Do you think they will have rice here?

Day 12: Punakha

This should be another shorter entry unless you want a blow by blow account of our 3 plus hour drive from Thimphu to Punakha, which involved lots of twists and turns over mountainous roads. While Kasha navigated it well, Steph and Lallande were in the back and bounced around like pinballs. We were essentially driving from the new capital to the old, through the Royal Botanical Park and the Dochu-la Pass. The views were amazing. Dawa told us that if the weather was clear, we would be able to see up to 7 Himalayan Peaks. Luckily, when we arrived, the clouds had parted and we got amazing views. We were at 10,130 feet (glad we weren't hiking here!) or 3,088 meters. We were able to see all the peaks but the ones to highlight are Zongaphugang (7,060 meters) which is a table mountain and Gagkar Peunsum, which is the highest peak in Bhutan at 7,497 meters. And yes, I has to look up both those names. There are also 108 stupas in the lookout area. The oldest wife of 4th King had them placed there.

Although it was chilly at 10,000 feet, the weather became warmer as we headed down the other side towards the Punakha valley. We made our next stop to see the Chimi Lhakhang (temple). To get there, we had a nice 20 minutes or so walk through the small village and rice paddies. The temple was built in 1499 to honor a yogi named Drupka Kuenley, or more popularly known as The Divine Madmen. This guy came from Tibet and was kind of nuts. According to Dawa, the madman liked his alcohol and his women. He told stories using music and sexual humor...and so there are all kinds of bold phallus symbols all over. Yes, penises. People who are infertile in Bhutan (and probably other places as well) make pilgrimages here as they believe that they will be blessed with fertility. In the monastery inside, a monk blessed us with holy water. And then with what they say is the wooden and bone phallus of the divine madmen. Alrighty then. When in Bhutan, do as the Bhutanese do.

After lunch - which Lallande felt was our best meal here due to the range of flavors...particularly the broccoli made with ginger and butter -  we headed to Punakha to visit the Dzong there. As I mentioned earlier, Dzongs were originally used as fortresses. Now they are more for government offices and also have monasteries in them. Tibet used to invade Bhutan all the time so they built Dzongs in strategic places like by rivers or on top of hills. The Punakha Dzong is the second oldest in the country. It is also known as the palace of good happiness and said to be the most beautiful Dzong in the country. The first king of the united Bhutan was crowned here in 1907. It is surrounded by jacaranda trees (and Lallande grew up on Jacaranda street FYI). Before we went in Dawa had to put on what looked like a sash. Everyone in Bhutan must wear one when entering a government building or a building with the flag flying from it (like the palace). There are different colors depending on who you are and what stature you have. Like one color for members of parliament another for the king. Most men are like Dawa and wear cream.

He took us through the Dzong and told us numerous stories. He is a good story teller but they get a little detailed so I can't recall everything. Mostly he talked us through their circle of life, which was a painting outside the monastery part of the Dzong. I couldn't even try to summarize it so I won't. I should also mention that the people believe there is a famous relic/icon here which is why Tibet kept trying to fight them, to get this relic back. There are images of it all over and governors from 3 regions have to come and pay an idol tax here each year.

After a short walk around Punakha (no, we didn't stick out as tourists), we checked into our hotel. Poor Dawa is really fighting a cold/sinus infection so we took him up on his suggestion to eat dinner at the hotel. It is included after all. At dinner, we again confirmed the fact that we are glad that we aren't part of a tour group (there is one here and the discussion looked painful). We had a good bottle of wine that did not have a 200% markup (maybe that was a Thimphu thing?). And of course, we had rice. It has now become a joke when we enter a meal. Actually last night, Dawa was going to take us to a pizza place. He said they made food spicy pizza. As much as we are enjoying the food here, that sounded like a nice change. Unfortunately the place was closed due to dry Tuesday.

Things we learned (not much other than above):
- There are 46 kind of rhododendrons here. 26 are native to Bhutan
- Farmers along the Dochu-la pass grow and sell apples and vegetables. They have little stands along the road.
- All the signs here are in English as well as in the native language. And everyone seems to speak English. Dawa told us that they have a class in school for their native language but that everything else is taught in English. Which means everyone here is bilingual, particularly the younger people. It goes back to the Indian influence on the country  and the Indians had the British influence of course. I wish the US were more strict about us learning a second language. Of course, taking Latin for four years did me no good.