Dogs and dishes wake me at 6am. After breakfast, I watch the Thimphu street life start up. An old man seated in the middle of a field of sand slowly pulls off his pants and starts filling paper bags with sand, using a cardboard scoop. Dogs are loafing everywhere, and I watch one cautious cat repeatedly try to cross a field, only to be chased back by a dog each time. Young mothers watch their toddlers stagger off, kids climb on a manual cement mixer, chase dogs and throw rocks, a group of men place planks of wood under a blue tarp. Thimphu smells of woodsmoke and dust, the buildings grey and white, accented by dark wooden planks and colorful painted patterns - flowers, mandalas, symbols.
I meet Karsang, my trekking guide, at 9.30 for a practice hike to Phajoding Monastery, to see what kind of shape I'm in. He's lean and fit, about my height (short), dark eyes and dark hair with a wry smile. He's laidback but alert, attentive, and good company. We walk down past the post-office to one of the temples by the river, where there's a crowd for a festival. Or maybe it's just a good day for praying.
We walk to the left of everything. That's the good luck side. Prayer in Bhutan is everywhere - chorten temples with wise eyes, prayer flags, shrines, prayer wheels...Completing a full clockwise circle of a prayer, temple, or shrine brings luck, happiness, benevolence...which is why we walk to the left. Karsang and I discuss the role of dogs in Buddhism as we watch the crowd circle the temple - kids with dirty faces chewing sugarcane, elderly men mumbling mantras as they push past the slow, families smiling and chatting as they walk.