One adventure after another

My morning started with Sheila singing “Happy Birthday” at 3 a.m. We were both wide awake, listening to the rain fall outside. By the morning light, we could see freshly fallen snow in the mountains outside our window and soon we’d be right in the midst of it all — or so we think. Once in the van, our guide, Chungdu, gets a phone call and I hear him say ‘road blockage’ in the midst of a stream of foreign words.

Overnight, heavy rainfall had caused a landslide that was no blocking the only road from east to west — the same road we’re traveling today. We have no way of knowing how long the damaged section would be closed and yet we continued along anyway.

Not knowing how long we might be delayed, we took extra-long ‘picture stops’ — the first at Laoola Pass. The snow we’d seen from afar was now underfoot, crackling as it melted. Not soon after we were back in the van, driver Bichnu calls out that he’s spotted a monkey. One langur turned into 20 langurs, which multiplied into 30-plus langurs sitting, playing and eating on the slope above us. Chungdu told us this was a rare sighting. “They are almost never seen,” he says. “It’s very auspicious and we will have good luck today.”

I do feel lucky to be able to spend my birthday in Bhutan and we will all need as much luck as we can get today as we navigate our way toward the town of Trongsa.

At another mountain pass, we come across some nomadic yak herders selling textiles. My birthday present was hanging on a line made of rope strung between two sticks. I bought the yak-hair bag and played with the vendor’s son who giggled joyously as I chased him around his mother’s skirt. We waved goodbye and once again we were on the move.

After lunch, it was another 45 minutes to the road closure and when we arrived, a line of 30 cars were waiting for the bulldozer to remove obstacles from the road. A group of Indian truck drivers were playing a game on a board drawn in the dirt, while debris crashed down the moutainside nearby. The noise of large boulders careening down the slope is not one you’d soon forget.

The truck at the head of the line had been there since the night before, but we were there only 45 minutes before the traffic police began letting one car at a time travel through what was left of the road. A heavy rain began to fall, adding a level of treachery to the task.

I held my breath when it was our turn. The moutainside was still unstable and I imagined the worst possible scenario, as I stared into the abyss that was just inches away from the van’s tires.

I finally exhaled on the other side. The rain subsided and the only thing that remained was a fully formed rainbow in the valley below.
My birthday couldn’t have been more amazing — and it was only 3:30 p.m. I was sure I’d had my cake and eaten it, too — that is, until later when the hotel wait staff brought out a real one pierced with three paper prayer flags and two candles. Chungdu presented a gift on behalf of the tour company and we all toasted with Bhutanese beer). As I blew out the candles, I didn’t know what to wish for. I’ve already found the pot of gold. Hopefully my wish will pay it forward.