Bhutan 2014: Mebar Tsho, Pema Choling, and a Hike

The morning of May 14th was sunny, and the clouds had lifted to offer us glimpses of the higher mountains.

Our first stop was to visit the dzong in Jakar. It's perched on a ridge above the valley floor, and so is less sprawling than some other dzongs.

 An immense tree towers outside.

The inner courtyard reflects the space restraints, but this 180º panorama stretches it out.

Here is a closeup of the far section.

After touring the dzong we boarded the van and headed for Mebar Tsho (sometimes spelled Membartsho), the "Burning Lake." This is located in the valley of the Tang Chhu (River), a short drive from Jakar. In this Google Maps image, the national highway turns up the Tang Chhu for a short while, lower right, and before it crosses the river there is a feeder road taking you to Mebar Tsho ("A") and locations further up the valley. Click to enlarge.

A sign greeted us as we disembarked.

A trail leads down from the parking area. Already we can hear chanting from down by the riverside.

A fellow who Tshering, our guide, described as a cross between a hermit and a monk reads from scripture just before the trail reaches a bridge across the Tang Chhu.

This photo is looking back across the footbridge.

The path winds down to rocks beside the lake, which is a small pool of the river.

A group of Taiwanese pilgrims, whose bus we saw in the parking area, is clustered on the rocks. This is the source of the chanting we heard.

Here is a look downstream from this spot.

The downstream pool/lake is much calmer than the river upstream of the bridge.

We don't wish to interrupt the pilgrims, so after a few moments we turn around and recross the footbridge. A short but steep trail goes down to the mouth of the virtuous cave, where many tsa-tsas have been placed.

It is said that a virtuous person can wriggle through this cave and come out the other side without becoming stuck. I chose not to risk it.

Then it was time, according to Tshering's carefully crafted schedule, to visit Pema Choling, a new nunnery fulfilling a 15th Century prophecy of Pema Lingpa. This photo is of the main building.

There is an immense inner courtyard.

To fully display Pema Choling with its ongoing construction, here's an aerial image from Google Maps. Click to enlarge.

Tshering was greeted by the nun in charge of visitors, and we were taken to a second-floor room for lunch. Although the nuns do not eat meat, one of the dishes offered to us was some dried fish. The fish was tasty but had retained all its bones, which made it difficult for me. Otherwise I would have had seconds. After lunch Joan and I, as well as Tshering, made a donation; this institution is another that relies on individual support and not the Bhutanese government.

We then attended a performance of a drum and chant ceremony performed by the young nuns just for us. No photos, however ...

At the end of the ceremony we had the opportunity to light a few butter lamps in the lhakhang, silently dedicating the action to whomever or whatever we chose.

A much larger butter-lamp-lighting came next, in the little building at the end of the courtyard. Monasteries, nunneries, and dzongs have a nasty tendency to burn down if a butter lamp tips over or gets knocked askew, so Pema Choling was built with this inner outbuilding to house the ranks of butter lamps.

The pictures were taken just after Tshering, Joan, and I lit the bottom tier of lamps. You can see that they haven't melted yet.

Joan and I felt privileged to have received such a gracious welcome to Pema Choling. We were also pleased to see that a long-standing need was being addressed with new nunneries, and that women were starting to shake off their second-class status in the religious life of Bhutan.

Tshering, Joan, and I departed on foot while Kaka drove the van back to Jakar. He would meet us there after we three hiked up from Pema Choling to a pass and then down to the next valley. This photo looks back at the nunnery.

A view from a bit further on in the hike. New construction is visible to the right of the finished building we had visited (click to enlarge).

On the way we stopped to admire this orchid. Orchids are amazing plants; we've even seen them in the Arctic. The orchid family fights with the aster family for the title of plant family with the most species.

We reached a good spot to see a new temple in the valley, dedicated to the Fifth and current King. This is a maximum zoom photo.

While still climbing to the pass, we paused to inspect another, different orchid.

Then we reached the pass. This photo looks towards the Tang valley, back the way we have come.

We plunged on. There were occasional signs warning of rock steps, aimed at participants in a mountain bike event a few years ago. The afternoon clouds piled up, and there were some light showers. But as we drew closer to the valley floor the sun burst through.

This photo of a "god ray" shining down near the dzong is one of my best from this trip. The technical term is "crepuscular ray," but I like "god ray" better.

Kaka met us at the road, and we drove back to the Yu Gharling. After coping with the very odd room 202 the previous night, described near the end of this post, we had been upgraded to a junior suite!

Another look.

The book above the bed, supplied by the hotel, turned out to be Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse's work, "What Makes You Not a Buddhist." It's a fun, approachable volume.

That night we chose to eat again at the Noryang restaurant, rather than in the hotel. Tomorrow's agenda: see more of Bumthang in the morning, and then on to Thimphu via a flight to Paro. This would be its own adventure.

Bhutan 2014: From Mongar Back to Jakar

The next morning (May 13th) we traveled from Mongar back to Jakar. Our first stop was at a roadside market just below Mongar town.

This was fiddlehead fern season, a treat reminiscent of asparagus. Joan and I enjoyed it several times on this trip.

