Travel on Bhutanese roads

TThe country is undertaking the immense task of widening the road that crosses the country from the west to the east. If you have travelled in Bhutan you know that the roads are impossibly windy, steep and narrow. When Rob visited in 2013 he said "you were'nt exaggerating about the roads." That was prior to going east from Thimphu. It is actually hard to describe. 

Right now the road is mostly one lane wide. The process they have decided to use is to give 10 kilometre stretches to different contractors in order to increase employment and to spread the work throughout the country. This means the entire length of the road is under construction. Imagine trying to widen a road that already sits on a treacherous cliff. 

Here is a photo of a large machine (of which there are currently many on the roads) pulling rock down the cliff in order to widen the lane and fill gabions to help stabilize the cliff below. Shortly after this photo we were stopped in order to take photos of a spectacular bird. A pounding on the roof as some golf ball sized rooks randomly spattered the van rushed us forward.  The yellow headed large parrot like bird was shy, however we did see another red,bird. No photos.