Monday 7th September 2009
After two very comfortable nights in the Amankora Thimphu, on Monday it was time to move on, to the Amankora Gangtey. A couple from Tokyo who had been staying were making the same trip but with their own car, driver and guide. Before leaving, the three of us were invited to take part in a simple ritual outside adjacent to three prayer wheels. A young monk intoned the prayer for leaving before tying a coloured thread around each of our necks. This thread is the 'Sungkay' which wards off evil, protects against illness and avoids misfortune. It should be kept in place for at least three days. Finally, there was the, by now, familiar ritual of the holy water. The monk poured a little water into our cupped palm. This is sipped and the balance spread across the top of the head.
Before leaving Thimphu, we drove to the top of a nearby hill surmounted by a transmission tower called 'Radio Hill', noted as a vantage point. The gate to Sangaygang Transmission Tower was closed, but a number of dogs were sitting, expectantly watching the gate. It was clear that, at some point, the watchman would feed them but they were still patiently waiting when we left. A footpath to the left of the gate lead to the summit of the hill which is a favourite picnic spot for locals. The whole area was covered with prayer flags, fluttering in the gentle breeze.
We returned to the town one last time, parking opposite the Post Office. Bhutan has only had a national postal service since the 1950s. The country has built up a useful business in imaginative stamp designs and frequent collectors' editions are issued. I examined the range on offer and was amazed at the various events and personalities Bhutan has chosen to honour with its issues. My pictures of Thimphu.
We headed out of town, past some of the Indian migrant worker's homes at the start of a fairly long road trip to Gangtey. We hadn’t gone far before we came to a traffic queue. Apparently, when roadworks are to be done, it’s commonplace for roads to be closed for half an hour or an hour without warning. Ahead, we could see a ’Komatsu’ tracked excavator scraping at the hillside with its bucket while perched at a very unsafe-looking angle. Every so often, sandy soil would roll down the slope to gather on the road ahead of us. After perhaps ten minutes, the excavator reversed down to the road level and used its bucket to pick up most of the spoil from the road and pile it clear of the roadway. Quite a queue had built up behind us by the time we moved off – an even longer queue was waiting to come through in the opposite direction.
This is apple-growing country and the harvest was in full swing. Every so often, we passed large stacks of wooden boxes which were being filled with apples for collection by lorry. We stopped to make a hike up a track to a famous temple. We passed a rather derlict chorten and then a number of simple houses with the owners tilling their vegetable plots, climbing all the time. Clusters of prayer flags were sending their message to the skies. At one point, an unconcerned cow blocked the narrow path and had to be shooed ahead until there was space to pass. We met a local woman who, she told Tashi, spends a lot of time in a nunnery. She insisted on wearing her rosary and fastening the button of her jacket before being photographed. She also asked if it was possible to have a copy of the photograph – photographs are not commonplace in much of Bhutan.
We arrived at the temple, which had a large, well-maintained chorten outside. Two large prayer wheels flanked the locked main door to the temple. A courtyard at the left of the main building had a teaching room where a number of young monks were practising the making of complex ritual cakes from a thick pastry mixture. The caretaker let us into the temple through a side door. After we’d examined the temple, the youngsters had broken off from their labours and were playing with three dogs. To the right of the main building there was a wider track, suitable for vehicles, and we descended by this track, passing a stream on which three water prayer wheels had been built. More farmers were working in their small fields.
We rejoined Karma and our 4 x 4 and continued along the twisting road, climbing steadily before making a halt to inspect the 108 chortens at Dochula. The hillside behind the chortens, festooned with prayer flags, is a popular picnic site. A little further on, we stopped at Dochula Resort. We’d brought a picnic lunch but it was raining intermittently, so we used the Observation Lounge at the Resort which looks out towards the Himalayas. The view was impressive enough but low cloud obscured the high mountains which can be seen in good weather. I met the owner of the resort, Ugyen Dorji, who is a master embroiderer and painter.
Leaving Docula, the road then descended via a long series of zig-zags which seemed to go on forever. We passed the turn for Punakha and carried on along the main road which runs close to the river until reaching the important town of Wangdi Phodrang, with its imposing Dzong. Here we paused for a brief immigration check before taking the road east. This road started to climb again with a series of hair-raising hairpin bends. These roads are a real test of the vehicles using them and we passed a large number of heavy lorries of various makes grinding painfully upwards and often belching smoke.
At last, we turned right off the main road and, after a few kilometres, came to Gangtey. Here, the road was completely blocked by a small tractor and trailer off-loading sacks of potatoes and an ‘Eicher’ lorry, sheeted-up, presumably already loaded with potatoes. After a short while, the driver of the lorry started it up and the whole area disappeared in clouds of smoke from the exhaust. Once he’d moved a few yards, we were able to finish our journey to the Amankora Gangtey Lodge. The usual warm welcome awaited and, since the rooms at different lodges intentionally have similar facilities and layouts, I soon felt at home again. The setting is quite different from Thimphu – the lodge looks up a long, flat valley with the Gangtey Goemba (Monastery) in a commanding position on its hill on one side of the valley.
