Bhutan 2

I'm not sure where to start. The beginning of my trip to Bhutan feels like it happened about a year ago. I have decided to break this blog up into at least two posts. One of which will describe the chronology of events and the other will describe my impressions of the country and my experiences. I fear that if I try to combine everything into one narrative, it will grow into a wild and unwieldy beast and you'll never be able to figure out what happened. I guess it's the business writer in me taking over. So here goes the story...

I arrived in Paro and met up with my fellow trekkers. They were: Toni, a 50-something social worker from Hamilton; Brendan, a 34 year-old accountant from Toronto; Carol, a 50-something geologist from Calgary; Amy, a 27 year-old patent lawyer from Boston; Bob, a retired jam-maker from Niagara-on-the-lake (anyone ever hear of Greaves jam?); and Roland, a 30-something telecom manager from Sweden. We were all planning to complete the fabled Snowman trek except Roland who would leave the trek half way through due to time constraints.

The Snowman trek is actually made up of three parts. The Jolumahari trek usually lasts about 5 days and takes trekkers from Paro up to Jolumahari mountain and back. This is basically a trek that goes into and out of the Himalaya range fairly quickly. The Laya-Gasa trek is another 6 days or so and also goes into and out of the Himalaya range fairly quickly. Our plan was to climb into the Himalayas once and pass through both of these regions. We would then continue on into the Lunana valley which is protected by high passes at either end, as well as a handful of passes within its confines. We would finally leave the mountains at the far end of Lunana.

As mentioned in my last blog, we did a day trek to the Tiger's Nest monastery on our first day in Bhutan. This was spectacular and a wonderful start to our trip. The next day we started our Snowman trek. There were a few things about this trip that were different and somewhat disconcerting right from the beginning. First, I found it virtually impossible to carry on a conversation with our guide. His English was poor, but other than that, he was just very hard to talk to. When he did speak, he was unable to communicate his ideas in any kind of coherent format. The other odd thing was that we used animal porters instead of humans, which was new to me. The plan was that we would take horses as far as Laya and we would then change to yaks as they thrive in the higher altitudes. This meant that our staff consisted only of one guide (Kinley), a cook (Atchula) and 3 kitchen helpers as well as one or two animal handlers. This is a much smaller entourage that when human porters are carrying the load. It means that there are less people around who know the trails and can help out in an emergency.

The first few days were fairly easy and we were below the tree line so we hiked in the bush. While there are some differences, it was very reminiscent of the Gatineau hills or Algonquin park. There were lots of pine and spruce trees, as well as deciduous tress. Spanish moss hung everywhere, and we constantly followed a beautiful river. We shared the trail with a couple of other groups doing the Jolumanhari trek.

Sidebar: In preparation of my trip, I had downloaded a screensaver of Bhutan from the National Geographic website. I had no idea of where this photo was taken, only that it was of Bhutan.

On the third day of the trek we rounded a corner to arrive in camp and I was staring at my screensaver. It was absolutely beautiful - it turns out that the photo is of a ruin at the base of Jolumahari mountain. We stayed an extra rest day here and did a day hike to a nearby lake on the rest day.

Over the next few days, we continued to gain altitude and the terrain changed. We came out above the trees and caught sight of some incredible mountains. We woke to frost on the tents and spectacular views. We camped by the river and on a couple of occasions were in small villages where we played with the children and even managed to have a beer once. We crossed a couple of 16,000' passes during this time and it appeared that we were all acclimatizing well, although some of us did so at a slower pace than others. A couple of times we camped below the tree line, and on those nights we had bonfires. As the weather got colder, it became increasingly clear that Kinley was not properly outfitted for the trek. He only had a pair of jeans, a long-sleeved t-shirt and a cloth jacket (like a golf jacket). I gave him a pair of gloves, and Brendan gave him some pants and a jacket. I also mended the zipper on his sleeping bag, which was broken and therefore not providing him with any warmth. He told me that he was only given one day's notice to prepare for the trip and that he wasn't able to go home to pack. His boss was supposed to have picked up his gear from his home town but hadn't done it. We later found out that this was a lie and that he had had a month to prepare.

On day 10 we arrived in Laya, which is a signficant town, and bought a couple of boxes of beer. We had the top floor of a house at our disposal, so we rigged up Amy's iPod to a radio and got a party going. There was much merriment, dancing and singing. The next day was a rest day, so we were able to buy heated water for a sponge bath and to wash out some clothing. I explored the village and enjoyed the rest.

