Epilogue

Every trip has its more challenging, but often at the same time interesting, moments. In Bhutan those moments often related to our accommodations or the food. The long bus rides were in most respects the most challenging and interesting, however.

Our departure presented its own issues. We walked around Paro (our entry and departure point for Bhutan) in the morning and photographed. Nothing too memorable except that Giules counted over 90 stray dogs in a three to four block radius. In Bhutan this is not unusual. We did, however, get wifi to check our email on our iPhones by standing outside an Indian hotel.

As we met up with our bus to take our group to the airport, one of the Bhutan guides approached me, concerned. Giules bought a beautiful silk kira the day before en route to Paro. She had admired it when we stopped there four days earlier. She was thrilled it was still there. The woman dressed her in it (see photos on flickr), including using a beautiful silver and gold clip and a belt. She refused payment for the accessories and sent us on our way.

The guide explained that the woman had not intended that the clip and belt go with the kira and that the clip was a family heirloom. Although that was not consistent with what the woman said at the time of the sale, Giules photographed the clip and gave it and the belt back to the guide to return to the woman. She was somewhat heartbroken, however, since she adored the clip, which doubles as a necklace.

Given the delay in our flight from Paro to Calcutta, we assumed we would miss our connection from Calcutta to Delhi, but fortunately for us, it too was delayed for two hours. There were two flights leaving Calcutta from our gate and much chaos and crowding and pushing to get on both of them. All of the fracas was overseen by a very pretty young woman from the Indian army who checks passports (there were five passport checks before getting on the plane) and the carry-on luggage tags to make sure they are stamped with the day’s date stamp. Despite the confusion, we made it on board and to Delhi.

Delhi was easy. The terminal is a vast, modern airport that replaces the dilapidated Delhi airport I had last seen three years ago. We had an airline club lounge visit for our last taste of real Indian food (enough reason alone to go to India), went through security again at the gate (required for all U.S. bound flights) and then were off, headed home on another full flight.

Fourteen and a half hours later, Continental deposited us a Newark for the connection home to Burlington.

We had a great time, learned a lot about photography and took about 15,000 images between the two of us. We have deleted a few thousand images, but that leaves around 10,000 images to edit . . . . See both of our Flickr accounts for each of our highlights.

Our group leader, John Isaac is wonderful teacher, friend and mentor. We hope to travel with him again and even have him visit Vermont. John is a former photo journalist for the United Nations and is an exquisite photographer. You can see his work at http://johnisaac.com/

Bhutan is a fantastic place to visit – once. It is a very small and lovely country and we have seen much of it. India, however, seems limitless and we look forward to returning in the future.

Monkey Business

Hi All, Giules here!

We are now back in Paro and getting ready for our last dinner as a group - tomorrow (Friday) we fly to Calcutta, then Delhi, then Newark, then Burlington! If all goes perfectly, it will take us about 34 hours of travel to get home. This does not include the 9 hours of fun and frolic in the bus today as we returned from Tronsga to Paro.

Today is an auspicious day for the Bhutanese, as the king and queen were married today. The entire country is adorned with colorful prayer flags, people are all wearing pins with the royal couple's picture and there are portraits of them everywhere. The atmosphere is very festive and every restaurant that has a TV is showing the royal wedding. But where, I ask you, is Pippa Middleton and her slinky dress? This king, unlike his father, will apparently take only one bride... very modern. His father has 4 wives - - all sisters. hmmmm.

Our journeys since Tuesday have taken us to more monasteries and dzongs and we have taken many pictures - - - at some point we hope to have an internet connection that is fast enough to post them. In one monastery we participated in a blessing for long life. The Lama and several monks set up in a small candlelit sanctuary and one by one we filed in, drank what tasted like wine, then holy water, then eat something akin to sweet dough. During this time we pass by holy writings and figurines. The monks and the Lama bless each person and give us a small red cord to wear around our necks. It appears that the entire village is there to be blessed, adults and children alike.

