Bhutan Trip Day 2 and 3 - 24 and 25 June 2015 - Thimphu and Journey to Bumthang

Read the Bhutan trip day 1 and 2 here

Wed, 24 June 2015

After done with packing, it's almost lunch time. Aue Sonam Pelden, Luzee's boss, whom I met few months back in Singapore, invited me for lunch at Folk Heritage.

Bhutanese food lunch at Folk Heritage, Thimphu

Tourists or foreigners were usually brought to this restaurant as to introduce them how the Bhutan food culture looked like.

Taengme, zaw and suja - Folk Heritage, Thimphu

For example: Once you were seated they would bring suja (butter tea) accompanied with zaw (rice crackers) and taengma (cereal maize) served in a traditional woven bamboo plate.

Array of Bhutanese dishes

Then main course was served using the traditional wooden plates. Array of Bhutanese food, such as: kewa datshi (potato with cheese), phaksha-pha (spicy dried pork), chicken curry, broccoli, ema datshi (chilli with cheese) with Bhutanese red rice.

The weather was very nice that afternoon.  It wasn't raining and there wasn't much sunlight too. We had it outdoor under the apple trees as the other tables were fully booked. Many Bhutanese were also seen there. Overall the lunch experience was great. Only that the phaksha-pha filled your mouth with too much oil :P *sinful.

Nice meeting you in person Yangchen and Jigme :)

After lunch I visited my friend's house, Yangchen, at Upper Mothithang. We had known each other for about two years but only through online. She was studying Law school in New Delhi. So since I had some time, I decided to visit her and her son, Jigme, (her hubby, Pema, was working night shift. Therefore, I couldn't meet him). We had a chit chat and tea. In a while I had to go back home to take some rest then prepare for the bloggers meeting.

Thurs, 25 June 2015

I woke up at 5.30am and prepared my stuffs. Rekha had kindly prepared breakfast for me and sent me to the bus station. I was traveling alone by public bus to Bumthang.

Passing by Dochula Pass 108 Chortens

It's my first time traveling during monsoon season (June-July). I often heard people saying that it's not advisable to visit Bhutan during this season as the road would be muddy, there would be road block, sometimes landslide, and so on.

Muddy and slippery road

However, plan had already been made and I just had to proceed with it. And throughout the journey, I witnessed it myself that the road conditions were really bad especially on our way from Thimphu to Wangdue. We passed by many muddy road. For big bus like what I took, the problem was slightly lesser as it had bigger wheels. I was wondering about the small little cars that many Bhutanese usually drove.

Chorten (stupa) in the middle of the road

I was praying all throughout the journey that we would have a safe and smooth journey. Our driver played a very big part too in saving our lives. He always made a turn over the Chorten (stupa) for one round as a respect and wishing for a safe and smooth journey.

Road block in Wangdue 

There was one road block and we had to wait for about one hour. They said it's necessary as there was road repair. While waiting, all passengers could go down stretching their legs and walk around. Many street sellers came approaching each vehicles that stopped and offered their goods like momo, samosa, chilli chops, ngaja, even doma, and so on.

Thank Buddha our journey was smooth. We reached Bumthang station at 6.45pm. My friend, Neela, had already been there looking for me. So we went to his house and Devi served me fried rice and coffee as a snack :D

Wonderful hospitality from Neela and Devi family :)

Again at 8pm we started drinking Druk 11000 plus Chang pa (food accompany for beer), then continued with dinner. We chit chatted so much and went to bedroom at midnight.

Read the next day trip - Nimalung Tshechu - here.