This entry is for Monday, May 25.

We got decent sleep yesterday between the before dinner naps and another 6 hours at night. But we gave up about 3am and got up for coffee in the room.

We left a little after 5am for our morning walk.

Beautiful vistas everywhere you look.

We are in Punakha. Elevation is about 4000 feet, population around 9000.

And since I haven’t said it yet, the population of Bhutan is just about 800k. It is just under 15k square miles. It is a little bigger than Massachusetts and a little smaller than the upper peninsula of Michigan.

Punakha was the capital from 1907 to 1955 when it was moved to Thiumpu, where we were the first night and will return tomorrow.

Beautiful bridge over the Puna Tsang Chu River. It was just completed about 2 months ago.

Looking up at our hotel on our way back. We have the corner room on the first floor on the left – the one with the curtains open. We are sitting as I type on that balcony on the right.

The name of our hotel is Zen Punakha.

That’s Ash standing at the entrance.

You see this detail everywhere and I wanted to capture a closeup of it.

Current situation. Love the terraces on the left, growing rice probably. It is almost 7am when breakfast will be ready. The room to the left of Ash’s head is ours. We are leaving at 8am but staying here one more night. More when are day is done.

More views from the dining room balcony.

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Breakfast was served at 7am.

Omelette with fried rice, a spicy potato dish, and puri which is another kind of fried bread.

We left the hotel about 8am and stopped about 15 minutes away for what would be a fairly rigorous hike.

It started with a walk across a wobbly suspension. Yay, my favorite! (Not…)

Surrounded by beautiful farm land dotted with cows.

We stopped to rest after the first steep climb, which in hindsight was nothing compared to what lay ahead.

I deleted more than I will add to the blog, but there will be more beautiful landscape photos coming.

With a little bit of forest…

…and of course more climbing.

Notice the terraces through the trees in the background.

The destination: Khamsum Yulley Namgyal Chorten, a stupa built in 2004 by the queen mother. It serves as a spiritual monument designed to ward off negative forces and bring peace and harmony to the world.

The tree is a bodhi, the same kind of tree Siddhartha sat under until he became the Buddha. In the Buddhist tradition, bodhi means awakening or enlightenment.

Photos aren’t allowed in any of these so I will just say this: The Sistine Chapel has got nothing on what we’ve seen today. A completely different kind of art of course but beautiful and intricate in its own right.

Views from the 4th level which was essentially the roof.

Our guide, Dorji, took this of us on our way out.

Above and below: making our way back down. Photos courtesy of Melanie, a member of our group.

A woman weeding a rice paddy. And a dog. Could be hers, probably stray. They are everywhere. And kept well fed by the locals. Like the cats in Istanbul, although not nearly as many.

We bought fresh roasted peanuts from a monk sitting on the side of the trail. Oh and Melanie is in the orange shoes.

I just couldn’t get over how green everything was.

One more walk over the shaky bridge.

We were done just after 10:30am and made our way to Punakha Dzong, a fortress built in 1637. It is now used for administrative offices for the country of Bhutan as Punakha still serves as the administrative capital. It is shared with monks who live and study here.

Remember this from our arrival in Paro on Saturday? I said then we would probably figure out what it was sometime on the trip. And this is it.

Punakha Dzong is a fortress built in 1637 to protect Bhutan from Tibetan invasions and serve as an administrative and religious hub. The fortress objective is no longer true but the rest remains the same. Punakha is still the administrative capital of Bhutan and many offices are here. And monks also use it as a monastery, a place to live and study.

The photo below is taken from the bridge in the photo above. I love the jacaranda everywhere.

Above and below: courtyard of the administrative side. That’s another bodhi tree.

Above and below: the courtyard on the monk’s side. The only building we entered was the one above which was essentially a temple. I’m bummed photos aren’t allowed. The colors, details, and stories that go with the images are incredible.

At this point it was approaching Noon and we made our way to lunch. And thank goodness because I was feeling weak. The hike was a workout on top of the 4 mile walk we did this morning (I’m showing 8.4 miles for the day as I type at 6:15pm). Plus it was way hotter than we expected, and most of these places you have to wear long pants. So food was a very good idea.

The restaurant was Siddi Darma at the top of a hill.

Our view at lunch.

That’s Dorji on the left. She’s been wonderful. Super sweet and knows her stuff. She took the photo below.

Everyone agreed this meal rivaled last night’s in quality, although nothing beats this atmosphere. The cabbage salad was flavored with a chili that had a numbing effect on your tongue. Another chicken dish over rice but the best one so far. The hit was the cauliflower which was breaded and fried and served with a kind of sweet and sour sauce.

After lunch was another hanging bridge. We only walked a bit of it then opted to go back to the van.

Have I mentioned the cows? Not as plentiful as the dogs but they can show up anywhere.

We stopped at a place along the river for tea and a rest. Still the nunnery to go but we asked to get dropped at the hotel on the way. We were done.

We had 90 minute massages scheduled for 4pm. Just what we needed. Hoping that will help us sleep through the night.

Dinner was at 6:30pm.

Ash had requested pakora – breaded and fried vegetables- there on the left. And probably the best thing on the plate tonight. Definitely not as good as last night’s.

And with that we are done. It’s too early to go to bed, even for us, so will try to stay up at least another hour. It’s not even 7:30 yet but we are exhausted.

Totally worth it though. This was one of those “this is why we travel” days. Stunning views, beautiful art and architecture, interesting history and culture.

Tomorrow we pack up and head to another destination.