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.
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| View from inside the car |
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| Cliffs of both sides |
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| Lots of washed out roads and ruts |
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| 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.
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| Walking through the rice fields to the Fertility Temple |
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| Scott sending prayers with his prayer flags |
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| Barb |
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| 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!”
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| 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.
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| Scott's legs won't go any further |
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| You can see there is no way this will work |
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| 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.
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| Barb fits! |
After some instruction we test our skills paddling up river,
stopping, turning and returning to shore.
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| The guide is explaining and Scott and I are looking at each other thinking, "what the heck?" |
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| A little test drive up river |
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| OK, I've got this |
We are good to go.
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| 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.
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| Pro's by now |
The rapids seem to be similar or just a little more difficult
than the Snake River rapids near Jackson, Wyoming.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| We kayaked right passed the Dzong. Beautiful scenery. |
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| 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.
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| Lunch |
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| You have to pass these trucks on those narrow roads |
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| Temple on the hillside |
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| Roadside convenience store |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Barb and her caddy |
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| Punakha Dzong |
