To Paro

Sherba demonstrates the art of dressing in a gho.

 The view of the market from the road.

 We walked down into it.

 Boats collecting river sand for construction.

 The valleys are beautiful and is where most of the agriculture happens.

 The rocky hills just outside of Paro.

 The Rinpung or Paro Dzong, with the Watch Tower above.

 The Dzong from the river.

 Paintings in the entrance.

 The interior of the Dzong.

 One of the gargoyles.

The view from my last hotel in Bhutan.

The Dzong lite up at night.

Sunday, April 22^nd.

For breakfast in the morning I had muesli, porridge and a peanut butter and banana sandwich. What could be better?

Before breakfast I made a of video of Sherba showing me how to put on the gho by yourself. It is difficult and needs a lot of practice. The photo is from the video.

Then we set off for our final destination in Bhutan, Paro. We had to retrace our route from Gangtey back to the main road. Again, or as always, the road is under construction and is very windy with hundreds of curves which makes driving very slow. It feels like you are going fast sometimes, but the maximum speed limit is 40 miles per hour. We stopped at a local Sunday market and wandered around watching the people and seeing what they are selling. It was mostly vegetables and fruits. It was very warm there and walking back up to the truck made me sweat a little.

Then we continued and drove up to the top of Dochula Pass and stopped for lunch, where it was very cold and I needed to put my legs on my shorts, and my fleece and hat back on. After that we drove down in elevation towards Paro.

We stopped at the Rinpung Dzong and had a tour there. It was very similar to the other Dzongs we have seen, but they are all very impressive in their own right, and it amazes me how they made they structures, in these hilltop locations, back in the day. After that we walked back down to the van and Sherba drove us to our last hotel in Bhutan, the Palace. It is a nice place, with nice rooms, but the best part is the view from the hotel.

We had a couple of hours to relax before dinner at 7:00. We had a good buffet dinner and a beer and talked for a long time. This is a nice group of people and I think we are going to miss each other when it is over in the next couple of days. Off to bed for a very early start and an arduous climb.