With just two days left here in Bhutan, we all are a bit sad that our time has passed so quickly. I could blame it on the amount of interesting work for me in the Casualty Department, or that Lucy had a short but very productive collaboration with the physician providing care to folks with HIV and AIDS, or that we have befriended several Bhutanese and western folks with whom we hope to remain connected. All of those reasons make us want to stay longer. But just as big a contributor to our sadness is that this country is incredibly beautiful. In two different trips we traveled to central Bhutan and just like we experienced in the western part of the country, every turn in the road (and there were literally millions of them) revealed a view that bettered the previous one.
Traveling in Bhutan is not for those inclined to car sickness. We found that out early on as Charlie is just that way. The National Highway, the single road that traverses the country from Thimphu to the eastern part of the country is about one and a half lanes wide in the good parts and more like a dirt path in the challenged parts. I say challenged because the terrain over which the road traverses is steep and cut by thousands of streams and cascades, and forested thickly. The road has sloughed off down the mountainside in several places necessitating large scale reconstruction. Where the road still clings to the hillside, landslides brought on during the rainy season brought the mountain down on the road. As a result, average speed for any significant distance is about 20 mph. At such a leisurely pace, the views come slowly and linger. And that is what makes the drive so wonderful.
On our way to central Bhutan we crossed three different passes all of which offered views to the high Himalayas to the north and west. We spent our first night in a farmhouse in the Phobjikha Valley. The Phobjikha Valley is an important wintering spot for the endangered black-necked crane. The cranes spend the summer months in Tibet but come to the lower elevation (9500 feet) of the Phobjikha Valley for the winter. The valley is wide and sparsely populated. Just like the cranes, most of the people who live there migrate south each winter. For hundreds of years, the locals have gathered up their possessions and animals and walked south to warmer climes, returning again in the spring. As we entered the valley, yaks grazed in the tall grasses, kids clothed in traditional dress walked home from school, and the clouds of impending winter hung low on the ridge tops. Our farmhouse afforded us a view of all this.
The farmhouse hosts were especially kind. They cooked us Bhutanese food, which we ate in traditional Bhutanese manner on the floor gathered around the central wood stove. The wood stove is key because Bhutanese houses are not insulated, nor is there weather-stripping around any of the windows or doors. In other words, it was a bit chilly and drafty that evening. Despite the chill, we slept well under thick comforters. In the morning we were presented with suja (butter tea) and other typical foods. After breakfast, we toured the valley by car and foot but were deprived of black-necked crane sightings because they had not arrived in the valley yet. The crane is revered by the locals and is the center piece of a festival held in their honor each year but we were just a bit too early.
From the Phobjikha Valley we continued east following river gorges so deep we couldn't see the bottom. Through Trongsa, formerly the capital city, and over the Yatong La (another pass), we arrived in the Bumthang region. With views to the summer palace of the second King and Tharpaling Goemba (a monastery) perched high on the mountainside across the valley from our hotel, we settled into the stillness of Chumey Valley. One of the outstanding and truly beautiful aspects of Bhutan, and especially where we had landed, is the richness of the vast amount of virgin blue pine and mixed hard wood forests. Like the desert of western Colorado, it takes a little bit of time for the mind to understand the serenity of a dense virgin forest but once registered it becomes hard to leave. We made several hikes in the forests always accompanied by an awesome stillness, only broken by the wind or the falling water of a stream. On our last full day there, with a deep blue sky and warm sun, we climbed up to a high ridge to take views of the snow covered Himalayas. Even the kids enjoyed the forests and airy ridge-line. To top it all off, Pema, the manager of our "hotel", treated us like family visiting with us each evening at dinner. The staff showed our kids games with beans that kept them all entertained. It was hard to leave.
But leave we did, making our way all the way back to Thimphu (9 hours) on that curvy, bumpy National Highway. I thought it would be a downer to return to the city after such an incredible journey. But we were all happy to see the lights of Thimphu, especially the brightly lit National Memorial Chorten. The Chorten was built in memory of the third King, who died in his early 40s. It is just down the road from where we live so it is a easily seen landmark from all over the valley. Now we are finishing our time here, visiting with the friends we have made, and taking care of the inevitable last minute details that come from getting to know a place. In two days, we travel to Bangkok, which we hear is barely keeping its head above flood waters. Now that will be a bit of a shock for all of us.
It will take some time for me to organize my thoughts about our time here in Bhutan. On the one hand, I came to volunteer my experience in emergency medicine. On that experience I have mixed feelings. I was definitely not here long enough to make any system wide impact though I did help individual physicians and nurses with important skills and concepts. Unlike the other countries we have visited, Bhutan is a developing country and has the growing pains of that status. The health care system is challenged by lack of sufficient resources and infrastructure that I believe will take many years yet to overcome. On the other hand, the people I worked with are sincere and motivated to improve the system though there are systems issues that in my opinion will be slow to change. On the balance, I would come back again to further assist the process. From a non-medicine view, our time here has been truly wonderful. So, if I add it all up, it was well worth all the effort to be here and we will look longingly out of the airplane windows as we fly away.
