the opening ceremony, in a multilayered costume that looked more than anything like Genghis Khan. The dancers wore elaborate costumes and masks.

Day 5 - yesterday - we drove an hour or two to the Tang Valley. The first stop was very magical, particularly as we were almost the only ones there: we had a short 10 minute hike down into a granite gorge with the most beautiful foaming deep pools, where many magical religious events had taken place. Later we drove high up a series of mountains, past many farmhouses and a few isolated government buildings like forestry and water quality, and along another 'wild and scenic' river. finally we stopped in a small village and crossed our hanging bridge and hike up 45 minutes through an alpine wonderland, across pastures and springs, up to the Ogyen Choling museum.

Later that afternoon, after a tasty lunch of the main national dish, spicy green peppers and cheese, and other good dishes, we decided to go for a walk. Leaving the grounds of the 'manor house', we entered the village and a nice lady accosted us and asked if we'd like to visit her in her home. Would we ever! So we went over a wooden stile or two, across a murky village lane, then up a series of wood ladders next to her house to her back porch on the second story and were invited in. Her elderly mom was on the veranda, beaming at us and leaning on her cane. We came in first to a large generous living room, with a loom at the far end, and a stove and various seats and kitchen items; then into one of the back bedrooms (which faced out on to the valley) and into the rear right room, the offerings room. This was sumptious and spacious. we sat on reed matting and she poured us generous tea cups full of araa, the local intoxicating wheat or rice wine. Was it ever good! In Bhutanese entertaining, the guests try to act reluctant but give in; the host serves you first; you must drink two glasses or servings of everything you are given, so when we first saw our full cups I was worried. Luckily though - as soon as we had had a few slurps, she filled them up again and this counted for a second serving. Then we sat and chatted, with our guide interpreting, and laughed a lot, and ultimately she challenged us not to sip our wine, but to bottoms up! so, - we did.


Then we admired her weaving and we went out on a walk she recommended, up a trail that led high up and around the mountain. It was bright and sunny. We had a puppy come with us. We skirted the deep muddy cow prints, and had to hop from dry spot to dry spot at times. we passed many pastures with pine poles for fences, and many small clumps of pine trees and we ate fresh berries, little red berries perhaps they are a type of gooseberry or elderberry. It was quite funny as we were all 3 just a little bit drunk on araa wine. The sun started to go down, the mountains glowed and we returned home to our little guest house where we enjoyed another good bhutanese meal and slept well despite the occasional barking dog and lowing cow. Even though we were very high up the mountain, we could also hear the rushing of the river as we slept.

that's it for now!