We are now enjoying Bhutan and I'd love to start right in on that but I just have to fill you in on our airport experience first.
Of course it was a dusty hot rush hour drive with the usual traffic jams, horns and craziness as we made our way to the airport. Most airports give you a little breating space before going through the motions of check in and security but not Kathmandu. Before you go through the first door to the airport you have to be prepared to enter (your first) security. Ten feet inside the door (which, as you can imagine, creates huge lineups outside) you toss your bags in an X-ray machine & get a full body pat down. Of course our bag was picked to be examined (3 feet on the other side in the middle of the hall).All cleared we head to the Druk Airline counter. Boarding pass in hand (after fumbling for the visa papers we didn't think we'd need before Bhutan) we're stopped again for a pass check before taking an escalator up to more chaos. At the top many signs indicate the need to fill out an embarkation card. Of course there are no pens and there is no way I'm going to lend mine to any of the 500 people crowding the space. With the appropriate papers filled out we go to the back of the line not knowing it is the one for Nepalese only. It took a local to tell us as there were no airport employees there to keep things moving smoothly. Shane stayed in that line while I went to the foreigner's only line. Seems foreigners in the local line can go ahead of the foreigners in the right line. If you think that makes sense you're smarter than I am. Anyway, with Shane far ahead I join up with him and we stand amid the sweating mass of humanity for almost an hour as we edge slowly to the Immigration counter. Then, yes there's more, another two line ups (one for men and one for women) where, yes, another full body pat down and another security stamp. The only time I've ever experienced such a confusion of bureaucracy was in India.OK, so now we wander down to another area. Supposedly they have gates here for us to go to but no one will tell us where and there are no signs. We're welcomed by a stern  "wait here". Seems the waiting rooms are too small so we sit in a hallway waiting to be summoned. Fortunately we met some very nice people along the way. A Bhutanese trek leader, two young Israeli girls and a delightful woman from Toronto that ended up being my seat mate on the flight that did eventually arrive.
Now we are in Bhutan and it is such a relief! Our travelling companions were on the plane, our luggage arrived safely, we saw the Himalayan peaks jutting above the clouds, and then there was Bella, our tour guide, waiting for us with a sweet smile and BeBe, the driver, stood grinning beside her. All is right in the universe!
What next caught my eye was the unique architecture. Even the small buildings seem to be of the same design and intricately painted. Then you notice that most people are in their traditional dress. As we drove through Paro to our hotel there were few people in western clothing. We passed rice paddies, wheat fields, apple orchards and a few cows. The hotel was clean and spacious and had the best shower I've seen in a long time.... ahhhh!We opted to go back to Paro for a traditional dinner which was delicious.... even the chilies (which were on the side) weren't too hot. Did I mention the local Druk (which means Dragon) beer is pretty good too!
Next day we were full of questions as we made our way to the capital, Thimphu. Here is some of the trivia I jotted down:- Bhutan has 700,000 people, 100,000 of whom live in Thimphu. - The beautiful clean rivers have fish but the Buddhist people don't catch them as they don't believe in killing. Their meat comes from "the south" which means India.- Bhutan is dependant on India for many things... maybe too many things.- The people work and own their own land and it is passed down through the family. - In eastern Bhutan the house is passed to the daughter, in the west, the son.- Their homes are quite large housing the extended families.- The people have no surnames. - When a baby is born it is taken to the local monastery to be named. Many, many people have the same name so they use A,B,C do differentiate. Mary A, Mary B etc.- On the hillsides many groups of tall white flags wave in the breeze. These are placed to remember the dead. The prayer goes up to heaven as the flags wave.- Other tall flags are placed to bring luck. White = space, Blue = water, Red = fire, Yellow = earth, Green = nature.- Temples are always on the hills. You suffer as you climb up. The suffering rids you of your sins.- hundreds of mini stupas are stuffed in rock crevices beside the road. They are called tsha tsha and are to commemorate the dead. Made of clay the monks are commissioned to make them.- some monks enter the monastery as young as 5 years old. Most of the young come from poor families.- School children attend 5 1/2 days. The 1/2 day, Saturday, is for Social work which means cleaning the school, gardening etc.
There will be more trivia in the days to come but this blog entry is getting too long so I'll go straight to what we saw today.
Our first stop was Chuzom where the Paro river and Thimphu river meet at the entrance to the Paro Valley. Across the bridge there is an arch that was built to commemorate the marriage of the king. They really, really love their king and queen! No, I mean really! I've heard the words caring, strong, protective, loving and good looking to describe them. Back to the journey. The mountain road followed the river to the capital. It is surprising how dry the hillsides are here. Though it is spring the grass seems dry in many areas. As we approached the city apartment buildings in various stages of construction began to appear along the widening valley. Most construction workers are from India. There are few Bhutanese tradespeople qualified to do the work.At the National Memorial Choeten (built by the queen mother to honour her son, Kingg Jigme Dorji Wangchuck) I discovered more about how this society really works. Amid the huge prayer wheels sat many elderly citizens. The come here to pray, to socialize, to feel needed (they feel the necessity of their daily prayer). There are no unhappy faces here. The joy is apparent.... it's like the ultimate senior citizens centre. Here is where I began to understand this Gross National Happiness that we hear so much about. More about that to come.After a photo op at the Kuzoo FM station (I had to see it after reading Radio Shangri-La), we stopped at the Bhutan Handicraft School. Here students take a 6 year training course in painting, sculpture & embroidery all using traditional skills and copying ancient designs.More driving around before a stop at the Folk Heritage Museum. This restored farm house once belonged to a wealthy land owner. Dating from the mid 19th century it gives you a good idea of what life was like. On site was a mill and a prayer wheel that turned using pressure from a diverted creek. There is no doubt from the size and intricacy of the shrine what a large part their faith played in daily life. This was a very big day... we stopped at the National Textile Museum where many stunning examples of royal clothing were on display including the reigning queen's traditional wedding outfit. After lunch we visited Terton Gallery where more modern art was on display. Later in the day we wandered through another art gallery, VAST (Volunteer Artist Studio of Thimphu).... everything from ancient craft to a strange collection of Michael Jackson paintings showing his transformation from black to white. We saw the TashichhoDzong (or Fortress of the Glorious Religion) which was built in 1641 to protect the people from Tibetan forces. Truly a magnificent place built next to the King's palace in a park like setting. Inside the fortress we wandered through the buddhist temple. Lovingly maintained this special place had a seat for the King, a seat for his father and one for the head of the temple monks. Still not done we climbed in to the van a drove to a paper making factory. I've seen a few of these but this one was unique. They use the daphne tree...strip, boil, soak, separate dark & light strips, grind it all up then put the pulp in a glue slurry. Screens are swished through the slurry raised and thin sheets of pulp are piled one on top of the other. The glue keeps the paper from sticking in these piles. Then they are separated and dried on heated metal pyramids (really) producing some amazing results.Still not done..... we watched some archers practicing for tomorrow's competition and ended the day with a visit to the Weekend food Market. Yikes!! The market was interesting. It's always nice to wander through to see what people are buying. There was everything from fiddle heads to chunks of fresh butter. From red rice to beetle nuts. Honestly, by that time I was getting a little tired. I don't know how Jeanne and Joanie are staying awake having arrived from Canada yesterday! There is a lot more to say but this has been a long day and I'm beat. The pictures will have more information on what we saw.Tomorrow we head along a dusty mountain road to Punakha. Apparently it's hot there