Passes, Archery, Brewery

October 13^th, 2026

Bumthang, Bhutan

Woke before 7:00AM with the alarm, but was just dead.  I did not sleep good at all last night.

Sat in the chair for at least 20 minutes, then took a long hot shower.

Dressed and went down to breakfast a bit late, but still had time.

Ate, then went up to the room to pack as much as I could.

We will be touring some local sites in the van before we depart on the bike today, so will be checking out of the room around 11:00AM

Walked down to the level where the van was parked and stood around for a bit.

Once we were all there, we boarded and left the hotel.

It was a short drive over to the first stop which was the Tower of Trongsa Museum.

This former fortress and tower has now been turned into a cultural museum highlighting the local customs and history of this region of Bhutan.

We parked and as the place had just opened, they did not have all staff in place, so they had us enter from the door you would normally exit from.

We wandered a few hallways to reach the theater (basically built into a large hallway) to watch the short documentary on the tower and the history of the country.

We did not get to visit the lower levels of the building, and instead went back up into the museum exhibits.

There were 3 floors of displays of various clothing and artifacts from the various parts of the country.

Clay and Pigment statue of Vajrakila (Dorje Phurpa)

You then go up another level where you can enter a temple if you choose (shoes off for this, so I opted out), then you enter the tower about ¼ of the way up.

Each floor contains a few artifacts, mostly statues.

You move up till you reach the upper floor which is the top observation area of the tower.

Some great views from this area.

View from tower of Trongsa Dzong (our next stop)

I wandered around and took some photos, and then started to make my way down, checking out some of the displays I had skipped while trying to find the rest of the group. (I had fallen behind while getting an in-depth history of the Wheel of Life painting.

We finally reached the bottom floor, which was the gift shop where we had originally entered the building.

We then went out side and spent some time talking before loading up in the van and heading to the next stop.

This short drive brought us to the Trongsa Dzong.

Like the one the other day, this former fortress and monastery is a huge building that was built around a small temple founded in the mid 1600s.

Interestingly, this structure is a piece of living history as it has never been damaged by floods, nor burned.  Many of the other Dzong in the country have been damaged or destroyed and had to be rebuilt in later times.

This building though is the original 400+ year old structure.  You could see this in the walls and wooden sections.  Things looked a bit less bright, and not as perfectly aligned anymore.  While it has been maintained and repaired over the years for minor stuff, it still remains in mostly original form.

We went inside after spending some time along the outer walls, and here we were given more history of the place while standing in the various courtyards.

We then went up into one of the main buildings and entered one of the main temple spaces.

After getting more history, we went back out the way we came.  The rest of the huge complex is closed to tourist, only the monks and locals can visit those sections.

We left the complex and got into the van.

Now we will drive into town to take care of some business.

Many of the group, myself included, want to use the ATM to get some local currency to pay for things.  While Indian Rupee are accepted almost everywhere (and the local currency is pegged to it value wise), it would be preferred to have the local notes.  I also need to get a least one specimen of each denomination for my collection.

We found the ATM, many of use used it, and then we all ended up in the store across the road buying drinks or snacks.

I also needed to find a pharmacy to see what I could get for my cough/sinus issues.

One of our group members, Jude, is a medical doctor, so he came along to help figure out which drug to buy since he is familiar with the drugs used in this region.

We were not sure where the pharmacy was, and were in the van waiting to find out.

Turns out it was just around behind the store we had all used, so the driver, Jude, and I walked over to find it.

Once we did, Jude first asked for some stuff he needed, then assisted me in trying find something I could use.  Antibiotics required a doctor prescription, so we need to find something that did not require that.

Sadly, most of the stuff we asked about they did not have.

They did have some kind of nasal spray, but that was more for opening up the passages, not for clearing congestion that is draining into my throat and causing the cough.

We finally came upon some kind of medicine you pour into hot water and inhale the vapors.

Never tried anything like this, but was fairly cheap, so went for it.

We returned to the van and headed up the road a bit till we found John, Sam and the photographer who had wandered off earlier to explore the town.

Once all aboard, we returned to the hotel.

We all went to our rooms to change into riding gear and finish packing.

Once I had checked over the room, I went out side and one of the girls was nearby and insisted on taking my heavy bag down.

I closed up the room, gave her the key, and then followed her to the van.

One my bag was dropped off; I walked around to reach the lower lot where the bikes were.

I put the stuff on the bike and then waited for a few minutes while the rest of the group slowly came down.

Once again, we got on the bikes and left the hotel lot to hit the highway.

Today is a short ride, but we will have a few short stops on the way.

The road started to climb right away, and will go over a higher pass today.

It was a very curvy and steep road in many spots, which made for some fun riding, at least for part of the way.

At some point after we started up hill, the bike started to get a bit loose in the rear when cornering hard.

I felt the well slipping just a bit several times, and in one really hard lean, the entire bike shifted sideways a few inches.

I managed to catch and correct the wiggle, but was really odd that it was acting up like this.

I wondered if perhaps I had a low tire in the rear.

We reached our first stop near the top of the pass not long after.

I got off and inspected the rear tire, and it seemed fine pressure wise.

I did notice the outer edge of the tire (the part used when doing a hard leaning curve) was a bit more chewed up than I recall it from other days.

Perhaps something with the surface of the road being harder on the rubber?

