Backdate: Bhutan Dec 2024 Day 6

17/12/24 Tues: We had cold platter for breakfast at 8.45am. I did not have much appetite yet. The cheese momos were not for me really. Set off at 9.30am and just before we drove to town, there were herds of mules "obstructing traffic" haha. oh, the staff at andBeyond Punakha River Lodge prepared for us some snacks on the way but I left it on the car and forgot about it somehow.

It was supposedly Bhutan's National Day today, so many shops seemed to be close in town, but Jamyang and Yeshi still helped us to look for cold medicine and found one pharmacy that was opened.

The drive uphill towards Phobjikha took a long five hours and at 12.15pm, we saw the peak of the second highest mountain in Bhutan from afar! Arrived at Gangtey Lodge around 1pm and their Malaysian executive chef Soh came to greet us. Once we walked into the dining hall, all their staff were there singing a welcome song for us. *We received many Khadars during our stays!* Was given a short neck and head massage by the Thai masseur before we were shown the way to our farmhouse suite. 

I love the decor and our room! It was simple but cosy. The accompaniment of Bhutanese music also complemented the ambience. Chef Soh and her team were informed that I have a cold and so she told them to prepare some local herbal cold relief and sent that big bowl of medication to our room.

It was steaming hot when it arrived and I was supposed to bury my head under the towels to breathe in the steam from the herbal liquid... damn刺鼻okay! I had to come out a few times because I felt like I was choking due to the strong minty vapour. On hindsights, it probably was like having a lot of Vicks stuffed into the nose LOL.

It helped a bit I suppose. We headed back to the dining hall for lunch at 2pm. *The view reminded me of Ngorongoro crater lodge in Tanzania.*

The first course was the soup of the day which warmed me up! Then, I had the fresh rice paper rolls with tofu, avocado and glass noodle served with roasted cashew hoisin sauce. He chose the deep-fried chicken thighs marinated in shao xing wine, housed in kimchi mayo, bean vermicelli, chilli, fried onion salad with sweet tangy sauce.

For my main course, I picked the seasonal mushroom red wine ragout on soft polenta, wilted spinach, truffle oil and thyme. His was the classic bolognese served with house-made tagliatelle and local cheese.

His dessert was the spice-roasted banana in caramel sauce topped with vanilla bean ice-cream while I had the dark chocolate ice-cream because Chef Soh said it’s good for high altitude I think haha.

We played a game of tiger and cow after the one-hour lunch. My cows lost haha. 

The sun sets at 5-ish pm in Bhutan in winter... such a pretty view of the valley from here. We saw eagles and also the black-necked crane flying past too. Spent some time in our room before the night activity.

Such a nice interior! They even prepared different size of bedroom slippers for us. So thoughtful. At 6.15pm, we began our walk to the Kuenzang Chholing Shedra with a few other guests. We had to use torchlights provided because it was very dark on the short walk there. Also, even though we would probably only have taken five minutes to walk that distance at sea level, it took us 15 minutes at 3,090m ASL. *Man we were also a bit breathless on the uphill slopes too.* 

It was very cold at 6.30pm when we saw monks coming over for the evening prayer session. It is a Nyingmapa school with over 300 student monks. We were told to sit quietly at the back row to observe the 20-minute prayer session. This is one of the rare chances tourists get to see such prayer sessions up close because in other temples, they don't allow outsiders to view the sessions.

There were drums that accompanied the trumpets and chants... quite an eye-opener. *We think we saw some monks dozing off too lol.* I think the above is also the only photo of Buddha statues that I have and could take on the whole trip. Just look at those intricate details on the pillars of the hall...

Was chatting to a Malaysian-Singaporean couple on the walk back to Gangtey Lodge. Headed in to our room first to put down some stuff and saw that they set up the blackout curtains for us already! Ate our course dinner from 7.45 to 9pm. I ordered the virgin mojito: mint leaves, sugar syrup, lime juice and ginger ale since it was included~

Potato had the ginger and miso grilled eggplant with fresh lime, sesame seed, spring onion, beetroot and orange salad. I ordered a Southeast Asian set, so it had crispy veggie egg spring rolls with homemade sweet chilli

There's also fried chicken marinated and cooked in turmeric peanut satay sauce, steamed white fish in Korean sesame paste and fresh ginger, wok-fried fresh veggies with sautéed garlic served with egg-fried rice.

His main was the grilled basa fish fillet on local spinach, fresh cauliflower puree, char-grilled zucchini, spring onion and walnut salsa verde. By the time we finished dinner, Chef Soh brought in a special chocolate cake to commemorate our sixth wedding anniversary! It was rich and thick chocolate~ who needs more dessert after eating this leh? Lol.

After that, we braced the cold and walked just outside the Lodge to look at stars in the sky. It was not hard to see them since Phobjikha Valley is dark at night.

Decided we wanted some wood fire to warm the room further and so the staff came to do it for us~ so much cosier with that in our room!