A local specialty is toasted corn ... a heartier, unadulterated version of corn flakes. Eastern Bhutan grows a lot of corn.

We continued on after Tshering, our guide, bought some items, and began the climb to Thrumshingla, a gradual ascent at first.

Roughly in the vicinity of the Shongar ruins Joan called out for us to stop. She had spotted tigers that she had first seen on our drive into Mongar, two days earlier.

It has been a long tradition in Bhutan to create a small elevated platform in a farm field, where the farmer might sleep (or not) to protect the crops as they near ripeness. Raiders that must be deterred can include creatures up to and including wild hogs. This inventive farmer created or obtained faux tigers to take the day shift. A second one was more in the shade.

Tshering was impressed with Joan's eyesight and spotting skills; these photos were taken at 20x zoom.

In this corn field, or one just down the road, we spotted a yellow-breasted greenfinch.

And within minutes thereafter a fearless oriental magpie robin checked us out.

At sites where there had been quasi-permanent shelters erected for the road repair crews, there were permanent warning signs. (DOR is Department Of Roads.)

Some other roadside signs we remember are, "Shooting Stone" (what in the US would be "Falling Rocks") and "Inconvenience Regretted" ("End Construction"). Joan is fond of a slogan painted on one truck, "Must believe in my selfs."

On this segment of recently repaved road, we took advantage of the pullout and I photographed the leaning tree.

Kaka drove the van higher and higher on our way to the pass. We left the repaved road behind and drove by a cow.

Then fog descended. For several minutes I was concerned that our already modest pace would be slowed further all the way to the top,

but the foggy zone did not last long.

The steep-sided Himalayas often produce rockfalls that sweep away the pavement. Maintaining the national road/lateral highway is a constant struggle, especially during and just after the monsoons.

It requires delivery of stone and sand.

Our weaving along the concave and convex curves of the road was suddenly interrupted by a blood pheasant. I had only a few seconds to take this photo through the windshield. The GIMP helped me reduce the windshield effects.

Sometimes you can see the road ahead,

and sometimes you hope there is a road ahead.

The section leading down towards Ura, the easternmost town in the Bumthang district, stitches together hairpin switchbacks.

The outside of one of these curves was large and grassy, and became our picnic lunch spot. Yum! The big pot is a rice and corn mixture, a specialty of eastern Bhutan.

From our stop we could see the valley town of Ura peeking over a hill (click on the photo to enlarge).

While Tshering and Kaka cleaned and packed up, Joan and I strolled down the road, bird-listening and bird-watching. I did get a picture of a Mrs. Gould's sunbird.

A bypass has largely been finished from just east of Ura to Nangar, on the national highway just south of Jakar. The first few miles were still unpaved, but most of it is new, remarkably straight pavement. Kaka found it boring. Just after we turned onto this bypass, Joan spotted a Eurasian Cuckoo with prey in its beak. It was further away than I would have liked, but I did get a blurry photo. Are you getting the idea that Joan is an excellent spotter? Good.

From Nangar we continued on to Jakar, traversing a section of the highway that we had skipped when hiking from Tharpaling to Jakar. However, today's story was not yet over.

First, when we arrived at the Yu Gharling Resort (Hotel), they assigned us to room 202, not, as our guide Tshering thought he had arranged, a room in the same building as three nights before. A consultation between Tshering and the manager ensued, including the manager's comment about "a large tour group." We decided to take a look at 202, did so, and said it would be OK.

Then as we unpacked we noticed that some spots in the floor flexed, like walking across a trampoline. This wasn't reassuring, but we could walk around them. As we began to clean up, and Joan was undressed, the door between our room and the one adjacent began to open. Our previous room had not had such a suite-creating door. Joan called out "Excuse me!"  and the door-openers shut it. I went over to lock that door, but even with leaning on it and pressing both up and down to take out any slack, it would not latch. The deadbolt was at least a centimeter (perhaps 3/8") out of vertical alignment with the catch.

I pushed a chair against the door and in a position to block the lever-style handle from moving.

Tshering met us at dinner and told us that he would dine tonight with his brother-in-law at the Noryang restaurant. We told him that while, having unpacked, we would remain in 202 for one night, we needed to move for our second night. Tshering said if we packed before we left for tomorrow's activities the staff would move our stuff.

Joan and I had our private dinner. Near the end a woman from a couple of tables away came over, and the usual inter-tourist conversation began. "Where have you been so far?" She talked, and talked some more. Then she asked to sit down, and we said, "Sure." Oops. We were told about how many places she'd been in addition to Bhutan, how many languages she spoke, what an excellent traveler she was, and how clever she was. It was a strictly one-sided conversation. At about the half-hour mark her husband joined us, but her verbal assault did not abate. When the restaurant had emptied Joan and I deployed the "I think the staff needs to clean up" defense, and we both prayed that she would not follow us all the way back to our room. Fortunately she paused at the parting of our routes and Joan and I made our escape. Inside, we laughed at the absurdity of it all, but resolved to keep an eye out and not approach her orbit again.

Tomorrow we would explore more of the Bumthang region, including a hike. Sneak preview: it was a great day.