Bhutan: Serendipity on the road

First, a confession. I may have sounded knowledgeable in the previous post, rattling off place names such as Rukubji, but I'm not really that organized. I took a notebook along and wrote nothing in it! However, if I can remember the salient characteristic of a spot (snake head demon, iron bridge monk) I can usually Google a reference to ferret out those nagging specifics. A really good reference might merit a hyperlink.

We had time to visit the Trongsa dzong in the late afternoon. Here, Tsewang explains something while we are in one of the many courtyards.

Tsewang is wearing a white kabney, or knotted scarf, which every male is obliged to wear in official settings (in the dzong, the gallery of parliament, and so forth). Many grades exist: the king wears yellow, members of parliament blue, judges green, and so forth. The women wear a sash called a rachu, which also has color significations.

Here Tsewang is describing a Wheel of Life painting within the dzong.

And here a cosmological painting, with Mount Meru in the center, and the four directions.

In another courtyard, some laymen (with monks watching) are practicing for the upcoming festival.

A closeup ...

I couldn't imagine jumping up and down on those cold stones barefoot. They have tough feet in Bhutan, as befits such a mountainous landscape. We were told that one traditional standard of attractiveness in men was the size of their calves.

Google Maps/Earth has a good bird's eye view of the sprawling dzong.


In the next courtyard, we came across monks rehearsing.

The time came to return to our hotel, have dinner, and repack. The trek would begin tomorrow, and we needed to reorganize so that the things needed for the trek would be together, and things not needed for the trek would be in a bag that could be left behind.

At dinner, Namgay showed us how to put on a gho.

Note that the gho starts at floor-length. Eventually it gets pulled up to knee length, and the extra material forms a huge pocket that hangs over the belt. Good for cell phones, documents, puppies ... whatever. It's also necessary to align the back.

The next morning, repacked, I got some good pictures of Yangkhil Resort. Here's the main office and dining room.

Here is one of the residential buildings; each has four rooms.

Off the patio next to the dining room is a water-powered prayer wheel, generating merit 24/7.

The early morning light was also flattering to the dzong as we left town.

We left Trongsa headed south, paralleling the Mangde Chu. We paid a brief visit to Kuenga Rabten, where the winter palace of the second King of Bhutan was built. It now has a caretaker and some young monks. Here is part of the contents of the library.

Because it was winter break, most of the monks had dispersed to their homes. A few young ones were playing darts (khuru) in the lawn.

We drove on, and serendipity struck, as it seems to often do in Bhutan. A village was having its local festival, a smaller version of the great tsechu that would start in Trongsa in a week. Here is a short clip of the dancers. Note the masked figure on the far left in the first few seconds; it's an atsara.

This term is usually translated as 'clown', but they do a lot more. For instance, if a dancer has a piece of costume come loose, the atsara comes over to fix it while the dancer keeps going. The atsara will also harangue audience members, especially chilip (which means foreigner, in a matter-of-fact, non-pejorative way). He's looking for donations to the fund for the festival and festival refreshments.

A closer look at the dancers.

The back of the atsara's costume.

Another view of the proceedings.

Everybody dresses in their best for the festival (except the chilip). Not only to impress the neighbors; for the young singles, it's a chance to meet and mingle.

We had six or seven miles to hike that afternoon, so after 20 minutes at the festival Tshering drove us on to the trailhead, where we had lunch and identified our trekking duffels to the porters. Our first trail lunch was hot and yummy, a good omen of things to come. Here's a photo of the trailhead.

This trail, known as the Nabji-Korphu trail, is Bhutan's first experiment in community-based ecotourism. Each village along the route was empowered to choose where the campsite was to be built, and each village supplies a guide, porters, and a campsite caretaker. Income from the trekking may go into a community fund, for schools or other improvements, or the jobs may be rotated among the households of the village. The government of Bhutan intends for the program to boost the economy of out-of-the-way places, and not to benefit a few lucky or influential individuals.

On this trail, each trekking group is limited to no more than 11 participants, and no more than one group may be on the trail at a time. In the next post, we set off.

Bhutan: Two Days to Trongsa

A five-cent summary of our itinerary in Bhutan would be: get quickly to Trongsa, have the six-day/five-night trek, and then visit most of the bypassed sites on the way back (Phobjika, Punakha, Thimphu, Paro). This post will be the story of getting to Trongsa. (Side note: transliterating Dzongkha, the national language, to English is imprecise. You may see the name 'Tongsa' as well as 'Trongsa', for example, if you go on to read more about Bhutan.)

