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.