Our journey East begins

---

24/09/06 Punakha

Leaving Thimphu after breakfast we headed East over the Dochu La Pass climbing to 3000 and a few meters and finally back down to 1300m into the almost tropical valley. With such varying altitudes, Bhutan has an abundance of wildlife, flora and fauna and is a paradise for ‘twitchers’. The vegetation had changed form blue pines to chir pines and plentiful fruit trees and lush green stepped rice fields. We stopped to try and feed some wild monkeys but they ran from our apples thinking that we were throwing stones at them. (OK - this is supposition - I don’t actually know what the monkeys were thinking). They peered at us from the roadside but then ran as soon as we approached.

It was a Sunday, and also a festival day - Bless-ed (pronounce as 2 syllables) Rainy Day. We listened to the Radio Request show with people from all over the country phoning in for their favourite hits and wishing each other “Happy Bless-ed Rainy Day. They all discussed at what time of the morning they had bathed, as people gather some holy rain water and bath in it at 2 or 3 in the morning. It is supposed to be the end of the rainy season, so we were hoping for some sunny days with blue skies!

Due to the festival, we passed many archery tournaments and games of ‘Kuru’ similar to archery but played with giant darts. Both target were equally small, and both games involve both drinking between ends and celebratory dances and chanting when targets are hit. The archery tournaments that we witnessed were with traditional wooden bows and arrows, and at each end, targets were decorated with red, white, blue and green flags.

Punakha Dzong stands majestically on an island formed by two rivers within the valley. It’s prayer hall features huge gold statues and ornately hand painted walls, detailing the story of Buddha’s life. One of Jen’s favourite wall paintings that we saw throughout Bhutan was of the 4 friends; an elephant, monkey, hare and peacock, that are depicted standing on each other’s backs (you can guess the order) beside a fruit tree. The story is a type of Buddhist fable, whereby the animals work together in a spirit of cooperation for their mutual benefit. They work together to grow and then harvest the fruit. The peacock is always shown at the top, picking the fruit of the tree.

Let’s hope that the peacock passes the fruit down.

- Jen was concerned that it wouldn’t share!

We started a hike between the rice fields toward the chorten temple of Khamsum Yuley,a famous fertility temple where women can spend the night to become pregnant, but the trail was so slippery with mud and it was starting to get dark, that we had to detour off to a small village and then head back. All the villagers seemed to come to their windows to see what the ‘mad’ foreigners were up to. I think that we provided the evening’s entertainment. The sight of our guide, Anan, walking along in front of us with his smart shoes getting caked in mud and his Gho hitched up round his waist had us in stitches. It was his western style boxer shorts covered in champagne bottles with cartoon bubbles of the word ‘POP’ that really had us close to tears, and solved the mystery of whether Bhutanese men wear their ‘skirts’ like true Scots - they don’t!

---

Photos

Archer prepares to fire
Dressed in traditional gho and using traditional wooden bow and arrows

Tiny Archery Target
On festival days, the archery targets are decorated with coloured flags

Punakha Dzong
Stands proudly on the island where two rivers meet

The 4 Friends
"Let's hope that the peacock shares!"

2 Young monks
...crossing the cantilever bridge to Punakha Dzong