September 24, 2011 Thimphu to Punakha

We headed out the door with our luggage around 8:30am to do some sight seeing in Thimphu as well as errands like cashing some money at the bank ( no ATMs) and getting postcards and stamps. We went first to the National Memorial Chorten, followed by the Folk Heritage museum, a weaving factory, a paper making factory and also the National Institute for Zorig Chusum which provides training in Bhutan's traditional crafts of painting, woodcarving, embroidery and statue making. The prices for the woven ladies skirts, kira, were very expensive. The silk one I was looking at cost over $1,000! They did assure me that would take credit cards. The Folk museum was a restored Bhutanese home or rammed earth and wood construction that was interesting. It continued to rain on the 3 hour drive to Punakha to go 45 miles.
The road was paved to a certain extent but extremely windy as we climbed up to Dochu La pass (3,140 M) where there is a collection of 108 chortens. We had lunch at a hotel just past there where on some clear days you could see the Bhutan Himalaya, but it was raining so we could hardly see beyond the terrace. We had requested the driver take us to the Amankora luxury hotel for tea. The hotel has only 8 rooms renting for close to $1,000 per night. The place is a beautiful old house that used to belong to the former Queen mother. Coming back from tea we stopped along the river to watch an archery competition, known here as Dha.
Nearly all villages in the kingdom boast an archery range and each dzong has a space set aside nearby for a bha cho (field of target). Competitions are a riot of color and excitement, with two teams in traditional dress shooting at small wooden targets placed 140m apart (Olympic standard is 50m).
The distance is so great that team members gather dangerously close to the target to yell back how good the archer's aim was. This is often accompanied by howls, chanting, encouragement and jokes. Members of the opposing team may shout back how terrible the archer's aim is and make ribald remarks. When an arrow hits the target, team-mates perform a celebratory slow-motion dance and sing the praises of the shooter, who tucks a colored scarf into his belt.
One archer came running up wanting his picture taken with his bow and honorary scarfs for hitting the target. He then offered to let David take a try, but at a closer, safer target about 50 yards away. David took a few shots, each time rewarded with shouts of amusement (or mock fear) as the arrow did not get too close the target.
Tradition has it that women are not allowed to touch an archer's bow, and it is believed to decrease performance if an archer sleeps with a woman the night before a contest. The traditional Bhutanese archery equipment is a long bamboo bow. Most archers nowadays use a state-of-the-art carbonite Hoyt brand bow with a complicated-looking pulley system that releases the arrows with tremendous speed but the village people we saw were proud of their bamboo bows.
We then drove to the Punatsangchu cottage where we have a nice clean room with a view of the river, an overhead fan and mosquito coils. Internet is available in the dining area. No DVD player could be found so we read our books and had an early night.