Hitching a ride in a jeep, an army truck, and a family car to get to the Cheli La pass
↑ Waiting for a ride at Bondey, the road to Cheli La separates from the Thimphu – Paro road here
My friend and I were contemplating going to Haa, a valley south of Paro and even got the Special Areas Permit to visit the place. However it would have been a touch-and-go trip so instead we decided to go upto a point midway between Paro and Haa and return to Paro the same day. This mid point is the Cheli La pass, the highest motorable road in Bhutan. The only problem was that hiring a taxi would cost is Rs. 1,200 ($26) and being the last few days of the holiday we didn’t have that much money (there are no ATMs that could use our bank cards). So ultimately we decided to go to the place where the road to Cheli La branches off and see what happens.
↑ Landing strip of Bhutan’s Paro international airport seen from the turnoff.
Let me preface this that the Bhutanese are not used to tourists flagging down a vehicle.
Ride 1: “I am installing a prayer wheel in the mountain”
↑ Pockets of snow at a shrine where the guy installed a prayer wheel.
We started walking from the intersection for over 30 minutes and then 2 vans full of Buddhist nuns stopped because we flagged at them. There is a nunnery somewhere in the mountains. Unfortunately their vans were full of stuff so we couldn’t squeeze in. Their vehicle was so crowded that I think 2 Bhutanese can fit into space required for 1 European. Since there were very few vehicles on the road and there was nothing else to do, we started hiking towards Chele La.
The first person to help us was a guy who operated a convenience store in the Bondey village nearby. He was going to the shrine shown in picture above to fix his prayer wheel. Apparently, during his earlier visit to India, his teacher instructed him to pray at a place high in the mountain. He therefore installed a water-operated prayer wheel at this site.
A water prayer wheel works on a simple principle of a water mill. Water from a stream hit the wooden paddles and the wheel spins. Prayer wheels have scrolls of prayers written inside them. Buddhists believe that spinning the prayer wheel will have the same meritorious effect as orally reciting the prayers.
Since winter was coming (you can already see the ice), he had to ensure that his prayer wheel remained safe from frozen chunks of ice. That’s why he was going there to make some repairs.
And that’s how we covered first 22 of 36 kilometers to Cheli La.
Ride 2: Army truck
After saying bye bye to the guy who helped us and assuring him that we’d pray on his behalf at Cheli La, we started walking on the road again. there were few abandoned houses, or maybe just makeshift storage houses on the way so I had to walk over their roofs, you know. Eventually we ended up walking less than 2 km until the next ride came.
In Bhutan, like in India, you flag down a vehicle by waving the hand with the palm facing downwards. I don’t know if the US way of ‘thumbs up’ works, because if I did that, people will probably think that I am wishing them good luck or pointing them to the sky.
The final 13 km were covered thanks to a huge Indian Army truck. The guy who was driving it was an ethnic Nepali and he was overjoyed to see us. The truck was carrying some supplies to the Indian Army post in Haa. This is the first time I crossed a mountain in a truck (no wait, second, but I dont remember the first time) and it was scary. The road was narrow, the bends were sharp and the valley was steep. If you have been to the Himalayas, you know how it feels like. These roads were also built by India’s Border Roads Organizations, so they have a peculiar style. Trucks require higher turning radius so the guy went almost to the edge of the road before making a turn. And while doing that he was chatting non-stop with me, while I simply sat there terrified. Each time the truck went near the edge of the road and I looked down, I remembered all the gods I could… thinking to myself ‘why the heck is he not turning… turn! turn! stop talking! turn!’
Pheww, finally the “Cheli La 0” milestone came into view. The two of us were visibly shaken from the ride but the driver was cheerful. We offered to share our food with him but he refused to take. He said that it was his gesture towards his countrymen and that he was sorry to hear about terrorist attack in Mumbai. He also asked us not to worry if we didn’t find a ride back home from Cheli La – he was going to come back at 8 pm.
Prayer flags everywhere
↑ Yay, Cheli La!
You can ‘feel’ that you are at the highest point in the neighborhood, there are taller snow-capped mountains only far away (Eastern Himalayas). Cheli La is a very simple place – there is a prayer wheel, a small altar, a round wooden table with an umbrella and an electric substation. But there are prayer flags and poles – lots and lots of them all over the adjacent hills higher than the road.
↑ Walking towards Haa valley
I spinned (spun?) the prayer wheel and prayed, also on behalf of the first guy (who gave us a lift) as he’d requested. It was a place that will humble you with its sheer power and simplicity. There is nothing but snow capped Himalayan ranges at your eye level. At 3,900 something meters above MSL, its not the highest places I’ve been to, but was certainly one of the best.
We spent 2 hours walking around. There was nothing to ‘see’ there because we were the tourist attraction. 😀 LOL. There are a couple of hills around the pass and can be hiked easily. These hills are the true peaks of the mountain. Predictably, they are all covered by prayer flags fluttering eternally in the strong wind, carrying the prayers to all corners of the world. There is nothing to worry about here – homework, deadlines, junk food, pollution, neighbors, nothing.
↑ Mountains around the pass are filled with prayer flags
Ride 3: Lets go back
The sun set and the place got chilly in an instant. We were waiting for a ride for almost an hour but there was absolutely nobody going to Paro, most vehicles were going to Haa – maybe from their work places in Paro? I thought that we missed a good time to catch a ride – we started in the afternoon, by then the peak traffic had subsided. By ‘peak traffic’ I mean 1 vehicle in 5 minutes in one direction! It was almost dark and we didn’t have sufficient warm clothes, but soon a Maruti 800 stopped, and there was a couple who dropped us back to Paro.
↑ Prayer Flags
Cheli La was a simple yet beautiful place. One can view the Paro valley from south and the Haa valley on the other side of the mountain range. The prayer flags communicate a sense of purpose and well-being to this life. But the most exciting part of the day was hitch hiking there. 🙂
↑ “The greatest religion never gives suffering to anybody” – Lord Buddha
Yay..hitchhiking to Chale-La!
Lots of prayer flags fluttering there in the winds.
“Oh my god, angel!”. I laughed reading about the last part of your journey in the Army truck. Cheers traveller.:)
Now that I read it after few days, I feel it exaggerated, but you get the idea 😉
Thanks Celine, cheers indeed.
Your truck ride reminded me of a bus ride from Dalhousie to Chamba. At one point, the road went so high that the dam in the valley was like a small toy. I was praying to God! 😆
Beautiful pictures.
I was wondering what would have happened if the Maruti 800 had not arrived?? 🙂
Oh, the Indian Army truck was going to come back at 8 pm! We could have stayed there, frozen by then… 🙂 Pheww! But anyway, the backup plan was to walk about 2 km down until we hit a wooden room-like shed. That would give us some protection, plus being in the valley and the wind-shadow (is there such a word?) side would have helped temperature-wise!
Hey Priyank watch out climbing those signs, make sure you don’t fall, lol. Nice story telling, and cool images of you. Anna 🙂
Thanks Anna! I suddenly realize that this post had so many images of me! 🙂
Excellent qoute at the end!!! 🙂
Thanku thanku!
ROFL, you guys were the tourists attractions, too funny. As usually very interesting and love the images, you are a braver person than I, I must say, I am so into the tour thing with other people, my daughter went like you on her voyages over to Spain, France and Italy.
hehehe, thanks Bob! Everyone is adventurous in different ways isn’t it! 🙂
The sky was absolutely stunning!
C L O U D L E S S…
Those prayer flags looked kinda familiar to me.
Hang on, didn’t people use them in the Free Tibet campaign? 😉
Thanks London Caller! It was a beautiful day indeed. 🙂
It’s likely that they used prayer flags to protest the occupation – most of the times we cling to things that are dearest to us during time of crisis, isn’t it? 🙂
So this is a long post, and I have a couple of questions.
* Why do you need a special permit pass to visit that certain place in Bhutan? I find these places interesting and intriguing, similar to China’s Tibet (for which I have an inkling about the reason) and India’s eastern parts (for which I don’t know why a permit is needed).
* That picture of you standing behind the yellow route marker is funny. It looked like those were your hands continuing into the route marker.
* So the water-operated prayer mill was basically water praying for him? Automated? Since he didn’t have to spin it himself? Very interesting concept of prayer.
* Your logic about the necessity of walking above the roofs are a little blurry. Is this a personal fetish of yours? 😛
* Finally, those prayer flags look creepy. I would not want to sky-dive and land on those.
Ah, lemme address your comments. 🙂
* permits
Bhutan was opened to international tourists less than 10 years ago. Foreign (except Indian) tourists still find it impossible to travel independently. I am guessing that Bhutan is very defensive of its old traditions and wants minimal interaction with outsiders since in my opinion, the more you are exposed, open, liberalized, the more you lose your old traditions (and become American, lol kidding)! A permit system helps the country track the movement of foreigners. That said, its a system based on honesty – if someone wants to screw it, they can always do that by skipping the check post (just climb the mountain and cross it!)
One needs a permit (which is very easy to arrange) to visit few of India’s north-eastern states due to geo-political reasons. Couple of states are affected by insurgency and permits help the government to keep you safe. One state (Arunachal Pradesh) is now being claimed by China (we already had a war in 1962 over it)
I do not know about permit systems in Tibet. The country was open before China occupied it.
* prayer wheel
“Oursourcing” of a prayer is a common concept in most eastern religions. 🙂 In this case you could say that the water was spinning the wheel, but it was the man’s action of installing the prayer wheel that is contributing to the prayers in the universe. Prayer flags work on a similar concept. Someone installs the flags at higher altitudes – mountains, top of a building etc – and every time the wind blows, the prayers are carried ‘everywhere in the universe’.
* fetish
I never forget peeing off cliffs either. 😉
* prayer poles
I was intrigued by the sword-like wooden piece atop the poles. I don’t know what they stand for!
Did I satisfactorily answer your questions? 🙂
Priyank,
Given all your hitchhiking adventures, I somehow imagine you to be the guy asking for a ride in this Maruti Suzuki commercial.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbX8e4seGoY
Hang in there till the end when a young guys asks for a ride home!
Ah, Vamsee, that’s a nice ad..! hehehe Thanks for the link! 🙂
[…] Paro Valley This post is part of Mystic Druk Yul, a series of travelogues narrating my trip to Bhutan. Here are the other posts! « Previous post: Hitchhiking to Cheli La […]
Ahh, I regret for the nth time not coming with you 🙁 Very interesting post and the line – there is nothing to worry about 🙂
🙂 I wish you came!
Hi there Priyank,
Thanks for this post! I’m about to go to Bhutan in a month’s time and I almost agreed to taking Chelela off my itinerary… thanks to you (and me finding your blog) I didn’t! So I’m going to see this beautiful place, too.
You take very good photos, BTW. 🙂
Katariina
Thanks Katariina, I’m glad the posts convinced you to go there! 🙂
[…] La is the highest motorable road in Bhutan, at an elevation of about 4,000m. I hitchhiked to this point in an army truck, a pickup and a car. […]