Today started with the most wonderful morning. We’d been told to have our bags ready and at the vans by 8, so we’d mostly packed the night before. Honestly, as much as we’d loved being at the monastery, we were ok to leave the room. Despite their incredible efforts, they were rough. They have many plans to upgrade further and to build a hostel for guests. They were cleaning, painting till late the night before to prepare for us, we did not take it for granted!
I woke up early – surprise! – and left the room by 5:15. I came up the walk and there were the nuns (the youngest of whom is 3) and monks coming back to their rooms chanting from the temple. They were in a line, the girl in the front waving a white scarf up and down, the older ones taking of the younger, especially the 3 year old. They came to the head of the staircase where I was standing and then they split up. The nuns to their new dorm, just finished in time for them to leave the rooms where we stayed and the boys down the sidewalk to their rooms.
This was an aha for me. I knew they’d been saying nuns and monks, but honestly, with rare exception, I couldn’t tell the difference. Their ages ranged from 3 (exceptionally young, parents dropped her off) to 16? There were 40-50 children there, almost all orphans and the majority with some challenge, physical or mental. That was not immediately apparent with a few exceptions.
Dorji Phagmo was unusual in her embrace of ALL children, and especially making space for those who would have been rejected. After seeing the children go back to their rooms, I continued up to the stuppa to walk again. A wonderful morning.
Our farewell gave us time to talk with, interact with the kids. Rick was forefront and they were having so much fun playing games. They then lined up with everyone to wave us off on our next leg.
Then we had a LONG drive, bumpy, mud slides, and beautiful scenery in the mountains. Basically, our whole trip except for time in Paro, was spent at altitude, anywhere from 8400 to highest 10,400 for Tiger’s Nest, 10+ for all the passes we drove over. We started to be in the “quiet” car as designated by Alison, Jan and Niñez, but instead, we were with Mark, Lindsay, Rae, Tomas and Wangda. Lots of interesting stories, and I can’t remember anything at this point. Truly the days have been so full, I haven’t been able to do anything but be in the moment. Highlight of the drive, in addition to the fun conversation, was seeing the monkeys, Golden Langurs (?), whole families, babies clinging to the underside of mothers, leaping in the trips, over incredibly steep hillsides that dropped 100’s of feet.
We had a lunch in Tsonga which underscored that you don’t come to Bhutan for the food. It was a cool restaurant on the side of the hill looking over the fort protecting this area. Beautiful scenery. Just an hour away from here is the nunnery, monastery, established by Khenpo Rinpoche. I’d been in touch with the main person connected to Nalandabhodi about visiting, but it wasn’t possible. It has to be beautiful because the whole mountain range was gorgeous.
We arrived in Bhumtang, home of Padhasambhava’s first arrival and where he achieved the miracle of defeating the giant demon that spread over the land. It’s a beautiful valley ringed with mountains and our hotel, The Mountain Resort, looked like a paradise to us. Showers!
We had dinner and then straight to bed. I’m now sleeping a fair amount these days and that’s a treat to be back on track.
