Sightseeing - Wangdue #2

It was so lovely to have a sleep in Saturday morning before enjoying a big breakfast at the hotel. We caught a taxi to the small village of Lobesa near where we were staying to stock up on food for a picnic. I went to an Indian sweet shop and bought a box of sweets and some fruit juice and went over to the market to get bananas. Heather bought cucumbers, cheese, crunchy fried ‘bread’ and Senge bought tomatoes and apples. We hopped back in our taxi and headed down the hill in the direction of Punakha but turned off towards Chimi Lhakhang.


The road through the village of Sopsokha was rocky and bumpy, but the village itself was picturesque with green rice fields surrounding the cluster of homes. Chimi Lhakhang is up on the hill and we walked up the path in the sunshine and could see the type of views in all directions that you dream of when you come to Bhutan. At the top of all the hills in every direction were monasteries, topped with golden rooves, seemingly impossible to reach.

Chimi Lhakhang is at the top of this small hill.

Walking up to the monastery under the shady trees.

View down the river to Wangdue.

 



Jacarandas, prayer-flags and rural scenery - I love this photo.

Chimi Lhakhang was built around 1499 and is famous in Bhutan for being the place to come for couples who are having trouble conceiving a child. In the event that a child is born after these prayers, they are often given the name Chimi or Kinley (Chimi after the name of the monastery, and Kinley after Drukpa Kinley, the Divine Madman of Bhutan who built a chorten here - both names suitable for girls or boys). We enjoyed the atmosphere but feel blessed with our two boys and didn’t pray for more!

Afterwards we found a lovely spot outside with views of the temple and the gardens with Jacaranda trees in bloom. It was another precious opportunity to hang out with our friends.

Picnic time!

Walking back through Sopsokha.

Meanwhile we were in contact with more of the teachers who live in the nearby area and one by one they let us know they would be able to either meet us in the afternoon at Punakha Dzong, or back in Bajo town for dinner. We started walking back to the main road and the clouds were getting heavier and heavier and at the moment that large drops of rain began to fall a large taxi appeared, dropped off some passengers and agreed to take us to Punakha – good timing!

Although we had visited Punakha Dzong in February when we travelled east, I wanted to see it again as the Jacaranda trees are in bloom, and in many images of Punakha Dzong in tourist brochures you can see how beautiful it is at this time of year. At home in Queensland we love our lilac Jacarandas, and it was a very familiar sight to see them, but unusual that it is May.

 

Punakha Dzong

You cross the river over a covered bridge to enter Punakha Dzong.

Xavier, Bob, Valerie, Andrea and at the front me, Heather and Senge-la.

 

One by one we gathered on the bridge and talked and chatted and caught up on 3 months of settling into Bhutan. Another Andrea, who is in her fourth year living in a village high above the Dzong, about a 40 minute walk away, took us for a walk to the longest suspension bridge in Bhutan which she walks over when she comes to town. It was impressively long and in the unstable weather it was swinging from side to side. Looking through the metal slats to the river below was a little unsettling, but the views up and down the river were beautiful.

View across the suspension bridge.

View from the bridge upriver.

 

Some of us returned to look inside the Dzong again and then we took a taxi into Bajo, stopping for tea at Dragon’s Nest, where we all stayed in February.

Dinner was again at SNS Hotel, the Indian Restaurant we had lunch at on Thursday. We had enjoyed such a delicious lunch we were really happy to return. An enormous feast was ordered – it felt like we were making up for months of eating fairly simple meals. Uttapam, dosas, sambar and coconut chutney, pappadams, fried peanuts, and a variety of curries with rice and garlic naan. All washed down with some icy cold beer! Our spirits were certainly lifted after such a lovely meal, a chance to connect with at least half of our group (the friends from the far east and some further west couldn’t make it), and the promise of all meeting again in six weeks for our summer retreat. We are a diverse group of individuals who had to come all the way around the world to meet in this way, but united by the unique experience of living in Bhutan, I think we’ll always share a special bond and meeting these people is a real highlight of the Bhutan experience for me.

 

Madness at the Book Fair - Wangdue #1

The Bhutanese ‘Bush Telegraph’ had been in overdrive in the past couple of weeks with rumours of the upcoming Book Fair in Wangdue. Outside of Thimphu there are no book shops (or certainly none in the area where we live) and so schools rely on this annual event to stock their school libraries. Since 2008 the government has provided a budget to each school based on the number of enrolled students, and consequently most Bhutanese schools have adequate libraries that in many cases would be the only library or place to find books in the whole community. As the primary school librarian it made sense that I be offered the chance to attend, and aside from that it was a wonderful opportunity for us as a family to have a get-away and see a bit more of Bhutan, and catch up with our BCF colleagues, many of whom had also convinced their principals to send them to the Fair.

