On the Loose

Sunday September 27

This morning we attended the Wangdue festival. During the event an elderly lady stood next to me.  After talking I learned that she was from Denmark by way of Isle of Skye, Scotland. Quite fascinating to see that she was in Bhutan trekking by herself and she looked like she was in her late 60's.  After attending the festival, we visited the Dzong.  Before driving to Thimphu we had lunch at a restaurant on the river. We saw our first group rafting down the river which creates white water no matter where you look.  Lo and behold the Scot lady was at the same restaurant having lunch.

After lunch we drove to Thimphu from Wangdue. It was a long almost 5 hour drive just to cover 100 miles. When we arrived we stopped at a park at the convergence of two rivers.  From here we had a good vantage point of the Thimphu Dzong.  Almost five centuries ago an oracle told the King that he will build a fort at the point where two rivers meet that is guarded by a sleeping elephant. With some imagination, the hill that joins the two rivers looks like sleeping elephant with a long nose. For this reason the Thimphu Dzong was built on this site.  The only way to access the Dzong is by crossing a wooden bridge built over 500 years ago and it is still standing.

After visiting the Dzong, we drove to our hotel which is on the hill facing the Dzong.  We were exaushted when we arrived so we all laid down to take a nap.  About half hour later a couple from California checked in and they were traveling with a lady from UK. They decided to explore the other rooms and just walked right into our room.  We were too exhausted to get up so we talked to them.  They are frequent travelers also and it was nice to talk about places we have all been.

At dinner we had the usual white rice with mixed vegetables and a side of ema datsi and bread.