We awoke the next morning to a snowstorm. Visibility was bad, but it was fairly warm so the snow wasn't staying on the ground. Strangely, when we left Laya, we were still using horses to carry our gear, although it was clear that we should have changed to yaks here. It was a long day of uphill trekking and we dropped Roland off about 3 hours into it. He was heading out via Gasa to continue his travels in Nepal. At the end of the day we arrived in Rodufu where there is an empty building in the middle of a field. This was our last camp before we went to the high camp just before the pass into Lunana. We arrived in snow, although very little of it was staying on the ground. The building there was built by the government for the local yak herders to use. It is in the traditional Bhutanese style, although there was no glass in the windows. There are some half-walls which sort of segregated it into rooms, and there was stone fire pit right in the middle of the main room. It offered some protection from the elements, but very little warmth. Our crew cleaned it up for us and pitched our tents inside. We were told that we would probably be joined by the yak herders who would sleep there after crossing the pass on their way from Lunana.

We had our dinner and were then joined by our "hosts" the yak herders. They came in, built a very smoky fire and refused to close the door as they felt they needed the draft to keep the fire going. None of us could figure out why the cold air that was pouring in through the windows wasn't sufficient, but apparently it wasn't good enough for the yak herders. They prepared and cooked their food wherever they happened to be sitting, and just left their waste where it lay. Imagine your worst vision of viking looters and you'll get the idea. They were loud and boisterous all night, not that any of us would have slept anyway as we kept our hiking poles close at hand as weapons. The next morning we awoke to them pulling chunks of wood out of the walls to feed the fire. Bob started to confront them about this, and Kinley finally informed us that they were considered barbarians by both the government and the people of Bhutan. We kept very quiet from then on and were really happy to see them leave.

Meanwhile, it had been snowing all night. There still was very little snow coverage on the ground, but it was enough for Kinley to persuade us to wait a day before going up to high camp. We had a few buffer days built into our program so this wasn't a problem. Long after this decision was made, we found out that all our horses had run away in the night, so our rest day was not really due to weather after all, but to give the horse herded a chance to find his animals. This was another of many lies that we were told by our staff.

We were concerned that if the snow didn't stop, we would be unable to continue into Lunana, so we sat down with our guide books and devised an alternate plan. If we had to abort the trek due to bad weather, we would spend our time exploring the cultural sights of Bhutan. We used the satellite phone to call the tour company in Canada to find a weather report for the region. He checked the satellite weather images and assured us that the snow would end shortly and that there was nothing but blue skies following that. We used up one of the satellite phone batteries to make this call and discovered that the other two batteries were also dead. Kinley had assured us that he had charged all the batteries in Laya, but this proved to be another lie. We were now without any communication with the outside world. Amy had a solar battery charger with her, and we hoped to use it to recharge the batteries if and when the sun shone again. Fortunately the barbarians did not return for the night and we spent a much more pleasant evening and even got some sleep.

Although it had snowed through the night, we awoke to beautiful clear skies. The sun started melting the inch or so of snow immediately. The horseman had finally recovered his horses and we also had a few yaks at our disposal. All seemed to be in place for us to head to high camp and hopefully cross the pass into Lunana. At this point, our entire team tried to discourage us from proceeding. They insisted that there was much more snow at the pass and that we'd never make it across. Even if we did, there was every chance that we'd get caught in Lunana valley and not be able to cross the pass at the far end. If this happened, we'd have to winter there (about 3 months). This is a valid concern and has happened to other groups in the past. Still, we wanted to see the pass for ourselves, as there was certainly not enough snow at Rodufu to support this claim. We decided to head up to high camp.

At this point, Brendan and Amy decided that they would not continue with us. They were concerned that we only had one guide, that we didn't have a satellite phone, that there were only enough yaks to carry supplies for one day (more yaks were supposed to be on the way) , that the guide had no medical or emergency training and that we were heading into the most remote inhabited place on the planet. They claimed that if we were reading about this in a book, we would have thought the trekkers were insane to continue. They were absolutely right. We stopped our trekking to discuss our options. Would the group split up and half of us go to high camp to check out the situation? Could we let Amy and Brendan descend without a guide? This was an incredibly emotional discussion for many of us, as the money and time invested were huge and for some the opportunity to do the Snowman trek would never come again. To abort now was a devastating blow. While we were having this discussion, Kinley arrived to tell us that the yak herder was refusing to go forward into Lunana. Everyone (including Kinley) agreed that the weather was not a deterrent at this point, and that the yak herder was clearly in breach of contract. We had no choice but to abort the trek and descend. The mood was grim on the way down and many tears were shed.

We retraced our steps down trail that day and over the next few days we exited the Himalayas. We encoutered other groups who were doing the Laya-Gasa and the Jolumahari treks, and it turns out that we were famous in the Bhutanese trekking community as the 6 poor Canadians who were living a trekking disaster.