 

We stopped on the way for a snack at a roadside stall - coffee, popcorn, boiled eggs and momos.

These yellow snacks were a perfect play telephone for Remy (and doesn't he look like cousin Lachie in this pic!)

 We always love seeing these water-propelled prayer-wheels.

 

When we arrived in Wangdue late Thursday afternoon it was pouring with rain and in a short time the roads had turned into rushing brown rivers. Our bus took us straight to the Book Fair where our friend Heather had already arrived from Chukha where she lives. I ran out into the rain and slush to find her and also briefly met up with Matt, another Australian teacher posted near to Thimphu. The Book Fair, which was set up in tents on a school sports field was being inundated with rain, boxes were piled high everywhere and people were scurrying about, trying not to get soaked.

We were taken to Bajo town, the modern new town of Wangdue and saw another long lost BCF friend there, Valerie who was stopping through on her way to Thimphu. As we chatted and reconnected after months of living in isolation, a teacher from Chumey saw us and came to offer us a lift to our hotel which was about 20km away. There was Bob, Heather and I and Xavier and Remy and our luggage including a stroller and a small hatchback already loaded to the roof with luggage! It seemed impossible, but we squashed in and were kindly taken to our hotel, which ended up taking a long time due to a landslide caused by the rain.

We were lucky to visit when Jacarandas are in bloom - this is a street in Wangdue.

 

We stayed at YT Hotel as it had great reviews on Trip Advisor and I read that they had a fruit orchard including avocado trees. Anyone who knows Xavier knows he is a terribly fussy eater, but the one thing he loves and will eat til the cows come home is avocadoes. We haven’t had one since we left Australia, and unfortunately it is not the right season, but I still wanted to see that avocadoes are grown here and perhaps later in the year we will be able to have them again.

The YT Hotel had beautiful displays of plants in pots - more inspiration for the garden I want to create back in Australia.

 

 

The hotel is a lovely respite from the modern, dusty, dirty town of Bajo, which could have been anywhere in India except for the Bhutanese facades of building blocks. A shopkeeper even spoke in Hindi when I asked the price of the grapes I bought and from somewhere deep in my brain I understood his reply. We also had a really delicious lunch of South Indian food – I had a masala dosa and Bob an uttapam with sambar and coconut chutney and real Indian masala tea. I realised that where we are in Bumthang, whenever we have an opportunity to eat outside our home, the options are limited to Bhutanese food, and I have really been enjoying it, but how nice to have different tastes and flavours!

But I digress, I need to tell you about the Book Fair itself. We were blessed with a sunny day Friday for our shopping day. The feeling of getting up and putting on sandals for the first time in months was really lovely and the feeling of warmth and heat as the day went on was quite startling.

Heading into the Book Fair I had a good sense of what I wanted to buy for the school. Along with the other English teachers, we have made a plan to start a Friday reading period and I offered to provide a set of suitable ‘learn to read’ books for each class. I also offered to perform Running Record reading assessments for all students! Well, in reality that may take me all year, but I will try to go class to class with my bag of PM readers and get a picture of reading abilities at each level and then provide books that are appropriate. At the moment the school library is very well stocked – we have a real bulk of books there, but to my mind, we were lacking books that children will be able to actually read – for the majority of students to about year three, simple engaging ‘learn to read’ books are what is needed, especially as English in most cases is a third or fourth language. Usually students choose books with nice pictures and flip the pages without reading! Also, I wanted to buy books written and published in native English speaking countries by favourite authors. The majority of books in our library are very cheap publications from India – the grammar and spelling and layout is poor and the content is invariably ‘moral stories’, ‘folk tales’ and ‘fairy tales’. I do think it is lovely that the students really resonate with these type of stories here, but I am hoping to turn them on to a new world of reading with my sets of Geronimo Stilton, Goosebumps and Dr Seuss.

I started the day by spending about an hour doing reconnaissance of all the stalls to see what was available. I was pleasantly surprised to find that everything I was looking for was there, hidden in among the masses of cheap books that the library is already filled with. Our school budget was low – about $700 total for the whole school, of which I could spend half for the lower primary school. I was so fortunate to have an extra stash of cash in my money belt, donated by kind friends at home who didn’t hesitate in seeing the benefit of donating money for this cause. To say it made all the difference is an understatement – my budget was doubled – and I was able to look beyond the cheap and nasty to the quality books I think will really inspire the kids to want to read.

