Backdate: Bhutan Dec 2024 Day 4

15/12/24 Sun:  I woke up at 6.45am for their complimentary yoga class that was supposed to take place at 7.30am in their yoga studio. *Look at the mountain ranges from outside our suite!* It was a cold and quiet morning and I was there at 7.25am, five minutes before class. *They have a heated outdoor pool and the water’s only 28, 29 degrees Celcius. It felt cold to the touch so I doubt anyone would want to swim lol.*

I waited for five minutes or so in the studio but no one came. So I went to check with the manager and she replied the yoga teacher was injured and cannot make it for class (later saw photo from another staff... omg his face was bloodied). Manager said she went to our suite but did not knock because all our blinds were down and we looked like we were still sleeping, but in my opinion, she should have tried to call or find me at the studio (not far~) too! *I was specifically told by their staff one day before to arrive five minutes before class this morning, I made sure I did that but it was also very cold, so they should not have kept the guest waiting.*

But somehow later, every staff seemed to know about my disappointment and apologised. Seeing the state of the yoga teacher, I pitied him too and cannot help but feel a little guilty for having those thoughts before. But, I think the blame was more on the manager because the teacher did inform them after his mishap. 

Had breakfast at 8.30am and was served the cold platter first. Potato loved their smoked trout. I “whacked” all the fruits hehe. My shimeiji shrooms were sautéed quite well but still a little salty. An hour later, we took a 45-minute drive to Chimi Lhakhang, the fertility temple. It was about an hour's walk over and up. We first walked through a village with Jamyang and saw friendly locals and many shops selling phallus figurines before arriving at the base of the climb up to Chimi Lhakhang.

Most locals have paintings of phalluses outside their buildings or hung the toys outside their beams for good luck. Every home has a prayer flag and it's also common to see open attics for drying chillies. Passed one or two water prayer wheel on the way and I loved the sound of it. 

There's a family growing brocolli there. Saw a shop selling cordyceps and Jamyang explained that cordyceps are expensive in Bhutan because nomads who live high up in the mountainous areas risk their lives to find them at 5000m, 6000 m ASL. He mentioned 500g of it could sell for USD15,000! But of course it’s hard to find so many at one go, that’s why Jamyang said those nomads that come to Punakha during winter are rich! They fly to and fro via helicopters and can afford paying for one trip 20, 30 minutes down here that can cost a few thousand USD whoa~

Very cute seeing them cut hair in public haha. Started out uphill climb to Chimi Lhakhang, located on a round hillock on the edge of Punakha Valley and built in 1499 by the 14th Drukpa hierarch, Ngawang Choegyel. 

We saw almost all locals on that morning who came with babies and young kids. Jamyang said he's surprised it's so empty this morning because usually there would be throngs of tourists and so we're lucky in a sense. Upon reaching the top, Jamyang sat us down at a bench under a Bodhi tree and began telling us the folklore of the Divine Madman, a Tibetan spiritual master whom subdued the evil demoness even though she managed to disguise herself as a black dog, hence the only stupa that’s black in Bhutan. It was such an interesting story of how the Divine Madman came to Bhutan following his magic arrow and convinced one lady, who lived in a village where people found it hard to conceive for many years, to stay at her place while the husband was out all night. The Divine Madman was also a drunkard lol. *Been so long since I listened so attentively to someone telling a story haha.* 

Anyway, the small temple is famous to both locals and tourists. Locals bring their new-borns to be named there and to receive blessings from the Lama. No photos could be taken inside, but we were also blessed by the huge phallus relic by a monk as he touched our head with the relic lightly.

Walked back down and entered one of the shops but we did not buy anything. The friendly locals quickly pointed me to a public toilet (which I believed belonged to them because their shop or house was just beside) before we left for the Nalanda Buddhist Institute and Sangchhen Dorji Lhuendrup nunnery.

The Nalanda Buddhist Institute was built in 1754 as a monastery, but converted to a Shedra in 1991. The site was chosen by the founding monk because he dreamed about eight vultures circling the site while the monastic body was on the move from Punakha. The eight vultures were believed to be the original scholars from the ancient Nalanda University in India.

Took a photo in front of the Nepalese stupa. At the Sangchhen Dorji Lhuendrup nunnery complex, there is a permanent school for higher learning and a meditation centre for the nuns where besides religious learning they learn tailoring, embroidery, statue making and thangka painting too. While we were there in December, many nuns were away but we saw two that were doing laundry outside. 

Received a Tshewang (blessings) ceremony for personal empowerment, wish fulfilment and a healthy life by those two nuns and we also lighted butter lamps. They asked for our year of birth before the wo of us sat down in the temple hall, which was quite cold, and listened to the two nuns chant for 20 minutes. It was oddly peaceful for me.

I was thinking we would take some time to go back to our lodge for lunch but Jamyang and Yeshi surprised us again by stopping us at a random forested area at 1pm lol!

It was part of andBeyond Punakha River Lodge's stay package I believe haha~ but I have always liked the idea of dining in the wild hehe! We had energy date balls and trail mix, sticky roasted aubergine, grilled pineapple and cucumber salad, scorched tomato and chicken wrap. There was also apple crumble and fruit bowl.

Half an hour later, we drove back to our suite to rest in the afternoon. As I was still having flu, we got the staff to send ginger honey tea to our suite.

At 3.30pm, we tried archery and darts with Sonam. He taught us how to wear the guards and shoot the arrows. At the practice ground, the distance between us and the board was 15m or so, but in Bhutan's competition, the distance is supposedly 145m, more than double the standard Olympic distance!

Sonam’s a “hidden expert” being humble lol. Potato and I had some fun playing with archery before we moved on to darts. *Don't know where I was aiming for with the darts. It’s harder than archery to me.* 

We were told that the staff has set up a campfire for us by the river, so we followed one lady down to near the Mo Chu at 4.30pm. We had drinks by the river for half an hour but no one guests joined us.

The fire kept us warm. I had chamomile tea since my throat was not very well and he had lemonade gin and tonic. He suggested to stack stones and we did 10... 十全十美haha. I also took some shots by the river and it was very calming to hear the waters flow.

We left at 5pm just before sunset because it was getting colder. Photo above shows where staff send the ginger honey tea in when we don't want them to “disturb” us.

Headed over to the dining hall for dinner at 6.30pm. First up was the tomato terrine with goats cheese mousse, tomato jam, balsamic reduction and pickled cucumber, watermelon compote.

We requested to try the stir-fried buckwheat noodles from Bhutan after Rudolf shared about that. It was a bit salty and more like kway teow and not a bit like your Japanese soba.

We both opted to have seared chicken ramen with soy coddled egg, oyster mushrooms, shredded cabbage and carrots with soy ginger broth for our mains because I'd smell the broth since this afternoon when we walked past towards archery. Smelled so good~ But it was slightly salty albeit we enjoyed it overall. The dessert was chilli chocolate and hazelnut mousse with chocolate soil, strawberry and thyme compote and choco leaf. We were also served cheese and preserve platter at the end.

At 7.30pm, we headed out in the cold to watch chef Rudolf's cooking demonstration tonight. He showed us how he prepared the local trout and joked “what happens here stays in Bhutan” but oops keke~ He prepared a portion of Ceviche for every guest present... ooo sour.