On our drive west (still on the only east/west road in the entire country) we saw some amazing monkeys on our path and in the trees. These monkeys have a white crown and mane and are brown in the face and body. Apparently they are almost extinct, but we managed to see a few and even take a few pictures - - I will definitely include those in my flickr pictures. They were very cool and definitely worth stopping for on the hairpin road of rocks and ditches (we've seen so many cows, horses, goats and yaks that they are not worth mentioning anymore)

Also on our drive we picked up a beautiful silk kira. This is essentially a large handwoven rectangular tapestry that the women here wrap around themselves and wear. This one is particularly gorgeous and I will probably use it as a bedspread, however when in Rome... So the woman at the shop taught me how to wear it and I wore it to the bus and again when we arrived in Paro. Jerry will be posting a picture - - I only wish there were some occasion at home to wear something like this - - perhaps the OKG holiday party? (haha!)

Our accommodations and dining options have greatly improved since Bumthang, but we have learned not to take electricity, hot water or even a double bed for granted! It will be great to be home, drink fresh water, take a good shower and do lots of laundry, but this has been an amazing adventure and we are still having a wonderful time in our last few days here.

Why we became vegetarians—at least while in Bhutan.

We have done well in our hotels until we arrived at our present quote resort, unquote. We have been here for three nights. There are some memorable parts of Bumthang, but our hotel is not amongst them. The power goes out frequently as Giules mentioned. We tried to read in bed last night but gave up after the power went off, then back on five times. I should have been reading from my iPad, not my Kindle.

While power has been an issue, regularly, the food has been the most mediocre so far. This morning was fried eggs, white toast and porridge—the latter not bad, but that was it.

When meat is available here, it is pork, with lots of fat. We have seen fish a time or time from India, but so boney as to be inedible. Fortunately, we are going somewhere else tonight for dinner—as we did last night. However, that is why we are vegetarians while in Bhutan.

One constant at every meal except breakfast is a cheese and peppers dish. It is very hot from a spice perspective. I usually take a little of the sauce and add it to the rice, but that’s it. Otherwise, I could start fire across the room by breathing out.

Today (Tuesday) we went to a local festival, the prime reason why we traveled for 16 ½ hours to get here. It was a bust. The festival in Thimphu, the capital, was great, in a large arena type space. Here, it was at about three miles along a dirt road in the courtyard of a monastery. While both events consisted of singing and dancing, this one was so packed with tourists that it was nearly impossible to get good photos – always a tourist in the background and usually one with a loud color and a still or video camera.

When we tried to leave early we found our way blocked by other parked vehicles. We did manage to maneuver out after an hour, went to a monastery, were purified by the monks and then had a picnic lunch—the one we had planned to have at the festival.

The highlight of the day arguably was our trip to the Red Panda brewery, a small place that produces the best beer in Bhutan. Short tour and Red Panda beer; good combination.

Despite the disappointment of the festival I managed to shoot 489 photos today, however, that will edit down to around 350. Many were of young monks when we went to a second monastery. It was just boys being boys.

I hit over 1400 photos one day (way too much editing too do). I will post more if we can ever get a decent internet connection. No, it will not be anywhere near 1400 images.

This is coming to you via the wifi at the resort at which we are staying as we sit outside the building that generates the wifi that is locked, but we have the code . . . . However, it’s slow.

Dancers and Mountains and Nuns, Oh My! (Oct 6-10)

Thursday and Friday - Thimphu is the capital and they know how to throw a festival! We’re still not entirely sure of what the four day long festival is for, but we joined in all the same. In the Dzong or fort of every city, the monks live and the festivals are held. The courtyard fills with dancers in colorful costumes and wild masks. They spin like whirling dervishes and leap in the air as they enact religious or historical events. There are several men dressed as humorous demons and they dance around mocking the dancers and playing with the audience – kids love it and they are clearly the jokesters. One of them wields a huge wooden penis and teases people with it. Even the monks are laughing. More on that later.

We spend the morning there and return the following morning but it has become too crowded to see. We estimate that there are 16,000 to 20,000 people attending by the second – and they’re all wearing their most colorful silk finery. When we get a better internet connection next week we’ll post some really fun pictures.

And that brings me back to penises. Oh boy do they love ‘em here! There are statues of them everywhere – door handles, wooden carvings, post cards, pictures, paintings – you name it! In fact, as we go from town to town we have noticed large paintings and prints of penises on the outside of just about every house! Apparently this is their symbol of prosperity and everyone in this rather modest country loves it. Go figure.

