Wangdue

After eating a hearty breakfast and taking my cold shower for the day (the coldest one so far in Bhutan), we hopped back in the car to make the long journey back to Paro. Saying goodbye to our host family was bittersweet, and the cute little daughter was crying as she said goodbye.

I've had the left seat the whole time but I guess it was my turn to sit in the middle. We stopped by Wangdue Dzong on the way back. I had no idea what it was and I had just listed it as a potential place to stop by, only to realize that it was perhaps the second most impressive dzong we have seen so far. It burned down a few years ago and I remember reading about it in the Crane Center that the Bhutanese people donated in solidarity to have it rebuilt, even by donating family heirlooms and such.

In terms of design and architecture, everything stood out impeccably. There's just something about Bhutanese architecture that looks so clean, sharp, and perfect. Notwithstanding the fact that we were the only ones here with full freedom to roam around the grounds, its halls, the towers, and everywhere our legs would take us. I even stumbled upon a black covered area where they worshipped Mahakala in the form of the god of death apparently as they had guns on the pillars by the altar, as well as the macabre decor of skeletons. I saw a tiny cat that didn't want to be petted but it skirted around the temple grounds freely. The main temple also had a painting of Samsara upfront with Guru Rinpoche and Shakyamuni Buddha inside. After exploring every nook and cranny, I went outside and saw Lisa sitting by the edge so I went over there and joined her as we both overlooked the river and valley.

We met up with Fifa once again outside the temple and we drove on onwards towards Paro. Once we got to Punakha, Fifa asked us if we wanted to do a hike towards a temple. At first, I thought it was just a random temple but we had nothing else planned for the day so we went for it. We crossed a bridge coated with prayer flags and began the hike. Soon enough we found ourselves surrounded by the beautiful terraced rice fields and it as the hike went on, it just kept getting better and better. I found myself taking photos every few steps up, the terraced fields extended as far as the eyes could see. Now though, it was time to hike which was a prelude to the Tiger's Nest hike we were doing the next day.

Turns out this was actually Khamsum Valley Namgyal Chorten, I have read about it before but didn't include it in the itinerary because I thought it was just going to be a long hike for a small temple. Little did I know that the journey was much better than the destination in this case. The main chorten at the top was unique because it had a 3D mandala on the first floor. I also paid respect to the deities on the 2nd and 3rd floors. There was a guide and one tourist who came down from a hatch to the roof top and when they closed it, I curiously went up to check it out too. The payoff was immense as it gave me the absolute best view of the entire Khamsum Valley, the meandering river, the surrounding mountains, and the layered rice fields. I was later joined by Fifa, Emily, and Lisa. Thaye had sent me some voice messages about Fifa being a bit tired and I later talked to him about this. He was quite embarrassed by it but I told him not to worry about anything, I gave him my thanks and we hugged it out as bros.

We all went back down and this time the ride towards Paro continued until nightfall. I tried to fight the sleep and it was a hard battle. We even got to see Dochula Pass again without the fog, it was closed though and it was illuminated by lights since it was already dark. We dropped Tashi over at Thimphu and we gave him his share for being such a good friend to us.

At Paro, we found ourselves in Khamsum Inn again where we ate dinner with Fifa before retiring to our room. Much bigger and much cozier than Thimphu's though I saw a tiny bug on my bed. Still, sleep was good that night.Læs mere