Observations
 |
| Can you see DB's color palette? This is the OMA purchase, lookin' very good! |
 |
| Empty seats reserved for our absent partners |
There’s a subtext here that THB can’t fully illuminate: the trip
changed dramatically when CYS and SAS dropped out at the last minute due to
illness. It definitely changed things for THB and DB. How so? Who knows? We’ve
been friends for years and really looked forward to their perspective and
insights on the strangeness and wonders of places we had never been to before.
That we missed, big time. For example: it’s a lot easier for 2 people to hear
what the guide is saying than 4 people crowding around. Two more asking
questions THB didn’t even think about is a huge loss. Debriefing at end of day:
priceless and much missed. All conjecture…how’s that for an observation!
1. Bhutan Graciousness: Other than Thimphu, the big city
in Bhutan with all of 110,000 in population, travel is to small cities or small
towns or even small villages. Maybe that has something to do with how gracious
the people are…or it has something to do with their Buddhism beliefs. In any
case, people in general were very kind, cheerful, and helpful. There was no
resentment of tourism. There were two times when THB felt some small resistance
or acrimony and they had to do with very small amounts of money…much more
likely THB’s issue than anything the Bhutanese did.
2. Jet Lag: For the last few years
we’ve been going somewhere first for a few days to overcome jet lag before the
real trip starts. This time we took a night flight to Seoul from SFO and landed
at 4:30am, stayed up all day and by day 2 felt pretty good. THB was surprised
it worked so well. Going home? A night flight to SFO landing in the evening.
It’s day 3 and THB has had one good night’s sleep and general wooziness
throughout.
3. Connectivity: Many of the places we
stayed have installed universal sockets and/or have left a power strip in your
room that has 4 universal sockets ready to go. That is a blessing for THB and
DB; we know we’ll need one accessible socket for the C-Pap machine and the
power strips free up another source for charging multiple devices as well as a
place for THB to leave the netbook plugged in. Not every place had this set-up,
almost all did. Internet worked well enough to easily handle posting of pics.
 |
| At a high pass with the Himalayas in the background |
 |
| Looking down on Tiger's Nest |
4. Altitude: There’s a lot of altitude
in Bhutan. Starting in Paro, 7,000 feet, Bumthang, 9,000 feet, Punakha drops to
4,000 feet, and then the 5 or 6 passes at 10-11,000 feet and Tiger’s Nest at
10,000 feet. THB and DB each had bouts of mild altitude sickness; DB took small
doses of Diamox over several days for mild headache symptoms and THB took
nothing and had one tough afternoon that resulted in heading to bed for a 3
hour time out.
5. Buddhism (as we saw it there): There’s
not enough space to discuss Buddhism in this post, or in any post. It’s vast
and a moving target. Tashi summed it up by saying that in Bhutan Buddhism has
the group at the highest level of prayers and then the individual beneath that
and in other countries like Thailand the individual comes first and then the
group. Pay said that in Thailand there are two major types of Buddhism: one
that includes many Hindu deities and beliefs (like her mother and grandmother
follow) and the other that is more strictly Buddhist and leaves aside anything
with Hindu roots. Highly generalized for tourists; close to a truth or two?
And, to top it off: practitioners have high level difference. Japan: monks can
marry and have families and eat no meat. Bhutan and Thailand: monks cannot
marry and do eat meat as long as they aren’t the ones killing the animals.
 |
| Giant tapestry at Paro festival |
 |
| Close-up |
 |
| Most of the chorus of nuns we heard chanting prayers (in temple/assembly hall in building behind us) |
6. Temples: THB couldn’t keep all the
stories of the deities straight even after staring at picture after picture. In
Bhutan we visited many temples and got inside. Some were full of mostly current
statues and decorations as it was pretty common for temples (and monasteries
and nunneries and dzongs) to have suffered major damage (lots of fires, they
had a lot of lit candles all over the place) and thus have gone through many
renovations. Most of the temples were used as “assembly” halls and had pictures
of the monarchy and a few had pictures of the head monk (not too often). In
Thailand, the temples we visited were more casual, not as protective of the
insides as sanctuaries for praying and observing religious customs.
 |
| Meeting Oma, the textile artist |
8.
Guides: In general, THB and DB have shifted to using guides more and more
often during our travels, finding that we are trading money for time and
understanding. It’s expensive and sometimes ineffective, sometimes extremely
rewarding. In Bhutan, unless you are Indian, it is unavoidable: the government
mandates having a guide and charges $250/pp/day “tourist” tax.
i) Seoul: Ria was our “art guide” for two days. Although she was recommended
as such, she really knew very little about guiding or art. However, she
did contact three artists that DB had researched and we were able to see those,
as well as a couple of small galleries that DB had also found, mostly from our
visit to Collect in London last year. Overall, the artists were
interesting and fun and we had two great days, despite our disappointment with
the guide. On the other two days we
scheduled 3+ hour tours, one “city” tour and one food tour. In each case, the
guide spoke easily understandable English, provided good explanations of what
we were seeing, and made the time spent seem very productive.
 |
| Tashi |
 |
| Karma, our spiritual guide at the monastery/college just up the hill from GG Lodge |
 |
| King #4 descendants |
 |
| Chencho on the right, wife in between DB and THB |
 |
| Looking down on Tiger's Nest before heading down the trail |
 |
| DB getting double-teamed on archery range lesson |
ii)
Bhutan: Tashi and Chencho were in an awkward spot when two of the four
dropped out at the last moment, plus Tashi was a last minute sub as well. At
the beginning, it seemed like we were going to spend all our touring time and
meals as a foursome. Over time, we adjusted: sometimes they didn’t stay at the
same hotel that THB and DB did, didn’t show up for every meal, and realized
that we were fine with not maximizing every day with events from post-breakfast
to pre-dinner. By the end of the trip, things had smoothed out and even
Chencho, who didn’t speak English and could understand what we were saying,
started to laugh and smile a lot more. Tashi never stopped smiling and
laughing. Overall, an excellent two-some, very protective of us, for most part
active listeners, and value added big time. Bonus: seeing Chencho’s
delight in giving us an archery demo. Regrets: Tashi and Chencho took
videos and pics that THB asked for copies….never sent.
 |
| Pay and tour attendees |
iii)
Thailand: We decided to do a “greatest hits” tour and hit the jackpot: Pay
was a live wire, easy to understand, spend extra time with us, nursed us
through a very hot and humid 4+ hours, and at same time found a way to let us
understand her perspective on life in Thailand. Here’s a case where we might
have attempted on our own about half of what Pay showed us; huge plus given our
limited time in town. Another simple twist of fate: when the the Mandarin
booted us out, we ended up in great hotel in a great room, in a better
location, and with a terrific guide. How often does that happen?
1.
Miscellani
i)
Bhutan: If a bridge goes straight across the water, it was built by Bhutanese;
if the approach is curved gently, it was built by the Japanese.
ii) Air quality: no matter where you were, the locals blamed the poor air quality
of some outsiders blowing bad air their way. Chinese factories are spoiling
Seoul’s air. Bhutan doesn’t have bad air, it just can be naturally hazy and
smoky all without any help from the locals. Bangkok: it ain’t them, it is stuff
being blow in from somewhere else.
iii)Traffic: wherever you go, there you are. Seoul and Bangkok: terrible.
Thimphu: terrible. Interestingly, in all three stops there was worries about
the local economy being in a downturn. And in all three there appears to be
unrelenting building going on, especially in Bhutan. Something didn’t quite
jibe. For those of you that have read Rosling’s book (reco’d by THB early in
the trip, check out Gapminder to see how these three
countries are doing).
iv) Conscientiousness: everywhere things ran on time,
nobody was ever late, nothing was oversold and under-delivered. THB and DB came
to rely on the times and schedules.
v) Grafitti: Almost none in Bhutan, same in Bangkok. THB can’t remember in
Seoul
vi) Smoking: In Bhutan and THB thinks Bangkok, seems to be banned in public. In
Bhutan, there is a lot of chewing of betel nuts and leaves, and it also his
done very surreptitiously.
 |
| Posting a comment: Dear Grandpa, can you please tighten up the posts, thx, J&C...or it C&J? |
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment