"To the right of Nepal - between Tibet and India"
For a bloke who has wanted to get to Bhutan for ages I was astounded how many people didn't even know where it was!
It goes without saying they hadn't heard about Gross National Happiness... or that the king only let TV into the country in 1999.... And even then, they banned MTV, WC Wrestling, the fashion channel and other 'bad taste' western broadcasts... Tobacco is banned from sale and you can't smoke it in public places anyway… over ¾ of the country is still forest... Westerners couldn’t get in until 1974 and you have to pay US$200 a day for the privilege...
Other interesting facts for the would-be adventurer… It is about the size of Switzerland with only 600,000 people! Fully 60% of the GDP comes from electricity generated by in-mountain hydro generators so as not to have to dam rivers! Education is free. Medical is free. The only graffiti you see are Buddhist prayers and signs extolling the passer-by to think about the environment! The king is introducing democracy in stages and next year is the first elections for most of the government. So you’d think that the people would be very happy and you’d be right. Gross National Happiness is not a throw away line – the government has an index of factors to determine the general happiness of the population. Judging by the amount of Indians and Nepalese trying to get into Bhutan they are doing a pretty good job. Add to this that the whole country sits on the southern slope of the Himalayas and it becomes one of the more intriguing countries on the planet.
Trekking is the only way to see such a remote country and Teresa and I decided at the last minute to do the 18 day High Passes Trek. While we waited for our flights confirmation, mountain biking was stopped and trek training began. By the end of six weeks we had climbed every high mountain in southeast Qld! Fairydown also came to the party and supplied us with what turned out to be the lightest merino wool long sleeve T-shirts going. Which was a good thing as the trek would take us over 4 passes around 5000m and camping out most nights around 4000m. We would be using pack ponies at lower altitudes and yaks at higher altitudes.
After boarding Druk Air (the national carrier and only airline flying into Bhutan) in Bangkok the anticipation on the flight soon turned to astonishment at the manoeuvring our twin-engine jet was undertaking to get thru the mountainous valley that guards Paro (pop 8000), the second largest town and the only airport in Bhutan!
On first impressions, the town’s architecture was definitely alpine. However, the big surprise was clean! No beggars, everyone dressed in well-maintained, clean clothes, everyone seemed well fed and smiling! Very unlike any other Asian city I have ever been to.
To get on to this particular trek the company needed to see a letter from your doctor deeming that you were in ‘excellent’ health and able to do a ‘demanding’ trek. The next day was our trek tester! A little jaunt up to Takstang (Tigers Nest) Monastery at 3100m – and the guides were insistent we carry our normal packs and gear!
700m up a sheer cliff, these guys decide to build a monastery. As the French culture is dominated by food, Australians are into sport – well, for the Bhutanese it is Buddhism. The impact of Buddhism is incredible… everyone from far-flung villagers to the king consult the monks for auspicious occasions. Our Bhutanese guide for the trek, the effervescent Lhap Tsering and an average guy, had been to this monastery many times - and that is not as easy as you might suspect. The average well fed westerner probably wouldn’t be able to make the hike up there. The track is steep and when it rains – and this is Bhutan, you would win money on it raining – it is 2 hours or so of continual slippery up, up, up. It is an all day event for a 30min visit to the monastery.
Though the building is an amazing structure, even more awe-inspiring is what is inside… huge golden Buddha’s covered in brightest silk… with butter lamps and incense adding scent and atmosphere… incredibly vibrant murals of Buddhist fables and deities round out the astonishment and awe programme… unfortunately no photographs allowed!
The Takstang Monastery is one of the wonders in Buddhist world. We met a monk who had walked for 2 months from Sri Lanka to be here! In this photo, a stream bubbles down the ravine where you see prayer flags hanging from every vantage point.
The Bhutan High Passes Trek started in earnest the next day. Although to us westerners this trek was all about getting ‘out there’, the paths we followed were actually the paths between the villages. They are in constant use by the pony caravans that ply the routes to get your gear to wherever you are going. These are the motorways of Bhutan - and every night we would down packs and camp at the truck stops of Bhutan.
Oh, and everything is accepted for carriage - you want to visit the rellies on the lower slopes? Well, weigh the kiddies in, pack them well and 2 days later granny will be hugging them at the next village.
The countryside is a mass of stunning colour… ‘old mans beard’ thick and long like I have never seen before – streams and clearings straight out of a Disney film… as long as you didn’t look at the path…Pack ponies provide all goods carriage in the lowlands of Bhutan, yaks takeover to a large degree at higher altitude. Where there are ponies there is pony poo. Where there is lots of water there is mud. There is no built path - but there is a wobbly, muddy and rock-hopping option that will take you to where you want to go.
