We had time for a short walk in the morning before we left for Paro. The rain had cleared, the sun was out and the clouds were thinning so that the high peaks were becoming visible in the background.
We walked down the hill from the hotel and spotted a large soaring bird – a black eagle. In almost all cultures, spotting a soaring eagle is a good omen for the day!
We stopped in the local village near our hotel to buy some snacks for our drive. We needed crackers and carbs to settle the nauseousness we expected on the drive due to the twisting roads. Six rice cakes, six bags of chips and three candy bars cost 150 ngultrum, the equivalent of just over two dollars.
Our route to Paro would talk us back over the Dochu La Pass, around Thimphu via its bypass and into Paro. We planned to make a day of it by stopping frequently for short hikes and some sightseeing. We drove for a half hour, then walked along the road for 15 mins, then repeated. This way no one got too nauseous in the car plus we saw some interesting sites along the way – a village temple and bright red rhododendrons.
We reached Dochu La Pass around 11:30 am. We walked through the Botanical Gardens; the gardens were nicely landscaped although too early in season to be blooming but gave us a great top down view of the 108 stupas.
We lunched in the cafe at the pass but unfortunately the cloud cover prevented us from clearly seeing the snow covered peaks of the Jigme Singye Wanchuck Himalayan range. A picture of the sign had to suffice.
We continued around Thimphu again stopping every half hour for short walks. We saw the Semotokha Dzong in the distance but didn’t stop – one can easily get dzonged and templed out traveling in Bhutan.
Off the Thimphu-Paro road is a major junction where two rivers, the Paro and Wang Chu come together. This is a sacred spot marked by three different style chortens, Nepali, Tibetan and Bhutanese each depicting the typical architectures of these countries.
Not far from the chortens was the Tamchog Lhakhang built by a great Tibetan saint, Thangtong Gyalpo. He was a great Buddhist master, physician, architect and a pioneering civil engineer credited with discovering iron and using this metal to build suspension bridges in the late 14th and early 15th centuries.
To get to the temple, we had to cross a suspension bridge. The original bridge built by Gyalpo spans the two watch towers but it is no longer safe to cross, so a new suspension bridge was constructed next to it. The old bridge is covered with prayer flags so worn by the elements that all colors have bleached away; the new bridge sports multi-colored prayer flags.
The monastery was not open but inside one of the smaller buildings were several beautiful, well preserved paintings of Buddha. The murals, even in less prominent Buddhist temples, are exquisitely detailed, colorful and appear three dimensional. I was able to take pictures of these paintings since the monastery was inactive.
We drove to the outskirts of the town of Paro. Our final dzong visit was to Rinpung, located on the Paro river overlooking the valley. Built in the 17th century, today it houses key administrative offices for the district as well as hosting one of Bhutan’s important festivals, an annual teschu that commemorates the birth of Guru Rinpoche who brought Buddhism to Bhutan.
Like the other dzongs we’d visited, Rinpung has a magnificent courtyard with access to its temple and other monastic buildings.
Many beautifully painted murals adorned both the inside and outside walls. The tiger is of notable significance in Bhutanese Buddhism. It is believed that Guru Rinpoche came to Bhutan on a flying tiger. Tomorrow we hike to one of the most famous sites in Bhutan, Taktshang Lhakhang, the Tiger’s Nest Monastery, rich with the legend of the flying tiger.
We climbed to the top of the temple building for an amazing view of the Paro Valley. Paro is at 7300 ft, terraced with rice paddies just starting to green.
The climb down from Rinpung Dzong involved walking down hundreds of white stone steps into a forested park. Hearts pump on the way up, knees ache on the way down!
We made one last stop enroute to our hotel. We stopped to watch an archery match in Paro town, but unlike in Thimphu, these archers were using high tech carbon fiber bows.
Many of the same rituals were performed; a victory dance when an arrow hits it mark, heckling of the opposing team, audience engagement.
There were many more spectators at this event and the crowd was every bit as entertaining to watch as the archers. Exclusively men, with a smattering of monks, they were intensely fixated on the match, cheering, heckling and jumping up and down as the action dictated.
We drove to the outskirts of Paro to our hotel, the Zhiwaling Resort, designated as a National Geographic Unique Lodge of the World. It was a gorgeous property and easy to see why it had earned the NatGeo seal of approval. We tried our hand at archery (more about this in later post), had a wonderful dinner and then turned in early – tomorrow we hike to the infamous Taktsang Lhakhang, Tiger’s Nest Monastery, the steepest and most difficult hike of the trip.
