Sunday, May 7, 2017

4/29 -- Drive to Paro, Hot Stone Bath

Before we got to Paro, we stopped at the Simtokha Dzong, built in 1629 to guard a demon who had vanished into a nearby rock as well as to guard the area from invaders. 

Simtokha from a distance
Artwork of the dzong and the Founding Father, who is much
revered here.
Outside of the dzong
Entrance
Another gargoyle
Above and below: sanctuary entrance
 

From the dzong, we continued to Paro, a very successful farming valley. The weather allows two crops a year and most of the farmers are relatively well-off. We stopped here for lunch with a family that will later host us for our hot stone bath. We met some of the women there (our primary contact was off at a wedding -- a  new concept here is to have weddings that are big deals, like many of ours, instead of very small, informal  ones) and proceeded out into the field to pick asparagus for our lunch, which turned out to be the best asparagus we have ever had. Now that I like asparagus, I may have to try to grow it.
Chimi (right) with our lunchtime hostesses

This family prepares rice seedlings and then sells them to other
farmers for planting.
The 6-year old girl was very good at identifying which spears
were ready to cut. Not a job I would want to do often...
Stairs to the house were more like ladders with
railings. Not so bad going up, but not much room
for feet unless they are tiny or you go down
backwards.
The interior stairs were just as steep.
The granddaughter was a delight -- learning English and charning.
Her mother was an employee here and left her behind when
she was 6 months old to pursue marriage and her own family.
This family has informally adopted her with no plans to clue
her about her real parentage. That would not work here!

This is our bus driver. Chimi told us his name
the first day, which sort of sounds like Mickey,
so she calls him Mickey Mouse. He was a monk
from a young age to 32 when political issues with
his superior drove him back to the secular world.
He is divorced, with 2 kids, and lots of
girlfriends. Can you believe he is 52??


All of us after lunch. Our official hostess arrived as we were
finishing --on the left with the blue jacket. From left to right:
Hostess, Sharon, Gramma, Shelly, Lisa (in red), Lily (in pale
yellow), Lloydene (in medium blue), Cynthia (in black), 2
other hostesses, Jim, and Lynn


An interesting take on a hot tub -- the hot stones go in the
small end. This extra wide tub is for Jim and me to share--
facing each other.
For a big group like us, they start heating the
stones in the morning to be ready for us by 5pm.
The National Museum. Inside, one room was dedicated to dance
and the masks worn and had a 5-10 minute video of various
dances. The steps all looked pretty much the same with different
masks. Another section had thankas (religious art) and a
special display of clay statues.
View down the valley

You can see the raised roof here and the indication that there
is stuff in storage there.
 After the museum, we had 30 minutes to shop in downtown Paro, and I managed to find earrings and a necklace.  I had hoped to find a silk local style jacket, but there was not enough time to really shop well for such an item. Then it was off to the hotel to check in before our hot stone bath. We got derailed on the way to the hotel when someone espied an archery contest so we stopped to watch for a bit. The target was more than a football field length away and it was windy, so the contestants had their hands full. Nobody used anything that looked like a traditional bow. Archery is their national sport and they have the most advanced gear.


We got a room at the back with windows on two sides that look
out on fields, so we finally can leave the curtains open for
sleeping and not suffer from light pollution or the need
for privacy like in the cities.

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