Blogs from Thimphu, Bhutan, Asia - page 8

23/09/06 Thimphu One of the most famous Buddhist Lama masters of Bhutan was Lam Drup Kinley, better known as the Divine Madman, and certainly my favourite character from all Bhutanese history, that I have encountered to date. Temples in his name are dedicated to fertility and he is the reason for the wonderful phallus paintings that adorn Bhutanese houses. The Takin zoo is a small park area housing a dozen or so takin(or is it takins, and what is the collective noun for takin, I’ll have to check that out!) The animal that ‘befuddles taxonomists’ according to a sign in the zoo, is native only to the Himalaya region and looks like a wooly cow with a goats head stuck on (and goat looking legs). According to legend, the Divine Madman was asked to perform a ... read more

Amazingly, for the first time on this trip I wake up on time and manage to go outside before Tshering arrives. We head directly to the festival grounds and notice that the traffic situation is a lot worse this morning and the crowd is gigantic. Security is stricter and I have to surrender my small umbrella before being allowed inside the dzong premises. The crowd is so overwhelming that it is impossible to find a good spot, so after some hapless wandering around we decide to give up for the moment and go sightseeing the city and return to try our luck again in the afternoon. Instead we drive to the nearby BBS Telecom tower hill for a grand view of Thimphu. Next stop is also nearby, the small compound that used to be the Thimphu ... read more

We leave after a small lie-in and head to Thimphu, the capital of this magnificent country. The road is in a surprisingly good state, mainly considering the sheer drops of the valley. It is a huge engineering achievement. The ride is pleasant if at time a little stomach tightening. The journey takes approximately one and a half hours, filled with amazement at the countryside and fear of the other trucks (however nicely decorated they are). Thimphu is not a rip-roaring metropolis but it has roads and roundabouts (where policemen direct traffic with wonderfully flowing arm movements, as if they are doing Tai-Chi). It is said to be the only capital in the world without traffic lights. To be fair, there is hardly the need for it: there are two "important" road junctions in the city, both ... read more