Blogs from Bhutan, Asia - page 12

Flew this morning to Paro, Bhutan. Feeling the altitude a bit, but only when climbing stairs,so expect it to get better. later, we head to higher elevations, so will see. This afternoon we went to the ruins of an old monastery.it was around for hundreds of years, but caught fire in 1951. Probably from butter lamps in the temple. Now, each temple can only have two butter lamps, and the others are electric. Scenery is absolutely beautiful.Will attach a photo. Very busy schedule for the next few days, so may be awhile to the next post... read more

There was much confusion over the time of our flight out of Paro to Kathmandu. When we booked flight time was 2:45pm but it is important to reconfirm Druk Air flights as having a monopoly they can basically just do as they like. Pensoc had made a call a few days earlier to get them reconfirmed but hadn't bothered to follow up with the office until the day before. It was at dinner that he finally got a text saying that our flight number was departing at 8am and another flight was leaving at 2:30pm. We were disappointed to think we'd lost the morinng in Paro, particularily as we had nothing on our itinerary for the morning so we were hoping to be able to be dropped in town and go free range. However, with our ... read more

We retraced our steps back to Punakha and on the way managed to catch both an archery and darts match. We clambered down a steep muddy path from the road to get a closer look. We had been wanting to see the archery (the Bhutanese national sport). There was a distinct smell of spirits in the air as the archers fired shots at the target 150m away (these are very small targets not like the ones we would know and that is twice the olympic distance) with their very expensive USA made bows and arrows. Still dressed traditionally it was strange to see these farming folk occupying the only piece of flat grass in the village using such modern technology. We wondered how they could afford it. The dress, cammeraderie and banter, general piss taking and ... read more

We were up, dressed and out on the hotel balcony by 5:30am hoping for a clear morning. It was slowly getting light but a couple of peaks were visible. Pensoc only managed to show his face at 5:45 (not 5:30) so it was lucky for him it was cloudy else we would have been very grumpy to miss the view from the pass. We were disappointed it wasn't a bit clearer and after 40 minutes of hope decided to get back in bed until breakfast time. Fed and watered we left at 9am to return to the pass which was now visible from the hotel and only 5 minutes drive away. We wandered to the Druk Wangyal Lhakhang which is a temple recently built by the royal family with interior paintings of the history of Bhutan ... read more

After breakfast we caught the school assembly which is held outside and we could see from our balcony. School children regardless of age all wear the traditional dress and lessons are given in English, as is school assembly. Today's speeches were on dealing with change and working with others. We left Haa and followed the river northbound, the road clinging to and weaving around the valley. On the way we went to Lhakahang Karpo (a temple) where the monks were practicing for the coming festival. They formed a large circle in the courtyard at the front of the temple and accompanied by the cymbal were turning and ducking in what looks like it will be an energetic mask dance. Two temporary tents were also set up out the front. One reminded us of a ger with ... read more