Just 3 days into the trek we get to Jangothang - a yak herder’s camp by a glacial stream at 4100m. It sits right underneath Chomolhari at 7314m that just towers over everything around.
At this altitude everything is tiring. Just sitting requires longer intakes of breath. To top it off a lot of us were not keeping food down. At one stage Teresa and I were scoffing nurofen for headaches, pulled muscles etc, Imodium for the runs, Diamox for the altitude and Stemitol to try and keep nausea away. That’s ok, we had a day here to acclimatise. The youngest person nearly had to give up and walk back down – the food/altitude just didn’t go well with him. Some folks were in ok shape but just hadn’t eaten for a day or so - shame as we had to get over a pass at 5000m the next day!
We were starting to get into the trekking groove though. Up at 5.30 to pack, wash, sort gear and get to the brekky tent for a Western inspired Bhutanese breakfast and on the trail by 7.30. Food was Indian influenced but definitely Bhutanese. Chilli’s and cheese is a dish not a garnish! There is not a lot of meat but we ate well, the cooks were very enthusiastic and the menu was incredible when you think they cooked on 2 bloody dodgy burners and used a couple of equally dodgy gas lanterns.
On the subject of food… One of the scarier sights for a western palate were roof loads of fat, red chilli’s drying in the sun in every household. They eat them by the fork load. Yeah… like I said, scary…
Yaks are used to survive at altitude. They supply milk, cheese, meat, transport, the ploughing of course, but wait there is more… yak wool felt provides clothing, rope and tents. The original settlers of Bhutan came over from Tibet probably in the 5th century with yaks. Basically, no yaks - no living at these altitudes. Yaks provide good income for the farmers and are a measure of wealth.
The fields the yaks are ploughing here will be planted with barley, buckwheat and green fodder for the approaching winter. The villages are just brilliant. They are basically the same as they have been for a thousand years… the only difference are things like aluminium pots for cooking, better steel knives and axes and most recently small solar panels for a light at night… the ploughs are all wood, the houses stone with wood slat roofs. You’ll notice lines of rocks on the roof slats to keep them in place when the storms come down. No nails here folks…
The path descended from over a bluff into this particular village and as you rounded a corner in the path the scene laid below out was a jaw dropping. Down in the valley was a quaint stone village with yaks doing a couple of training runs with the ploughs, above them the sides of the mountain were almost vertical, and through the clouds a hanging glacier could be seen that itself stretched back into a line of peaks to 7000m dam! You just had to look... and look… and blink, then look again…
A couple of things about yaks though…
Yaks like fighting. Yaks like looking for a fight. Yaks like doing anything to get rid of the load. Cantankerous, obstreperous and tetchy describe yaks well. The term ‘yakified’ was coined to describe anything destroyed by the yaks that day… i.e. some pots were ‘yakified’ today so tea is going to be a bit late…
We saw a yak, being tired of its load, do a full pike with twist down a steep mountain side quickly followed by the yak handlers running down 200m of mountain face then collecting gear on the way back up to strap back on to a hopefully remorseful yak. Yep… yak handlers are fit.
Yaks are kind of cool though. A definite attitude goes into being a yak. They can be very laidback, almost non-plussed - but once the line is crossed, they ain’t stepping back.
The handlers are very proud of their yaks. Once while taking a photo of the yaks a young handler was politely insistent I get his favourite yak into the shot. They plaster their yaks in coloured cloth and bells that tinkle so you can hear them coming before you see them. The lead yak is pimped out in a very particular red headdress. Didn’t get the lead yaks take on that…
Blue Sheep are somewhere between sheep and antelopes on the species map. They turn a blueish grey in winter and have a baa kind of like a young sheep. These guys are supposed to be rarish but we saw big herds of them once we got away from the town and above 4500m. Blue Sheep always seem to be head down and eating - we got lots of photos but only a few when they are doing the head butt thing or just playing around. They didn’t seem to be bothered by us too much though they must be preyed upon by wolves and we saw a dead one being munched by vultures but obviously not shot or hunted by the villagers.
There is wildlife everywhere, Buddhists don’t kill animals and this was a very Buddhist country… other than ‘normal’ creatures we also managed to photograph a black bear, a Bhutanese red pheasant (looks like a big grouse), Himalayan vultures snacking on a Blue Sheep, Griffins (eagle type things), snow pigeons (which have the most amazing group flying patterns). Marmots squeak at you on the slopes of course, then run for cover.
There are 5 passes on this trek. In many ways the passes between the valley systems are the high lights of trekking in Bhutan. Travel between these valleys is not necessarily a usual thing. For the people living in a particular valley system most things can be done where they live. When something else is needed, people tend to head down the valley to the bigger villages further down.
