Bhutan - Arrival and Attrition


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May 2nd 2008
Published: May 2nd 2008
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Bhutan: Chapter One

As I think I mentioned previously, arrival in Bhutan was delayed by almost a whole day due to a flight change. This affected those of us coming from Delhi and from Kathmandu - which proved to be 6 out of 8 of us.

As a result, day one was anything but a "rest day" as we were picked up at the airport, given a welcome cup of tea, threw our stuff in our hotel room and rushed off to go to the Tiger's Nest Monastery. The walk up to Tiger's Nest was part of our preparation for the trek ahead, and was pretty challenging - about 1000M ascent almost straight up. But the walk was so worth while. The Monastery somehow clings to the side of a steep cliff and seems to dangle out into thin air. It's absolutely beautiful - and almost new. The original burned down in 1999 and they finished the new one in 2005. As a result of being new the colours are all so vivid - and the statues and paintings inside seem to leap off the walls.

Tiger's Nest has alot of significance for Buddhists, who come from all around Bhutan, Tibet and Nepal for pilgramages to the site. It's important because Guru Rinpoche (big name for Bhutanese Buddhists) flew to this spot on the back of a tiger and spent 40 years meditating in a cave at exactly where the Monastery stands. One of the things that I picked up fairly quickly in Bhutan is that although the Buddhist's basic principles all make perfect sense, once you get into the detail it all becomes a bit insane!

The next day we started our walk. There were 8 tourists, 2 guides, 1 cook, 1 cook's assistant and 3 camp assistants. There were also about 20 horses and 4 horsemen - who did all the heavy lifting. The story of the first 5 days of the trip was really about how quickly the numbers fell.

The morning of our second day, the head guide announced that an old knee injury was bothering him too much and he would have to head down. One down.

Around lunch time on day 2, one of the tourists also advised that his knees were not holding up to the trip, and he too would go down. (Everyone was quite pleased about this because he was that one person you always get on these trips that drives everyone mad.). One of the camp assistants was sent down with him. Three down.

At the end of day three we reached base camp for Jhomolari - which is at just over 4000M. Pretty much everyone started to feel at least some affects of altitude by this time. For me, I found that I just couldn't move quickly at all, I was soooo tired and sluggish, and felt a bit out of it. But we had a rest day the next day, so it was assumed that everyone would get acclimatised in time to move on the day after.

The morning of the rest day, Anna (second youngest on the trip) was feeling pretty bad. She spent most of the rest day in her tent. As the night wore on she got progressively worse. Throwing up, coughing, terrible headache. Just terrible. The remaining guide (Sonam) was very good to her, checking up every hour and finally bringing his sleeping bag into her tent to keep her warm.

In the morning, Anna was feeling slightly better. But at this stage, the guide made a really, really bad decision. I think he was worried about losing anymore of his staff if he had to send someone down with her, so he put her on a horse, to take her up over a 4800M pass in the hope that she would get better. By taking her over the pass, not only did she end up becoming sicker still, but she found herself in a valley where the only way out would be to go back over at least one very high pass and at least 4 days walking.

Fortunately, there was a medical clinic in Lingshi (about 20 minutes from our camp) and Anna was treated with oxygen. A helicopter was called and for a cool US$23,000 the Indian Army agreed to come pick Anna up the next day. Anna was travelling with Adrian, a friend, and he insisted that he would also go down with Anna.

The next morning we said goodbye to Anna, Adrian and our guide, who led them up to the helipad about 30 minutes from the campsite. The rest of us carried on with the trek, expecting that the guide would catch up to us that night.

As it turned out the helicopter didn't come that day, so we had to continue on without our guide - which was making the camp crew very nervous. At last a day later we saw two helicopters flying toward Lingshi, and then leaving. Five down.

The guide eventually showed up that night...and now we were down to the crew who would actually complete the trek.

Sonam - the guide. Very young, somewhat inexperienced and unbelievably egocentric.

Me - well you all know what a wonderful person I am.

Megan - Canadian, at 44 now the youngest on the trip, great sense of humour, liked me because I had an even weaker bladder than she did and my tent mate for part of the trip.

Margaret Anne- Scottish, 68, a real trooper. One could learn alot from her. She always insisted on going at her own speed - but always got there in good shape each day.

Ian - Aussie from Melbourne, gay, very softly spoken, food scientist with CSIRO, really warm person and very good value.

Peter - Aussie from Sydney, banker, somewhat obsessive about being clean, great fun.

Bottom line, I got really lucky with the people on this trip. All really nice, good-natured and alot of fun to be with. The crew was pretty exceptional too. We all had our issues with the guide - the the cook and camp crew were absolutely lovely!

OK - that's enough for this installment. Am suffering from a cold here in Leh, so expect I'll still be bumming around tomorrow and can provide the next installment.




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2nd May 2008

Your new calling in life!
Hi Steph I can't wait for each instalment; you are an amazing writer! I am not sure if you deliberately set out to entertain, inform, inspire and warn your readers (particularly your more mature friends) of undertaking such an adventure, but it is working wonders. Lonely planet look out! You must seriously use your talent to publish travel guides that 'tell it as it is'. It will definitely help the older traveller. Enjoy yourself and keep well, love Val.
2nd May 2008

wow
Wow, what an epic! Sounds amazing though. Great blog site.
3rd May 2008

A real trooper
.. it has been fantastic reading all your news you are such a brave person. Steph and I were just wondering about you yesterday - yes you are being missed. Hope your flu goes quickly. love Sara X
4th May 2008

hi steph love reading your blogs. looking forward to the next installment and seeing photos on your return. feel like i am with you when i read them. keep safe and well.
4th May 2008

Looking forward to Saturday in Rome
So glad you are having a wonderful time, looking forward to seeing you. Love Dennis
8th May 2008

Hi Steph, I'm exhausted just reading your stories. Amazing how much you can fit into a day. I'm certainly wasting my day sitting at a desk! The traffic stories ring a real loud bell for me. It's a wonder there is any room for cars with all the other non-motorised items all over the road. Keep enjoying, sounds like a great trip. Mx
8th May 2008

Great to hear from you....
Hi Mike, Great to hear from you. Am now in Leh Ladakh and it's a completely different India. Can't believe that tomorrow is my last day in India! Love S xxoo

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