Boxes labelled for schools all over Bhutan were in scattered piles - will they find their way home??

Not a cash-register or computer in sight - all bills were prepared by hand.

Stalls were set up in big tents - to shelter from rain and sun.

 Bob found some books for Remy's birthday.

 

 

Xavier wouldn't smile for the camera, but he was more than happy to sit and read books all morning.

I also found some lovely Big Books which will go perfectly in the library with the easel I have asked to have made – and I can see myself being able to offer ‘modelled reading’ lessons to the students – discussing behaviours of a good reader, decoding strategies, attending to punctuation and fluency. These books open up new possibilities with my teaching and that is exciting. One type of book that was really sadly lacking at the Book Fair was Bhutanese children’s stories. While we were in Thimphu we did quite a bit of book shopping and bought at least twenty local children’s stories in English. Our boys have really enjoyed them, and I wanted to buy multiple copies for the school library. It makes sense that the children will enjoy reading stories about people like themselves, in local settings and local storylines. I found only five titles of which I bought multiple copies, but that was a disappointment.

It took most of the day to finally complete all purchases and then carry the items back to the bus. Receipts had to be tallied and we scraped in right on budget, so that was good. In all honesty I would love to have been given the opportunity to also buy books for the upper school too as I would like to have again purchased the type of books that perhaps only a native English speaker with a lifelong love for books might buy – favourite stories and authors that are bound to ignite the teenage students’ interest.

I found out that the other passengers on our bus from Bumthang – teachers and principals from a variety of schools – had completed their shopping and were ready to head home today. I felt really disappointed as with all the hard work done I was ready to have a day of RnR in Wangdue before heading home on Sunday as had been planned. We had arranged with our teaching friends who live within a two hour radius to meet us Saturday and it was an opportunity too good to miss, particularly as we had travelled eight hours to be here!

I was musing over our options when a man called out – ‘Are you from Chumey?’ – he was the principal from Jakar High School and straight away informed me that he would be driving back through Chumey on Sunday in his car and had seats free to take our family home! What a God-send! Travelling with the boys on public transport could be hard work – asking to stop for the toilet and no breaks to stretch legs and fresh air – whereas travelling in a private vehicle means we can stop if we need to, and hopefully the journey will also be a lot quicker.

And just when I was already feeling elated, my phone rang from our favourite monk – Thubten Senge-la – the English BCF teacher who is an ordained Buddhist Monk. He was finished work for Friday and had asked for a day off work Saturday so he could come and meet us for the evening and Saturday. We arranged to meet at a rumoured pizza restaurant – things were really looking up!

Heather and I walked back to Bajo and met up with Bob who had had a long day entertaining the boys. It was time for an ice-cream and a sit down on the curb, to rest our legs and get a bit of a sugar hit after a long, hot exhausting day. We then headed up to the pizza shop and settled in with a well earned beer, and in no time a mysterious knock on the window was all the boys needed to hear to run out and embrace Senge-la who they adore for his loving cuddles, silly games, dancing and singing.

 

Senge-la, Xavier, Bob, Remy and Heather as the pizza arrived.

 

The pizza, at a cafe called Coffee Affairs, was the best that we’ve had in Bhutan – mushroom and olive – and we ordered French fries as well and it’s a cliché but it didn’t feel like months since we’d all sat around together. How lovely to speak in rapid-fire English, empathising with each other’s stories of life in different but similar villages and schools. We came back to our hotel and had fun dancing and singing – Senge-la providing some varied music from his iphone: classical ballet, The Cure and everything in between – it was a late night for all but exactly what we needed, friendship, joy, fun, music, singing and dancing. What a great way to recharge!

Xavier having ballet dancing lessons from Senge-la - a former classical ballet dancer! Unfortunately I don't have a photo of when Bob joined in and learned the moves for 'Tomorrow', from Annie.

 

It will take a few days for the books to be catalogued at the school, but will post photos of them when I can.

