Around the World on a Bike: Travel, by Bike and by Truck

In my last post I mentioned that my time her felt very confined, that I needed to understand Bhutan more. Well, I did my best this past month to get out and see the country. You may need to grab a map for the following tour.

My first trip was by bicycle. All my gear packed up into a backpack graciously provided by some fellow chilips (Foreigners). I set off with my destination for the day being Haa. A remote place characterized by a small valley at high elevation (surprise!). I was to meet the Dzongka (District) Environmental Officer. After 6 hours of riding, with a few stops as carrying a heavy backpack for that long on a bike is tough, I made it into Haa.

The air was pure, the land peaceful. The next day the DEO showed me around the valley (By car thankfully) and told me about the environmental challenges that exist in the valley. By far the largest concern is illegal logging and drought. The Haa valley has big blue pines, but these trees are threatened from both sources. These trees appear to have browning needles from the inside of the tree out, not a great sign. But because of the vast amount of trees, lumbermills have popped up, and there is only so much legal trees, so to earn a few more bucks loggers turn to the night. In the past these trees were protected by the spirits. Bhutanese deities exist in every valley, in inanimate objects. These three mountains of Haa have local deities and cutting down a tree angers the gods. Throughout the valley minor deities exist within the trees. However, the rising generation does not believe that angering these deities is something of a concern. I stayed in the same guest house that the king stays in, the secretary of the NEC really took care of me.

I left the next day and headed up Chele La (La mean pass in this instance), It capped out close to 4000 meters. It took about 2 hours something to climb to the top, but the descent of 45 km took an hour and was cold, even with extra clothing in my backpack.

I arrived in Paro, the location of the only international airport. I was taken in by a friend of the Secretary who put me up in the DANTAK (Indian road construction organization) officers house which cooked fresh indian food for me daily. This was perhaps my highest class stay and made me incredibly uncomfortable, as I was the only guest and had the entire place waiting on me hand and foot. The meals were delicious but the cook watched me eat the entire time, in complete silence, as I was the only one besides the chef in the room. I pretended like I was a king, with people watching my every move, I hated it.

I spent a little bit of time in Paro, looking around at the shops and watching the Chief Abbot leave for his winter home in Punakha. I bowed my head as he was making his way to the car and got bopped on the head by his cane. I guess I am now blessed. I left and had it in my mind that it would take me an hour to get back. I wasn't considering that I was on a bike, and not a car. Proceeded to leave with a little water and no food. It took 2 hours, I could have stopped along the way but I was losing light.

Soon after I arrived in Thimphu the NEC sent me off on a compliance trip to the far east. Pema Gatshel. The first day of driving took us to Bumthang. We got in late, stayed at the Department of Roads guest house and headed to town for food. After spending the night I learned that my co-workers all had nightmares, turns out Bumthang is so holy that is haunted, too many spirits/deities exist here. On the way back we found a new place to sleep.

We passed through beautiful national parks, quaint villages/towns, and friends who took us in. We stayed the next night in Trashigong (the R is silent). A villages in the hillside, with a dzong (Fortress/castle) in the sky. On the way we stopped at the Rhododendron park near the top of one of the mountain passes. They have massive plants but are not in season right now.

We started our compliance monitoring with a road widening project. I soon learned my biggest hurdle here, while many people can speak english, between locals Dzongka (the western language) or Sharsop (The eastern language) is spoken. I don't mind when lunch conversations are in Dzongka, but when my work is not in english, I have been struggling a bit. I always get brought up to speed and am catching onto important words like chu, which means water/river, but I would be in better shape if I spoke the local language.

The third day of driving brought us to Pema Gatshel, where we inspected a plant that has been accused of polluting so much that it killed the local plants. We stayed for two days and used a resperable dust sampler alongside a visual inspection of the plant. Upon returning to Thimphu I wrote up the inspection report. The duration of the visit allowed for me to converse with the manager of the plant in english and to understand the plant.

We rushed back, but not without stopping to view a few religious sites and a couple of industries along the way.