too much ara....AGAIN!

where to start?  this morning, me and mom and apa and sonam left for punahka.  to get to punahka we have to drive over the dochu-la.  la in dzongkha means pass.  and it is a beautiful pass indeed!  dochu-la is 2200 meters and at the top of the pass is 108 chortens dedicated to his majesty the 4th king and it is very beautiful.  in the distance you can see the high himalaya and it is stunning!  as you head down to punahka, the plant life becomes more tropical and sometimes i am surprised at the size of things.  my mom is a rhodo addict so we looked at a lot of these huge, tall rhodo trees and when i showed her poinsettas as tall as 12 feet, she was blown away!

the dzong in punahka is huge and it is at the site where the mo chu and the po chu converge.  also known as the mother and father river, the dzong sits at the beginning of the convergence.  a very beautiful covered bridge passes over the river as you walk to the dzong and it is beyond words that i can find to describe how beautiful it is.

we walked around the dzong and soaked up the atmosphere of the place.....i must have taken hundreds of photos and video even though i have been her many times now!  it is hot down there in punahka and it is very fertile.  as beautiful as it was, i must say i was happy to eat and get back up to the pass.  

at the top of dochu-la, i must admit that my mind raced again with ideas of escaping into the forest and up into the mountains!  i could see the way to gaza and the trail heading up into laya, high up in the himalaya along the tibetan border.  i am coming back this fall and doing that walk again, somehow i lost my soul up there awhile back......i keep thinking about how sterile canada has become everytime i think about that walk.....how we must stay on the trails and not wonder out into the forest and get lost.  how sad....and i don't think that this is just the ara talking!  our wilderness has become a bit out of reach.  we must pay to park in the parking lots next to nature and then stay on designated trails???  how sad is that ....whole new generations of canadians will now lose touch with nature and accesibility to nature.....it is becoming like a museum where we can stand on the sidelines and look but never touch.....it breaks my heart.  here i can just start walking and it doesn't matter, i can be wrapped in nature the second my foot touches the earth....no one there to monitor me and to tell me that i'm not allowed, just trees and mountains welcoming me in.....thank god there are still sensible peoples left in the world.....a place where no one tells you that you are breaking the rules by stepping out into nature........

we had a wonderful dinner tonight at the house, samdrup brought his friend from china who is a photographer and is living in delhi and jigme brought a british lady who is making a documentary about bhutan, there were many bhutanese friends and family...much good food and ara was had.......