Bhutan's Queen Aunt

Snow at the top of the pass

We endured another long drive today back along the narrow road from Bumthang to Wangdue swaying side to side around the constant curves. A short way out of Bumthang we stopped at a handicraft shop that sold mainly woollen textiles. In the courtyard we met a tourist carrying off her booty, a carpet. I asked how much she had paid and discovered it had cost her $350. Things are not cheap here. Inside I had a look around and finally my gaze alighted on a long runner suitable for a large dining table. It was handwoven silk and was absolutely gorgeous. I fell in love with it and began to work out how much I was prepared to pay for it. I hoped I could get it for $20-30 and decided that my top price was $50. I thought that maybe I was a bit optimistic but nothing prepared me for the owner’s asking price: $800! I quickly fell out of love with it and went and sulked in the van.

 Nothing much happened for the first 3 hours after that and we stopped at a very nice hotel near Trongsa for lunch. I learnt that ‘sa’ is Tibetan for ‘place’ and Trongsa means ‘new place’. Lhasa, in Tibet, means ‘God’s place’. It was gorgeous weather and we sat outside with hats and sunglasses on to avoid being burnt by the strong Himalayan sun and consumed a very pleasant meal. There was the usual rice and potatoes, mixed veg, a plate of spinach and an edible chicken curry. The food is looking up and maybe my early dislike of it is because I became sick early on.

We set off again on our journey and had a moment of excitement when a police car with red flashing light appeared. I expected it to be followed by some wide load vehicle but instead it heralded the arrival of a royal motorcade. Five vehicles followed carrying bodyguards, servants and the Queen Aunt. I was sitting on the road side and I could see the royal personage clearly in the front seat; eyes closed, head lolled back, mouth slightly open and fast asleep. The Queen Aunt was the favourite wife of Bhutan’s retired 4^th King. The 4^th King married 4 wives, all sisters, and the current 5^th King is the son of wife number 3. Apparently the 4^th King was told by an astrologer that he had to marry a daughter of his enemy’s family. The 2^nd king had killed someone in this family and it had brought bad luck to the royal family and both the 2^nd and 3^rd kings had died young. Unless the 4^th king made a propitious marriage then he would die young too. The 4^th king had a girlfriend at the time whom he wanted to marry but he had to give her up and marry the 4 sisters instead. He palmed his girlfriend off on to the Prime Minister and given Bhutan’s scant regard for marriage formalities probably continued to have his bit on the side.

As we continued our journey along the road, the weather started to change and we could hear thunder and saw lightning breaking across the mountains. Soon the rain started and the road turned to mud and became slippery. The temperature dropped dramatically as we climbed up to a pass and it started to hail. We closed all the windows and put the heater on, which made the windscreen fog up. Our poor driver was steering round the bends with one hand whilst frantically wiping the mist off the inside of the window with the other. This was quite a feat given the nature of the road and the steepness of the drop if he oversteered or missed a turn. You would think things couldn’t get any worse but they did. We were headed up and over a high pass at 3400m and as we climbed higher the hail turned to sleet then to wet snow and finally into snow proper that was settling on the road. At the top of the pass it was snowing pretty heavily. It was with a great deal of trepidation that our driver started down the hill on the other side. We crawled down the road trying to stay as close to the inside as possible. This was one road you did not want to slip and slide on, as even a tiny skid would see you barrelling over the edge of a precipice and falling 3kms down into the valley below – yes, it was that deep and with nothing except trees to break your fall to the bottom. Fortunately the road quickly lost altitude and the snow melted into rain once more and we were safe.

We only had one other little drama on the way down when we were stopped by 2 well dressed men in ghos. They told us that their vehicle had broken an axle and they wanted to hitch a lift for themselves and their stranded tourist passenger. We were happy to oblige and the lady we had met at the handicraft shop near Bumthang came aboard complete with her carpet. We were able to give her and her guide a lift to our hotel where a fresh car was waiting to transport her to her hotel. The poor driver was left with the stranded vehicle and the difficult task of mending a broken axle.

We arrived back at the vegetarian hotel and were quickly installed in our rooms. Once again Tiffany and I were given separate rooms so we didn’t have to share. This time I had a heater in my room so I didn’t have to use my sleeping bag. Having had a good breakfast and lunch, I didn’t want much dinner, which was fortunate as the food wasn’t brilliant here.