Nepal and Bhutan
Punakha to Thimphu
Day Seven – 15 October 2017
Weather: Sunny, cloudy and still warm
We were off at eight in the morning, heading west towards Thimphu. As we drove, someone asked about the meat that we were served at the meals. Apparently, Bhutan doesn’t permit the killing of any animal for consumption but they do import from Bangladesh and India.
Another interesting thing is that smoking is prohibited and I can honestly say I didn’t see a single person with a cigarette in their hand.
They have a fine in place if you’re caught smoking and importing cigarettes was prohibited, but they have relaxed the rules a little. Still, if one wants to smoke, they only do it at home.
We made another stop at the Dochula Pass and this time we visited the temple above the memorial stupas.
We headed out after a short visit and it was a short drive into Thimphu. As we entered the city, we passed the Simtokha Dzong.
This dzong is on the back of the 1 Ngultrum bank note.
Our first stop was a two level marketplace. They sold fruits and vegetables in this building.
Chilis were everywhere.
And it had a separate building dedicated to grains.
We got some free time to check out the souvenir section and then we headed to lunch at the Thijha Cafe.
Nitin had pre-ordered a selection of pizzas!
They were freakin’ delicious!
We had ice cream for dessert and then headed out to the bus. As we waited next to the bus, we saw a man give a bottle of Coke to a kid and I took a series of photos of the kid enjoying the drink.
I think I could caption every single photo as his expression kept changing. He even toasted us.
The rest of the photos are in the Thimphu album on my flickr page.
Our next stop was to an archery range where some of the locals were enjoying the weekend practising the craft.
The target was more than a hundred metres away, so it took exceptional skill to hit the target with the basic bow. When they do hit the target, they do a dance.
A Bhutanese Happy Dance!
We stayed to watch for about a half hour and then Kinley said we were going to visit the Takin – the national animal of Bhutan. He said it was half-cow half-goat.
Now, if I were in Greece, I’d be expecting to see the statue of a cow-goat god called the Takin.
In Bhutan, the creature exists.
There are four varieties of Takin in Bhutan. Their habitat ranges into China and they live at altitude between one thousand and four thousand five hundred metres.
The male and female both have the horns and they live twelve to fifteen years.
On the way to our hotel, we made a quick stop at the Thangtong Dewachen Nunnery.
The nunnery was built in 1976 and houses about sixty nuns.
The young nuns have their hair shaved like the men, so it’s actually hard to tell that they’re female.
And they like cats.
When we were done, we headed back into Thimphu, passing by Tashichho Dzong, the same dzong we had visited a few days earlier.
Our hotel for the night was the Namgay Heritage Hotel which was quite nice.
For dinner, we went to a nice Indian restaurant.
And I was treated to some Bhutanese Scotch Whisky.
Yeah. I slept well that night.
Go to Day Eight
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