Day Seven In Bhutan
Lunch in an Ura Valley farmhouse
A bit of an easier day today but interesting and fun nonetheless. Usual routine in the morning. The internet was running so nicely with only a couple people in the hotel so getting by blog post done was relatively easy. Went for breakfast and had my now usual of fried rice with an egg on it and washed down with some fruit and milk tea. At 9am we headed out.
Our day today started with the drive over to the Ura valley which was about an hour to get to the pass into the valley. The road quickly was down to a winding one lane as it climbed up the hillside to up to the Ura valley pass. I was feeling a bit sleepy as we drove and had a bit of a nap - at least as much of a nap as I could have in a car that was driving on that road. Along the way we passed a couple villages and also passed what must be the largest yak I have ever seen. It was on the side of the road and was huge. We got to the pass at 11, 730 feet and got out for our hike down into the Ura village below.
This was quite the trail as it basically headed straight down about 1,500 feet in 1.75 miles into the village below. It took us about an hour to reach the village below. It was a nice walk although it was somewhat relentlessly downhill. At the village we walked through the village to the house where we were going to have lunch. The Ura village is quite large and spread out along the hillside. One thing I have noticed in Bhutan is that the tops of mountains and hills are left as forest and pretty much no one lives there. The bottom of most of the valleys are very steep and have rushing rivers going through canyons in them and pretty much no one lives there either. So most of the life here seems to happen along the mid-slopes. All the homes, farms and villages are along gentle mid-slope areas of these large hills and mountains.
We were greeted at the farmhouse by the family living there. They have the upper floors as a guest house and live on the main floor. Tsering gave me a quick tour of the house and then we settled into the kitchen gathering area. There are four generations living in the house with the oldest being the mother in law of the matriarch of the family. The mother in law is 87 years old. Her oldest son was away. His wife who was running the show has three daughters and one of those daughter is married and has a one year old son. They were all in the kitchen working preparing lunch for us. Tsering explained that they were distant relatives and he chatted and gossiped with them as lunch was prepared. We sat on cushions at a low table which was a bit of a challenge for me as I don’t do sitting cross-legged very well. I was able to tuck my legs under the table and find a comfortable position to sit in.
As a traditional welcome to the household we were served Arak which is an alcoholic drink made from rice or buckwheat or some other local grain. It tasted sort of like Sake. It certainly warmed me up although with the cooking also going on the kitchen was cozy. Lunch was served to us and as usual it was way too much food. It was pretty similar fare to what I have been eating at the hotels. It started with a mushroom soup made from locally harvested matsuzaki mushrooms (I hope I have the name correct). The soup was delicious! The main meal consisted of the following, buckwheat noodles with a bit of cheese and chili peppers in it, sautéed spinach, a dish made with dried beef, the usual chilis with cheese, red rice, potatoes, green beans and all washed down with tea. It was quite good. My appetite was off a bit but I was able to have a respectable taste of all the dishes. After lunch Tsering gossiped a bit more before we headed out.
The drive back after a good lunch and in the early afternoon sun was spectacular. We wound our way back to Bumthang along the highway we came up in the morning. By the time we got back to town it was already past 3pm.
I had heard of a brewery in town that was doing wheat beer and had asked Tsering if we could go visit it. As we pulled into town we headed straight to the brewery. Unfortunately, it was close up. It was right next to the Swiss cheese and foodstuffs shop and is run by the same family. There is a small Swiss farm that makes authentic emmenthaler cheese form the local milk. We went into the shop and they also had the Weiss beer on tap there. It is called Red Panda Weiss beer and it was quite yummy. I thought it was a rather odd style to be producing here. We sat out on a sunny verandah and nibbled on some cheese while I enjoyed my beer. Tsering chatted with the lady who was running the place to get some history. It was started by a Swiss about 30 years ago. He was granted honorary Bhutan citizenship for the work he did to start the cheese factory and then the brewery. They also do honey and jams as well. It is all for local consumption.
After that we headed back to the hotel for the day. Tsering and I had a pot of tea and discussed the plan for the next couple days. He had to head out for something so I went back to the room and got the staff to start a fire for me. The room was soon toasty warm as I sat and read for a bit before dinner. I was able to finish book number 53 for this year which is where I think it will end for the year. It was a good year for reading as most of those are books and not audio books as was the case the last couple years. At dinner Tsering explained that he had gone to the local temple to get some holy water for his mom. The local water is famous for being health giving and so he god a bunch for his mom which we will drop off in a couple days when we pass by where she lives. Dinner was pretty standard although we were the only ones in the dining room. After dinner, I started a new book and read for a while by the fire which I was able to get going again after dinner. I had a good night’s sleep and am excited about today and it is New Year’s Eve.