Day Six In Bhutan
Tsering and I at the end of our hike in front of the nunnery
Another day and another packed itinerary. Struggled in the morning with writing my blog post so you may have noticed it was posted several hours later. The hotel was quite full and so I guess the internet was being taxed a bit more than usual. As there were so many people in the hotel the breakfast was buffet style. I started into breakfast and the Tsering arrived and went into the kitchen to get us both some fried rice and chili sauce which wasn’t on the buffet. I also had some pancakes and washed it down with Masala tea. The lady working the dining room was very friendly and was rushing around helping people with the most wonderful smile on her face. Spoke briefly with a two ladies from California who were sitting across from me. They weren’t very chatty. After breakfast I packed up my day bag for the days activities.
First stop was a monastery just outside of town across the river. We were going to be doing a longer hike and so Tsering had arranged box lunches. I managed to unbox mine and fit all the food items into my small day bag. This was a hike that Tsering had not done before so he was a bit tentative on the trail. We first headed up about a hundred feet up the stairs to the monastery above us. Tsering asked directions and we headed out up the road that wound its way around the monastery property which was quite extensive. We climbed quite a ways before stopping to ask some directions. The direction was to walk to the end of the road and then climb up to another road and we would soon see the path branch off to the left. This was a bit more of a climb than I was expecting but I was rolling with it. Taking my time but also feeling the climb at 8,900 feet altitude.
We continued on the and found the path that branched off. We continued our steady climb up through the pine forest. The trail was very nice with pine needles on it and only a few steep portions. We passed by another tour group heading the other way and were able to confirm we were on the right track. We continued on for about 4 miles to a junction and a small canopy with a picnic table. This was the height of the trail and since it was noon we stopped for a while and had our lunch. We had climbed almost 2,000 feet in 4 miles. I nibbled on my lunch but wasn’t able to eat much of it. Lunch consisted of some apple juice (very sweet and very appreciated sugar hit), a couple boiled eggs, a cheese sandwich, a piece of fried chicken, a vegetarian patty sort of thing and a couple roasted potatoes. We ate and the got moving again as we didn’t want to get cold from sitting for too long.
From this point the walk was 3.5 miles of gentle downhill to the nunnery which was our destination. After about an hour we popped out of the forest and onto a farm trail that led into the local village. As we got close to the road our driver was there waiting for us. I was relieved but as I was getting ready to get into the car I decided we should walk the last half mile up to the nunnery and finish the hike. Tsering seemed happy with this idea so we set off the last little bit through the village and up the small hill to the nunnery. We did a quick tour of the nunnery and then took a picture together in front of the nunnery. It was finally just over 7.5 miles in total with 2,000 feet of climbing in 4.5 hours. I really enjoyed the hike but to be honest was worried about how I was going to feel after it.
From the nunnery we went to a place called burning lake. It is a site of a famous legend in the area. Guru Rinpoche who brought Buddhism to Bhutan in the 8th century hid treasures around the country. Locally in Bumtrang a man had a dream that Guru Rinpoche had come to him and told him where to find one of those treasures. Everyone laughed at him but the story spread. Finally the king told him to show everyone the place where the treasure was and find it. The place is a gorge in a mountain stream that has a large pool in a tight canyon portion. The story goes that he dove in and found the treasure there which was a statue. Not only that he had a butter lamp that stayed lit as he dove into the water to retrieve the statue. As soon as the statue came to the surface it transformed and flew to the local temple where it is to this day. The location of where he dove in and found the treasure was a short walk from the road and was covered in prayer flags where people have come to pilgrimage to this site.
Our next stop was back in town to find a cobbler. The cobbler shop was still not open but Tsering tried calling the phone number advertised outside. His calls didn’t go through. We walked around the town a bit before heading back to the hotel. I sat in the lobby and had a pot of tea for a while. Tsering and I exchanged photos and sent him a copy of my GPS track for the hike so that he could log it for his company. I then went back to my room and had the hotel staff light a fire for me. I enjoyed sitting by the fire reading. I finished off the remains of my lunch and sorted through the laundry I had sent our for cleaning and received back. The internet was running very well so I was able to watch a couple videos and do some general surfing before dinner. I was surprised that while my legs were tired they weren’t hurting more than they were. Right before I headed out for dinner I got one cramp in my leg and that worried me since I wasn’t looking forward to more cramps during the night as I slept.
We were the only ones in the dining hall for dinner. We got to chatting a bit with the smiley lady. She has only been working at the hotel for 3 months. Tsering and I had some other conversation as we enjoyed our dinner. I decided to just have hot water instead of more tea in hopes I might sleep better although as tired as I was I wasn’t too worried about it. After dinner, I puttered around a bit and got ready for bed. The fire was pretty cold by then so I wasn’t able to get it stoked up again. I got into bed and almost instantly went to sleep. I slept quite well, no cramps and not too much tossing and turning. Ready for another day today.