Bhutan Part III : Gangtey Valley

The drive from Punakha to the Gangtey valley was a memorable one. The roads ran high over the valley and were very twisty. Our driver did a brilliant job though and he stopped for all sorts of photo opportunities – this was one of my favourite: yak, yak, yak

Our first stop was the Black necked crane visitor centre where we spotted some of these beautiful birds through telescopes but we would have a chance to see more on our nature valley walk tomorrow. We headed for our hotel called Dewachen (de wachen you and de wachen me!!) which was a really beautiful set of buildings built into the side of the mountain.

The next morning we did our Gangtey nature trail walk across the Phobjikha valley. It was an easy hike across some beautiful countryside and we saw lots of the black necked cranes.

Further on we came to a monastery and school for young monks. As we approached we could see that they were sitting in their robes on the grass outside praying.

There was a small shop where they sold incense which they made there at the monastery.

From there we climbed uphill and had the chance for a group photo among some amazing vertical prayer flags:

A couple more kilometres through some nice trees smelling the clear fresh air and we reached the Gangtey Goempa monastery.

It’s a large monastery with monks quarters around the edges. The main building is surrounded by prayer wheels which were dutifully swung.

That night we had a home stay dinner which involved a lesson in making momo’s. Our hosts were very welcoming and after some rice wine, beer and the most potent dessert I think I’ve ever had, we had a bit of a sing song.

Our guide and driver taught us a Bhutanese song and then we turned that into our very own hit called Guru Rinpoche! Now I haven’t mentioned him much so far and that’s probably because I haven’t gone into much detail about the inside of the monasteries we visited, mainly because you’re not allowed to take photos and it’s hard to remember all the details. That said, Guru Rinpoche is responsible for finding a lot of the monasteries visited across Bhutan and Tibet. He became somewhat of a hero of mine and we sang our Guru Rinpoche song multiple times throughout the trip.

Author: odohertyelaine

I'm taking some time off work to travel and spend as much time as I can with family and friends all over the world. Creating this blog as a memory of my trips and so you can follow where I'm at and what I'm up to! View all posts by odohertyelaine