On this day the pass Jhari La at 4750m was breezy and a little nippy. The vegetation up here is definitely out of the ordinary. The ground is alive with small colourful plants all getting in on the summer gig. It’s amazing how the roots and branches manage to survive the snow and ice in winter to get it all happening again next spring.
There is a definite strategy to the passes. By slowing down, admiring the surroundings and taking it all in is better than trying to push hard for the top. As well as getting a better appreciation for what is there, it is healthier not to get the heart racing. A guy in a group travelling a few days behind us died after going over Shinge La – a big cold pass at 5020m – altitude is not to be taken lightly.
Eventually after 9 days of trekking we get to the Laya villages. People here speak a different language (there are 19 language groups in Bhutan). The Laya are principally yak herders. This village (pop 1000) is at 3800m and, like other villages, the people live here all year round. In the summer months the men and sometimes whole families take their yaks to higher summer pastures. They then live in simpler stone structures or if they are moving a lot – yak felt tents which, apparently, are becoming rarer as blue plastic tarps become easier to obtain. An unusual custom of Laya women is the wearing of a petite conical bamboo hat with a small spike and precious coloured beads for a strap. They are an expensive heirloom passed down from mother to daughter.
This bloke is wearing a ‘gho’ which is the national dress. The ‘gho’ is especially practical. It is very long when used as a sleeping blanket and is tied up around the waist (how you see it here) for daywear. This leaves a ‘pocket’ in the overlap where the men often carry a large knife for chopping and cutting (you can see the wooden handle at waist level) or other farm or yak herding tools.
Archery is a national sport which the Bhutanese take very seriously indeed. Everywhere we went there was archery. In the Laya village we saw young fella's practicing until they are allowed to shoot on the grownups field. The compound bow would be very expensive but this is a very serious sport even for grommets!
The friendliness of these people was quite unnerving at first… As you would expect on the only trail between villages you met the locals coming the other way. Always they smiled when they saw us. Always they called out “zongbo!” or the more formal “Kozo zongbo la!” as greeting. Often a person would greet in English. “Good Morning Sir!” and then they would stop, shake hands and chat asking about where we were going, tell where they were going and “how was the path further on?”. They learn English as a second language at school and love to practise.
The amount of climbing and descending was fierce – looking at the trip sheets, on one day we gained 1000m and then dropped 1200m on the map – actual altitude gain and loss is much more than that! After that kind of day when you finally hit camp, it is great to have little luxuries. One of ours was our Fairydown 100% merino woollen long sleeved tops. After stripping off the wet/smelly/muddy outer clothes and slipping into light, soft, dry, non-smelly Fairydown's - it is heaven on a stick. All that is left after getting into the formal gear, is wander to the dining tent for a cuppa and few ‘yakified’ biscuits! I slept in my Fairydowns for 16 nights – and for 16 nights they were light, soft, dry, non smelly. Try that with synthetics! Not only that - they are the lightest wool long sleeve tops I have come across and so have become standard sleeping equipment in my pack.
This photo is of a ‘guest house’ where we were lucky enough to stay the night after the Laya village. It is actually on a remote part of the trail between Gaza and the Laya village built by the government. The pony caravans use it principally, particularly in the winter. It has a bare floor with a big fire pit in the middle of the room. It was absolute luxury! Dry, a flat floor to sleep on and space for the eating table and drying of wet stuff. The outhouse – the arrangement in the bottom left of the photo - was an interesting exercise. At 4 in the morning with a decent drizzle coming down and trying to find any ‘stepping stones’ with a head torch to help pave the way through the mud and pony poo mixture to the aromatic dunny - it certainly kept the interest up…!
The beauty of the place is mind numbing… Here a pony caravan is coming down from the pass Bale La - a ‘low pass’ at only 4000m – incredibly atmospheric stuff. On this day we gained 700m then dropped 1700m to the Hot Springs of Gaza - a big day.
Gaza was really the symbolic end of the trek… we stayed at a campsite near the hot thermal springs that are famous in Buddhist culture. There is a little store to buy Bhutanese beer – the first booze in weeks – so we celebrated with the Bhutanese crew. It was a very emotional time. We had all gone thru the trials and tribulations and thru it all the crew had been patient, understanding and just so willing to put themselves out to help in any way they could. One of the girls had been suffering quite badly for a couple of the days and she was very sad to say good-bye to one of the crew who had been a “Venerable” – a Buddhist monk. A small bloke but he had carried her pack along with his own pack over some very rough territory.
Bhutan is a most surprising country. In this day and age Bhutan’s environmental philosophy, low population and social policies stand quietly apart from us in the ‘civilized’ countries. The results though, may be setting Bhutan up as an example for the rest of the world.
