Glimpses into Bhutan in the Year 2000 – A Travel Diary Part 3

 

9^th of October

Many flowers, colorful -: yellow, orange, purple.

Our hotel is called Zangtho Pelri [Punakha - Thimphu Hwy Walakha, Punakha 13001 Bhutan]; one is inclined to hear Sancto Pelri and wonder which saint it is. Cyclists are active in front of the hotel and screw their bikes together. They are Americans who had claimed the entire entrance area the day before. Yesterday they let the whiskey bottle go around in public. Nami said that they sang and continued to drink during the night. In addition, the car is full of beer and other alcoholic beverages. Nami and Nami Dorje had to sleep in the car, because the hotel has been overcrowded. We have to leave early this morning, because the King needs Tongsa or the hotels for himself and his entourage. My freind didn't believe this reason and thought of a pretext.

Along the roads we saw children in school uniforms, always different, but always Bhutanese, i.e. even the six-year-old girls in floor-length skirts and the boys in 2/3 coats.

Before Wangdi we looked at opuntia full of fruit at the roadside. Doesn't anyone know that you can eat the fruit? Or are they so abundant?

Military is also stationed in Wangdi. The mayor follows a high ethic standard. Bhutanese are only allowed to walk around in their national dress. The city is considered to be particularly clean. As we drive through, we see how the population cleans the streets, including the sewage system.

We drive past the prison, where the robbers from the Chendabji stupa are incarcerated. Now there is also a second prison in Thimphu.

On the way we also saw monkeys, very nice view.

I discovered a few magnolia blossoms. No more rhododendron flowers. The magnolias are not suitable for anything -: the flowers cannot be sacrificed, the leaves cannot be fed to the animals and the wood is too soft to be used for building. Well, but you can burn the wood and use the thorny logs as a growing fence.

We pass Nami Dorje's house, at least it can be seen on the other side of the valley. It's a two-hour drive from our vantage point. The family still has a house in the mountains where the family lives during the summer. C. knows something similar from Switzerland (Valais).

We drive over the Pele-la, 3400 m. The Black Mountains look beautiful. We can only hike there a bit, when we come back on the return trip.

Official letters on houses, checkpoints (many!). And there are red posts with yellow letters; it must have something to do with the government and the king. We take a rest at the Chendabji stupa. The hole can no longer be seen. It is a stupa (chhörten) in the style of Nepal. The eyes are a symbol of Maitreya, the Buddha of the future.

We reach Trongsa in the early afternoon. We see the cars of the royal entourage and the king's flags. Now also my friend believes that it hadn't been a pretext.

We cross the Yotong-la (3490 m). It's cloudy and cool; cooler than at Pele-la.

Nice trip to the Bumthang valley. We too have to move from one hotel to the next tomorrow because the rooms are needed for the government. But we got the two suites today. I am otherwise not for large rooms, but it has a nice play of light and shadow. The hotel is not completely sold out.
A buller oven that I don't use, though.
There is still a large group here - Studiosus Reisen from Germany.

 

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