Now, an observation about my reporting. It's difficult to provide a "just right" amount of information, and some places or events may fall by the wayside, especially if I don't have any photos to accompany them. For example, we paid a brief visit to Kyichu Lhakhang (a 7th Century temple) in Paro, but I didn't mention it in the previous post. Overall, I'll be providing plenty for you to read.

We left Paro after some brief AM activities -- shopping/browsing for most of us. Jim and Jillian went to Kyichu Lhakhang to light candles and engage the resident monk to perform prayers for a friend of theirs in ill health.

The 'lateral road' that connects Bhutan west-to-east was expanded to two full lanes between Paro and the capital, Thimphu, in time for the coronation of the 5th king, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. (It was a generous single lane with pullouts, like the rest of the lateral road, in our 2005 visit.) We paused at Tachog Lahkhang, a temple established by the iron-bridge building monk of the 15th Century, Thangtong Gyalpo. At this spot is one of his iron bridges, restored with original links from other iron bridges he constructed in Bhutan.

The temple is private, maintained by descendents of Thangtong Gyalpo. It was on the other side of the river as well, so we did not visit.

We drove on past Thimphu, and our skillful driver Tshering soon had us at Dochu La, the pass between the valley of Thimphu and that of Punakha. (La means pass in Dzongkha, Chu means river.) This pass, at 10,000 feet, has a long history. Today there are 108 chortens, erected either to commemorate the expulsion of Assamese rebels from Bhutanese soil by the 4th king Jigme Singye Wangchuck and the Royal Bhutan Army, or to speed the passage of the souls lost in that action, depending on the emphasis of your source of information. The high peaks were clouded in this day, but the view was still spectacular.

Here's a closer view of one of the chortens.

To the uphill side, a forest of prayer flags fluttered and whipped in the breeze.

At the edge of the road, a wall of prayer flags.

Here are our intrepid trekkers. From left, we have Jen (Jennifer), Joan, Ben, Jillian, and Jim. I felt the odd man out, being the only one whose name didn't start with 'J'.

This was also our first trip in which we were the oldest participants; usually we have been contemporary with or younger than the majority. A sign of things to come?

Heading down from Dochu La to the town of Wangdiphodrang (or Wangdue Phodrang) meant the loss of over a vertical mile, one curve at a time. The dzong and old town (matchbox town) of Wangdiphodrang sit on a bluff overlooking the river. After some years of planning and wrangling, the town is being moved to a less perilous location upstream. We stopped for a leg-stretch and perusal of the shops jammed between the roadway and the cliff. Here, we see two girls having a tea party with the river below.

 There's only one place to park in the old town.

Then we went on to our hotel for the night, the riverside Chuzomsa Resort. The rooms have a balcony overlooking the Dang Chu. Here's a shot from ours:

A view of the balconies ...

The dining hall ...

Joan and I were the 'birders' on this trip. I put the word 'birders' in quotes because we aren't fanatic ... no life list, for instance, and inadequate memories. But we did carry binoculars, and I managed to get a few pictures now and then (when they would hold still). Here's a Little Forktail looking for dinner outside our room.

The next day we began our drive to Pele La, the next pass, 11,000' high. Not far from the top we got a good view of some of the high Himalayan peaks (those below 20,000' feet may not even be named!).

Zooming in ...

Looking back on the road.

And then we arrived at Pele La, and another opportunity for a stroll. Here the stupa is in the Tibetan style.

Looking ahead, down into the valley and across to the mountains.

Not long after beginning our descent, we passed some yaks who had come down to the "low" altitudes for the winter. This photo was taken either from the bus door or through the bus window; the yak are supposed to be skittish.

One feature of the Bhutanese landscape appears to be demons and demonesses and the temples and stupas that were used to pin these beings down if they could not be converted to the Buddhist teachings. Here is a view of Rukubji, where the temple holds down the head of a snake demon.

A little further down the road is Chendebji Chorten, another demon subduer. This demon had been terrorizing travelers and pilgrims passing between Trongsa and points west, until the chorten was built (in the Nepali style) in the early 1900s.

Chendebji also has a mani wall and Bhutanese style stupa.

