Bhutan notes

There are so many little things about this fascinating country that I’d like to share with you, but I’m afraid I can’t weave them into a cohesive story. So if you’ll bear with me as I stop and start, I promise you won’t fall asleep. :)

As so many of our trips do, I tend to focus on the animals of a country. That beast above is the national animal, a Takin. We saw several of them at the Takin Reserve in Thimpu, the country’s capital.

There is a myth that they were created by a guru who put the skull of a goat on the skeleton of a cow, clapped his hands, and the takin was created. Takins are actually most closely related to sheep.

Cows and horses wander freely along and on roads everywhere, and drivers give them the right of way. There is very little honking in this country, and definitely never used to make the animals move. These wandering cows tend to be very skinny, with jutting hip bones.

At higher altitudes like 9,000+ ft, yaks are the animals in the roadway. To watch the next video, be sure to click the link at the end of the post to open it in your browser -

Black-necked cranes are held in high regard in Bhutan, and are referred to as “birds of heaven”. Their return to marshy plains in central Bhutan each October is celebrated as auspicious. I thought that they’d all be gone when we visited, as they tend to return to Tibet by the end of February, for breeding in the summer. I was thrilled to find a lone straggler still hanging out in central Bhutan, in the Tang Valley -

They stand almost 4 feet high and have a nearly 8 ft wingspan.

Besides yaks at higher altitudes, you can also find several species of monkeys. Gray Langurs have a striking appearance…

… and tails longer than their bodies. We found this troop enjoying fresh budding branches, as did the cow that took advantage of the broken ones the langurs tossed down -

Red-faced Macaques are much more common, and are found along roadways at elevations of 4-7,000 ft generally -

Now I’ll move on to buildings. There are numerous fortresses, temples, monasteries and nunneries scattered throughout the country, and seemingly all are perched rather high up, accessible only by horribly rutted and potholed dirt roads. Our guide was fond of saying “here’s another full body massage” as we were bounced and jostled in the car on yet another dirt or rocky road. The highest one we visited was outside of Bumthang and it sat at 11,500 ft. This was Tharpaling Monastery…

… and it is a monastic retreat…

… that gave great views of Chumey Valley and Bumthang, as well as the Himalayas -

The Babzur Nunnery was completed in 2020, and was just beautiful…

… with fresh, colorful paintings under the eaves (that we hadn’t seen anywhere else). The views of the surrounding hills and valleys were awesome -

Moving onto Dzongs (fortresses) - I had shown you the Punakha Dzong where the festival was held. The longest Dzong (interesting category!) in Bhutan is the Trongsa Dzong -

It was first built in 1674, and it was definitely showing its age -

The Wangdue Phodrang (another name for fortress) afforded me one of my favorite pictures from the trip, encompassing reflection, ancient building and misty hills in the background -

Stupas are important buildings to Buddhists, housing remains or relics of holy men or other important people. This is the National Memorial Stupa in Thimpu…

… erected by the third queen of Bhutan in 1974, in memory of her husband. You can see the size of it by noting the people walking around its base. People say prayers as they circumambulate around stupas and temples - always in a clockwise direction - and spin prayer wheels, again always clockwise. Here’s an illustrative video:

This activates auspicious energy, accumulating merit and benefitting all beings.

This stupa was probably my favorite because it is in the Nepalese style, with the eyes of Buddha…

… and it was where we finally saw rhododendrons.

Before we leave buildings, I must share with you the amazing bamboo scaffolding we saw all over, including the largest cities -

would you climb that, or stand up there to paint the eaves??

I started to keep going with this post, and then realized that your eyes may be glazing over. You need a break, so I’ll pause here, and start a new post another day.

This last picture was taken at the Chelela Pass at just over 13,000 ft (the highest motorable pass in the country), and it shows how heavily forested the hills are. Bhutan mandates in its constitution that 60% of its land will remain under forest cover forever. Currently, 72% of the country’s land is forested.

