I woke up and walked down to the highway.
I could see and hear the river from the edge. We had muesli, an omelet, and apples for breakfast at the hotel. We drove to Trongsa Dzong and the National Museum.
We watched a very good movie about Bhutan history. The rest of the museum was also great - interesting exhibits put together with a lot of care and well maintained. It was good to see a lot of the names of historical figures written out that we’d heard a lot over the last few days. We drove to Bumthang. We stopped at a 3,400 m pass; it was a clear day, but the pass was surrounded by many close-by peaks, so we couldn’t see any far-off mountains. The Yathra weaving center was cool. We bought a nice woven cloth/blanket for $50.
We had lunch in Jakar at 2 p.m. or so. It was good, with the basic lunch components that we’d had before. The restaurant was closed for winter, but we were used to being the only people in a restaurant by this point, so it wasn’t weird. We hit the Dzong and two temples. The Temple of the Good Word was old and run-down but interesting.
We met a Bhutanese dude who lives in Atlanta and the upstairs ceiling was very short. His tour group took turns circumambulating with a 25-kg chain draped over them. Guru Rimpoche’s temple had just closed. The suspension bridge we walked on between the two was janky but held up.
At the farmhouse, we shot bow and arrows and threw big heavy lawn darts at targets. I shot an arrow over the target into a cow pasture but there were no casualties. We watched and helped with buckwheat pasta production (featuring a people-powered extruder) and drank strawberry wine and ara. We had a hot stone bath, which was a great experience and really warmed us up. Dinner was good and carb-heavy: lots of buckwheat and rice.
Our host was the Bhutanese Deb Campbell: super-sweet and infinitely capable. It was super fucking cold in our room. We could see our breath by the morning. There was a kitten in the house who was playful and scratchy.
I could see and hear the river from the edge. We had muesli, an omelet, and apples for breakfast at the hotel. We drove to Trongsa Dzong and the National Museum.
We watched a very good movie about Bhutan history. The rest of the museum was also great - interesting exhibits put together with a lot of care and well maintained. It was good to see a lot of the names of historical figures written out that we’d heard a lot over the last few days. We drove to Bumthang. We stopped at a 3,400 m pass; it was a clear day, but the pass was surrounded by many close-by peaks, so we couldn’t see any far-off mountains. The Yathra weaving center was cool. We bought a nice woven cloth/blanket for $50.
We had lunch in Jakar at 2 p.m. or so. It was good, with the basic lunch components that we’d had before. The restaurant was closed for winter, but we were used to being the only people in a restaurant by this point, so it wasn’t weird. We hit the Dzong and two temples. The Temple of the Good Word was old and run-down but interesting.
We met a Bhutanese dude who lives in Atlanta and the upstairs ceiling was very short. His tour group took turns circumambulating with a 25-kg chain draped over them. Guru Rimpoche’s temple had just closed. The suspension bridge we walked on between the two was janky but held up.
At the farmhouse, we shot bow and arrows and threw big heavy lawn darts at targets. I shot an arrow over the target into a cow pasture but there were no casualties. We watched and helped with buckwheat pasta production (featuring a people-powered extruder) and drank strawberry wine and ara. We had a hot stone bath, which was a great experience and really warmed us up. Dinner was good and carb-heavy: lots of buckwheat and rice.
Our host was the Bhutanese Deb Campbell: super-sweet and infinitely capable. It was super fucking cold in our room. We could see our breath by the morning. There was a kitten in the house who was playful and scratchy.
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