Saturday - Our next adventure took us on a wild ride from Thimphu to Bumthang. That’s “boom – tahng” to you. What a journey! We awakened at 4:45 a.m. and boarded the bus at 6:00 for what was supposed to be a 10 hour drive. Almost 17 hours later, over the most treacherous winding mountain paths (I can hardly call them roads as there was, in many places, no pavement and only rocks, ditches, stones on one side and cliffs on the other.) we arrived in Bumthang. We traveled (survived) about 190 miles of the only eastbound road in north-central Bhutan during which we covered three substantial mountain passes, all above 9000 feet. The first was spectacular – we took many photos. The second was cold. We looked from the bus. The third was in the mud and rain and dark of night and we ignored it altogether. 16.5 hours of hairpin turns around mountains with rockslides left us queasy and tired.

At 10:30 pm we arrived at our hotel. We are no longer in 5 star luxury. In fact, as I write this, we have no power and are using tall skinny candles for light. There is some hot water and we had them push our twin beds together, but that’s about it for creature comforts.

Sunday - We spent today going to some local monasteries and a local home where some monks were doing a ceremony. We were invited to watch and photograph the ceremony in which the monks were seated around a room chanting from Tibetan scriptures. I sat down in the middle of them all, put my camera away and shut my eyes. Their voices swirled around me. It was an incredible experience.

After several hours - and a candle light dinner during which we all toasted Thomas Edison - the power finally returned – but only sporadically and on alternate floors. We are lucky – our floor has light. Time for quick showers before it goes out again! Tomorrow we will go to a nunnery, which should be very interesting. All in all, quite an adventure!

Monday - And so today we went to the nunnery and what fun! We arrived to see young girls (with the same red robes and shaved heads as the monks) playing badminton in the courtyard. They were also skipping rope and doing yoga. A number of us joined the yoga class and had a wonderful and welcomed stretch! The atmosphere was quite different than the monasteries with all the boys. The girls and women are more animated and excited to see us. It is much easier to interact with them. I spent a good deal of time photographing a young girl of about 8 or 9 who, by the end of our visit threw herself in my arms to hug me. Jerry says I cannot bring her home -same with the puppy from Calcutta and the kitten at the restaurant - but now I think I will try to bring home a baby yak).

Tonight we have a photo critique and then on with the adventure tomorrow! I am trying to post more pictures on Flickr but we have little internet access so it may still be a few days.

Bhutan

Well, we almost did not make it here. We were enjoying Kolkata and were ready to head for Bhutan, but there was this sticky problem that the Government of Bhutan, which is very picky about to whom it issues visas, had not actually issued the visas to our group, but they had let us book our flights.

We all finally agreed to head for the airport in Kolkata Tuesday morning at 5:30, try to get on the flight and sort it out when we landed. Well, it worked. We got on to the flight and once we were on the ground in Paro, Bhutan, the bureaucracy took about 20 minutes to get its act together, and here we are.

I should add that landing in Paro is a thrill. You come in over the mountains and swoop down to the runway, but, again, it worked.

We visited a monastery after arrival and got in lots of photos the young monks, who were only too glad to pose for the tourists. Our Flikr acounts show some of the images. By the way . . . you can get to the Flickr accounts at any time by clicking on the boxes below the photo of us at the top of this blog.

We spent our first night in a pleasant but somewhat basic tourist hotel. Our hot water was not working well, but food was good and we survived.

This is a very friendly country, as is India, with a population of about 625,000, roughly the size of Vermont. Its average altitude is 7500’ and it is quite mountainous. The roads tend to be very windy because of the terrain.

Today we hiked to the Tigers’ Nest, http://www.cs.unm.edu/~shapiro/BHUTAN/MIDSIZE/tigersnest.html

We were led to believe it was an easy hike – no need to take along our trekking poles. Not so. It was a three hour strenuous hike, particularly with our photographic gear. We should have had less photographic gear and more food and water. Three of the eleven in our group dropped out. Giules and I were in the group of three who made it to the monastery first. The only real frustration is that we were not allowed to photograph inside.

We started the hike at 8,000' and at the monastery we were at 10,240'.

You will see some of the images from today on our Flikr accounts. However, there are only just so many images of a monastery you really want to post.

The hike was great, ultimately, but the real hit of the day is the resort at which we are staying. The place we were supposed to stay for three nights was damaged in an earthquake two weeks ago, so we were rebooked into a five star resort nearby. Our room is about the size of our residence.

There is a problem with the booking for tomorrow night because of the festival that is in town and so we are getting only four rooms instead of nine tomorrow night. However, the women in the group would not dream of our leaving this place a minute sooner than necessary, so we will work it out.