A Bhutanese Festival

There are over 160 festivals throughout the country and scattered through the year. We attended one in Punakha that was a 5 day celebration held in the Punakha Dzong (fortress) -

This was built in 1637-38 and is the second oldest and second largest fortress in all of Bhutan -

A festival is both a religious and social event, and most attendees dress in their finest clothes, no matter what their ages -

Our guide arranged for us to wear the national dress, which is a Gho for men and a Kira for women -

We definitely got some double takes as we walked through the grounds, as people expected fellow Bhutanese when they first saw our dress, and then caught sight of our light complexions.

This was the entrance to the Dzong…

(did you see the big black things hanging under the eaves? look closely and you’ll see massive bee hives)

… and this was the packed inner courtyard where the dances were held -

The bright colors everywhere were gorgeous -

There were dancers in traditional dress…

… and in resplendent costumes and masks -

The dancer in the center of the picture above is the Black Deity, who is the “gatekeeper” of Hell. Other costumes portray protector gods…

… or some of the great Buddhist masters -

As you can see in the background of the picture above, people were lined up. This is so they could offer monetary gifts to the monks and receive blessings from Buddha -

I took a number of videos of the dances, but I’ll only subject you to one here (as usual, click on the link at the bottom of the email to be able to watch this in your browser) -

Here, Steve is demonstrating that the gho (a knee length robe tied at the waist with a belt) has “the largest pocket in the world” -

The social aspect of the festival was easily seen as friends visited…

… families gathered…

… and everybody enjoyed the fair-like grounds outside the fortress, including bounce houses!

I got a behind-the-scenes picture, as we took a break from the crowd…

… in a religious courtyard, behind the main one for the festival -

I don’t have a favorite festival photo to close with, so I’ll share the signs of early spring we’re seeing here - a white magnolia tree flanked by cherry trees (growing just at the side of the road outside of town):

The Tiger's Nest (Taktsang Monastery)

Because it’s such a special place, I wanted to devote a whole post to it and the hike.

That was our goal as we saw it near the start of the hike. 

We set out about 0700, and there were very few cars in the parking lot.  Our starting elevation was 8520 ft.  We tackled this challenge on our third day in Bhutan.  The town of Paro that we flew into stands at 7218 ft., and we noticed a little puffing and panting as we climbed stairs in our hotel.

I found that I didn’t take any pictures on our ascent, as I was just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other and trying not to pant too much (getting dry mouth, don’t ya know).  As we passed these prayer wheels…

… we knew the café was close, and we’d pause for breakfast.

We had hiked for about an hour and covered about a mile, while gaining close to 1,000 ft.  The view was nice…

… but it still looked pretty far away.  I was surprised at the small building in the upper left of the picture.  I had never seen any photos or mention of something higher than the Tiger’s Nest, but our guide said it was another monastery!

Somewhat refreshed after our break, we climbed on, past prayer flags…

… and little stupas as prayer offerings for departed loved ones –

We were finally rewarded with this much closer look…

… and it was so interesting to see how these buildings truly were built right into the cliff (note that lowest roofline ending up against an apparent angled boulder).

This monastery was built in 1692 to commemorate the arrival of Buddhism in Bhutan.  Legend has it that guru Padmasambhava arrived at this place of meditation on the back of a flying tigress (which was his consort who magically transformed).  Hence, the name.

This is the view back over the Paro valley…

… from the famous viewpoint stop –

The light wasn’t the greatest , arriving in midmorning, but I got better pictures when we came back down.  You may have noticed the staircase in the lower left corner of that picture above.  Yes, we had to descend several hundred stairs, before climbing yet again –

This little corner sure can’t be seen from the base of the trail, let alone from the viewpoint…

… and I found this perspective to be very interesting (as we had just been seeing it from eye level) -

I had always wondered how you actually got over to the monastery, from where all the pictures were taken that I had drooled over for years.  This next picture is looking back at the viewpoint…

… from the base of the stairs leading to the temple…

… where we were required to put all cameras and phones in lockers.  Steve noted the altitude there was 10,128 ft., but all references to the Tiger’s Nest say that it’s at 10,240 ft.  We definitely climbed more stairs, visiting the nine temples contained within the complex.  Because you are not allowed to photograph inside temples, the only pictures and stories online are of the exterior.  It took us an hour to see the temples and hear all the relevant stories.

