I am here in Bhutan. What an amazing place. It just feels serene. The International airport, is a small strip, not many planes a day. When we came in off the plane, into immigration, there were 6 lines. One for dignitaries, 5 for everyone else. I chose one, and que'd up. As I was reading the various signs on the wall, the one that caught my eye was that you can only bring 200 cigarettes into the country. I think that is a carton. If you bring more, OR do not declare it, you are considered smuggling. You will be arrested. I already love this place.
I was met by my guide, Sherab. (think Cherub) and driver, Nathan. So nice, so sweet! Off to the hotel, for tea and reception. (Get used to the tea. Pretty much every time you are in a spot for more than 10 minutes, you are offered tea). My only concern is that I am on this tour alone. Their English is good, it would be nice to have someone to ooh and ahh with. They must find me quite lacking in the vocabulary department, I must have said "wow" at least 100 times today. The scenery is jaw dropping.
My room is quite simple. Lighting is not so good, I imagine it will be quite dark soon. They insisted on having the heater on as it gets quite chilly at night. Hmm...I am the girl who turns the heater off at night in the dead of winter in Missouri. I am thrilled to be in 50 degree day weather, and the 30's at night is not so bad. Simplicity is the key, very like Nepal, without the lack of electricity. And hot water needs to be turned on 45 minutes before you wish to use it. I can do this. Easy.
One thing this trip has given me, is the absolute knowledge that less is more. With so many deaths, I have accumulated a lot of stuff. I do not need it. One more time I have the incentive to purge and simplify. Can you say eBay? Garage Sale? But I digress....
We went into Paro town, only 25 years old~the town, not the city, and had lunch. An excellent meal of red rice, chiles with cheese (both staples here) steamed vegies, some not so great meat and sausage, chicken curry....must have been 8 dishes. Almost all wonderful. I have found on this trip that when I have ventured to meat, it is the pork and poultry that I am eating. Not much pork here, and they do not fish...it is a Buddhist country so one must not take a life (fishing does tend to kill the fish). There is no slaughtering of animals here. If your cow dies, you can eat it. You can use it's milk. Haven't asked about the chickens' eggs yet. So meat is imported from India. (cow? from India???ok, really confused now...must be yak or water buffalo) That is enough to keep me vegetarian here. Not a bad way to live in general.....
We then went to one of the Dzongs in Paro. Gorgeous. I am going to attempt to post pictures, the signal is not very strong. We went inside the temple. No pictures allowed. So here is what I saw.
Amazing Gorgeous Beautiful Victory flags. Somehow I will get a photo of some of these. And young monks in red robes praying. And in those robes were cell phones. And yes, they were periodically checking them. Technology, meet Buddhism.
We drove on to a fortress that we could not access, there was an earthquake here last year and some things are still in disrepair. On the way, Sherab pointed out the "Tiger's Nest". Nestled on a cliff, Guru Rinpoche was brought here on the back of a Tiger and built the monastery. It literally sits on the ledge of a cliff. Accessible only by hiking I was then informed that we would be climbing to it in one week. Hah! I said! And he said, yes you will. OK, One week should have me able to breathe at this altitude without wheezing....
Ok, so my pictures are taking but when I insert the memory card, they are not transferring on to the computer. Gonna figure this out, and hopefully have pix soon.
I was met by my guide, Sherab. (think Cherub) and driver, Nathan. So nice, so sweet! Off to the hotel, for tea and reception. (Get used to the tea. Pretty much every time you are in a spot for more than 10 minutes, you are offered tea). My only concern is that I am on this tour alone. Their English is good, it would be nice to have someone to ooh and ahh with. They must find me quite lacking in the vocabulary department, I must have said "wow" at least 100 times today. The scenery is jaw dropping.
My room is quite simple. Lighting is not so good, I imagine it will be quite dark soon. They insisted on having the heater on as it gets quite chilly at night. Hmm...I am the girl who turns the heater off at night in the dead of winter in Missouri. I am thrilled to be in 50 degree day weather, and the 30's at night is not so bad. Simplicity is the key, very like Nepal, without the lack of electricity. And hot water needs to be turned on 45 minutes before you wish to use it. I can do this. Easy.
One thing this trip has given me, is the absolute knowledge that less is more. With so many deaths, I have accumulated a lot of stuff. I do not need it. One more time I have the incentive to purge and simplify. Can you say eBay? Garage Sale? But I digress....
We went into Paro town, only 25 years old~the town, not the city, and had lunch. An excellent meal of red rice, chiles with cheese (both staples here) steamed vegies, some not so great meat and sausage, chicken curry....must have been 8 dishes. Almost all wonderful. I have found on this trip that when I have ventured to meat, it is the pork and poultry that I am eating. Not much pork here, and they do not fish...it is a Buddhist country so one must not take a life (fishing does tend to kill the fish). There is no slaughtering of animals here. If your cow dies, you can eat it. You can use it's milk. Haven't asked about the chickens' eggs yet. So meat is imported from India. (cow? from India???ok, really confused now...must be yak or water buffalo) That is enough to keep me vegetarian here. Not a bad way to live in general.....
We then went to one of the Dzongs in Paro. Gorgeous. I am going to attempt to post pictures, the signal is not very strong. We went inside the temple. No pictures allowed. So here is what I saw.
Amazing Gorgeous Beautiful Victory flags. Somehow I will get a photo of some of these. And young monks in red robes praying. And in those robes were cell phones. And yes, they were periodically checking them. Technology, meet Buddhism.
We drove on to a fortress that we could not access, there was an earthquake here last year and some things are still in disrepair. On the way, Sherab pointed out the "Tiger's Nest". Nestled on a cliff, Guru Rinpoche was brought here on the back of a Tiger and built the monastery. It literally sits on the ledge of a cliff. Accessible only by hiking I was then informed that we would be climbing to it in one week. Hah! I said! And he said, yes you will. OK, One week should have me able to breathe at this altitude without wheezing....
Ok, so my pictures are taking but when I insert the memory card, they are not transferring on to the computer. Gonna figure this out, and hopefully have pix soon.
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