Days Seven and Eight

The day starts slowly with a decision to walk into town to buy some desperately needed vegetables.

You can only buy vegetables on the weekend in this city, when all the sellers come into the country and congregate in the central city markets. I had heard about this congregation and was so looking forward to the experience.

The only tip I was given was to purchase from the Bhutanese sellers on the outside of the markets not the Indian sellers in the centre. The Bhutanese produce was a little less than perfect, with the Indian produce the epitome of the ultimate in fruit and vegetables. The reason why they were so good, is because they were sprayed to high heaven with pesticides.

Me, I like my vegies organic if I can get it. I can deal with the occasional bug in my apple. It’s only extra protein after all!

So I ventured to the market and had a good look around. It was just wonderful. Colour, variety,character, worn rustic rural faces and the smell of fresh produce. It was fabulous. I’m taking my camera down in a few weeks to capture what I can.

In an amazing coincidence I managed to bump into the American guy Michael who was sitting on the seat behind me on the plane. We had shared a few words on the plane, and were both excited about visiting this amazing country. Well, was he pleased to see me – well actually any westerner to be honest!

He later confessed over lunch that day that he kept looking out of the window in Thimphu looking for me, desperate that we could bump into each other and catch up. It was only after he had given up, that I called out to him in the market.

Poor Michael. He had just spent the last six days with his tour guide Sangay and a driver, driving through Bhutan. Just him and them. No other tourists. No one else to experience his with, and more importantly no one else to debrief with.

More often than not he was also the only person in the hotels they stayed in, so he was absolutely dying to talk to someone.

So Michael and I went for a quick bite for lunch and made plans to have dinner. I guess I was keen to debrief with someone as well, and to have the opportunity to do it with someone whom you had experienced the amazing plane ride with - who also had amazing anticipation of this place as I did, it was a opportunity not to be missed.

So we went for dinner. We had a few Tiger beers and had a darn good laugh. It was great for both of us. We also went for a three hour trek the following Sunday, which was also pleasant.

The trek was up a mountain that overlooks Thimphu. It takes you to a small private monastery and finishes at a larger monastery that houses monks.

At the time the trek puffed me out, and I started to feel altitude sickness again. However we trekked for about three hours, and it was worth the time to see some amazing sights. The private monestry was built in the 15 Century. It was amazing. The ladder into the place was made from two long pieces of wood that had steps etched into it. It must have been hundreds of years old. To think that over time it had countless numbers of people walking up it to worship at the monastery over the years it was amazing. You could seen where their shoes had worn away the wood. I guess 500 years will do that.

There were four clay statues in the Monestry. One of the traditional Buddha, one of the compassionate buddha, of Guru Shabdrug Rinpoche and another who’s name evades me.

We also saw a traditional Bhutanese stone bath. Perhaps this is where the current fad of outside bathrooms started. Basically it is a wooden bath located outside, that you pour water into (cold) and nearby there is a fire that you placed stones in.

To warm up the bathwater you simply add these hot stones to it. You can also add local herbs to the water to make it medicinal or even special stones to heat up and add to the water that have healing properties. They say it can cure ails or aching bones. I think it sounds great. I’m definitely going to have to give that a go.

However, as I find in my current bath in the place I live it, I don’t expect that you come out much cleaner than when you went in.

The water in this place is certainly not treated, so the colour is a murky brown. I like to think it’s full of minerals.