The Journey East

I'm sitting on the front step of my hotel room in Jakar to write some memories of the past couple of days travel to our new home in Bumthang (boom-tung). I'm looking over a flat broad valley, the river dividing plots of farming land where cows graze peacefully. Simple farmhouses made from grey stone and decorated in ornate Bhutanese fashion are spaced out along the riverside. High hills covered with blue pine circle us in all directions. It's chilly, but not too cold and so quiet. The only sound is the cawing of ravens, the Bhutanese National bird that fly in high loops overhead. I'm finding that Bhutanese are quiet people, they speak with each other in hushed tones, us Australians and particularly the boys, seem loud and brash in comparison.

So, on Tuesday the big group of us BCF teachers piled into two school buses and a ute to start the journey east. I found it hard to fathom how all our belongings would fit on top of the transport, but Karma who is a very able organiser coordinated the arrangement of all the things we'd bought inside and on the roof of the buses, and it seemed in no time at all we were on the road. The teachers who have placements near the capital or south of Thimphu came along for the ride as school doesn't start til the 13th (for teachers, students begin later) and the possibility of one more night together and seeing Punakha appealed to all.



Buses packed for the journey.

We travelled for only about 3 hours, the highlight being reaching the Dochu-la Pass at approximately 3100m. As we arrived at the top, our eyes literally widened and we murmured to each other about how awesome the views were. There's something about the sight of a ridge of Himalayan mountains that is so enchanting. We had plenty of time to climb up the nearby hills to take photos of the mountains, prayer flags and the 108 chortens that adorn the pass built by the eldest Queen Mother Her Majesty Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuk.  We were fortunate to have clear blue skies and a perfect view of the mountain range.

Prayer flags at the Dochu-La.

After the pass we travelled on to Wangdue (Wangdi) and settled into our hotel, Dragon 's Nest, and enjoyed another legendary buffet lunch - the cold weather has fueled my appetite for these buffet meals served three times a day throughout orientation - a tasty mix of Indian and Bhutanese cuisine, always accompanied by ema-datse (chillies and cheese - the national favourite) that I am growing very fond of. Wangdue was surprisingly warm (some of the teachers were wearing t-shirts but it wasn't t-shirt weather for Queenslanders!) and the river flowing past our hotel was clear and aqua in colour, enticing a couple of brave teachers to go for a dip after dark.

We were taken to visit Punakha Dzong in the afternoon, the image of which was very familiar as it is on many tourist brochures and websites.  The monks from Thimphu come here for the cool winter months and return to Thimphu in the summer. The vast size of the Dzong was not immediately obvious to me until I saw maroon-robed monks walking around the base of the Dzong, looking tiny in comparison. We entered the Dzong over an old covered wooden bridge spanning the river, and then climbed the steep ladder up to the main entrance. Inside a large courtyard built around a Bodhi tree is where all the main administration offices of the region are housed. Residents visiting these offices must come dressed in their national dress and in addition men wear a kabney (a white shawl) and women wear a rachu (a red scarf with beautiful embroidery) which shows respect.

Entrance to Punakha Dzong.

Karma in his Gho and Kabney.

 Remy and I at Dzong.

Moving further inside the Dzong we came to the monastery where important preparations are underway for the upcoming Tsechu (religious festival) held in mid February. By climbing       
up more steep steps we came to a viewing area over the main temple area where monks were mediating and occasional drums were sounded, while local mums with children looked.  on (the kids were running around with packs of chips in hand). Remy didn't have
 the patience to watch for long, so we left only to find out later that ritual masked dancers arrived and performed to the sound of chanting, horns and percussion. Hopefully at some point this  year we will have the chance to see a Tsechu at one of our local monasteries.


The second day of travel started with some very sad farewells to the teachers living and travelling in the Punakha area. The realisation that we all had to part ways hit me suddenly and after becoming friends with these teachers over the orientation time in Thimphu, it was hard to say goodbye. I hope that some will take us up on the offer to come and stay and enjoy cake, pizza and warm Bumthang hospitality with us in Chumey (can't wait for visitors!).

I had chatted with one of the teachers after the first day's drive that it was a little surprising ( and I admit disappointing)  that the scenery and small villages we had passed enroute to Punakha were so similar to Nepal and India. At times I even thought the green hills and the warmer climate reminded me of driving in the Gold Coast hinterland! Coming all the way to far away Bhutan I had expectations of something different. The second day's travel revealed the Bhutan I had been longing for : steep densely forested mountains, the road precariously winding around and around, we peered down deep below to a chilly and at times icy river far below. Where the mountain was protected from the sun, snow and ice remained, even waterfalls frozen in motion and then just around the next corner, the hillside could be bathed in sunshine with no sign of snow. Sometimes we came to wide open valleys, cleared for farming and scattered with traditional homes, the ground golden brown, the rice already harvested.      