In mid-afternoon our goal, Trongsa and its famous dzong, were in sight from a viewpoint. With the winding mountain roads, we were still 20km from the dzong, but we knew we didn't have much further to go.

A zoomed image ...

We could also see our lodgings for the night across the river valley, the Yangkhil Resort. (Resort gets used interchangeably with Hotel in Bhutan.)

Our two days of journeying were over, and there was enough time left in the afternoon to dump our stuff at the hotel and then tour the dzong, ahead of the Trongsa Tsechu (festival) that would begin next week.

But I think you've had enough for now! Touring the dzong and the start of the trek will be the next post.

Bhutan: Reynoldsburg to Paro

Joan and I were away for Christmas -- far away. We had visited Bhutan in 2005, and among all our trips, this was the one that left us thinking, "We must come back in a few years." Bhutan is a place that has gone from the medieval to cellphones and the Internet in less than 40 years, and is attempting to do so without being overwhelmed by Western culture. (For a fascinating account of sneaking into Bhutan in the late 1960s, when you needed an invitation from the royal family to enter, try to find a copy of Michel Peissel's Lords and Lamas.) When we saw the brochure on Geographic Expeditions' Living Edens Trek, we had to go. This would take us into central Bhutan (Trongsa), where we had not been before, and give us some hiking at moderate altitudes. Our earlier Bhutan trip had also been with GeoEx and their Bhutanese correspondent company, Yangphel Adventure Travel, and they had given us an excellent experience.

We flew via Chicago and Tokyo to Bangkok, where we spent two half-nights (checking in at 3am on the first night, and checking out at 4am on the second) adapting to the time change and having spare time for catching the Druk Air flight. We stayed at the Novotel at the new Suvarnabhumi International airport, and it was a smoothly running operation (both the hotel and airport). The transfers to and from the hotel were almost instantaneous.

Christmas has caught on in parts of Asia, and the lobby of the Novotel was no exception:

Regardless of your religious affiliation, wreaths, Christmas trees, and Santa Claus make for a wonderful winter festival.

Here's a photo out one of the hotel windows, showing a small temple under construction and one of the wings of the airport:

We checked in for the Druk Air flight with the assistance of a representative from the company that GeoEx works with in Bangkok. It's necessary to obtain a visa for entry into Bhutan, but that's all behind the scenes (the travel companies take care of it). Sally had our visa information ready for the Druk Air counter. At the gate we met two of our fellow trekkers, Jim and Jillian, as well as a couple doing volunteer work in Bhutan.

The last half hour of the flight into Paro, the only airport in Bhutan, was spectacular, with Himalayan scenery up close. Paro is often listed as one of the 10 toughest approaches in the world, and indeed, only a handful of pilots are qualified to attempt it. The ridges make it a visual-only approach -- if it's clouded in or raining, you can't land or take off. Here's one photo of the runway, which gives you some idea:

For you aviation buffs, I should mention that Paro is at 7,000 feet, and this was the biggest patch of level ground in the entire country. Druk Air has a fleet of two Airbus A319s.

We were met in the arrival lounge by our trip leader, Tsewang Rinchen, the local guide, Namgay Tenzin, and driver, Tshering. (Our fifth and final trekker, Jennifer (Jen), was arriving on a different flight, from New Delhi.) Pausing to take in an archery match, we were amazed at the length of the field, about 125 meters with targets at either end.

Yes, that's the target down there. Shorter ranges are used for traditional cane bows, but, if you can afford it, modern compound bows are popular.

The little white tablet is the target. Who can possibly hit that? Well, each colored strip hanging from the belt of the archer's gho represents a point made. Each point made is cause for celebration.

Archery is the national sport of Bhutan. It has roots in the military tradition of the country, where the farmers would gather their weapons and muster in the dzongs to repel invasions. There were no large standing armies, nor any aggressive military adventures, reminiscent of the Swiss. They did need to repel the occasional Tibetan incursion.

That afternoon we also visited the Paro dzong, the multipurpose fortress/monastery/administrative center for the area. Above the dzong on the hillside is the watchtower, which now houses the National Museum. To our regret, the National Museum was closed, because Bhutan observes a winter break during which schools and sometimes other facilities are closed. There is no summer break.

The red band around a building signifies a religious or sacred character; in the case of the dzong, it is there because of the temples and monastic facilities inside. Temples, chortens, monasteries, and such all have the red band.

