Our Aborted Trek

Making cheese

Churn

ing butter

The positive:
- we have recovered fully from mild altitude sickness.
- we got the symptoms on the training hike in the Haa Valley. Better then, than at the first night’s camp of the trek, in the clouds and cold rain. The training hike trail would have been on the 1st day of the usual trek, but the itinerary had been changed, so we returned down the way we went up (see below)
- we are uninjured after both the hike on a treacherous, steep trail, and the drive to/from the start of it. An SUV is definitely helpful as all but the main roads are unpaved, with many very large potholes. The road was only one lane wide, the downhill driver yields to the car going up, and people try to allow each other to pass as best they can. You share the road with trucks, road workers, cattle, rocks, and dug up areas. Due to the rain there was slippery mud. And the drop offs are super steep, and the sharp curves pretty much constant.
- we got to see the beautiful Punakha Dzong (Craig says the most beautiful temple of our entire trip), which had not been on our itinerary had we completed the trek.

Link to the Haa Valley



The negative: - we would have liked to do the trek as planned, and are sad to have to miss it.
- climate change is coming here, too. Tsewang, already before our arrival, knew he would need to modify the itinerary due to too much snow along the planned route. Winter came late here, just like at home. On the training hike, there was snow on a fairly steep slope that usually is green by now. We made small traverses of it following narrow paths made by cattle over the years. The footing was definitely scary in places due to the snow, and the steep angle. We also were in the clouds at times, and had hail on the descent, fortunately not on the steep parts.

The statistics, so we know what did not work:
- we have spent most of the year at sea level. Spent 1 night in Paro at 2195 meters (7200’). 2 nights in Thimphu at 2334 m.  Day 2 in Bhutan, we hiked up to the Tiger’s Nest at 3120 m. The parking lot for the trail to the temple is a bit higher than Thimphu. We did well. Day 3 was spent visiting Thimphu, and involved little walking. Day 4 we drove to Haa over a ridge, walked very little. Haa is at 3056 m, and we spent the night slightly higher than this.
- the start of the training hike was at 3750 m, and the summit is at 4230m.

Craig had a mild headache on the way down, towards the end. I thought my upset stomach driving back, after having had warm tea and a sandwich once back at the car, was due to inadequately boiled water or such. But now we know we both need a slower acclimatization than what we had here. I had no problems in Nepal 22+ years ago, and apparently increasing age usually means fewer symptoms (no one knows why, but one theory is that younger people don’t bother to go slowly enough).
Tsewang had encouraged us to walk more slowly than we might have felt we could, and we followed his advice.
In hindsight, I think we at least should have had another hike at a lower elevation before this one.
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The drive to Haa was nice. We got to see a monastic school, and to briefly interact with 2 young monks taking a break from their dance practice for Teacher’s Day, which is a holiday here for all.

We saw a Grey Langur Monkey, which is a good sign per Tsewang. But the recently killed wild piglet we saw, he later told us, was not a good sign. The monkey seemed to have wanted this piglet, and we don’t know if the monkey killed it, or if the dog that also was eyeing it, did so. The dog won.

In Haa, we stayed at Tsewang’s childhood summer home. The family back then moved the cattle south, to lower elevations, and warmer temperatures in the winter. He called the family semi nomadic. There still are nomadic yak herders in Bhutan.
The house is very basic, in a small village. There is electricity, and an outdoor tap with water straight from the stream. You flush the toilet by filling the canister they place in big barrels with water.
His niece now lives here, with her husband and 8-year-old daughter. They also have milk cows, and manually make butter and cheese daily, to sell. Life is lived on the floor - sleeping, eating, and socializing by the wood burning stove (type old fashioned). We had LOTS of comforters, so slept well on the mattress on the floor, in a cold room - the stove only heats one main area. A very friendly family!

Kids go to school for free for 12 years. The niece’s daughter said English was her favorite subject, but she was too shy to chat with us. She spends much of the school week at her grandparents’, as commuting daily is not practical.
Kids learn to read and write in the national language, Dzongkha, and in English right away. This means learning 2 alphabets simultaneously.

We ate traditional Bhutanese food - potatoes with cheese, rice with all meals, chili paste with almost everything, but they decreased the heat in the dishes for us. Cabbage is common, and they eat at least one vegetable with all meals. Tasty bananas. Also meat of various types. Tea here means mostly hot milk with some tea, but they had black tea also. We certainly have not been hungry.

We learn interesting facts all the time, and hope to remember some. There was a female English teacher at the monastic school on the way to Haa. This is a new phenomenon, and Tsewang is not sure it is a good idea, even though he seems to be in favor of gender equality in general. The monks are celibate, something he also is less enthusiastic about.
Bhutan is a carbon negative country (hydro power), they care about the environment - the air is fresh, we have seen very little trash, and there are frequent signs to use their trash receptacles when walking to temples etc.
The King is revered, and has the final say in pretty much everything, like laws passed.
90% of export goes to India, and they import lots of things from there, like gas for cars, and cooking.

Due to still recovering from the altitude problems, we could not fully enjoy the evening spent at his in-laws’ home nearby. They were having a traditional spring ceremony, with monks helping them pray for a good, and healthy season to come. These ceremonies happen spring and fall in the villages. We sat there for hours, Craig was able to eat some, and I managed a little rice. Lots of family, a few neighbors; a couple of young people spoke English, but some in the older generation were illiterate. Bhutanese politics was apparently one subject - just like at home. Tsewang felt we should come with him, as this home is a bit lower than his house.

The weather has been bad. Had we trekked, we would have had few, if any, views. We would have been in the rain and the clouds much of the time, and nights are cold. Instead we came back to their warm and new hotel in Thimphu, to a hot shower, delicious multi dish meals, and to our hostess offering to launder our muddy clothes. A group here had done another trek, and reported similar weather, no views. Can’t say I would have preferred a tent.