We stopped for lunch at Chazam and said more goodbyes to our friends who would be  travelling to nearby Trongsa for their placements. Our bus merely passed through Trongsa   allowing us a quick glimpse of the Dzong and bustling town area. It looks like an interesting  place to explore so hopefully we will return to visit Kyle and Sarah sometime.

Lunch at Chazam included amazing shiitake mushrooms, spicy boiled eggs, red rice and of course ezay
(chilli salsa).

By the time we had got to the last leg of the journey we were all a bit weary from the travel. Luckily the kids were asleep on our laps so we could just watch the scenery pass by in silence. After another couple of hours we came to a sign welcoming us to Bumthang region and soon after a broad valley opened out. It was so beautiful as everyone had promised with simple wooden farm houses close to the road, many with signs out the front offering a bar or general shop. We were on the outskirts of Chumey, and soon rounded a corner to  see a familiar house -our house that former teacher Sabrina had photographed for us!

We had a quick look around (Sabrina, if you are reading we will now have the top left hand apartment, not the one you were shown). The other teachers on the bus helped us carry all our stuff up to the third floor, and we were told that our place was nicer than any they had seen a teacher stay in in Bhutan. We are very lucky to have a large new apartment with two bathrooms and a kitchen. When we visited,  the owner and his workers were busy completing the unit for us to move in: putting glass in the windows, and generally cleaning up. The grandmother has curtains to hang and after Losar (Bhutanese New Year which starts this weekend) a hot water system will be fitted to the bathroom and railings fitted to the stair well. Today we also bought a bukhari (wood heater) and this will make our home warm and cosy. 

So that brings us to here, The River Lodge in Jakar. The remaining teachers enjoyed what  was one of the last communal dinners with a glass of Australian red wine by the bukhari.   The pine timber panelled room decorated with all sorts of interesting artefacts is reminiscent of a European ski lodge (I think, not that I've ever been to one!). We had a sumptuous  dinner (the best we've had in Bhutan which is saying a lot!) featuring Bumthang specialty   buckwheat noodles.

A glass of Penfolds by the bukhari!

I can't finish without sharing our explorations of Jakar today. We began with more Bumthang specialities for breakfast: buckwheat pancakes with local organic strawberry and plum jam, honey and Swiss cheese from the nearby factory. We lingered over this breakfast, our first alone in Bhutan. The friendly hotel owner Mr Pema joined us and offered to take us for a drive to see the sights which was very kind. We piled into his landcruiser and headed out to see the new airport of which locals are proud. Now in 25 minutes you can reach Paro by air which takes two full days of driving to achieve. Already it is crossing our mind that this might be a good way to depart from Bumthang at the end of the year.
 

View from the River Lodge, Jakar.

  We were also taken to a monastery dating from the 15th century, established by the saint Pema Lingpa. The monastery looks weathered with age, and we could hear chanting and horns coming from inside the temple, but weren't permitted to enter. We chatted with a young monk who spoke good English and learned about his life in the monastery. Mr Pema took us to the factory where bukharis are manufactured and we were lucky that one meeting our needs was available. He loaded it in the back of his car along with cheese we also bought from the Swiss cheese factory next door (Emmenthal and Gouda). He dropped us in Jakar town for a look around and only left us once he had bought chocolate bars for the  boys! What amazing hospitality!! We enjoyed looking around town and finding out what is available in the shops: pretty much anything we could need. I took the boys to a nice cafe for a piece of cake, and then we looked for a place for lunch. 



A chocolate doughnut for Remy.

Shopping in Jakar.

At the cross roads in Jakar.

In the afternoon Mr Pema again invited us to go sightseeing in town again. Mr Pema was an accomplished high school history teacher, principal and district education officer before retiring. He relished the opportunity to shower us in dates and enthralling stories of the history of the Bhutanese royal family. We visited two more monasteries, one dating back to the 7th century - Jam Lhakang - founded by the saint Padma Sambhava.

What a great day, and an amazing opportunity to sightsee in our new big town where we will visit often through the year for shopping, banking and other administrative tasks. I can't recommend a stay at the River Lodge highly enough! To finish up, I just wanted to add that we are super excited to move to our new house tomorrow, and perhaps welcome our first visitors the next day as we all have holidays for Losar. We may not have Internet for a while which is a bit hard to take, so I'm sure this wont be the last loooong post!