Exploring Bhutan!

I took this photograph!!  It was taken from a spot called “the second viewing point.” After that it’s about 950 steps down, then up, and across a bridge, and you’re there!  But I didn’t make it all the way to the temple, just this far. It took me a little over three hours to get to this point. It was uphill all the way. The gradient varied between about 25 degrees and 45 degrees. Much of it was a wide, unpaved, often rocky path. A lot of that was in the form of steps.  I preferred the parts that were just a slope. Steps were often tall and difficult.  Of course it was all complicated by the fact that the elevation starts at about 8,400 feet and goes up to 10,240 feet.  Any exertion at that altitude causes difficulty breathing, at least for me it did.  According to my smart watch, my pulse never got below about 125, and it was often at or just above 150.  The hike up is about 2.6 miles.  The viewing point I got to is about the same elevation as the...

At a mountain pass. The sign says Beautiful Bumthang. Saw lots of monkeys as we were driving down the road. Stopped and got this through the bus window. Taken from inside Trongsa Dzong (fortress) Inside the Dzong. It's a huge place, over 200 meters long. It houses both government administrative offices and monks.  This one was taken from my hotel room. We're staying nearby. The Dzong is at the bottom. The smaller building above the Dzong used to be a watchtower. It's a museum now. We visited the museum a few days ago on our trip East. We're heading back West now.  View from a mountain pass.  With my friend Renee and the young woman at the reception desk as we were leaving the hotel this morning. 

We got to go tomorrow local festival today right here in Jakarta, where we’re staying. School was closed, and the whole town turned out in their best clothes. I think they were celebrating the consecration of their very old temple.  It was beautiful.   

Here's a photo of a woman who has been weaving most of her life doing it for us to see.

Sorry I haven't posted in so long. My internet connection wasn't strong enough. On Tuesday we visited a monastery in Gangtey. We had to walk a while to get there. We heard from one of the monks who teaches the students. It was fascinating.  Getting ready to hear from one of the monks.                  Spinning prayer wheels. .                     Young monks

 We knew we were supposed to have a home-hosted lunch today (Thursday), but what a pleasant surprise when we learned that it was with the family of one of the brothers who owns the paper factory! I’m afraid I don’t remember the first name of the owner who was giving us a tour, but his last name is Sherpa. His wife prepared the lunch for us. The youngest of their three sons was there, too. He is 18, in the 12th grade, and preparing to study computer science.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of the beautiful table before we ate, or of all of us eating together, but I’ll share what I do have.  I don’t usually take photos of my food, so I may have eaten a little before I remembered to take this. It was excellent. There was black lentil Dahl (in the cup on the upper right) to go with the rice. The greens are from a mustard plant, at the top is chicken, not sure what’s on the bottom of the plate that is the color of yams, but it was all good! For dessert we had yoghurt ma...

 We got to see the coolest place today. It’s a paper factory. The paper is handcrafted. The co-owner is a Sherpa who used to work on mountain climbing expeditions, plus he was a guide on trekking trips.  Now he and his brother employ hundreds of people in their business which is certified to be fair trade.   They are sloshing the tray around in the water.  They have to know exactly when to take it out of the water. Then they take the tray out, lift the new piece of paper out of the tray, and add it a stack of papers behind them. Next, the papers are placed out in the sun to dry, then they are ready for whatever the paper will be used for. They stopped working for lunch, so I took some pictures of a couple of the many rooms there. This is the table where we made selections of things we would like to buy to take home.  I don’t think they are normally retailers, but since we were there and asking to buy something, of course they had a table ready.   I had seen...

 Wow! I loved our first day out having adventures. The first thing we did was leave the hotel through the “back yard” (walking past the pool), then we walked about 15 minutes to a Tibetan Buddhist monastery. What a beautiful place. We happened to arrive on the day that they were having a ritual for someone who recently died. I’m told it’s to ask for the person to have a smooth transition to their next life.                                                                          Walking past the pool.                                                                     Walking through the neighborhood.         ...

  The airport in Doha, Qatar is huge, and fabulous! I know, because I had a 9 hour layover there. This gigantic teddy bear in the center of everything is popular. You can feel the excitement about hosting the World Cup, starting on November 20th.                                  The lobby of our hotel has all these miniatures of famous stupas.                                                      The view from my hotel room. Going out sight-seeing in an hour. I expect to post photos tonight. 🙂