Today we woke up and had a delicious breakfast! We jumped in the van, headed straight for the Dzong. When we got there we walked up more stairs than I have probably walked up in the past year! When we got inside, Dorji told us about the white lines along the ground. Those lines kept the audience out of the dance area. The dance is called the black hat dance. While preforming the dance the people would do all sorts of things such as, spin around, go in and out, etc. As we were learning about this dance a baby monk came up to me and…Bam, punched me right in the stomach! Then he turned around and started punching my mom in the butt. All of the sudden Dorji started laughing at something the monk had said, so we asked what did he say? He said, "Oh boy, Westerners are strong!" We then realized that he was not punching us for fun or to hurt us. He was punching us to see if we were strong! Then we went down to where they stored water in the watch tower. Although it was a long way down it was a really cool experience! After, we walked to a temple from the 7th century! There, we got blessed by a master monk! Right after we got blessed we walked around the Buddha spinning prayer wheels, to maximize the blessing. Then, we walked around the whole entire temple spinning more prayer wheels! As we were walking to the van something caught my eye, rocks! These are not just any rocks, these are lucky ones! I handed them the money and then walked away with a rock that had the four friends on it.

Let me tell you the story about them. The four friends contains an elephant, a monkey, a rabbit, and a bird. They all saw a tree with fruit on it and they all wanted the fruits on that tree. Sadly, they were just too small to reach and grab those fruits on that huge tree. So, they decided to climb on top of each other. The monkey said, I’m the oldest, I will be on the top to grab the fruit. Then, the elephant said, no way! I’m the oldest I should be on top. Of course, the rabbit and the bird disagreed they thought that they were the oldest. Instead of arguing, they decided to go by size. Elephant on bottom, then the monkey, then the rabbit, then the bird. Finally, they reached the fruit. And, well, you get it happily ever after.

Next, we went to a temple also from the 7th century. There, we carried chains on our backs and ran around the temple 1 time to forgive our sins. Then we went into the town of Bumthang to have a local lunch. So yummy!! We got in the van again and went to the gorge. The gorge is a rock cut out formation with water running through it. It is a very sacred place, so no one can swim there. Pema Lingpa was a Buddhist saint that discovered treasures there. He jumped in the water with a burning lamp and came out, it was still lit. After, we went to a cheese and a beer factory. When we were at the cheese factory we saw how it was made and went into a storage room where they were ageing the cheese wheels. Next we went to the beer factory. We learned how it was made and then we went into a tasting room. I poured a beer for my dad and the bubbles were over flowing, so I wiped my forehead and put my finger on top of the bubbles. After, the bubbles went down. Then, I licked my finger, yuck! We went back to the hotel and relaxed. (BTW the hotel name is Wangdicholing Resort!)