PUNAKHA,  BHUTAN

In the morning we endure another brutal 3-hour drive to Punakha.  We are beginning to question whether the rewards at the end of the drive are worth the dangerous, bumpy rides.  The roads are cut out of cliffs and there are few large vistas.  We are in cloud forests.

View from inside the car

Cliffs of both sides

Lots of washed out roads and ruts

Marijuana grows abundantly along the roads

Along the way we stop and take a hike to the Fertility Temple.  The phallus is prominent here.  Inside the temple Barb gets a blessing from the Monk who not only gives her water in her palms but also touches her head with two phallus objects.  One is made of bamboo and the other is made with ivory and both are giant human size. 

Walking through the rice fields to the Fertility Temple

Scott spins the prayer wheels again

Walking into the temple

Barb spins the big wheel of Fortune!

A bit unusual for US standards, but very typical around here!  You can buy key chains, candles, carvings to put over your front door.

We make offerings and offer the usual gestures and prayers and reflected on the blessings of our 4 loving children, their wonderful spouses, and our adorable grandchildren.  We are truly blessed.

Scott donates for blessings

Walking through the rice fields

The old fashioned way to harvest rice

She beats it against a piece of wood

Sifting

Sweeping into piles

We also passed a girl doing the laundry

The Punakha Amankora lodge was once a palace for the royalty of Bhutan and was built in about the 16^th century. 

As we arrive at the parking area, a gift of prayer flags is given to us by the lodge.  You have to cross the suspension bridge to get to the lodge

Scott sending prayers with his prayer flags

The white building is the old palace, and the other buildings are the rooms built by Amankora

Nice setting and grounds

Our Bedroom

Bathroom

Getting settled

After walking across the bridge you are picked up in these carts to take you up the hill to the lodge

Punakha is famous for its Dzong (fortress).  It is massive and was finished in about 1637.  It was the headquarters for the royalty and the Buddhist authority until roads were built that connected Bhutan to India intersecting in Timphu in the 1960s.  

The Punakha Dzong is very impressive next to the river

Barb

Barb and Scott

Beautiful paintings just outside the entrance

The wheel of life

Inside the courtyard area

The courtyard

Candles burn for offerings

Scott

The Monastery

Entrance

These steps were not OSHA approved

A beautiful spot

Inside the temple there are 3 golden statutes that must be 40 feet tall all covered in gold.  There are monks chanting and giving blessings and there are policeman at the doors.  There are very few visitors.  There is an impressive painted story of the Buddha recounting his journey from prince in Nepal to enlightenment to his teaching at the deer park in Varanasi, India with all details in between.  It takes our guide 15 minutes to point out the painted characters and tell the story of the enlightenment.  (unfortunately no cameras are allowed inside the temple)

Monks coming across the bridge

A novice monk

The next morning Barb and I hire a guide and go river kayaking.  We made clear to the guide that we have never been in river kayaks but that we have sea kayaked in Alaska and own sea kayaks in Mexico.  He said there would be no problem but that we will most likely capsize a few times in the rapids.  We are just crazy enough to say, “Let’s do it!”

Barb ready to give river kayaking a try

The first kayak they bring for me is marked 72. After 10 minutes of taking out seats and moving pads they decide that I cannot fit into a 72.  The guide makes a call and a new kayak arrives in 10 minutes.  This one is marked 80.

Scott’s legs won’t go any further

You can see there is no way this will work

OK, maybe if I fold myself in half, this will work

After removing the knee pads and extending the seating I fit into the kayak with no room to spare on any side, front or back.  I give them the thumbs up and then they fit Barb into her kayak.

Barb fits!

 After some instruction we test our skills paddling up river, stopping, turning and returning to shore.  

The guide is explaining and Scott and I are looking at each other thinking, “what the heck?”

A little test drive up river

OK, I’ve got this

We are good to go.

We are off

We paddle up river and into the current and survive the first rapids.  River kayaks are more maneuverable than sea kayaks.  By leaning forward and into the rapids we learned how to keep our kayaks pointed in the right direction.  We learn that it is similar to skiing in that to be safe in tense situations you have to throw your weight down the fall line, which might be scary, but helps to stabilize and control your motion.

Pro’s by now

The rapids seem to be similar or just a little more difficult than the Snake River rapids near Jackson, Wyoming. 

These rapids aren’t too bad

Our guide tells us that there is one rapid that we will port around since there is a nasty whirlpool that can take you to the bottom of the river.  We told him we were all in favor of taking our kayaks out of the water and porting around the danger.  But by the time we approached the danger he was confident in our ability to position our kayaks to enter the rapid in order to miss the whirlpool so we ran the rapid and were fine. 

No problem

The guide knew where to enter each rapid to avoid trauma.  It was our job to position our kayaks so follow his lead.  Without this local knowledge and a competent guide we would have never considered kayaking down a strange river in Bhutan.

The rapids are all that we can handle and it is fun to learn a new sport.

We kayaked right passed the Dzong.  Beautiful scenery.

I guess at the end, Barb got a little too confident, as that is her flipped upside down.  That happened in the flat water at the end of the ride!  Oh well, now she at least knows that she can pull the spray skirt and get out of the kayak.  It was cold enough water to take your breath away though.

Following lunch at the Aman lodge we begin our 4 hour brutal drive back to Paro.  Now we are really questioning the sanity of  travel in Bhutan.  We pass the time and calm our nerves by listening first to the entire collection of Bhutan music owned by our guide and driver and then Barb makes a hit by playing some of her 8000 songs stored on her computer through the auxiliary port in the car.  It turns out our driver plays guitar and loves hard rock.  Barb makes a copy of some of the music she has stored on her computer by downloading the discs that she has bought.  Our driver is very happy for the gift.

Lunch

You have to pass these trucks on those narrow roads

Temple on the hillside

Roadside convenience store

An old fortress that was burned and no longer in use

On the way to Paro we stop and play golf at the only golf course in Bhutan.  We wanted holes in one but did not get them.  We had local caddies and played 5 holes until it got too dark.  Their course only has 9 holes.  It was fun to stop and stretch our legs.

Because you can never fit too many things into one day, we make our driver stop in Thimphu to play golf.

The golf course had a nice view of the Timphu Dzong and Parliament Building.

Barb and her caddy

Punakha Dzong