Tomorrow, Thursday, is the first of three days of a festival here in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan. We are off to it bright and early . . . .

You say Calcutta, I say Kolkata . . .

and here we are in one of the most vibrant and alive cities on the planet!

Kolkata (the new and official name) is a melange of everything you can think of - lights, food, colors, art, culture, gorgeous old buildings in various stages of dilapidation, decay or rebirth, parks, rivers, cows, goats, dogs, cats, monuments, markets, festivals (Durga Puja begins today to celebrate the goddess Durga, and is going on all night, every night this week!), tuk tuks, rickshaws, and people! Oh the people! 22 million of them!

If all you thought about when you thought of Calcutta was Mother Theresa and orphans with flies around their eyes, think again. Yes there is incredible poverty - most of the city is impoverished - but it is not an angry culture. It is welcoming and friendly and musical and vibrant.

We came in last night to the beginnings of the week long festival - strings of lights everywhere, music and singing, bands and performers on every block - young and old all out and about for the all night party. This morning we went to the flower market at sunrise - - the current of humanity, flowers and bees seemed to flow and take us along with it. We ended up at the edge of the river where, to the beat of many drums, men young and old bathe in the mornings. You can see some of the pics on my Flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/33339594@N06/sets/72157627660248443/ Jerry will post some soon. The men scrub themselves with soap and mud balls - the boys climb on top of each other in the water to make human pyramids and mug for the camera, the old men bathe to the side, some of them clasp their hands in their morning prayer. all wear sarongs or underwear. The women watch, laugh, do Hindu prayers and the whole shebang feels like a strange pool party.

This afternoon we explored a sprawling local market that spanned numerous streets and alleyways. We started out in the fish and poultry section - and by poultry I mean live chickens - - you pick it, they kill it . . . fortunately we did not see this happen. The vendors, hundreds and hundreds of them, sell everything from beauty supplies to string and rope to spices and vegetables of every imaginable kind. Photography was tricky in there given the darkness from the overhead tarps. Breathing was even trickier due to the 90's plus temperature and humidity and the many smells.

Tonight we dined on local Bengalese food - Jerry loved all of it but I am staying on the vegetarian plan for now. Still some lovely flavors. We also learned that we may not have visa clearance to enter Bhutan tomorrow as planned. Our guide and group leader is working on the problem (we are still not sure what that problem is) and as of now we are planning to head to the airport, cross our fingers and try to get on the plane....

Stay tuned - we may be writing from Kolkata again tomorrow night.

The Taj Mahal Days

Saturday and Sunday Oct 1 and 2 – the Taj Mahal days

We decided these two days were both best wrapped up, for the most part, into one entry – about the Taj Mahal for the most part.

I offered to build Giules a Taj Mahal (I never specified the scale). All she had to do was bear me 14 children in 19 years as did the wife of the king who built the Taj Mahal for the mother of his 14 children. No deal. Probably best for both of us.

It’s about a six hour drive from Delhi to Agra, the industrial city that has an interesting fort, the Taj Mahal and not a great deal else (although it has a population of 3 million – not a large city by India’s standards).

The drive is an exercise in viewing the Indian state of driving. The congestion and horn beeping was worst coming out of Delhi and passing through some of the suburbs. Dead stop, horns honking, every imaginable type of vehicle on the road.

Although we were on a divided highway for the most part, it was not unusual for drivers to be coming at us in our lane, usually on the shoulder. At no point did we see a police officer. The most we saw were a few traffic control officers in the stands at a few intersections coming out of Delhi. Otherwise, it is chaos that somehow works.

Horn beeping is almost constant as drivers tell each other where they are and ask others to move. In fact, the back of many vehicles, trucks especially, have painted on them “horn please.” No please is needed. Horns sound constanly.

Oh yes, and lanes mean nothing. Three vehicles driving abreast in two lanes is a frequent sight.

Anyway, on to the Taj Mahal.

We visited the Taj twice, to catch the evening Sunday on Saturday and the morning sun on Sunday (up at 5 a.m.). Even at that, it was crowded.

It is what it purports to be, one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, accentuated by the beautiful evening and morning light. It was well worth the journey.

Of course we then had to drive back to Delhi to catch our flight to Kolkata (the revised name from the old Colonial name of Calcutta) at 6 pm. Ok Giules, take it from here . . . .