Interestingly, the style of architecture represented by the dzongs of Bhutan inspired many of the buildings of the University of Texas (El Paso). Here's a view towards the town from a window of the dzong.

Our hotel that evening was the Zhiwa Ling, an international class hotel north of Paro town. All its buildings are in the Bhutanese style (for buildings other than dzongs); the builder/owner wanted to demonstrate that having modern buildings did not mean abandoning traditional architecture.

We got a good night's sleep at Zhiwa Ling. The next two and a half days would be largely spent traveling to the beginning of our trek.

Photos of my father

As I mentioned some months ago, my father passed away on July 20. This Thanksgiving I had an opportunity to scan some photographs of my father as a young man, and I wanted to share them with you.

Here is Neal's, as my mother would put it, "chubby high school senior picture".

Shortly after, World War II intervened. Here is Dad as an aviation cadet, already somewhat thinner.

And here he is as an airman in the Air Transport Command of the Army Air Corps. (There was no separate Air Force during WWII.) He was a navigator, flying new planes, usually B-17s or B-29s, to theaters of war, such as England, India, or the Pacific. Particularly for England, they flew shot-up aircraft back to the US for Boeing to refurbish. That is, they flew back planes so shot-up that they couldn't be sufficiently repaired on-site. He had stories to tell.

After the war, my parents found their way to Tennessee, and my father became a radio personality on WBIR in Knoxville.

He rose through the ranks and eventually became the general manager of WBIR-AM/FM/TV in Knoxville. This photo is likely from a point in the middle of his career.

What can I say? No wonder my mother married him when she was only 19. "It was wartime," she reminds me, "and things were different." Still and all, he was quite a guy.

Negawatts in the Attic

This fall I decided it was time to add some insulation to our attic. The insulation from 22 years ago, blown-in cellulose, was originally 8" deep and rated R-30. Here's the way things looked before I started:

 

Over time, the cellulose had settled a little, from time and from occasional trespass by birds and by me, and near the gable vents it had gone gray from blown-in dirt.

The EnergyStar program recommends attic insulation of R-38 to R-60 in most of Ohio. Even if added rolls of insulation compressed the existing cellulose somewhat, reducing it to, say, R-20, I figured that adding R-30 would still give me an effective rating of R-50, and would be worthwhile. The best way to 'green' a house starts not with consuming alternate sources of energy, but with conserving energy, avoiding energy production in the first place, a concept sometimes known as negative watts, or negawatts. I wanted to generate negawatts in my attic.

The access to the attic is only through a hatch located in a step-closet (the floor is not flat but goes up like huge steps). The hatch opening is about 21" by 23", so I had to work within that limit.

In addition, the attic, as seen above, is completely unfinished, without flooring. When I was up there I had to step carefully from joist to joist. So, after cleaning up the old TV antenna and other junk, then measuring, my next task was to install some boards (2' by 4') to make working there easier. I envisioned full 'aisles', but there were so many wires running atop the joists -- alarm system, electrical, phone -- that instead I had to create a chain of islands of one or two boards. I did not want to lay a board down on any wires.

After measuring, it was clear that the job would require two steps; each step would be to load the minivan with insulation, drive home, tote the rolls up to the attic, and install them. It took two days, one for each step. With a single light bulb in the attic, I constantly wore a camping headlight, and due to the dust, I wore a mask. Each mask had acquired a brown patina by the end of the day.

Here are the rolls for step one, awaiting installation.

The preformed trusses blocked almost every roll, so a large number of cuts into the insulation were needed to get them to lie flat and snug.

Notice the pink plastic wrap? This innovation kept the fiberglass dust down substantially, and reduced the likelihood of skin irritation from handling the stuff. (I wore gloves, of course). The plastic is perforated to allow moisture to pass through. I often slit the plastic to help the fiberglass expand to full size. 

Here's the attic (well, part of it) with the insulation installed. Orange tape marks where the boards lurk underneath.

Has the added insulation made a difference? It's too early to tell. One winter can be colder than another, plus, our heating system is a hybrid -- electric heat pump above 35°F, natural gas furnace below that temperature -- so a true comparison has to be based on both energy sources. Converting the kilowatt-hours of electricity and CCF of gas to BTUs and adding them together will eventually give me an idea of what's been accomplished. (1 KWh is 3412 BTUs, and 1 CCF of gas is 100,000 BTUs). After all that work, I sure hope it helps!