traveling day!

after three days of hiking, and two rafting. it was time for our first big travel day. we had 8-9 hours to go from punakha valley over the pass to the next large dzong where the east and west meet, and then down to the magnda Chhu river. we were on the road by 8am, settled in for the long haul. 

to say the roads are just curvy would be insulting to curves. the roads (sometimes paved, sometimes dirt) go up, down, around, and around and around, precariously cut into the sides of the mountains. the drop off on the side is most often several hundred feet straight down. it is adorable that there is an occasional guard rail 5-10ft long. progress is slow, never going more than 30mph, and far less when passing other vehicles, or avoiding giant potholes, or the occasional remnants of a landslide. 

along the way I played out all the scenarios of us accidentally driving off the edge, and none of them ended well. ha.