October 28 - Elephant Tented Camp

Thailand.    

We arrived in Chiangrai yesterday and drove to the elephant reserve where we are staying for three nights. We had an elephant training this morning in how to properly mount and dismount an elephant and then how to give proper instructions in order to ride the elephant into the jungle.  We ended up at a shallow lake and my elephant preferred to drink from the hose while Beth's elephant drank from the lake and then proceeded to drench her repeatedly with the water from his trunk.  It was hilarious.

We are sharing our Bhutan and Thailand adventures with you and hope that you enjoy them   Text and photos by jane and blog compilation by Beth. 

Beth's Observations

All of the other postings were written by Jane who kept great notes and has a terrific head for details!  Please read her excellent blog first and in this I have added a few other observations.

Bhutan is cautiously opening up to tourism and the king and government work hard to protect the distinct culture of the country.  A majority are practicing Bhuddists and there is a tremendous atmosphere of welcome, of acceptance, and of well-being.  The Gross National Happiness referred to repeatedly in our travels is enviable and owes a great deal to Buddhism.  Indeed, the Bhutanese are unbelievably quick to smile and wave hello, and are also quick to laugh.

We observed all people working long days.  The children often have very long walks to school so we would see them walking home in groups at the end of the day - always talking and laughing in small groups.  We were there to witness harvesting of the rice and the buckwheat as well as the threshing.  This is for the most part done manually and, as far as we were able to tell, men and women pulled equal weight in the fields.  The most difficult manual labour looked to be in building the roads.  Indians are hired to build and widen the roads, and again the hard labour is equally borne by men and women, often with infants on their backs and toddlers watching from the side of the road. 

Bhutanese are provided with universal education until approximately age 16 and they learn English in school.  They also have access to health care.  The government has banned cigarette smoking in all public places and imposed a 100% tax on tobacco purchases.  One of our guides said a big threat to life expectancy is alcoholism (which was not in evidence to us) and the government will next impose a 100% tax on alcohol purchases.

One striking feature of the country is the prayer flags.  They are placed where there is wind, so they are highly visible in the hills and on bridges.  

Because of the minimum daily required expenditure of the tourists and the time of year, almost all visitors were older and retired.  This helps to preserve the culture a bit, but with the increasing popularity of television and internet our guide confirmed that the culture is changing rapidly.

I have travelled with Jane for a number of years now, and she is very gifted at transcending language barriers to get the best out of people we meet.  The Bhutanese have met their match in her finding someone who loves to laugh, and, as usual, she gathered a crowd of admirers for her good humor and her outstanding athleticism.

October 26 - Leaving Bhutan

Today is our final day in Bhutan and we head to Bangkok this afternoon. We hiked along the rice paddy fields today and watched as the farmers harvested large crops of red rice. Potatoes will be planted next. We hiked to a bridge and then headed back to the hotel. 

Final notes:  Bhutan is an absolutely breathtaking country.  The Bhutanese people care greatly for their country and for each other. 

Nature is greatly protected as the people believe that spirits and even deities exist inside of all of nature. The mountains are believed to house spirits which must be respected and so no mountaineering or rock climbing is permitted. The Bhutanese government is determined not to allow Bhutan  to turn into a Nepal -overrun with back backers and highly polluted. 

One last thing- Bhutanese men and women are required to wear a sort of uniform every day while they are at work, out in public or at the temple. Men wear a gho and women wear a Kira. The children attending school also wear the gho /Kira. The traditional dress of Bhutan is one of the most visible and distinct aspects of the country. 

Men wear a gho which is a long robe similar to the Tibetan chuba. The Bhutanese hoist the gho to knee length and hold it in place with a woven cloth belt called a kera. The kera is wound tightly around the waist and the large pouch formed above it is traditionally used to carry a bowl, money and cell phone. 

Women wear a long floor-length dress called a Kira.  This is a rectangular piece of brightly colored cloth that wraps around the body and over a Tibetan style silk blouse a wonju. A short open jacket called a toego is worn over the blouse.  The whole ensemble is beautiful and Bhutanese women look very elegant. 

October 25 - Tiger's Nest Again!

Today we returned to Tigers Nest to climb it again. I hiked it in our record time doing the whole climb up and down in 2.5 hours. We stopped for water and some photos but otherwise we moved quickly and steadily.  It was so much fun and glad that I did it a second time.

From Beth:

Again, I climbed half way and then waited for Jane and Sangay to complete the hike.  2-1/2 hours is a remarkable time - other guides were quite stunned when Sangay told them that Jane and he were already returning from the top.

October 24 -beautiful Chumphu hike

Today we went on an incredible hike with our guide and our  driver. We hiked for seven hours along and above the Chumphu River. We hiked to the stupa (site where religious relics are housed) and ate lunch. Then I continued on a very steep hike to the monastery perched in the mountains. We stopped at the monastery where the guides made an offering and then we continued hiking up to a beautiful lake and many waterfalls. This climb was the most difficult in terms of height while ascending and descending. The guide kept telling me to not look down while I was climbing and I didn't. The path was so narrow and I felt like there was no room for me to make mistakes so I just looked ahead. Of course, I loved the adventure. When it was over!!

October 23 -from Bumthang back to Paro

Today we were scheduled to fly on Druk Air from Bumthang to Paro.  By doing so a 13  1/2 hour car ride took 30 minutes. Our flight was delayed because the incoming plane carried one of the reincarnated lamas. He blessed many of the passengers waiting to board our flight and I felt his positive karma would make our flight over the Himalayas easy. We checked into our fourth and final Aman and after lunch walked along the road admiring the rice paddy fields. We visited the Drukgyal Dzong and enjoyed great views of Mount Chomolhari.  I then took a private yoga class with an instructor from Oakland. Small world but it felt great.

October 22 - Bumthang hiking

In the morning,  I visited the Pelseling Goemba which is a monastery located very high up on the mountain. The trek was all uphill through a mix of forest and meadows but sharing candies and treats with the very young monks up top was a wonderful experience.

In the afternoon, we visited Janbay lhakang. It is believed to have been built in the year 659 by the Tibetan king Songsten Garripo on the same day as Kyichu lhakhang in Paro in order to subdue a Tibetan demoness.

It is here that Guru Rinpoche conducted his first sermon on tantric Buddhism for his host king Shindhu Roja the local ruler. Every year in October, the temple hosts a spectacular festival, the Jambay lhakhang drip. Two of the main attractions are the fire dance and the treasure dance or naked dance along with fertility blessings for the women. We attended the ceremony on the closing day and listened to the lamas lead the people.  

From Beth:

I took the day off while Jane did the hike with our guide, Sangay.  Instead I tried my hand once again at archery.  The range was right beside a monastery on the property, and there were a number of monks who took great interest in my instructor, Thomtom.  As we were shooting from one end a bushel of crab apples rained down on his head, follows by gales of laughter from the young monks who had been tasked with clearing them from the monastery roof.  

Jane returned from her hike and I could see that her guide had had to move much more quickly to keep up with this tourist than he was used to doing!