(the person climbing the staircase/ladder gives a little perspective on the immensity of the complex)

I was actually surprised by how old everything looked, but I shouldn’t have been, given its age. There have been several restorations and renovations after fires, earthquakes and war necessitated this, with the most recent in the early 2000s.

Here is the view from the Café, as we headed back down. Our stats for the hike were: 4.4 miles roundtrip in 4 hours hiking time, with 2,000 ft of ascent (according to AllTrails).

I’ll close with my best picture, in the best light. :)

Bhutan

I had seen pictures of the Tiger’s Nest (Taktsang Monastery), especially since we retired, noting that it was one of the top places in the world to ”visit before you die.”

As you know by now, when we visit a country, we like to explore it for a couple of weeks, minimum.  This trip was one where I needed to use a travel agency, due to difficulties obtaining a visa, and the requirement to have a Bhutanese guide and driver when outside of the main cities of Paro and Thimpu.

I’ll start with the flight into Paro.  This town (population 11,400+) in the western portion of the country has the only international airport in Bhutan.  The approach to the airport is so tricky that only 50 pilots (with only two airlines) are certified to land there.

We flew from Kathmandu past the gorgeous Himalayas…

… and even got to see Mt. Everest!

(the tall, wide mountain on the left side)

I videoed the approach and landing in Paro, but it was anticlimactic because it was so smooth.  Flights both into and out of this airport occur only in the morning, when the wind is calmer.  It was pretty neat to see and feel the plane bank first left, then right, then left again, following the valley in as it descended. 

These were the beautiful buildings greeting us as we walked into the airport –

We soon found that all buildings throughout the country have this decorative artwork.  This includes homes, shops, temples and even government buildings.

We toured SO many temples and monasteries!  Some were very old…

Dra Karpo Monastery built in the 8th century

…some were in the process of being refurbished…

Dzongdrakha

… and a few were nunneries –

Kila Nunnery

We learned an amazing amount about Bhutanese Buddhism from our guide, but couldn’t take pictures inside the temples.  However, we spent one night at a farmhouse, which has been in the host’s family for 7 generations (the 8th are her sons), and they had a family temple as part of the farmhouse complex.  I was allowed to take pictures and video, as they had a ceremony which occurs annually just before their version of Thanksgiving.

There is a whole lot going on in that picture above. The brightly colored circles are carefully painted rice cakes (which are fed to birds after about a week). There is always a Buddha statue in one of his incarnations, in the center, and flanked by numerous, smaller, different incarnations. There is a row of butter lamps behind the front row of rice circles. The walls are intricately painted with stories of Buddha, and are often the oldest thing in a temple. There are numerous colorful pennants hanging everywhere.

Next is a video (so click the link at the bottom of the post to be able to see it in your browser) that shows a musical portion of the ceremony. There are reed instruments that resemble oboes, long horns that play deep notes, cymbals and drums, as well as a very interesting instrument traditionally made out of a human femur. In the video, I try to zoom in on it, without much luck. I have a still picture of it following the video.

The next video features the leader of the ceremony (the monk on the raised chair) and others throat singing (you may need to really turn the volume up as the singing is in very deep tones) -

Now to describe typical rural or farmhouses. Doorways are often covered with a beautiful hanging…

… that you must hold aside, and carefully step over the raised threshold, as you mind your head on the low doorframe. :) The raised threshold is believed to trip up spirits of the dead who are “hanging around” on earth, causing them to fall and reminding them they are dead so they will pass on to their next life.

