Our last week in Bhutan!

We have been traveling and updating our blog on our computer until we found internet, but since we were in more rural areas we have not had access until now.  So below you will find a recap of the last week.  We hope you enjoy and we will update you more once we are back in India.

A few foods we have tried during the journey:
Butter tea – Hot tea made with yak butter, drank especially in the higher regions where it is much colder.
Doma – Beetle nut and lime (chemical) placed in a grape leaf and chewed.  As it is chewed the person’s mouth turns red.  This is a tradition for many people.
Ara – Basically the Bhutanese moonshine!  It is brewed either from wheat or rice and can be served with boiled egg in the drink.
Dried cheese – These are pieces of cheese dried until they are very hard and then dipped in yak milk.  It takes a long time to chew through one piece.
Ema datse – Their national dish made out of chiles and cheese.   It is incredibly delicious, but the level of heat in the dish changes depending upon where it is made.  Katie has dove in too enthusiastically at times and has spent the rest of dinner trying to cool down her mouth and stomach.

Paro Festival or "Tsechu"

We spent a few days in Paro, Bhutan to watch the Tsechu which is Dzongkha for “festival.”  People come from all around the area to watch intricate dances that tell the stories of Buddhism and the history of Bhutan.  We dressed in the national dress, the “Gho” and “Kira” because everyone attends in their finest attire.  The festival was wonderful and we even had time to visit their museum and learn more about the history of Bhutan and about the natural history, which was really awesome.

We spent the remaining part of the day resting up for our hike the next day to the “Tiger’s Nest” which is an epic hike up to a temple on a cliff.  Of course Wednesday, the day of our hike, Katie’s stomach decided to partake in its usual bug it gets while traveling.  Nonetheless we pushed through and hiked up to the temple which was amazing.  It is literally built on the edge of a cliff, so when you stand in the different rooms you can look straight down to the bottom of the valley, it is impressive!

The hike took much of the day, so after we returned Katie just rested in order to prepare for the long drive on Thursday.  Nobody wants to travel winding mountain roads while feeling queasy.  Luckily we woke up early on Thursday and Katie felt great, so we were able to start the nearly 11 hour journey to the east side of the country.  The distance is not really far, but you can never travel much more than 40km per hour, and in reality you are spending much of the time slowing down to 20km per hour to pass a truck, wait for cows to clear the road, or drive delicately over a wash out.  The drive was beautiful! We went through 4 mountain passes and had the opportunity to see different plant life as we drove further east.

We then spent the next day traveling to nearby cities, and just taking in the day.  We finished the evening with a mountain bike up to a palace nearby and dodging cows as we traveled.  The views were beautiful and it was so quiet.  After spending several days in the city it was nice to relax in the more rural areas.

Langur

Friday we continued our journey in the center of Bhutan going on a fabulous trek down to a river and then up to a temple.  The hike started seeing the white capped Langur which is a monkey in central Bhutan, and then we finished with seeing and experiencing a rowdy group of monkeys (different type) hanging out around the temple.  At one point one of the monkeys threw a chunk of rice at us from the rooftop, which is when we found out that they will throw many things at people including rocks, ha, ha.

Saturday we made the trip even further west and stayed at a guest house in the central part of Bhutan and spent the evening having great conversation with members of the company we are visiting.  Yesterday we finished up heading back to Thimphu to enjoy our last full day in Bhutan.  The day was full as we visited a temple, had tea with wonderful friends of Amrish and Christy’s and then enjoyed dinner with our friend we met last year.