October 30, 2026, Thimphu – I woke up to horrible news of a glacial lake outbreak in Punakha Valley. It is something we in the Himalayas have to constantly live in fear of. Not our fault, but who said life was fair? Maybe karma is, but anyway, it looked like there were no big damages to life or property.
My immediate concern, instead, was how to get to Gelephu with my American friend since the Punakha route was the only one. The other route passing through India was out. I was even considering options like pushing off by a day or getting on a plane, but I needed the car in Gelephu since my project site is 35 km away from the airport.
It was 7 am, and as I was sipping my morning espresso and pondering, my wife told me,
“Still not left?”
I was supposed to leave at 5.
“There is flooding in Punakha Valley. Not sure if the highway is open because at Kamichu it runs on the river basin,” I answered her back.
“Just go! At least you can take another route – the Trongsa-Zhemgang-Gelephu,” my wife suggested.
It was a much, much longer route, but she was right. It was an option that had not hit me because my brain only works after the caffeine has done its work. It seems that morning it hadn’t. 😪😪😪
And off I zoomed off. Destination? The Mindfulness City.
And everything went great. Despite the endless streams of cars heading in the same direction, there was no traffic jam because more people were probably waiting in Thimphu for more news like me.
When I reached Gelephu, I noticed that the sleepy town had suddenly turned into massive festival ground with people and cars in every direction.
‘Great leaders bring people together; bad ones tear us apart’ was my only thought as I drove past the town. My final destination was further – some 35 km away – but I did that too in a breeze after a shot of another espresso at Zumkar Cafe in Gelephu town.
All roads, for now, lead to Gelephu – the ambitious project to build the world’s first mindfulness city. This time it is for the building of 108 stupas – all some 50 feet tall – all in one day – all along the Mao Khola river. It is the biggest spiritual monument of our generation. It is our collective karma as the world keeps burning down elsewhere. But I am sure the blessing of these stupas will transcend the borders and even the human world.
What about the flood? It had subsided when I drove along the affected valley. I checked with a local in Punakha, and there were early warnings that kicked off, and the truckers and machinery that usually stay on the banks of the river got all the time to move to higher ground.
Another side note: an excellent job by the Royal Bhutan Police – especially at Sarpang Checkpoint, where they deployed lots of personnel to receive us in batches and send us away with “Welcome to GMC”.
