The next morning, we headed out of Thimphu and went over Dochula Pass! Our first stop was the 106 memorial stupas, and a viewpoint that probably would have been amazing if the clouds weren’t so low. The drive through the mountains was beautiful and gave us a much better sense of the countryside of Bhutan.
From there, we had lunch and then took a nice walk out to the Chimi Lhakhang Temple, which is perhaps better known as the Fertility Temple. One of the aspects of Bhutan that is so fascinating is the part of its history dealing with the Divine Madman. Basically, he helped people reach enlightenment through intercourse, and so phallic symbols are a way for Bhutanese people to protect themselves from the evil eye. It’s hard to describe how many phallic symbols you see across the country. They’re painted on buildings. They’re sold in shops, with elaborate paintings and shapes and carvings. Our driver had one as his compass. Needless to say, I have a number of photos that I cannot show publicly from this trip.
It’s strange to have to edit my pictures in this way. I had to do that a little in PNG, because some of the tribes have traditional outfits for sing-sings that are more revealing than the West is comfortable with, but this is a whole different level – most of the photos from this area are unpostable because of the phallic imagery!
Once we got to the temple, our guide asked us if anyone wanted to do the fertility ritual. Two women in my group did, which was very cool to be able to watch! Basically, they had to put on what was essentially a backpack made out of a large dildo, walk around the courtyard clockwise three times, and then receive a blessing. This included rolling some sort of dice to learn about the gender and name of their future child.
From there, we kept driving to the Punakha Dzong! This one is often considered the most beautiful in the country, and I would have to say I agree. Seeing it over the river was stunning.
We had one more stop before we got to our hotel in Punakha, which was the longest suspension bridge in Bhutan. It’s beautiful over the river in Punakha – I loved the view from our hotel room while we were here!
The next morning we did the whole drive in reverse (with less stops) and headed back to Paro. Our first activity was the National Museum in Paro, which was an interesting experience. I’ve never seen a museum designed quite like this – it was in a cylinder, and you started around floor 3 or 4 and then went up to the top and then all the way down. There was a prescribed path that felt a little bit like a labyrinth, especially in areas where it took you down a staircase and then immediately back up another. Eventually, I ended up sort of separated from the group and I was working my way through the historical artifacts of Bhutan all on my own. It felt a little surreal.
After the National Museum, we headed down the hill to the Paro Dzong, which was smaller than the other ones we’d been to. We also stopped by some local archery grounds! Archery is Bhutan’s national sport. This was underscored when we arrived and our driver reached into a compartment in the bus where he kept his own bow and arrows, and he joined in. I’ve seen archery on TV before, like at the Olympics, but I don’t think I’d truly understood how far the distances were that they were shooting. It’s pretty incredible, I’m definitely glad we got a chance to see it.
We had a little free time to wander around in Paro, which was nice. Chelsea and I found a market and a path along the river. I love the chance to get lost in a city (or at least try, Paro isn’t big enough or windy enough to truly get lost). We had dinner at the hotel and then had a chill night – we knew we had an early rise the next morning so that we could hike to Tiger’s Nest!