Punakha

Punakha is the name of a town about 3 hours by car from here, over hair-raising roads. The roads are made even more hair-raising by the construction. Let's put it this way: OSHA and the National Transportation Safety Board would put a plastic bell over the entire country and quarantine it.

Anyway, the trip to Punakha was breath-taking. We go up through Dochu-la which is a pass through the mountains. The huge Himalayan peaks are visible in the background if you are lucky, and briefly we were lucky. There was a nice little cafe where we stopped for tea and crackers, and then proceeded on to Punakha. We passed through a botanical preserve, where some of the wild rhododendrons and magnolias were in bloom.

Monastery at the top of the pass

Memorial to the short war in 1995 (?) against Indian rebels

Rice terraces

There was some sort of festival at the dzong (monastery/seat of civil authority/seat of religious authority for the region) and we were witness to the reenactment of a battle against the Tibetans. We were able to see several of the temple rooms, which are utterly beautiful.

Punakha Dzong; another one of those must-take Bhutan pictures

Local holy men

Traditional dress

Reenactment of battling the Tibetans

Unrelated, there was a beautiful tree in bloom at the dzong, shown below. Also, this is the first of what  I hope are a bunch of pictures of Bhutanese cats. They have very distinctive markings and are quite beautiful.

We ate at an overpriced tourist cafe; good enough but way too expensive, and way toned down in terms of heat.  After lunch, we went to see the dzong at Wangdue.  After we were almost there, our driver told us that it was not accessible because of construction. We had a good look from a distance but that was about it.

The Wangdue Dzong, from a distance

Work today (10 March 2014) included a bedside bronchoscopy and stabilizing a young (21) woman with hypertensive encephalopathy. Unfortunately, I am teaching far less than I'd like. No pictures, sorry.