dinner and making plans with the Brits.

another group traveling with the same Bhutan company met up with us in the evening in bumthang. 12 older Brits, traveling with their buddy "slime", a charismatic old time kayaker who did a lot of the first descents and explorations of Bhutan rivers in the late 90's with jerry (motorcycle traveler who led us on the Mangda Chhu a few days earlier), and co-authored the whitewater guide for Nepal. they all had a grand reunion, and it was fun to be around guys with so much experience and history in the area. traveling with them as a guide was another guy named Patrick, who happens to own the last resort in Nepal, our destination after leaving Bhutan. small world. 

over more beers, some of the local apple wine, and dinner, the guides made the plan for boating the following day on the Chamkha Chhu. even though it was going to be cold, we all wanted to get on the one last river, and the guides picked a section putting in just down from the hotel, and rafting through a pretty canyon with some class II-III Rapids. 

arrived in jakar, bumthang

we rolled into jakar in the late afternoon, while it was still light out, which was nice.  it was warmer than it had been over the high pass, but still quite cold out, with temperatures dropping as the sun went down. we enjoyed tea in the restaurant around a nice hot wood stove while tshe tshe checked us in, and had the start fires in our rooms as well. 

tea turned into beers, and we tried the local brew, red panda. it was a hearty unfiltered white beer. not usually my style, but super tasty! 

the rooms were cute little cabin-like, with a wood stove in the middle for heat. great when the fire was stoked, but pretty chilly when it went out overnight! we all tried to be good boy and Girl Scouts and light the fires on our own with the little box of matches in the room, but it was not easy.... and we ended up relying on hotel staff to stoke the fires most of the time. rich and scott did come up with a good method involving hand sanitizer tho! brilliant. 

on the way to bumthang

from the trongsa dzong, we had lunch in town, and then were back in the bus for another 3 hour push to bumthang. as we ascended towards the pass, it was really foggy, and temperatures dropped quite a bit. we made a quick stop at the high pass, where there were remnants of snow on the ground from the previous evenings rain. 

we made a stop along the way at another weaving center... and given the cold cold air, we all were very drawn to the scarf selection. ha.