I mentioned it off hand, and turns out Ben was having same issue with his bike.  Same bikes and we have same rear tire mounted.

Figured it can be dealt with later; we went over to join the rest that were sitting in the shade at the currently closed restaurant here.

I wandered over to find a bush to piss in since the restrooms were also locked up.

Then after some photos and sitting around, it was time to carry on.

We headed down the other side of the pass, and about half way down the bike seemed to be acting normal again, though I was not pushing it quite as hard as the corners were much tighter on this section of road, and it was a bit bumpy in spots.

We reached the lower part of the valley and suddenly found a road that went straight for at least a half mile!  This was the first time we saw such a straight section of pavement.

Not far past the village this occurred in, we went past some kind of event going on next to the highway.  There were lots of cars parked and people walking around.

To me it looked like an archery range.

I noticed in my mirror that Ben had dropped off, probably stopped to take photos of the range.

A mile down the road, Kinley, the rear riding guide, came past and indicated for us to turn around.

He made it all the way to the front where he caught the other guide.

We turned around in a small area and went back to that area.

It was indeed an archery range, and they were having a tournament in honor of the 15th anniversary of the current King’s marriage, which was today.

We walked down into the range and along the edge to where the guys were shooting from.

The range is 145m (475 feet), which is quite amazing to see.

The archers are using really nice compound bows, and are getting the arrows into the target area, and one even hit the target while we were there (we could not actually see the arrows at the other end, but the actions of the crowd and such indicated a hit).

After 10 minutes or so, we got back on the bikes and headed back down the highway.

We stopped after a few minutes to refuel the bikes, and then rode onward toward our lunch stop.

This was reached in around 15 minutes and we parked the bike and went inside the small restaurant next to a hotel for our food.

It was a really good lunch, and the place was a fairly new construction as well.

Once done, we were back on the bikes for the final 30 minute ride into our destination town.

The road became really narrow as we left the restaurant, and the curves very tight.

It created some challenges in passing oncoming traffic, especially the large trucks.

We soon reached town and turned off onto a side road and then headed up a very steep drive way to reach the hotel.

Once parked, we all got our room keys and went up to drop off riding gear.  Our bags were brought up about that time as well.

I was on the 2nd floor, which had a nice veranda with great views along the walkway to the rooms.

We changed into street clothes and then met back down in the parking lot about 30 minutes later.

After getting in the van, we drove across the valley to visit a local micro-brewery here in town.

Red Panda Beer is made here and is a local wheat beer that is not exported and only sold in small batches to locals and local business.

The brewery is located behind a café which serves the beer, along with various other drinks and snacks.

The entire place is built on a Swiss model as the owner is originally from Switzerland, but now lives in Bhutan.

We went first to the café, some of the group had a beer, some other drinks, and I told the guide to get me a chocolate milkshake (nothing else of interest on menu).

We sat down, but my milkshake never arrived, seems they forgot, and I decided I really did not need it anyway.  We did get a few bags of locally produced potato chips and snacked on them.

A few of the guys had also been busy playing with a small puppy in the place.

Not long after sitting down, I heard a cat meow, and after calling it over, it sat at my feet meowing constantly, and letting me pet it, but also kept laying down or moving out of reach.

I finally sat on the floor for a bit and pet it till it was time for us to go tour the brewery.

We walked over to the small building behind and were shown the vats and had the entire process explained.

They only brew 2-3 times a week, and only make around 600 liters each time.

The final product is either bottled, or put in kegs for delivery to businesses.

Once done, we went back to the café and sat and talked more.  The kitty came back to me and this time I picked it up and put it on my lap.

He eventually settled in and enjoyed the pets.

We got into conversation with an American couple at table next to ours as well.

I eventually had to move my leg, so had to put the cat down, and that was when it was noticed it had small worms around its butt.

I killed the one that was on my pants, but feel bad that the cat is like this, hopefully they will get it some care.

Cat laid near my feet for a while, then it finally got up and went somewhere else.

Not long after we left as well to return to the hotel.

Back at the hotel we all went to our rooms as it was still 2 hours till dinner.

I washed my hands really good and then put some stuff on chargers and gathered my laundry which I will drop off at dinner time.

Played on the phone mostly during this time.

Around 7:00PM I walked over to the dinning hall to see if anyone else had shown up early to have a drink first.

I found only Ben there.

I also then realized I had not brought my laundry.

I returned to the room to grab it, and also as we had talked about it in the dinning area, I turned on the heater in the room as it was starting to get cold.

I could have asked to have the wood burning heater lit, but did not want to deal with that in the room.

We eventually all arrived in the dinning area and many had drinks.

Then we started are dinner with a bowl of soup, and then the buffet.

Meal was really good tonight, probably ate a bit too much as well.

Once done, we spent some time talking till close to 9:00PM.

That was the time we all chose to return to our rooms to do whatever.

I did a few quick changes of batteries, and then uploaded all the footage from today.

Then this blog was typed up.

Thinking I will head to be shortly, perhaps try to read a little.

Tomorrow, we have breakfast, then we gather at 9:00AM at the bikes to ride up the nearby Tang Valley to explore some sites there.

We return to this same hotel and spend another night here.  We should be back early enough to have much of the afternoon free, so will have time to either go into town, or sit around and enjoy the fresh air here.

I might try getting some work done, but will see how I feel tomorrow.

Catch ya down the road.