On September 21, 2009 after a very long (more than 24 hour) trip from San Francisco to New York to Brussels to Delhi we finally flew to Paro in Bhutan for the first part of our Bhutan/Nepal trip. Bhutan prides itself on its “Gross nation happiness”.

Landing at the Paro airport was a thrill since it is in a narrow valley surrounded by mountains and the airplane has to come in and then land quickly. The airport is beautifully decorated on the outside with what we later found was typical Bhutanese design. Almost all buildings in Bhutan are highly decorated on the outside. The insides may be plain but not the outside.

After trying to sleep, with the Bhutanese barking dogs incessantly all night, the next day we made our pilgrimage to the Tiger's Nest. It is a monastery that is perched high above Paro at about 10,000 feet. To get there we walked about 2 miles and ascended about 1600 feet (not an easy task having just arrived from our long flight). The day we did our walk was “Auspicious Rainy Day”, a national holiday for Bhutan and there were lots of local people doing the walk along with us. Luckily the “Auspicious Rainy Day” was really the “Auspicious Sunny Day” but it did get hot. Our next activity of the day was to go into Paro and visit a group partaking in the national sport of Bhutan, archery. The small target was set 140 meters from the archers, we could barely see it. This is a team sport and the bows used by the archers were handmade of bamboo. Next we went to our first of many dzongs. A dzong is a combination temple, municipal building and fort and we saw many of them throughout our trip. The Paro Dzong “Fortress on a Heap of Jewels” is considered by some to be the most impressive one in Bhutan. It was there our guide, Tshiering, gave us our first talk about Buddhism and its teachings and artwork.

The following day we drove over the Dochula Pass (over 10,000 feet) toward Punakha. Riding on the roads in Bhutan as well as Nepal, is always exciting as they are narrow (and in Nepal terribly rutted). Cars, trucks, cows, motorcycles and busses are always passing each other with fractions of an inch to spare. Oncoming traffic seems to happen on blind curves. As we drove we saw red peppers drying on the rooftops. We also saw terraced rice paddies, and another one, (the red variety of rice is most popular in Bhutan) that were green or nearing harvest. The pass we went over is supposed to have wonderful vistas but there were almost too many clouds to see the mountains. However, we did see the 108 stupas at the top of the pass, as well as the many prayer flags blown by the wind to spread the good will and compassion into all pervading space.

While driving along the way there were many sights to see.

In Punakha we went to the Punakha Dzong (Palace of Great Happiness) that is built at the junction of the Phochu and Mochu Rivers. The next day we went to the Chimi Lhakhang Monastery. Our hike took us through a village and then rice paddies with people harvesting their crop. The temple was dedicated to fertility and was built by Lama Drukpa Kuenley (the Divine Madman) who purposely spurned accepted ways of behavior as a method of calling attention to the hypocrisy, selfishness and greed of the world and thus lead people to adopt honest and spiritual lives. His unorthodox methods of religious teaching seem most peculiar because they were based on a ribald and debauched life style. The great lama spent much of his time singing and drinking with young ladies and deflowering virgins. In the village we were able to go into one of the houses and see how a family lived.

We drove up to Wangdue Phodrang, a 400 year old village high on a hill that had no running water and was soon to be relocated in a new village down below. The Wangdue Phodrang Dzong, built in 1638, is one of the oldest dzongs we saw in Bhutan.

Later we drove down a highway going to see the work being done on a hydroelectric plant on an incredibly roaring river (movie), that had waterfalls flowing into it. The government of Bhutan believes in using their natural resources that do not ruin the land. In this case, the water from the river will be sent through a tunnel bypass activating turbines that will create electricity that will be sold to India. On the road we stopped a couple of places (once to view the rhesus monkeys on the hillside and once to watch the heavy equipment move enormous boulders (movie) in order to build the dam for the electrical equipment).

That evening we watched Kathy & Doug get dressed up in native Bhutanese garb.

The next day we drove back over Dochula Pass to Thimpu, the capital. We had a brief tea stop, then across from the 108 stupas at the top of the pass we went to a new temple (Druk Wangyal Lhakhang) that had paintings of the history of the royal family inside. As we were ready to leave, a couple of cars pulled up in the parking area below the temple. Tshiering said it was the Queen Mother (Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck) who was checking on the temple as there was to be a celebration there in a few days. We were to neither talk with her nor take her picture. After waiting for a short while, Lynne walked down the steps and then the Queen Mother came up to her and asked her name and where she was from (so much for following directions). At that point Lynne asked if Shelly could take a picture and she agreed.

Almost in Thimphu, we were able to see across the valley on a mountain top called Kuensel Phodrang, the gigantic Shakyamuni Buddha Buddharupa under construction. When finished it will be made of bronze and gilded in gold and be the largest Buddha statue in the world.

Thimphu, the capital was quite a change from the other two cities in which we stayed. It has not one traffic light. Our hotel was a high rise in the middle of the city. As this was the capital we saw the parliment building, as well as the national library and post office. We also visited a park that had a takin that looks like a cross with a deer and cow and the small deer like shamba. During our time in Thimphu we went to a textile museum and papermaking factory as well as an art school where students were taught thirteen traditional arts including painting, embroidery, sculpturing. We went to a weekend market that had food and across the river crafts.

In Thimphu we also visited the National Memorial Chorten. Built in 1974 in memory of King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, the "Father of Modern Bhutan". We also went to another archery match. This time they used American compound hunting bows. What a difference from the bows we saw in Paro. They still did a little victory dance upon hitting the target. Just before leaving Thimphu to go to Nepal, we were lucky enough to be at the Thimphu Dzong when there was a dance exhibition that was part of Thimphu Tshechu (festival) that was happening all week. We, and lots, of Bhutanese were there to watch the festivities. What a way to end our week in Bhutan.

When we got home from our trip we watched the first Bhutanese movie that was ever made, “Travellers and Magicians ”. In the movie a westernized civil servant, while traveling toward the capital city of Thimphu, meets a variety of people who change his outlook on life. The scenes of Bhutan were very much like those we saw while there.