Day 2

Forgot to mention, I'm staying at the Kisa Hotel in Thimphu which is a great 3 star hotel - staff are fantastic (will put a few 5 stars to shame), rooms are comfortable and there's a little bar tucked away at the back of the lobby. Free wifi, which drives all recent non life-changing decisions when travelling, is also available; albeit intermittent and only really works in the lobby, where the bar is - good up selling.

Checked out the Taj Tashi - looks like a million bucks in the photo shoot but more like a million Ngultrums on closer inspection. The Aman Tora apparently is not as nice as the Aman Paro - will have a look when we get back to Paro.

Plan for Day 2, today, was to trek from Thimphu to Phajoding. I actually had it in my mind that it was only 3-4 hrs cos that's what I felt a trek of 'moderate' difficulty was and that's what i thought we'd agreed - but fibbed at last writing to make it sound more impressive :))

Met up with my guide, Mr Tobgay, at 8.45am - his face read like he was going for a walk in the Botanic Gardens. I thought good he's sussed out the city slicker, so off we went. While expecting a rather relaxed physical activity, but trained somewhat by profession to anticipate eventualities, I had a backpack that was stocked with some rather useful stuff like a rain jacket, first aid kit, and even a pack of Augmentin...all it was missing was a spot of water. Did look at the 1 liter bottle of water in the room and decided it was too heavy, thought by chance we might pick up a more civilised 330ml bottle somewhere on the way (need to leave behind images of the InterContinental ride with ready bottles of aqua, typically chilled, in bespoke black and beige labels).

30 minutes into the trek, it was getting quite challenging - so I decided to ask Tobgay how much further. It was then I realized we were going from an elevation of 2300m to 3700m and would cover 9+ kms. Aha...slightly minor detail left out in the itinerary. This was beginning to sound a bit similar to the Mt Kinabalu climb I attempted last year with a fair degree of difficulty and lots more preparation!

Given the slight mismatch in expectations, and reflecting on our conversations; it then occurred to me that in mountaineering vernacular, there is a bit of a difference between a trek and a hike. A trek is more like an an expedition, like the 25 day Snowman Trek that Tobgay's attempted 13 times, 7 successfully. A hike is a much happier walk counted by hours not days. So as I've only used the term trek and looked quite well equipped, he must have thought I was more than up for it and this is probably too easy. And surely he wouldn't insult me by asking me if I had water in my backpack....btw Tobgay never carries any water - he'll just drink when he finds it.

Much as I had the 'no water' card in the backpocket, it was way too early in the day to turn back, so asked where could we find water. Tobgay replied that there's a stupa about a third the way up and there was a tap we could drink from. Good enough, so on we went.

Got to the stupa and there was no tap - "might have been washed away by the recent heavy rain". He then gently shared that we should take it easy and that this is typically the point at which the "tourists who book from Druk Asia Singapore" would decide to spend the rest of the day on a cultural tour. He next pointed to the monastery in the distance which looked magnificent. I asked and he confirmed that we could find water up there, so I said let's see how much further I can go.

The rest of the hike up was rather quite pleasant - just an occasional cramp and slight pounding in the head possibly due to elevation. The forest was tranquil and little surprises like the sweetest wild strawberries more than made up for it. Most importantly, the monsoon rain (and leeches) stayed at bay.

On the way up I shared with Tobgay my little wander round town yesterday, and how I had passed by and been quite keen to catch a movie at the local cinema (certainly not watched a Bhutanese movie before and probably instigated by recent viewing of Forever Fever and how the cinema looked much like one in the set ie 1970ish). Did realize that the lack of subtitles posed a significant challenge. Tobgay was quite amused and promptly called his sister-in-law (a school teacher) thinking that between the two of them, they could interpret the dialogue. The sister-in-law reasonably thought it was a bit of a stretch, as I did, but the thought and gesture were certainly appreciated. In my estimation, the Bhutanese are genuinely nice people even going on brief interactions over the last two days.

The Phajoding Monastery is quite a sight - was told that the World Monument Fund lists it as one of the 5 most endangered monuments in the world. The monastery was founded in 1224 and many of the buildings are a few hundred years old. As serendipity would have it, in our quest for some water, one of the monks opened a shrine for us so that we could have some tea. Perhaps it was fatigue but the few minutes of rest and meditation in the shrine was quite special - it was a very serene and peaceful setting.

All said, the hike to the Phajoding Monastery was well worth it. Walking sticks, in my mind, are a must unless one's been weaned on yak's milk since the age of three. Other than that it's all quite doable in 5-6 hours.

Other note of the day: the Bhutan Highland blended whisky is not a bad tipple.

PS: would love to share/post a few pics but can't seem to get it to work.