Country Roads

Covered bridge over the Mo Chhu at Punakha 26 th April I woke to my 6am alarm and went to use Phub’s bathroom to find that her mother had already risen at 5:30am to put the water heater into a bucket of water – which was already steaming for my morning shower. I enjoyed an early morning coffee and hot mandi bath while Phub was preparing breakfast – shitake-like mushrooms she had harvested from the log just behind her house and the left over asparagus datsi, with rice of course. Me and Phub at Goen Shari Primary School My phone thought I was still in Gasa and told me that it would snow today – if it was snowing in Gasa, it could only be doing the same in Laya.   Again I was thankful that I was not there.   It would have made walking difficult! Phub is very busy getting her young sons ready for the day, as well as herself, and I remembered some material in my notebook that might be useful to her – which she photographs with her phone. ...

Farmer Chado prepares water offering at his altar 25 th April It is Zhabdrung Kuchoe, a most auspicious day, the birth/death anniversary of the Zhabdrung and therefore highly important;   I wake and get up to make the outside journey to the toilet and the farmer asks if he can disturb me by coming to make water offering, as I am sleeping in the altar room; of course, I am more than happy for him to do this important task in a timely manner.   I do, however, ask if he would mind holding off on incence until I am more awake. Produce from the mushroom farm He opens the shutters: there is no glass, just wooden shutters, so I don my down jacket to sit in bed and drink coffee from my thermos flask. The purchase of this item, for the princely sum of $10 when I arrived in Bhutan in early March has proved most useful. The mushroom farm I then organized my bags a little and wandered out to seek breakfast;   Sonam asks about arrangements for...