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Day 17: Exploring Haa Valley

December 20, 2019 By sue Leave a Comment

28 October 2019

Today we will spend the whole day exploring the culturally rich Haa Valley, which is also known for being the ancestral home of the Royal grandmother. The two most important temples here are the 7th century Lhakhang Karpo (White temple) and Lhakhang Nagpo (Black temple), which sit at the foothills of a group of hills known as Meri Puensum. Legend has it that King Songtsen Gampo released a black and a white pigeon to select sites to build the temples, which act as guardian sentinels keeping watch over the southern entrance to the valley.

We are quite surprised by how well we have acclimatised to the altitude: after puffing and wheezing just to get to the restaurant last night, we are all managing the climb to the temples pretty well. After the temples we loop round to explore the pretty countryside around them on foot. It is a very fertile valley with apples and timber being the main products (we had seen a lot of trucks carrying timber on our way in).

White Temple, Haa
White Temple, Haa
White Temple, Haa
White Temple, Haa
White Temple, Haa
White Temple, Haa

White Temple, Haa
White Temple, Haa
Prayer Wheels, White Temple, Haa
Prayer Wheels, White Temple, Haa
Prayer Wheels, White Temple, Haa
Prayer Wheels, White Temple, Haa

Monks making offerings
Monks making offerings
Monk, White Temple, Haa
Monk, White Temple, Haa
Nun, White Temple, Haa
Nun, White Temple, Haa

Walking to Black Temple, Haa
Walking to Black Temple, Haa
Black Temple, Haa
Black Temple, Haa
Black Temple, Haa
Black Temple, Haa

Houses, Haa
Houses, Haa
Houses, Haa
Houses, Haa
Shop with Royal Images
Shop with Royal Images

Ornate doorway
Ornate doorway
Villagers at Prayer Wheel
Villagers at Prayer Wheel
Monks walking down street
Monks walking down street

This is very much an army town with barracks, training grounds, officers mess, and army children’s schools. Even the Dzong (fort) is being used for army administration. Jamba is keen to visit the rainbow trout hatchery so we drive through the middle of the army area to visit the National Fisheries Centre. This is still a puzzle to us because fishing is illegal in Bhutan as Buddhists don’t kill animals; the chicken we have in our meals comes frozen from India (apparently it is okay to eat them as long as you don’t kill them); it seems that farmed fish is okay to eat (perhaps they employ non-Buddhists to kill them?) It was fun to watch Jamba (and Chengha) trying to photograph the fish.

Then we head down into the centre of Haa and walk around over the swing bridge across the river and then ambled down the Main Street enjoying the richly decorated shops and houses. Every type of shop you could imagine is catered for. Finally we end up at a restaurant for lunch that serves us more things we hadn’t tried before that were all very tasty, including potato balls, battered eggplant and a different type of dumpling – served with ginger tea that seems to have become everyone’s favourite after I asked for it on the first night.

Fishing, Bhutan style
Fishing, Bhutan style
Fishing, Bhutan style
Fishing, Bhutan style
Fishing, Bhutan style
Fishing, Bhutan style

Haa is an army town
Haa is an army town
Haa Chu (river)
Haa Chu (river)
Crossing to the other side
Crossing to the other side

Looking back to the town with temple on hill
Looking back to the town with temple on hill
Downtown Haa
Downtown Haa
Downtown Haa
Downtown Haa

Downtown Haa
Downtown Haa
Every shop & business you could want
Every shop & business you could want
Every shop & business you could want
Every shop & business you could want

Every shop & business you could want
Every shop & business you could want
Decorated buildings
Decorated buildings
Decorated buildings
Decorated buildings

Decoration detail
Decoration detail
Decoration detail
Decoration detail
Decoration detail
Decoration detail

Decoration detail
Decoration detail
Decoration detail
Decoration detail
Decoration detail
Decoration detail

After lunch we have a visit to the Haa Hospital – this time for me as I need to get my coughing up blood checked out. All health care is free in Bhutan (including for visitors). There are only two doctors in the Haa area and they are based at the hospital. Chengha takes me in and we wait as the on duty doctor is at lunch. It turns out she is a delightful young woman doctor who I get to see remarkably quickly. She doesn’t think there is anything serious, gives me prescriptions to stop the coughing and tells me to come back if it hasn’t cleared up in a few days. One of the prescriptions I can get at the hospital and then we go to the pharmacy to get the cough syrup. The rest of the group have been patiently sitting in the bus but thankfully don’t seem too perturbed.

Then Jamba drives us up to the head of the valley where we are going to do some more walking. The trip notes said that we were to head back up towards the pass and hike to a nunnery but Chengha tells us that the path is being repaired so we can’t go there. We are very happy with the alternative as we have climbed a few more hundred metres and we are pleased to be getting in practice for our climb to the Tiger’s Nest monastery on the last day. It is a very pretty farming village and we walk along a delightful little footpath that winds through it, talking to the locals, passing the cows and horses, seeing peas, turnips and other vegetables being grown, and hay being dried in the lofts of the houses. There is a village temple that we visit also, and see a water mill that powers a stone for grinding grains. We pass an enterprising family who have set up a garden bar at their house and stop to talk to some people building a house. We discover that it is to become a childcare centre. It is being built in the traditional mud brick style, covered with a layer of stone for protection. The women are perched up high, inside a wooden frame where they are tamping down the mud. Men climb the ladder with sacks of mud to tip in. We are very impressed to discover that what they have built so far has only taken 9 days.

Local farmhouse
Local farmhouse
Hay store
Hay store
Hay eater!
Hay eater!

Strolling through the countryside
Strolling through the countryside
Countryside
Countryside

Countryside
House with Prayer flags
House with Prayer flags
Fields and tunnel house
Fields and tunnel house

Village Temple
Village Temple
Chenga inspecting the water wheel
Chenga inspecting the water wheel
Garden bar
Garden bar

Building a childcare centre
Building a childcare centre
Building a childcare centre
Building a childcare centre
Rammed earth
Rammed earth

Jamba comes to pick us up and take us back to the hotel where a cup of ginger tea and some biscuits await us (as well as a much needed bathroom that we all race for). We are staying in for dinner tonight but they will be making something a bit different for us. This turns out to be food that they make for a special festival that occurs only in the Haa region. I can only describe it as a cross between a dumpling and a Cornish pasty with spanakopita filling; it is made with buckwheat flour that is a bit crispy and is filled with a spicy tangy spinach-based filling – it is very tasty.

For this and other similar tours see:

Explore Asia with Intrepid Travel (a range of different travel styles – see my post on travel styles)

Peregrine Adventures (Comfort tours)

Geckos Adventures (for 18 to 30s)

Note: After people telling me they had booked an Intrepid Tour on my recommendation, I now have affiliate links with the Intrepid Travel group of companies and may receive a commission if you book a tour online within a couple of months after clicking through to these sites.  So if you are enjoying my tips and stories and finding them useful in choosing your own travel, please click on these links and help me to bring you more ☺.


 

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Filed Under: Bhutan, Nepal & Bhutan, Travel Tagged With: Bhutan

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Life’s Bounty is about all the things I enjoy experiencing, creating, and sharing. Join me as I travel in search of new experiences; coax more produce from my backyard in Auckland, New Zealand and preserve the harvested bounty; and try my hand at making anything from cider to jewellery to cards to gift packs of soap.
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