Bhutan 2014

Chillies drying in the sun in the streets of Paro, competing with the ornate window decorations for colour. Paro is at an altitude of 2200 metres.

Shopkeeper's daughter playing in the street, not far from her mother's watchful eye.

Maureen with prayer flags on Chile La, at a height of 3,900 metres. The thin atmosphere was a shock at first, but we got used to it after a few days.

Traditional and western clothing styles being worn by people at a market in the Haa Valley. The women's wrap-around is called a Kira and the men's gown is a Gho.

Maureen sitting on a friendly Policeman's patrol bike outside the gates to the marketplace, with Nima our road captain holding our helmets, and our guide Dhi Raj behind him.

Man sitting in his shop window while awaiting customers in the Haa Valley.

Grandaughter and grandmother sitting in the main street watching the passers-by.

Having a roadside picnic with our tour group of two and "staff" of four. The grey vehicle is a Mahindra Bolero to use as a breakdown truck. Luckily our Enfield did not break down.

Dophu and Nima and Enfield at a mountainside rest stop. Speeds were slow on the roads, but penalties for going off a corner were high. Corners happened every hundred meters or so, and the roads were bumpy and crowded with vehicles, humans and cattle, even the odd yak. Concentration had to be high.

A mother gives her daughter a drink at the 108 stupas memorial on the top of the Dochula Pass at 3,150 metres. There were Indian people as well as Bhutanese and tourists at this reminder of loss of life when the Bhutanese miltary forcibly evicted Indian separatist guerillas from clandestine camps in southern Bhutan in 2003.

When the traffic stopped for one and a half hours because of roadwork, a roadside community sprang to life. Vendors selling cooked corncobs, tea, soft drinks and rice-puffs did a good trade, the truck drivers mended punctures and other parts of their trucks in the middle of the road and other people just stopped to chat and rest.

This lady was selling rice puffs along the line of now-stationary motorists. I thought she had an interesting face and asked through our guide if I could photograph her.

As we were walking through a village on the way to the Chime Lhakhang temple, I noticed three boys happily chatting their way home from school just ahead of us.

In the same valley, people were making haystacks in the traditional way, and showing strength and balance by walking up a ladder carrying a load of hay.

This man was spinning a personal prayer wheel, as opposed to the large-scale groups of prayer wheels and flags often installed in temples and on sacred hillsides.

We enjoyed our stay at the Hotel Vara, Punakha Valley. We ended up staying there three nights as we travelled further east and came back through the same valley.

After a short, steep and bumpy driveway from the main road to the left, this was the view of the lovely Punakha Valley as seen from our Hotel Vara room's balcony.

Standing beside the Royal Enfield near a roadside waterfall gives an idea of how steep the hillsides were. Typically, they were nearly vertical.

Cloth-seller's daughter in an open-fronted shop on a mountain pass on the road to Trongsa.

Bends in a more open section of road that reminded me of the Swiss Alps. Normally the corners were tighter than this and the gradient and hillsides steeper.

The yellow squiggly line on the satellite image shows how many corners in a typical approximately ten kilometre section of road. I think the more open part on the right is what you can see in the photo above this.

A diminutive lady carrying luggage to our room at Yangkhill Resort overlooking the valley and Trongsa Dzong, the area's administration and religious centre.

Girls laughing at the photographer in one of Trongsa Dzong's courtyards. One girl is distracted by recently-introduced technology of the mobile phone.

I could hear this monk puffing up the stairs in the second courtyard of the massive Trongsa Dzong, originally established in 1647 and repaired several times since.

The dry-stone walls in the old village of Ura reminded me of Ireland, but the housing style did not. This area is thought to be one of the oldest settlements in Bhutan.

This lady was getting water in the main street of the old Ura village, before continuing to drive the cattle up the road towards the Geyden Lhakhang (temple).

Both of us on our tour bike, a 2014 Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350 on a 3,800 metre mountain pass with a 7,500 metre peak in the background. Photo taken by our cultural guide, Dhi Raj Chhetri.

Dhi Raj telling us the significance of the Burning Lake sacred site.

Yaks are quite rare to see beside the road, and not usually able to live below 3,500 metres. They are high-altitude adapted and prefer 4,500 metres and higher, and were used for mountaineering expeditions. I was belatedly warned not to get as close as I did to get a photo of this one, as they are considered wild animals.

Harvesting buckwheat in Phobjikha Valley at 3,000 metres, also the sanctuary area of the black-necked crane. The young people at the back who learn English at school yelled out a friendly invitation for us to join them in hand-harvesting and processing this high-altitude and quick-growing grain.

This young girl popped up over a fence as we were wandering through Phobjikha village.

A young lady lighting the evening fire in our guest house bedroom, as it was getting cold at night at this altitude.

The same young lady and other staff from the guesthouse waving goodbye in the morning.

Gangtey Lakhang, reached after a pleasant hike along the Gangtey nature trail.

We met a gathering of monks on a mountaintop, who were there to celebrate the visit of a famous Bhutanese Buddhist, who honoured us with a blessing.

Snaking river.

This old lady was pushing the giant prayer wheels behind her, and paused cheerfully in her praying to be photographed. She said she was 84 years old.

Serenely patient apple seller on the path to the temple.

Nima on the long-span suspension bridge. I decided this was one adventure ride I would not do. I elected to walk the bridge instead.

Maureen and me waving from the suspension bridge. Photo taken by our cultural guide, Dhi Raj Chhetri,

Young woman who has committed to a religious life with 102 others in a hilltop monastery.

An Indian couple travelling on a Royal Enfield, who we met on our return journey past the 108 stupas monument. The Himalayan peaks in the background were clearer on this second visit. Knowing what was ahead for them, we asked how the pillion rider was coping on the bumpy roads and she said "I have a strong back."

On our last night in Bhutan at the Hotel Olathang we had a separate chalet from the main hotel building. It felt very quiet and exclusive. We said goodbye to our companions of the voyage next morning with sadness. Dhi Raj, Nima, Dophu and Karma had been lovely to meet and get to know in our twelve days travelling.