I visited a market between Punakha and the Dochula Pass. I like going to markets and this market along the Punakha Timpo road has been very interesting. It was also a toilet stop, which is important while travelling.
This market was more composed of stalls or even grocery stores, which sold fresh goods. What is so interesting about a market like this? You see people shopping, you see people waiting. Tourist and monk are seen in harmony waiting in front of the toilet. You see a nun after she bought something. You see other people going from stall to stall. You see the children running around, but finally they have to go to school or are being taken to school.
And then you look at the strange foods. In addition to everything we are accoustomed in the west – let me add an average supermarket already sells quite a lot of foods that were unknown to our grandparents. What are there different ones? Some varieties of leave vegetablesfor instance. Green asparagus, which we also have at home though Germans tends to buy more white asparagus, but in Bhutan they also sell forest asparagus, i.e. a wild form of asparagus. And what we are forbidden to collect in Germany -: fern. I already had eaten fern in Korea. To be honest, I collected fern sprouts together with a Korean woman in Germany. It tasted good, similar to mushrooms. You could also buy mushrooms from the forest at these stalls. Then there were many varieties of bananas, which we don't have access to in the West.
The mother of one of the saleswomen had a rosary with which she prayed. Quite a common sight in Bhutan. Everyone is used to think five times a day about death, and elderly people pray and turn prayer wheels to get a good reincarnation.
But the strangest thing this morning has been cashless payment with a smartphone.
All in all it has been well worth visiting this market.
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