Backdate: Bhutan Dec 2024 Day 7

18/12/24 Mon: Had breakfast at 8.30am. The chef’s own style muesli was quite nice. I ordered the trekkers’ breakfast: healthy dried fruit and nut porridge served with homemade jam, Bumthang honey, topped with ayurvedic powder along with two sunny side-up~ very filling.

Potato had their sunrise breakie: homemade baked beans, roasted tomatoes, skillet potatoes, local mushrooms and pork bacon served with scrambled eggs. Left at 9.30am for Gangtey Goenpa, which was a 10-minute drive away. It is perched on a forested hill overlooking the whole Phobjikha Valley. It is founded by Pema Thinley, grandson and reincarnation of Pema Lingpa in 1613. It serves as the seat of the ninth reincarnation of the body of the Terton (treasure discoverer) Pema Lingpa.

The wheel of life is depicted here I think. As we walked through the Nyingma monastic college, we saw many young monks studying for their exams early in the morning! Jamyang also brought us inside and the floors were cold~ I remember him explaining this is Tibetan Buddhism too.

Set off for Gangtey Nature Trail at 10am! It is a gentle trail about 4.6km long, with 224m of altitude ascent and takes two hours or so to walk. We first walked through Sumchubara village and huge forests filled with Spanish moss

The clear views in Bhutan in December has captured my heart! We also saw prayer flags for the deceased.

Credit to Jamyang and the beautiful nature in Bhutan!

I love watching videos of walking in moss forests and here we are~ lovely! It was also slightly cold but the walk healed everything! *世界那么大，大自然那么美。何不放慢脚步欣赏呢？*

Beautiful Gangtey Valley! After we emerged from the forests, we saw the valley and the marshy conservation area below, which was the roosting site of the black-necked cranes, the only alpine crane species in the world. We spotted a number of black-necked cranes there and also circling in the sky above us.

At one point of time, we saw this 80-year-old uncle who was looking for his cows (which we saw at the start of the trail). He wanted to take a photo with us too. 愿你健康长寿~

Came across an almost aggressive dog after this area. Jamyang lured him away with a stone but he also said it’s the first time he’d see the dog so worked up. They were big dogs and it was kind of scary.

Closer look of the ducks here~

Black-necked cranes some distance away. Jamyang said they'd "flee" if people went too close. At 12 noon, we arrived at the Black-necked crane education centre. There's two injured black-necked cranes in the rehabilitation enclosure: Pema, the female crane and Karma, the male one who broke his wings.

The "Thrung Thrung" has a special place in Bhutan's culture and folklore. They migrate from Tibet to Bhutan every late autumn so people can see them between November to January. Locals believe their presence brings about bountiful harvests and prosperity. We watched a 15-min documentary about the migration of the cranes to Gangtey in winter.

Went back to our lodge for lunch at 1.30pm. I liked the tofu, ginger and noodle soup with mixed veggies! 

For my mains, it was supposed to be tagliatelle w bolognese but because I don’t take beef, the chef changed it to fish for me and I really liked this too.

Potato ate beef burger on homemade black bean bun with Bhutanese cheese, pickles, sun-dried tomatoes and roasted rosemary potatoes. Both of us had the chocolate lava cake served with vanilla bean ice-cream~ good.

After 3pm, we played another game of tigers and cows but this time, my tigers lost rawrrr! Also chilled (really chilly~) outside the lodge after that. As we lazed in our suite in the afternoon, I saw some big crows just outside on the tree.

Ate our 1.5-hour dinner at 7pm. He had the roasted cardamon-spiced pumpkin w mint, pomegranate and tahini yoghurt dressing for the starter. My Gangtey style chicken soup, vermicelli noodles with fresh mushrooms and seasonal greens was not bad.

My mains was the seasonal mushroom risotto with greens, fresh thyme, white wine and truffle oil. He ate the grilled chicken breast with spring veggies, cream of tomatoes and mango tomato salsa.

We enjoyed some hot milo in front of the wood fire in their dining hall after dinner~ quite cosy and warm. Anyway, because we were at a five-star lodging, we'd saw some ultra rich guests. From what chef Soh shared with us, there was a group of Chinese tourists who actually booked one helicopter (there was only two in Bhutan at that point of time and the other was used by the King to send his guests home) to fly out of Gangtey because they did not want to endure the five-hour drive to Paro. For five people on one trip out of Gangtey (which would take about 30 minutes), it would cost them roughly USD8,000! Gosh and they need two trips out. Chef Soh also mentioned briefly they did luxury goods business in China I think. *果然有钱人的世界不一样。钱真的多到不要不要的。见识一下挺让人吃惊的。我们普通人还是继续忍着屁股痛坐车吧~lol.*

Awww they kept reminding us in our suite~