Blog 7 – Mongar & Trashigang Festivals

The road to Mongar was spectacular both in the scenery and the road itself. I cant describe how narrow and pot-holed it was in places, pretty scary when you meet a large lorry coming the other way laden down with massive logs and you squeeze past each other with a sheer drop on your side of the road. Anyway, we went above the clouds and up to 3,750m over Thrumshing La Pass before dropping down to 1,600m and into almost tropical landscape complete with langur monkeys.

Langur monkey


So now we have been to our first festival both Di and I dressed for the part in our kiras (the traditional dress for women here) and everywhere we went we were complimented on our “beauty” by the locals which was really nice.

We go "native" for the festivals...


I have to say we have met nothing but kindness from the people we have met, nothing seems to bother them and they seem genuinely interested in making sure you are enjoying their country and love to talk to you in English (which most seem to learn at school....) The dancing was amazing, I couldn't see much being too short, but I loved just watching the people, whole families turn up with food for the day and settle down to be entertained and to gain “merit”.

Have now spent 3 days at festivals both in Mongar and Trashigang, the swirling dancing monks, the locals all lining up to give offerings and get blessed, everyone in their finest clothes, bags and bags of sweets and crisps devoured by all Bhutanese it seems – an amazing experience. As usual, I find it difficult to articulate what I am seeing but it is a sight I wont forget in a hurry and feel privileged to have been able to witness it. Photos really don't do it justice............







A couple of asides:
Some of the weirder food we have had recently – couple of dishes offered for breakfast have included rice porridge with chillies and turnips with cheese (not together I hasten to add), and for supper one night we were offered “road weeds” no idea what they were but they tasted great!

Bhutanese dogs: they sleep everywhere - roads, pavements, hotel steps, all day every day but it didn't take long to work out why – as soon as it gets dark they bark and howl like there is no tomorrow, only pausing to get breath and to start again. This goes on until the sunrise when the promptly fall asleep where they find themselves it seems........bless 'em????? (not)

Tomorrow heading for the border town of Samdrup Jongkhar – long drive which sadly brings us to the end of Bhutan. After this it is goodbye to our guide and driver and travel across to Guwahati in Assam, India. From there a short flight to Calcutta- been no internet for nearly a week now so my guess is this will go up once we reach there.

Love to all Annie & Doug xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx