Bhutan: Reaching Laya and the rest day (Day 12, 13)

DAY 12

By this time, our group had its own gossip and masala. It was the last day in the mountains...we were actively descending. I felt like spending more time with and within myself. I thought about the Long Tail in a different way...when you pursue happiness or rather what you think gives you happiness, there's also a long tail of dissatisfaction that comes along in small, small ways. It goes hand-in-hand...you can examine any situation and that'll be true. Mumukshatva is to let go of both joy and no-joy...to be neutral and therefore be liberated.

Anyways, the waterfalls started thinning down wherever they were. I remember having a very quiet moment there...chomping on some almonds. We ran into confident locals who waved hi. I could hear the din of JCBs sometimes. One of the staff (everyone called him LT) - a 22 year old kid who used to do photoshopping in an IT park in Thimphu - told me all about Laya's wealthy Nomads. They weren't wealthy to begin with but started finding and selling Cordyseps...the bug that goes into Chinese medicine...it sometimes sells for $12,000/ kg. So the nomads got wealthy, they bought yaks, they bought winter homes in Laya, painted them, rented it out to travelers like us, they also bought a lot of home appliances...

That night, it was one of trek-mates birthdays and Cookie baked a real big cake with carrots and such using just aluminum foil and pressure cooker! It was amazing. The staff gifted a wooden phallus! We had arra (made of barley)...the local liquor. 

We were all getting back to the plains...ouch, ouch, ouch.

DAY 13

This was a very nice relaxing day...it was sunny, the mountains looked spectacular. We gave each other head and shoulder massages...I thought my shoulder would dislocate itself...I learnt that my backpack wasn't a good one...blah blah bleh. I was amused to see Mayur's many many tattoos and I think even one ring. Candi and I made 5 plaits with Divya's extremely long hair...and even tied it with some twigs/ grass.

We could see the majestic Tiger mountain in the distance...I felt like shaving. I borrowed Candi's broken mirror and shaved all my beard...it generally felt nice.

We strolled all over Laya...it's a group of 5 villages. We stopped at a house...the lady invited us up, she had a beautiful baby...we walked more, took more pics...it was laidback, nice. I got into a field and found two fierce dogs guarding it. They were eating something when they spotted me. I didn't know whether to run or stand. I decided to quietly walk back and thanks to their lunch...they ignored me. Finally, we ended up at the alter of someone house...they invited us in. There was a puja going on. The main priest's baritone voice took us to another zone. I felt like meditating. It was all too much. (I've written about this in the Natgeo article).