Today started off with a bright red light waking me up. When I opened the door at 5.30am, it was the sun rising on top of the Himalayas! What a fabulous opening to the day. We have a long drive ahead of 6 hours back to Thimphu today, so we had a nice breakfast comprising of toast, cereals and su ju (butter tea, another local favorite) before heading out.
On the way, we saw more yaks and a snow covered Himalayan peak, incredibly for the first time in 4 days. We traced back our journey, winding through the mountains, passing Punakha before heading up the mountain to Dochla Pass. This day, the weather was more conducive and we could see a couple of mountains of the Higher Himalayas amidst the clouds. We enjoyed some cakes and pastries at the mountain top restaurant stop while taking in the views.
The 6 hour journey through winding mountain is not for the weak stomachs, as my daughter was nauseating the whole way before vomiting just prior to reaching Thimphu. The Bhutanese are so conscious of their environment that we were requested to bring back the vomit bag to the bus for us to dispose off in our Thimphu hotel! Salute! We went to a local restaurant for lunch. I realized from talking to the restaurant staff that they need to serve at least 6 dishes along with rice for it to be considered a meal and the wait for guests to waste a portion of it to feel that they are satisfied. But it was all too much for us after the long journey.
After lunch, we visited the Thimphu Dzong. While it is just like other Dzongs in architecture and functioning, what makes this Dzong unique was the fact that this contains the King's office and the most fabulous rose garden I have even seen! White, red, purple, yellow - you name it, there were big beautiful roses, all with its own scents, carefully tended to by the royal gardeners. There are roses everywhere outside and inside the Dzong.
Still floating in the aroma of its rose scents, we made our way to the Weekend Market, where farmers from all over the country come to sell their fresh produce, incense sticks and more. We grabbed a couple of bamboo baskets before heading across the river to the souvenir shops to do the touristy thing.
As our final program of the day, we went to the Archery Stadium to see the games, which is the national game here. Archers with traditional bamboo bows and more modern composite bows line up on different parts of the stadium and were vying for glory on either side. While the modern archers were more successful in finding the target, it is no mean feat aiming at a small Styrofoam board 140m away! After 30 mins or so, the kids got fidgety and we had to coax our guide to drop us at the hotel.
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