In older houses, there are no staircases, just steep ladders…

… and lots of drafts. The kitchen is the warmest place in the house, as there is always a wood fire heating the stove.

Well…I’ll be mooooving on now, but I’ll be back to yak, yak, yak.

Kathmandu, Nepal

When we were heading here, the Bob Seger song kept playing in my head…”I think I’m going to Kathmandu - that’s really, really where I’m goin’ to”. :-)

It is very smoggy…

… chaotic (to see the video - click link at end of post to open in browser)…

… and crowded -

It was pretty intimidating at first to walk in the street where motorbikes and cars were passing right by you, as well as pedestrians and bicycles (some going in the opposite direction on the same side of the street as you), but we actually quickly got the hang of it, mostly just by following locals. Crossing a street, or heaven forbid, entering a four way intersection, remained unnerving and a bit like a live version of Frogger.

The sign on the left in the picture above made me smile, because that’s what you do to cross that intersection, which we had to. You have to do it in 2 steps - get to the thin middle line, standing there while cars and motorbikes zip by you on both sides, honking all the time, then cross the other half when a rare break in traffic occurs. (since I was concentrating so hard when we’d do this, I didn’t get any video - sorry)

We were heading for that temple on the hill, commonly referred to as the Monkey Temple, but its formal name is Swayambhunath Temple.

We climbed a lot of stairs, then they got steep -

At the top…

… were numerous temples and worshippers…

… as well as the namesake mascots. They were much less numerous than in Bali, and more skittish around humans (which was fine by me).

Prayer wheels are turned clockwise…

… while the faithful recite the mantra there -

The “Eyes of Buddha” are painted on all four sides of the stupa, symbolizing his all seeing wisdom -

this largest shrine was my favorite

We had a nice view of the city from up here -

As we headed back into the city, we thought we found the winner for the “OMG-look-at-those-wires” award:

We then headed to Durbar Square, which is a former royal palace complex. It is difficult to show in one photo because it’s not a compact area, and encompasses 50 temples.

The oldest area was constructed between the 4th and 8th centuries, and had intricate wood carving -

As I was photographing this temple, I noticed this amazing porter -

The intricacy and extent of the wooden carvings and screens we saw on many buildings was just stupendous -

I thought this little temple was very inspiring -

I’m gonna keep my eye on you!

Singapore

Last time we were here, we focused on Gardens by the Bay. This time we ate our way through Hawker’s Markets for street food, marveled at the Jewel in the Changi Airport, and walked through the Botanic Gardens.

For the Gardens, we headed out early to avoid the worst of the heat and humidity. Even so, we ended up getting pretty sweaty and sticky with the temp at 88 F/31 C and the humidity at 70% or more. There are numerous small gardens devoted to specific plants, like Frangipani…

… or certain architectural sites like this reflecting pool…

… but hands down, our favorite area was the…

There were over 1,00 species (!) here and it was interesting to learn that orchids make up 10% of the world’s flowering plants, with around 30,000 different species.

The variety of shapes and colors…

… was mind blowing.

This is a type of Lady’s Slipper orchid:

We definitely dawdled in the Cool House…

… as a welcome break from the heat and humidity.

The Jewel in Changi airport is a “nature-themed entertainment and retail complex”, complete with the world’s tallest indoor waterfall at 130 ft high!

I was mesmerized…

… by both the falling water, as well as the various levels at which you could see the waterfall (video, so open this post in your browser to see it) -

In the Hawker’s food markets, you can get a plate of food starting at $5-7, and try various regional specialties. On our previous stay, we had gone to a nice restaurant that specialized in Singapore Chili Crab in a sweet, salty, chili tomato sauce and paid $100 (figuring it was a one time splurge, so why not). I sought out the Hawker’s Market where you could get it for $38, and it was just as tasty (and a mess to eat).

In the upper right corner of the picture is a plate of Cereal Prawns, which I highly recommend as another dish to try when in Singapore.

We stayed in Chinatown again, as it’s easy to get around on the Metro, has innumerable restaurants and Hawker’s Markets, and is clean and walkable.

