Day Three in Bhutan
Gangkhar Punzum - highest mountain in Bhutan
Got up early and worked on my blog post, did some reading and rearranged my luggage before getting ready and going down for breakfast. I had the same “continental” breakfast again. The wait staff were friendly and by now knew my room number and most of my order. The breakfast consisted of a bowl of porridge, eggs cooked as an omelette, some sausage which is fried hot dogs sliced in to bite-sized pieces, some fresh fruit, tea, toast and jam. After breakfast I went back to my room to finish packing since I was checking out this morning. A few minutes before 9am I went down to the lobby and brought my bag down. There was a lady that couldn’t have weighed more than 90lbs. Who tried to take my luggage down for me but I insisted on doing it myself. We packed up the vehicle and set off for the day’s drive to the Pobjihka valley.
We pulled out of Thimphu and started climbing. Our first stop was at the top of Dochu La pass about 40 minutes drive out of town. Here there were 108 chortens built to commemorate the skirmishes with Sikkim rebels that the king led. It also had an amazing view of the Northern Himalaya mountains that border with Tibet. Amongst those mountains we could clearly see, Gangkhar Punzum, the highest mountain in Bhutana nd also the highest unclimbed mountain in the world at an altitude of 7,570 meters. This mountain will never be climbed as the Bhutanese believe that would bring bad luck and have banned all mountaineering in the country. There were several attempt made before this ban and several people died, hence the ban. Back to the chortens. Since the chortens are religious sites I followed Tsering on 3 clockwise circles of them before we climbed up the small hill they were on. It was a bit icy on the stone walkway but it felt nice to walk in the high mountain air. This pass was just over 10,000 feet. After the requisite pictures we found the restrooms and then I sat outside in the sunshine and had a cup of tea. Walking back to the car Tsering made sure we walked clockwise around the chortens taking a bit of an awkward detour.
The next leg of our journey involved dropping down to the valley floor below. The road started a slow switchback route down the steep slope dropping to the valley floor at just under 4,000 feet. The descent although only about 20km took almost an hour on the twisty road. At the bottom were were in the Punakha valley. We stopped briefly to stretch our legs across from the Wangdue Phodrang Dzong (yeah I am getting used to these names too, but basically this is a big fort next to the river at the entrance to the valley). We then proceeded to climb and for the next couple hours we continued to climb back up to 11,500 feet to the pass that enters into the Pobjikha valley. We stopped for lunch along the way at a roadside restaurant. I felt a bit odd as there was an Indian buffet being served (lots of Indian tourists were passing through) but I had the standard fare I have been getting of several dishes served at my table. The Indians were perplexed and I could hear rumblings about why I was getting table service and they weren’t. After a bit of a stretch in the sunlight and a check of my e-mails on the restaurant’s WiFi we pushed on.
As we descended into the Phobjikha valley it was very picturesque and reminded me of the Merritt valley in British Columbia. A wide grassy valley floor with tall hills framing it on all sides. At one point in the road there was a chorten on the left side of the road. Of course, if you stayed on the road you would not pass it by clockwise so there was a small road build around it to the far left of it so that you could pass by it clockwise. I got a bit of a chuckle out of this. There is large monastery at the top of the valley that we passed by on our descent into the valley. We proceeded down into the valley and to the Black Necked Crane visitor center. They had some injured cranes that they keep there so we were able to see them up close. After watching a documentary about the cranes we went to the upper floor viewing area where they had some spotting scopes set up, I was able to find a couple cranes off in the valley feeding. Apparently there are 473 resident currently in the valley.
We next made our way to the the Gangtey Tent Camp where I am staying for the next two nights. We are at about 9,000 feet here and the air is a bit chilly. We went inside and enjoyed a pot of tea and a chat before I was shown to my tent. I would hardly call it a tent but it does have cloth sidewalls so I guess it qualifies. I read and hung out for a bit before dinner. The internet here was very good so I was able to do a bit of surfing as well. I went down for dinner a bit early as the air in the tent was a bit cool and the lighting not very bright. Tsering and our driver were there doing the same thing. They are staying at a home stay a couple hundred yards down the hill from the tent resort. We chatted before and during dinner. Tsering has recently taken up advanced Buddhist studies and he was telling me that his master lives high up in the mountains. He goes there for a month every year for teaching and meditation. We talked about the world and discovered we were both avid readers. He suggested some books for me about Bhutan.
Dinner was what seems to be the standard tourist fare for Westerners. It is a combination of Bhutanese dishes with a Western touch to them. It started with a soup. In this case a carrot soup. Then proceeds with 6 dishes as follows: rice, chilis with cheese (a Bhutanese dish which is very good), roast chicken, some sort of fried dish in this case sort of tempura squash, a curried vegetables dish and then a stir-fried mixed vegetables. It was all quiet food although they brought enough food for 4 people. I also had some lentils on the side as well. It was finished off with a small square of carrot cake which was a bit of white pound cake with carrots in it. I washed it down with a pot of black tea. It is nothing fancy but hearty food.
After dinner I pretty much went straight to bed after bundling up a bit. Between the altitude and jet lag I didn’t sleep very well tossing and turning and waking up a bit out of breath. I did manage to at least nap the whole night through. Up and getting ready for a day of hiking around the valley.