Life in Rural Bhutan

Rural Bhutan

We had a 2 hour drive further East along some more windy, precipitous roads. It really makes you feel as if you are on a horizontal roller coaster as you sway incessantly from side to side. Bhutan is certainly no place to be if you suffer from motion sickness. Oh poo! The power has just gone off! I was safely plugged in charging my computer but now I can’t see the keyboard so have to move to the window. That means the Internet will have gone off as well. The trials of technology in a Third world country!

We were heading to the village of Ura which required us to go over another 3,000m+ pass bedecked with prayer flags. The village was nestled in a valley and looked quite prosperous with fairly newly built substantial 2-storey houses together with a loft for hay for the animals. Each backyard was well stacked with firewood but as we got out of the van a chill wind blew making it the coldest place we had encountered so far. We had a look around the local temple and our guide pointed out a newly built monastery on the opposite hill. Whoever planned that wasn’t thinking straight; surely a monastery should be built next to the temple?

We could only look at the outside of the temple so we headed off to walk through the back streets of the town. We followed a narrow stone path between the houses and gently swaying in the breeze from the eaves of every dwelling was a pink wooden phallus. A number of dogs barked protectively as we walked past but we didn’t worry as the dogs here are all pretty placid and friendly.  Apart from the 3 old women doing a religious circuit of the temple we didn’t see anyone else. The only people left in the countryside in many places are the old people because the young people leave and go to work in the towns of Paro or Thimphu. The Constitution promises equal economic investment in all parts of the country but inevitably the rural areas suffer a brain drain. So many people in Bhutan are becoming well educated and this is only going to get worse because there is a big emphasis on education and all the children are encouraged to go to school and stay in school. There is free education up until year 10 and then children can apply for scholarships to continue their studies.

We left the town and looked for a place to pull over on the windy road and have our hot picnic lunch. Just because there was no restaurant available we were not going to forgo our usual meal. We would have been quite happy with a cheese roll and an apple but Sring, our driver, produced a large, colourful plastic bag from the van and proceeded to unpack our lunch. He had a big bowl of rice and 4 tin containers stacked in a heat preserving container each with our usual favourites of vegies and curry. In this part of Bhutan we have discovered that the potatoes are really nice and we had a plate of wedgies. There was a meat curry that for the first time was actually edible. The meat was tender and didn’t have great lumps of fat and gristle attached so we tucked in with gusto.

Once we’d finished Pruba threw the remains to the waiting crows and we set off for the burning lake so called because of some legend about a butter lamp remaining lit when it fell into the water. We only had a short walk from the parking place down to the river bank, which was strewn with payer flags and had a small temple nearby. We were back at the hotel by 3.30pm in time for more cheese and biscuits before dinner. I had the hotel guy come and get my fire going in the room for me. It seems to get through such a load of wood and I’m forever stoking it up. The bed is right next to the stove and it’s almost too hot to sleep there with the fire roaring but there’s no way to turn the fire down. Once the wood burns out the room rapidly cools.