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Published: February 5th 2016
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We spent a last couple of days in Delhi with a bit more success than our previous visit but we still managed to travel an hour to the red fort to find it closed for some kind of event and then to the largest mosque in Delhi to find it just closing for prayers. Rather frustrated with this area of Old Delhi we took a tuk-tuk back to New Delhi for lunch then walked to the National Museum which was fascinating but too large to cover properly in an afternoon. Our final day was unfortunately a Monday when most monuments and museums are closed so we decided to miss out on the chaos of travelling and catch up on some admin and have a nice lunch near the hotel.
And so our alarms went off at 2.30 for the 3am cab to the airport. It looked fairly clear outside so we were hoping that our 6.35 flight would get away without any problems. Delhi airport is a silent airport, ie. no announcements but the board at the gate just kept showing the flight was on time as the clock ticked over towards 7! The others sitting there seemed unconcerned as
if they expected it. They did eventually announce that the flight was delayed by bad weather in Kathmandu, the first stop, and it would be another 40 minutes before boarding yet within about 5 minutes the staff on the door were shouting at us to board and the crowd rushed forward.
From there it all went smoothly with our first ever views of the Himalayas glimpsed through the windows both on the way into Kathmandu and arriving into Paro, a quite hairy landing into a narrow steep sided valley. We were met by our guide for the 2 weeks, Dendup and driver Itaa (not sure of the spelling?) and whisked off in a Toyota Landcruiser to the hotel, on the banks of the Paro river about 4km out of town.
For those that don't know, it is not possible to visit Bhutan without a guide and a fully planned trip unless you are Indian or Nepali and you pay a daily rate to the Bhutanese government which covers food, accommodation, transport and guide. This is intended to keep tourism at low volume high value, just one of the policies designed to fulfil the country's aim to increase GNH
- gross national happiness. I won't go into the details of how different Bhutan is from almost all other developing countries just yet but I think understanding how Bhutan is modernising will be a very interesting part of the trip.
The 'resort' has lots of cottage type accommodation and our room was comfortable but particularly cold as outside was rather grey and only about 10 degs. There was a small electric heater in one corner (the furthest from the bathroom!) but it had only just been switched on so we hoped it would warm up a bit. We had lunch in the hotel and talked about the plans with the guide. He took us into the town for an hour in the afternoon - very small with a range of quite expensive handicraft and souvenir shops with a few restaurants. We watched some small boys playing cricket in the town square - apparently cricket is relatively new here but is now played in school. One boy was bowled out but not happy about it and we could tell what he was saying even though he was speaking in Dzongkha, the main Bhutanese language - those strops are the same
the world over and off he went, taking his bat with him!
We had the rest of the day to ourselves but back at the hotel our room was still pretty cold so we asked for an extra heater. Being the low season we were the only people in the hotel that night so it was a cold and quiet dinner at a table next to the only heater in the main building. However, the room had finally started to warm up when we got back and I beat H at Scrabble before an early night to get over our sleep loss from the night before.
A relaxed start and cold quiet breakfast but then we went off to see the ruined Drukyel Dzong further up the valley. The clouds had been sitting on the mountains around us when we left but gradually the sun started to break through and the views across the terraced paddy fields and the steep sided valley was stunning. We really started to feel that we had left behind the chaos, dirt and pollution of India and it felt good. Sadly, our luck failed us again as the Dzong was closed for some
work that is being done because they might have a visit from the king soon. This appears to be connected to the imminent birth of his first child (which they appear to know will be the future king so presumably they know it's a boy!) within the next few days. It sounds like there could be countrywide celebrations when it happens so that should be interesting.
From there we headed into the town (if you could call it that!) and to the temporary gallery housing some of the exhibits from the National Museum which is under renovation since being damaged in an earthquake in 2011. There was an interesting selection of masks used in the huge number of festivals that happen in different parts of the country and a natural history room with various local birds and animals, many of which we were not familiar with. From there we took our first relatively short walk around the hillside to a monastery. The original path back to the road is now closed because a hotel has been built across it so we had to follow the fence around to get back to our car. It was a bit of a
surprise to us that private landowners were able to close paths but I guess there's always a balance to be struck.
Lunch in town was a very good Chinese selection but, as we're beginning to recognise, far too much food for just 2 of us. And then to Paro Dzong. Dzong originally means fort and many of them were built many hundreds of years ago but each district in the country now has a Dzong of which half is the administrative centre for the region and half is a Bhuddist temple. Dendup told us that any Bhutanese person entering the Dzong has to wear full traditional clothing, including the local government workers based there. The entrance contains spectacular paintings depicting incarnations of Bhudda and the Wheel of Life amongst others. Inside the Dzong is a big courtyard with all the offices and the temple around the edge. Dendup explained the elements in the Wheel of Life to us which took about 20 minutes - this Bhuddist thing is really complicated but it's clear you don't want to end up in hell!
Back at the hotel our room was now quite toasty which was a pleasant surprise. We weren't the only people at dinner this time - there were around 20 Indian women on a trip but for some reason they got a buffet and we had food served to the table. The best thing about them being there was that they had lit a huge fire to warm the room and we got the closest table.
After breakfast the next day we set off for Haa in the next valley - but that's for next time.
S + H x
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Karen
non-member comment
Don't worry, be happy
I love the sound of gross national happiness! I'll have some of that :-)