When we arrived in Gasa two days later, we were able to use a phone to call our company in Canada and voice our complaints. We decided to proceed with our alternate plan to visit some cultural sites, and we indicated that we wanted a new guide. We walked the final couple of hours to camp at the Gasa hot springs. We spent an extra day here enjoying the hot springs and the beer. We walked out the following day and were taken to a beautiful hotel in the relatively tropical town of Punhaka. At this point Carol decided to leave us and head back to Canada immediately. She was hoping to get a contract and start earning back some of the money she had wasted on this trip. The rest of us sat down with Pem, the owner of the Bhutanese tour company to go over our plans.

Much to our surprise, Amy and Brendan decided that they did not want to follow the itinerary for the cultural tour that we had put together as a group. As a result, we ended up splitting up. Toni and I headed east to follow the itinerary, and Amy, Brendan and Bob headed to Thimpu (the capital city) to shop for 5 days.

Much to my dismay, Kinley was sent east with Toni and I, while the others were attended to by Pem, who was waiting on them hand and foot to try to make ammends for the trekking mess. I understand that they had a fabulous time in Thimpu. For our part, Toni and I also had some excellent experiences, but really struggled with Kinley. We determined that he is not only ill-equipped as a trekking guide, but has the intellectual and emotional capacity of an 8-year-old. He provided no benefit to our trip and in fact detracted from it in many ways.

We spent our first morning in Punhaka as a group. We visited the dzong there, and Pem gave us a fabulous tour. Unfortunately, some bug caught up with me that day so I spent the afternoon using buckets, toilets, towels and anything else at my disposal trying to wrangle the various fluids that were all exiting my body simultaneously. By dinner time I started a course of Cipro which had me feeling much better by morning.

Toni and I left the next day and headed out to Trongsa. The dzong here is spectacular and although we were not allowed in the temple, we did get to explore it a bit. There was a national level archery game happening right outside the dzong so we got to watch that for a while. It was much more entertaining that you'd expect. Our hotel overlooked the dzong and we had spectacular views from our bedroom. The hotel owner was very bright and spent some time with us discussion politics and the upcoming elections. (The king will pass on the crown to his son in 2008 at the same time as declaring the Bhutan a democratic monarchy. Bhutanese will vote for the first time.)

The next day we drove to Jakar in the Bumthang region. We arrived here to find that they were having their annual tsechu (festival). We spent the afternoon at the dzong watching the dances and enjoying the environment. The woman who owned the guesthouse we were staying at is a weaver and makes some beautiful textiles. She was a wealth of information on her textiles as well as many things Bhutanese. The next day she dressed us up in kira (the traditional local dress) so that we would fit in at the tsechu. We certainly made a splash. In the afternoon we explored some of the local monasteries, many of which carry great significance. The following day we returned to Thimpu to join the others.

When we met up with Pem we expressed our discontent with Kinley, which clearly didn't endear ourselves to her. She told us that he was the best guide they had and that she wouldn't be able to find anyone better. We told her that we'd rather be left without a guide than have to spend our time with him. The next day Pem spent part of the afternoon with us, and grudingly provided us with some guidance to the city. Later that day, Kinley showed up at the hotel, presumably after having been fired and tried to solicit tips from everyone. He then called up to our room to yell at Toni for losing him his job and to tell her that she had been a troublemaker from the beginning. It was just one more thing that made us wonder about his sanity - Toni was no more a troublemaker than any of us were. He had singled her out on the whole trip for some unknown reason. Needless to say, he didn't get a tip from any of us. That night we said our goodbyes to Amy, Brendan and Bob who were leaving for Paro the next day.

The following day, Toni and I were scheduled to go for a day hike. We were preparing to leave and Pem approached Toni to say that we weren't going anywhere until we filed a formal complaint against Kinley. We woke up the others and sat down as a group to write the letter. We then left for our hike. Tashi, our guide was excellent, knowledeable and bright. We hiked up to a monastery where his cousin is a monk and who invited us to tea. We visited the temple while they were peforming a ceremony for a monk who had passed away, so we got to witness that as well. It was very moving. We then hiked across a ridge to another monastery, had our lunch in the yard and then visited the temple. Everyone was very generous and gracious towards us. After the hike, Teshi took us to his father's house where they were celebrating the annual puja (blessing ceremony). Every year each family has the monks come to their home to bless the house and the inhabitants. It was another great experience.

The following day we were assigned a new guide, Rinzin, who was also excellent. No matter what we threw at him, he was able to provide information and to communicate it well. We visited a couple of sights in Thimpu and then shopped for the afternoon. We preferred to do this alone, but Rinzin would have none of that. We practically had to hog tie him to get him to let us out of his sight for a couple of hours. The freedom was magnificent.

The following day we returned to Paro and the day after that we flew out of Bhutan.

I know this has been very long-winded but I have truly hardly scratched the surface. I need a rest so will sign off for now and come back tomorrow to write another post. I also got my photos on DVD so will try to get a few uploaded as well.