The view from our hotel rooftop -

I forgot to close my last post with a sunset, so I’ll do so here (jumping back to Indonesia for a moment) -

Diving in West Papua, Indonesia (again)

As I’ve said many times, we hardly ever repeat destinations, but the diving in Raja Ampat Indonesia is frequently hailed as some of the best in the world (and in our dive experience, we agree). We had previously stayed at Kri Eco Resort and were quite impressed with their operation, so we made a repeat visit. It is located on the tiny island of Kri, north of Sorong on West Papua. It’s hard to try and get a realistic map here, so I’ll let you google those names if you’re so inclined. Basically, we were out on the farthest eastern reaches of Indonesia.

It’s very uncommon to see an anemone balled up like this, and it provided a gorgeous contrast to the white tentacles. White is also unusual to see, as most are greenish -

I truly loved the photos I was able to get with my new camera. It’s best at macro subjects (little critters up close), while Steve’s GoPro provided us with some stellar videos. I’ll try to not bore the large majority of you who aren’t divers, but I like to share the beauty underwater that keeps us diving. (I also just reviewed the blog I wrote 2 years ago from here, so I’ll try really hard not to repeat fish species.) This Fimbriated Eel was new to us, and had a very striking color -

On our last visit here, it was May, and we were able to see Reef Mantas at a cleaning station. Being here in Feb. this time allowed us to see Oceanic Mantas for the first time. Man, are they huge! First up is a video I shot, allowing me to zoom in and out, but I’m definitely not a smooth operator yet. This is a Reef Manta, showing its white shoulder patches. Its wingspan is 12-14 feet. [as I’ve noted in previous posts, you may need to click the link at the bottom of the post to open this in your browser, so you can see the video]

Next is the massive Oceanic Manta (with a 20+ ft wingspan), and Steve’s video was better than mine, in the murky conditions -

The Oceanic Manta has a black “T” on his shoulders and back. As it repeatedly passed over us, it felt like a bus was gliding overhead. So majestic!

Now, from the gigantic to the miniscule…Pygmy Seahorses were amazingly plentiful here, and included several different types. They range in size from 0.5 - 1 inch. Our guide was a master at finding them, and even when he’d hold his pointer right near them, I usually couldn’t see them, but just pointed my camera and let its autofocus do the magic. First, the out of focus picture that shows the silhouette…

(enlarge the picture and focus on the center area)

Now that you know where to look, hopefully you can see my favorite coy pose -

We didn’t know this creature came in such vibrant colors. The more common type (and that we’d seen before) is much harder to see on the sea fans that they mimic so perfectly -

In the picture above, find the tiny dark eye and slightly yellowish tail wrapped around the branch. There are actually 2 seahorses in that sea fan. The other has his back to the camera, and is at the 4 o’clock position to the upside down one. When they are slightly gray, they are slightly easier to see:

(hint - look in the center of the picture)

I just thought this Signal Goby was so cute as he hovered over the bottom, flashing his colors:

I’m pretty sure I showed a Mantis Shrimp before, but these Peacock fellas have such gorgeous coloration that I need to share again. Usually, they’re hiding in their holes, and this is “all” we see, but I’ll take that any day -

On a number of dives, we saw them out scurrying around, but this guy was proud and posing:

A pipefish is in the same family as seahorses, and you can see the resemblance in the snout, but that’s about where it ends. This Double-ended Pipefish was about 6-8 in long, and we saw him on a night dive -

The next video shows a Ringed Pipefish with his characteristic tail -

This is a beautiful Flatworm…

… and this is a Nudibranch, complete with 2 rhinophores to smell with, and the “naked gills” on the back that give them their name -

There are numerous types that come in all shapes, sizes and colors. That one above was about an inch or so long.

This last video shows the amazing density and variety of fish in Raja Ampat, which will keep us coming back for quite awhile -

See ya later!

Bicolor Blenny