Day Nine

Today was a driving day. First stop was Trongsa to see the dzong, stopping for tea at Norling Hotel – good tea and loos! The Dzong is not very accessible, only three courtyards and no interiors. It does have lovely gardens and we showed Kinley the snapdragons! Then we drove over to the River Lodge for lunch – where we stopped on the way to Jakar. Just before we got there we spotted a troop of Rhesus Macaques playing in the trees by the roadside. There were also the lovely yellow billed, blue magpies. After lunch we drove over the pass into a smoke filled valley. There must be forest fires somewhere nearby. It is very sad.
We turned off the main road onto an unmade road to Gantey. Kinley decided to drop us off so we could walk part of the way, which was very pleasant. But we didn’t see too much in the way of wildlife, which was the intention. We met up with the car at the turning to the Goemba, and Tsering drove us along the road to the building. This is in the process of a complete renovation. We could see what a terrible state it must have been in from the untouched buildings round the edge of the courtyard – the monks’ rooms, store rooms and so on. But the main building is well on the way to being finished. Beautiful carving and painting is taking place and by next year (08) it is supposed to be finished – then they will start on the outer buildings.
From here we drove into the magical valley of Phobjikha where the black-necked cranes come to over winter from their breeding grounds in Tibet. They had already left (on March 19th), but we stayed at the rather posh hotel overlooking the valley where they come. This is the Dewachen Hotel, who didn’t have a booking for us – but that was their fault, and they had to find a room for us. Apparently their booking person had not passed notification on to the hotel, so although they didn’t have Blue Poppy’s booking; there was a room for us – and apparently Kinley, too. Tsering got to sleep in the bus of the other hotel guests!
The large twin room has a wood stove that was lit for us when we arrived. We had time to shower and change for dinner, another buffet with the usual fare, including some ema datse – the chillies in cheese sauce, which Alan avoided and I tasted a little of. The Americans and Germans seemed to enjoy it all, too. The lights go out at 9pm as the electricity is provided by a generator, so it’s early to bed. The fire was relit and hot water bottles filled. Sadly, when I was about to get into bed, I found my hotty had leaked, so we had to find someone to change the bed before the lights went out!! The lights eventually died away at 9.30 and we snuggled down to sleep!


Blue Poppy Tours and Treks