The drive from the Phobjikha Valley to Jakar was less than 100 miles, but it took all day. We started at 8 and arrived after 4. We made a couple of brief stops and a much longer one to tour a museum and eat lunch in Trongsa. The scenery was spectacular, but, with all the curves and bumps in the road, I was glad to have had a motion sickness patch behind my ear.
How to summarize the day?
Let’s start with some animals along the road–a yak in an area where they browse on a specific type of bamboo called cham,
some cows near the driveway to a guest house,
and cattle attacking the van.
We must have spent at least a half hour watching a group of crows harass four Himalayan Griffons.
The griffons would move around or take off and then land again, but the crows just kept on swooping, pecking, and, of course, making a lot of racket.
Griffons are a type of vulture–small head, large body.
We also saw a few people, but not many.
I got to see snow for the first time since I’d left home ten days earlier with 3+ feet of snow in my yard, and here I was at over 10,000 feet!
There were lots of waterfalls.
I also had my first opportunity to photograph a blooming rhododendron. I’d seen a fair number of white ones along the roads we’d driven, but this was the first time I’d been on foot or seen a red in full bloom. In Bhutan and Nepal, rhododendrons are not the bushes we have in our yards or even the ones like I’ve seen on trails. Here they are trees!
We crossed two passes–Pele La and Yotong La–but neither had spectacular mountain views. At Pele La there was a chorten and an amazing number of prayer flags of which only a few are captured in my pictures. You can sort of see some mountains in the background.
At the confluence of two rivers after descending from Pele La, there are two chortens–one Tibetan-style and one Bhutanese-style, as well as a couple of organized rows of prayer flags.
The Tibetan style Chendebji Chorten (correctly named Chorten Charo Kasho) was built by Lama Shida in the 19th century. Note the Buddha eyes; you’ll see lots of those when I post my photos from Nepal.
The mani wall chorten dates from 1982.
Prayer flags always make good pictures.
About 16km before reaching Jakar we stopped at Zungney to visit a couple of shops where weavers create strips of woollen fabric that is made into jackets and blankets.
Have you seen the movie Travellers and Magicians? If not, watch this trailer and then get the movie. Part of it was filmed along the road between Pele La and Chendebji, most notably a scene at this roadside shrine.
The inscription reads:
“May all sentient beings be free from,
Wanting to be praised.
Not wanting to be criticized.
Wanting to be happy.
Not wanting to be unhappy.
Wanting to gain.
Not wanting to lose.
Wanting to be famous.
Not wanting to be unknown.
Thus prayed at the occasion of filming in Bhutan.
Nov. 2002
Scene 112, take 101.”