The road into Thimphu was indeed busy and dusty, not like what we’d seen up to that point.
But there was lots to see, including market stalls like these
or more people building roads
or kids with breathing apparatus
More Terraced Rice Fields
From here we drove into Thimphu. Here is the Hotel Riverview.
I don’t have the pictures from the afternoon, but here are some from early the next morning.
The driveway from the road to the hotel in Haa would have been familiar to anyone who has ridden over sharp cobbles embedded in a steeply pitched matrix of yak dung. I couldn’t ride down the thing without fear of getting a pinch flat, so I didn’t. Again, I was last from the start.
This is excerpted from a message I sent my wife. “Today was longer, but not so hilly. The weather was absolutely beautiful. Clear, cool, a few clouds. We rode along the walls of a canyon above a river for about 50 miles, dropping down to it at the last moment. I had a flat that I didn’t fix properly, so for the last 15 miles I was stopping to pump it up half a dozen times.” All true. The children greeted us as if we were something very rare and unusual.
And the roads scenic
On the first few days John didn’t want to get too far ahead. That didn’t last. Here he is with Sange and Kinsahn.
They build the roads by hand in this country.
Switchbacks on the Descent to the Confluence
Traditional Homes in the Valley
Trucks Delivering Water to the Families of Road Builders
After many miles, we finally came to the confluence of two major rivers and more roads. There was a military checkpoint, too, but they seemed uninterested in us. The bus was waiting with lunch. Here’s the confluence.
Three Chortens
Painted Trucks
Gorging at the Rest Stop
And a bit more of my e-mail message to my wife. “The final 20miles into Thimpu was over a very busy road under construction, so we rode our little bus back instead. Roads here are barely wider than a single car, so when you are on a bike and a truck goes by, you get squoosed to one side fo the road. There would have been too much of that. We were all happy with the decision.”
