21 July 2011 - scv ready

After two weeks of Buddhism, we feel peaceful in our mind and fatter in our belly from the big plates of rice and curry. We have learned about 10 Bhutanese words and can't seem to enjoy dinner without spicyness.

Tourist visa in Bhutan requires that you travel with a guide and a driver. It does take the fun out of figuring things out on our own. At times, we are so well taken care of and provided with conveniences expected of foreign tourists that we lost the perspectives of the simple lifestyle here. It helps me to remember that we are in a country with one airline, which owns a total of three aeroplanes.

To my surprise, despite the countless rituals and traditions that are so important to them (e.g. it is sinful to go the counterclockwise around relics), Bhutanese are very easy going and not uptight. They definitely enjoy having guests very much as we have been invited to have tea and buttered rice crispy everywhere we run into people (e.g. one family celebrating new house built, one family having a ritual performed by the monks for the mother's recent death, one family just because we were there... etc)

Our favourite time was when we were in the farm house and chatted freely with the driver who usually don't say much. And our favourite hike was yesterday's hike.
Today, we flew away to Katmandu and the journey was well concluded with the overdued view of Himalaya. Mt. Everest stared straight at us from atop clouds and fog.

(Less than three weeks from home, two days ago when the weather was gloomy and we ended the day early because of rain, we had a small breakdown missing home and our cats. We learned something about ourselves.)

20 July 2011 - last hike in Bhutan

Last and the most fun, wet and photogenic hike to the tiger's nest temple climbed 900m. We were grateful that technology created hiking shoes that kept our feet dry and non-slipped even when it seemed impossible.

The rainy weather and constant shifting fog only made the cliff hanging monastery more mystical. To Bhutanese, the historical event of the famous guru's manifestation riding a tigress and flying to this location to subdue the demons made this place extra sacred. To us, we wonder how anyone ever built anything in the middle of a cliff back in the 9th century when, even today, to get burning woods, we saw monks carrying cut up tree trunks in their back to bring back to the monastery.

Bhutan

Bhutan is probably most known for its isolation and its Gross National Happiness index. A relatively young country and many aspects of it untouched by the rest of the world, Bhutan has the benefit of learning from the mistakes from the developed countries and taking on practices that are in the fore front. Having a small population who is immersed in collectivist beliefs and, under the leadership of the kings, have enjoyed peace for the past 100 years, the people have some level of trust in the government that seems rare to find elsewhere.

When the forth king introduced democracy to the country, it was not welcome, people preferred to be taken care of by the monarchy. Three years since the first election, Bhutanese seem to appreciate democracy, but some, such as our driver, still favoured monarchy. I thought to myself, these people are fortunate to have kings who have the foresight to protect them from any deterioration of the kingdom. My Chinese history study taught me that peaceful monarchy can only last so long.

The challenges of Bhutan is the delicacy of many issues that require the skill of one who walk the balance beam. Happiness is a noble goal but how it can be achieved under democracy when the country has little resources and increasing exposure to new needs that brings comfort to some but difficult to reach all is a question that the current government must aggressively seek answer to. So far, it appears to be on the right track, with free health care, 11 years of free education and other policies such as to provide clean energy to the villages, 80% of the population is reported being happy with their lives.

Being here, most things we saw are relatively rosy, safety is never an issue, a lost cellphone across regions will find its way back to the owner (which sort of happened to us =P). The atmosphere of a small village carries us everywhere from small town to the capital. At the same time, we observed contradictons in the culture that are perhaps innocuous or perhaps are underlying issues that represent subconscious mental conflicts. One of such is the ban of killing animals in the country because of the deep root of Buddhism, yet the country import all its meat already killed...

Thimpu skyline

16 July 2011 - at the capital again

After a morning hike, we are back in the capital for a few days. Very different view from the hotel room.

The hike started at a pass which supposed to overlook the Himalaya. There was one cute tidbit about the hike: two dogs started following us on the hike. They escorted us to the top and back, at times running back to see why we were slow, waiting when we stopped. So cute.

It is nice to be in a "nice" hotel with clean white towels again. Not that the other ones were uncomfortable, growing up in the city makes us weary of any sort of mud, stains and bugs in our living quarters and bathrooms. They are part of the experience but fresh clean smells are always welcome.

Himalaya unseen

Unfortunately for us, we didn't stay at that resort, so all we got was summer fog so thick we couldn't even see the trees clearly in front.