Bhutan Day 6

Today is supposed to be super easy but in reality it is straight down for just over 2 hours.  That means my quads were absolutely burning and you had to be very careful where you stepped.

A view from our campsite being packed up and us mostly ready to go.

That's me on the final day promoting my brother Taylor's company TssRadio.  I've taken his shirts to Mongolia, the Beijing Olmypics, Bhutan and other places.  A well traveled company.  Check him out at tss-radio.com.

Our full group including the guides, cooks, horesmen, etc.  Notice the woman on the left a couple of feet out from the group.  That is the tour company owner and she was nice but wasn't great, I guess she realized it and didn't want to be in the photo.

Getting a little running water to clean our hands officially was nice.  

 The women, not quite ready to pass the finish line just yet.  So I guess they took a few minutes of reflection.

Upon completion we were greeted by a previous guide of ours who had some Pepsi and a box that said "Druk Pizza."  How awesome was this going to be?  Well it wasn't pizza in fact so our dreams got shattered as it was a non-flavorful, but probably high calorie, cake.

 Ahh the Super Strong Druk 11,000 beer for lunch!

We spent a bit of time checking out the city of Thimpu before driving back to Paro (which is the town our trek started from).  The hotel when we finally got there was really cool and located high in the mountain, more like a lodge than anything else.

These next photos are from the city of Thimpu as we were pleased to be back in civilization I guess.

 There are no stoplights in the city, so it is all done by police men waving on cars.

On the way back to Paro we noticed an awesome rainbow so we had to stop.

Ahh what I wouldn't give for a shower and a quick nap on a bed!  Well that wasn't to be unfortunately.  I unpacked my stuff as we would be here two nights, so enough time to air out the clothes that had gained a nice foul smell in the mountains.

When I went to take a shower all that came out of the faucet was a stream of muddy water!  I ran it for a bit hoping it just needed to work through the system.  Well it didn't.  Turns out they were doing maintenance on the pipes and it would be another hour or so until it got fixed.  They did move my room since now the entire bathroom was muddy.

Finally right before dinner they got the water working, so I took a quick shower and then it was off for some food.

After dinner we were to go to a local farmhouse for the unique opportunity to take a hot stone bath.  This was supposed to be excellent for the joints and muscles after the days of trekking.  In order to give you an understanding of the scenario there were individual holes built into the ground and framed out with wood.  Each one was barely wide enough for a body width and probably 2 feet deep.  In terms of length it wasn't long enough to allow me to stretch my legs completely.  The water in these boxes was simply filled with water from a hose.  Then right outside the bath house they had a massive fire going and in the fire were these large, very smooth, round rocks.  Each weighed 20-30kgs (45-65lbs).  They would transport them into an area near your feet that was walled off and the water heated up.  After a few rocks were in and the water was hot we were allowed to each get in our hole.  Holy crap was it hot!  Literally it felt like the skin was melting off my shins!  If you moved too much or too fast it simply caused all the water to move and everything felt hotter.  I lasted about 25 minutes in this tub before I could handle it no more.  But I got out feeling very refreshed.

In the farmhouse having tea before heading to the stone bath.

 Yup those rocks are gonna be hot, hot, HOT!

 Not a great photo but it will give you the idea...