All about Rhododendrons

Local dance by students
at the Rhododendron festival

21^st April

I woke before 5:30am to daylight peeping through the curtains and the sun was well and truly up, with some blue sky above, although no sign of the Himalayas to the North. 

At breakfast, the staff asked me if I wanted to use the WiFi, given that installation was completed last night.  Yes Please!  While my phone is giving me some data, it is inadequate to book my airline ticket home.  Once I got onto the airline site, all the tickets for the flight I wanted (at the price I wanted) were gone, so I bit the bullet and booked an overnight flight with Qantas using up frequent flyer points and paying a relatively minimal amount.  I might regret it, but booking via Thai Air to avoid overnight flying would have cost 15-20 times as much.

Sunrise from Dochu La - no mountains though!!

We left the hotel at 9 to wind our way down the pass to Lamperi Botanical Park to attend the first day of the Rhododendron festival.  I was directed to one of the pavilions and was very surprised at the number of international tourists in attendance, although some only stayed for a very short time before their tour guides chivvied them on their way to the next point on their itineraries.

Offering Zabten (?)

A Korean lady sitting in front of me was up and down like a jck-in-the-box to improve her view for photographing and videoing until she got a tap on the shoulder!

The Bhutanese gentleman sitting next to me – another tour guide – procured me a program for the day, which was lovely of him – I had said I’d be content with photographing the program on his friend’s phone screen.

The official pavilion - and opening speech

The commencement was delayed, of course, as the chief guest, the Minister for Agriculture, had not yet arrived.  In due course the formal opening proceeded, but I have some concerns that it ought to be part of a tour guide’s role to inform tourists as to correct behaviour during some formalities.  That some were talking, men standing with hands in pockets and hats on and others wandering around taking selfies with the proceedings in the background during the offering of Zabten was really quite inappropriate.

Formal opening speeches were made by the minister, the Gup, the Headmaster of the local school and the chairman of the festival before the students from Dechentsemo Central School opened the celebrations with some dances.

Village ladies dancing

The student dancing particularly impressed me.  I have seen a fair bit of student dancing during my various times in Bhutan and there are usually a number of students who are watching sideways to follow the movements of someone else.  However, these students were well practiced and their dancing was polished.

The second dance by students was a local dance done by 5 boys in costumes and masks and was quite different to anything I had ever seen before.  I was most entranced.

Village men dancing

This was followed by songs and dances by beautifully attired ladies from the villages, again well rehearsed.  There was a solo performance by one young woman of a more modern interpretation of traditional dance and then a song and dance by a group of men.  It was as entertaining to watch the Gup anxiously coaching from the sidelines as it was watching the men’s performance! 

As tour groups had been taken away by their guides, seats in front of me had become vacant so I moved forward until I was seated right at the front.

about to burst into spring leaves - against a threatening sky

As the Gup relaxed as his protégées got into the swing of their perfomance, he sat down near me and I leaned over and asked him to pass on my thanks and congratulations to the villagers for their excellent performances.

There was a further speech and introduction of the next dance but before the speaker could retire, a word from the Gup suggested a further announcement – the overseas visitors would be asked to convey their impressions and yours truly was the first to be handed the microphone.

Masked dance: a bear and a deer fighting

I accepted the mike and rose to formally address the officials although I forgot to use the correct form of address for the minister.  I thanked the villagers for sharing part of their tradition and culture and asked the principal to pass on my thanks to the students for their polished performance.

There were then attempts to hand the microphone to other visitors, all of whom refused, and the only other person to actually accept the microphone was a tour guide.

This was a masked dance:  2 villagers relating a traditional story of a bear and a deer fighting in front of a hermit’s cave, details of which the Gup explained to me.

Rhododendrons

There was then a short break in proceedings and it was announced that the official party would go to open something, and most of the tourists followed.  However there were still 3 entertainment items.  I felt sorry for the ladies who were dancing:  they performed for only a handful of people and made their formal concluding bows to an empty offical tent.

I met Sonam and Narwang at 11:45am as planned and we went to the areas where makeshift tents were set up to serve food and drinks.  The official party were making their way through this area and I got separated from Sonam, who retired to the corner where archery and khuru were being practiced.

Rhododendron

There were bamboo containers of the same style of barley / millet wine that I had tried in Sikkim and I asked about this being particular to the local area, and was told all over Bhutan – although I had not seen it during my year in the east.  I declined the opportunity to sample it at that hour of the day; my plans for the afternoon involved hiking.

We found a suitable spot for our picnic and consumed some of the packed lunch from the hotel, but the fried rice was not particularly good, so I ate only enough to hopefully sustain me for the afternoon.

 

We moved towards the car to drive up to Dochu La for our hike to Lungchutse  Goempa but some unmentionable driver had blocked us in and could not be found.  I was ready to hitch a lift to Dochu La; I was aware that the hike would take 4 hours and I did not want to be walking in the dark but Sonam requested 5 minutes, during which time the driver of another vehicle, which if moved would enable some intricate manoevering to extricate ourselves from our position.

Back to the hotel for a very quick change (I specified 10 minutes – yes, thank you Sonam, that is enough) and then back in the car to take us to the other start of the trek, which I have described in detail in Leaving Lobesa for a night on DochuLa

This time though, the pink and red rhododendrons were in full bloom; at lower altitudes they were finishing and the white rhododendrons were taking their place.  It was just stunning walking through those ancient forests; many trees has moss clad trunks.

Lungchutse Goempa

I had procured some iron tablets and noticed the improvement in my stamina, although during the last half hour of ascent decided that some refined carbohydrates would have been a good addition to my backpack.

I was quite pleased to complete the ascent in better time than previously, especially as I had carried my own pack on the way.

Yak: looking at you looking at me!

The other difference to this time’s trek was the weather:  the clouds gave us a slightly better view – Lungchutse Goempa sits at 3566m on the highest point for miles around so has a 360 degree view.  While the Himalayan peaks were still obscured, there were still good views of the hills in most directions, albeit slightly misty – though that is because of this time of the year.

Guide Sonam on our hike to Lungchutse Goempa

Sonam suggeted that I should have the set menu for dinner as it would give me more choice.  I followed his advice but told him I did not agree with it.  Mixed vegetable soup, rice, noodles, kewa datsi and steamed (or boiled) mixed vegetables was rather a boring meal and totally lacked protein.

I succumbed to one of the silk scarves in the gift shop – they were a particularly good price and I have very clearly in my mind who will be the recipient of that one.

I retired early, rather tired after a full day.