Blogs from Paro, Bhutan, Asia - page 5

It was an early start Friday morning, up and on the tube to Heathrow by 6.30am. We arrived in plenty of time to pick me up some new shades and enjoy a glass of champagne in the lounge, before boarding the near empty flight to New Delhi. We managed to get the exit row seats so plenty of leg room for the 8.5hr journey. The new airport in Delhi was very spacious; sadly it looked like the carpets were from the late 70’s, brown with a wide pattern. How they found a company manufacturing carpet like that is a mystery. After walking about 1km we arrived at customs. I was a little nervous as realised I had a business visa and had ticked ‘holiday/leisure’ visit. But all was well and we were both waved through and ... read more

Today was the big day to trek to Takstang Monastery, also called Tiger's nest, arguably the most famous monastery of Bhutan. But a Friday night out literally wasted out our plans. Paro is a small town with nothing much to do. So at 6.30 pm yesterday we were in our hotel room watching the movie Dostana. Watching a hindi movie on a gay couple with two other guys on a laptop was certainly not our idea of explore Bhutan trip. So we just shut it down and got out of our hotel to check out the 'night scene' of Paro. There are a lot of bars in Paro that boast of 'bar, live music and snooker'. Our first stop was a bar named Khamsaa. It was 7 pm and and bar was almost empty except for ... read more

Atypical tour. It's not about tourist attractions, shopping, souvenir shops etc... It's all about the simplicity of life, the warmth of the people, the unspoilt nature and the colourful culture. We were lucky to have a wonderful guide who included little "side programmes" to enhance our overall experience. It was like visiting friends' friends, feeling very relaxed and safe. We visited the weekend market at Thimphu. There weren't any tourists around. The locals just got on to their own business, with absolutely no touting to us. They welcomed us to take all the photos we wanted. They'll smile willingly for us and we'll share the photos we took of them, like what we will do with our friends. When we were in Phobjikha, our guide Sonam, brought us to a local store for a drink. It ... read more

Now, finally, the last (?) instalment of my travel accounts “One Year Off“. Of course, it’s not the end of the year yet - I have just a little more than two months before I need to go back to work - and I’ll be going on another short trip at the end of this week - but that’s only within Europe, the Pyrenees to be exact, and that doesn’t really seem to count. Why did it take me so long to write this blog entry? I haven’t really got a clue (and I have already been back here in Germany six whole weeks) but one aspect of it is that I am not sure what to write. An incredible number of diverse experiences seem to have overwhelmed my brain so that everything is a big ... read more

Paro: Christian who is the chef of all the Amankora lodges took a trip to check out Gangte and Bumthang so Shane and I headed to Paro to make sure all was okay with the food here. It’s nice to get out of Thimphu for a little while. Paro is smaller and the lodge is set about a half hour outside of the Paro town. Paro is located in a valley and is surrounded by gorgeous snow-covered mountains. We stayed at either the lodge or Christian’s house. The lodge rooms are very nice and have HUGE beds, an awesome bathtub and tons of space. I will be fed with lodge food while I am here because there is no cooking equipment at Christian’s. There are a few more expats here in Paro who have been nice ... read more