Driving to Punakha

Another bus day as we take the road to Punakha. Luckily it's a festival day which means there is no 2hr daily road closure for widening works 

Dolchula pass

It's maybe an hour or so out of Thimphu before reach Dulcha pass, home of 108 stupours, and theoretically great views of the himlayas - cloud cover means I will never know.

Darts

The other bonus of festival day is seeing the traditional sports being played. The main sport of the nation is archery, but archery not as you know it - these guys are shooting at tiny targets about 150m away.  An extension of this is a big dart where the competitors hurl a thick metal lethal weapon at a unfeasibly small target around 50m away, I'm guessing it's the opposition that stand around the target seemingly with no regard for their own personal safety.  On the rare occasion a dart finds the target everyone joins in a ritual song and dance, circulating around the target & waving their feet.


Punakha is the old capital, and (surprise, surprise) There's another dzong to visit.  This one is situated where two rivers meet and is certainly the most impressive

Punakha Dzong

Punakha Dzong

Fortunately, as it transpires, the Dzong is closed and we have some time to fill so can visit the nearby suspension bridge.  It reminds me of the bridge in my village in Borneo, although twice as long but twice as sturdy.  We have time to chase some butterflies & meet a monk with an umbrella given to him by the queen before returning to visit the dxong.

suspension bridge

a common building decoration

Time to cram some more attractions into the afternoon with a visit to the Chimi L'hakhang temple, a temple dedicated to the divine madman; lonely planet tells us this lama slept with his hosts wives and tied a blessing around his penis rather than hang it around his neck. It is to this saint that the numerous painted phallus that adorn peoples houses are attributed, as a sign to drive away the evil eye. We walk across the paddy fields & up a hill to find the monastery, past further festival celebrations.

Within the monastery itself Gino receives a ticking off from a solemn monk for handling the large wooden phallus, he hands it over and then receive a blessing  in the form of being tapped on the head with this object.  Outside however it's nearly the end of the day & a number of younger monks are having a kick around, football seems to be very big here amongst the boys I've met, a number of them know premier league teams and players and several claim they will be representing their country in a few years That may not be such a difficult thing to do for a team that is rock bottom at 208 in the FIFA world rankings - quite an achievement given there are less than 200 countries in the world.  There is also a game of darts going on & I get to have a go & am happy to report no monks were killed in this game.

football time