This entry is for Sunday, May 24.

We didn’t have great sleep and gave up about 4am. We had coffee in the room and caught up with things on our phones and then went out for a walk where we logged 4 miles before breakfast.

There are no traffic signals in Bhutan. But lots of roundabouts, often with beautiful art in the middle.

We walked along the river for a good while. On a hill in the distance sits a huge Buddha.

We will get up there when we come back to Thimphu later this week.

We came across a park that was behind walls which had a rose garden we had seen on the drive in yesterday.

We made our way back for breakfast. The hotel had a pretty typical buffet.

At 8:30 we met with a Buddhist monk who talked to us about the history of Bhutan and how Buddhism is woven into the structure of the country. He also explained how Gross National Happiness works, which measure 9 domains such as health, living standards, psychological well being, and education using periodic surveys. Governance through policy and programs then works to make improvements based on how the people are doing. It was pretty interesting and made a lot of sense.

We left Thimphu around 10:15. Our first stop was Dochula Pass, at about 10k feet. It is decorated with 108 stupas, built in 2003 to honor Bhutanese soldiers killed during military operations against insurgents.

The panoramic views are supposed to be stunning but we just had clouds this morning.

Next stop was lunch, a buffet nearly identical to our dinner yesterday so I didn’t take photos. So far the food has been pretty uninteresting. Good though. Just basic.

On our way to the next place we stopped at a little vegetable stand where they were roasting corn on coals.

Yummy!

The big outing today was a hike up to a fertility temple, Chimi Lhakhang.

The landscape on the way was beautiful.

Rice farming.

The final ascent.

Lama Drukpa Kunley, aka Divine Madman because of his unconventional and outrageous style of teaching. He referred to his phallus as a flaming thunderbolt and used the symbolism to point out hypocrisy and discomfort society experiences when facing the truth.

The phallus become something to worship as a way to increase fertility and couples having trouble conceiving make pilgrimages here to receive blessings which result in children.

The temple was built in 1499 by his cousin.

The views looking out from the temple were stunning.

Remnants of the fertility festival happening here this weekend which we caught the very end of.

There were several shops on the way up selling all kinds and sizes of phalluses.

We made it to our hotel in Panukha about 3:30. This is the view from the balcony at the restaurant.

Our room has its own nice views. We quickly settled in for much needed naps. It is approaching 6:30pm and will make our way down to dinner.

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It had rained a bit while we were napping. The air was cooler and had that great after-rain smell to it.

Everyone agreed this was our best meal so far. A chicken stew over white rice, noodles in a creamy garlic sauce, roasted vegetables, green beans in spicy black bean sauce.

We are back in our room before 7:30 and are done. 13 hour jet lag is a bitch and we are both feeling it. The nap helped. Hopefully that won’t interfere with our sleep too much.