Blogs from Wangdue, Bhutan, Asia

We left Bumthang by 9am Friday morning, anticipating an all day drive. We stopped for lunch at the same chorten fashioned after the one in Kathmandu. In this idyllic spot next to a beautiful river, Holly witnessed a local man empty his trash basket into the river from the pedestrian bridge leading to the chorten. It was upsetting. A dialogue with Rinchen on the matter resulted in Rinchen speaking with the man. Rinchen assured Holly that there is still a great lack of education in these matters in Bhutan, especially with the older generation, but it is changing with the young people. It brought up the difficult line between remaining as observer in a foreign culture, and interfering with the culture. When we heard there was a major road improvement project ahead that would result in ... read more

27/09/06 - 29/09/06 Wangdue Sure enough with Bless-ed Rainy Day over, the weather picked up and we started having sunshine and blue skies. Our journey back West was initially to the Yanghill Resort in Trongsa. Our first incident of the day was a landslide on the road. We whiled away a few minutes in the sun waiting for the JCB to clear the boulders away. It didn't take too long ,this was the main East - Wast highway after all! Following our morning traveling, we went for an afternoon drive south, following the valley to an old village, Kuenga Rapten. En route, along the side of the road, sat two characters; country folk in country hats. We stopped and agreed a fee of some apples in return for photographing their expressive, photogenic faces. We stopped at ... read more