Happy 4-month-iversary to us! Had eggs, red rice, milk tea, and butter tea for breakfast at the farmhouse. Then we drove along the Female River to hike to Khamsum Yuelley Namgyal Lhakhang. Hiked across paddy fields, across suspension bridge, and up a switchbacked trail to the temple.
I knocked a guava fruit from a tree with a stick and we ate it.
There were 360-degree views from the top, hope the pictures do it justice.
There were several low hoophouse greenhouses in several paddies.
Nomads were selling jewelry on the way out.
The drive from Punakha to Phobjikha Valley was like nothing we’d ever experienced. Imagine the worst one-lane temporary path through your local gravel pit; now tether it precariously to the side of a mountain and throw in random piles of rock to every once in a while to make things interesting.
Dorji, our driver, has the mischievous smile of a ⅔-scale De Stijl-era Jack White. Choki, our guide, has a fairly charming way of casually lying to keep spirits up. If we’re going to get to the lunch place to eat at 1:30, he’ll claim that we’ll be there no later than 1. Almost there! Trongsa Dzong: Another fortress of never-changing country and everlasting dharma. Saw yaks at Chochula Pass.
Stayed at a farmhouse in the Phobjikha valley. We had a four-pack of Druk 11000 650s for dinner, plus beef jerky in a stir-fry with dried peppers, peas with potatoes, local cheese, and a pepper paste mixture. It was all very good. We sat around the woodstove in their living room for awhile and then crashed.
They had one washroom with a squat toilet and one with a western toilet: both indoors! We both slept under four comforters. I had some digestive distress at 4 a.m.; unsure of cause. Our hosts were nice and put a space heater in our room, but we’re not sure if it did anything. Central heating is not a thing in Bhutan, so the houses are as cold inside as it is outside this time of year.
Houses are gigantic since they don’t have to worry about heating them.
Traditionally, livestock lived on the first floor and people on the second floor, but that wasn’t the case in any of the houses we stayed in.
I knocked a guava fruit from a tree with a stick and we ate it.
There were 360-degree views from the top, hope the pictures do it justice.
There were several low hoophouse greenhouses in several paddies.
Nomads were selling jewelry on the way out.
The drive from Punakha to Phobjikha Valley was like nothing we’d ever experienced. Imagine the worst one-lane temporary path through your local gravel pit; now tether it precariously to the side of a mountain and throw in random piles of rock to every once in a while to make things interesting.
Dorji, our driver, has the mischievous smile of a ⅔-scale De Stijl-era Jack White. Choki, our guide, has a fairly charming way of casually lying to keep spirits up. If we’re going to get to the lunch place to eat at 1:30, he’ll claim that we’ll be there no later than 1. Almost there! Trongsa Dzong: Another fortress of never-changing country and everlasting dharma. Saw yaks at Chochula Pass.
Stayed at a farmhouse in the Phobjikha valley. We had a four-pack of Druk 11000 650s for dinner, plus beef jerky in a stir-fry with dried peppers, peas with potatoes, local cheese, and a pepper paste mixture. It was all very good. We sat around the woodstove in their living room for awhile and then crashed.
They had one washroom with a squat toilet and one with a western toilet: both indoors! We both slept under four comforters. I had some digestive distress at 4 a.m.; unsure of cause. Our hosts were nice and put a space heater in our room, but we’re not sure if it did anything. Central heating is not a thing in Bhutan, so the houses are as cold inside as it is outside this time of year.
Houses are gigantic since they don’t have to worry about heating them.
Traditionally, livestock lived on the first floor and people on the second floor, but that wasn’t the case in any of the houses we stayed in.
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