Drukgyel Dzong

This was the first tourist site we "did" on our arrival in Bhutan. Not that far from the airport and so, having landed at around 06:00, we turned up rather jet-lagged, passing children on their way to school in buses, tractors and on foot; rather surprised that the place was closed until we realised it was still only about seven o'clock. Or was it because of the recent earthquake which was to become the standard excuse for why we could not visit any given site we wanted to? Strategically and historically significant ("Drukgyel" means "Dragon Victory", with Bhutan as the dragon of course), but a ruin for over half a century. Having said that it was very different from all the other dzongs (fortified monasteries) we saw throughout our tour, with credible, if not particularly well thought out defensive walls. Just as we were about to leave and write off an unmemorable experience, we stumbled upon a tiny temple with butter lamps burning like something I would imagine from a quest for the holy grail.