Our last stop in Bhutan was back to Paro (where we originally flew into but spent no time there on the front end of our trip). There was a big religious festival going on in their dzong and this is the location of the famous Tiger's Nest Monastery. A busy couple of days here.
We had fun at the festival - local singing and dancing and lots of local crowds. There were probably about 1000 people (or so?) watching and the crowd was probably 10-20% tourists with the rest being local Bhutanese. The local young girls loved our little ones and just wanted to hug on them and talk to them. They said they (especially Jane) looked like Barbie dolls!
Our next to last day was the real highlight of our trip when we did the trek up to the Tiger's Nest Monastery. There is only one rather long and steep trail up there and I have no idea how they managed to get all the supplies up there to build a big building - but they did long ago. It's just amazing how it clings to the edge of the cliff. The girls and I rode mules up about 2/3 or 4/5 of the way up. We hiked the rest of the way (many stairs at that point), enjoyed the view and then hiked back down. The girls loved the mule ride up, didn't complain too much on the rest of the way up and had a blast on the way back down. It was really a great day.
Looking back, it was a very special vacation. We definitely felt like we visited somewhere truly off the beaten path. The people of Bhutan are so incredibly friendly and welcoming. Given how well-known Bhutan is for it's happiness and measure of Gross National Happiness, we definitely had that filter on as we went sightseeing to try to get a perspective on whether they indeed seem happier and, if so, what's behind the happiness. Bhutan is a very poor country but people did seem happy, in general. Although there were definitely homes that were very shack-like and destitute looking, the vast majority of the houses (even in the countryside) were the beautiful local architecture. Even though many of them looked quite run down, they still seemed to be built with care and a lot of effort into the aesthetics. They seem to value handiwork that is high quality (from the architecture to the textiles and different art). It's a much slower pace. A very U.S. vs. Bhutan moment came when Jake was asking Dorji about his job. Dorji is not an employee of one of the tour companies but free-lances. Jake asked about the benefits of freelancing and if it meant he could make more money. Jake felt a bit chastened when Dorji replied that he didn't but he was able to have better control over his schedule (the ol' money vs. time trade-off and the Bhutanese guy came down clearly on the time side!). Many books have been written analyzing the happiness of the Bhutanese so I certainly don't have additional insight above and beyond but I will say that just being there and thinking about it, you do observe and can't help but be introspective about life, happiness, trade-offs, etc. I did decide that I definitely want to go back - either just Jake and me once we have an empty nest (a l...o....n....g.... time from now!) or when the kids are high school age or so. We didn't get to do a trek and I think it would certainly be worthwhile to head back and have a longer, more leisurely stay which also included a several day (or week?) long trek to see more of the stunning scenery.
It's not the easiest place to take small kids (mediocre and sometimes spicy food, lots of "boring" temples and dzongs to see), but with playgrounds and lots of nature, it is certainly doable. I think we didn't get into the real swing of things until Day 3 so we had a bit of a learning curve but we got there. The kids ended up having a very nice time - it's hard to compete with the beach, a hotel with a lazy river or even Petra/ Roman ruins for kids at that age so it may not stack up on the top of their list but I'm pretty sure they will be glad to have experienced it. Jordan, Oman and Sri Lanka were probably all better for small kids but we're still glad we went.
On our way back, we had a 13 hour layover in Kathmandu. We originally planned to do a day tour of Kathmandu and visit an orphanage that our school here in Abu Dhabi supports and sends volunteers to. But honestly, we were so completely worn out and the kids were tired of driving that we really felt the need to put the kibosh on that plan and just have a quiet re-group day. So we went to a hotel close to the airport. I took the kids swimming in the morning while Jake napped (Kathmandu is much warmer than Bhutan) and we *all* took naps in the afternoon. If we could all fall asleep in one room with only two twin beds (Jane, Anna and I napped on one tiny twin!), you know we were tired. Even though we weren't able to go to the orphans, a group came to us. We were able to play and swim with a group at the hotel when a British run orphanage brought them to swim as a big treat and day out. We had an amazing lightening storm looking out a giant picture window over dinner and then headed back to the Kathmandu airport for a late night flight that got us back to Abu Dhabi at 1 a.m. The kids did great on the way back (that little nap did us all good!).
Looking through all our pictures, it seems we are missing some key pictures. One is that there are dogs *all* over Bhutan (friendly - not scary ones). The kids started counting them on the first day and kept a running tally (good school break math practice!). I think we got up to 543 dogs over the week we were there. I can't believe we didn't take a picture of at least ONE of those 543!! And the kids got a little tired of the same food each day. One day we were in Thimpu I had read about a British pub/ restaurant that catered to the expat community. Even though meals are all included in the tour price, we opted to forgo a free meal and splurged for fish and chips, hot dogs and hamburgers at the pub. The kids were *so* happy and ate so much food - I wish I would have taken a picture of their happy faces eating comfort food with no fear of a rogue spicy chili in their rice and sauce!!
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A quick preview of our hike *way* up to the Tiger's Next
Monastery. See more Tiger's Nest photos below. |
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Our hotel in Paro. An old palace built in the 17th century (or some long,
long ago time if I'm not remembering correctly!). The walls were about 3 feet thick. |
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| Hot tea on the terrace of our Paro hotel |
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| Religious festival at the dzong in Paro |
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| Dancing monks in vibrant costumes. |
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This "Community Police Officer" was a tiny, tiny
petite young girl - way less than 5' tall. I don't guess happy
Bhutan needs big and burly to keep the peace! |
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Singing/ dancing students. I liked the student performances
better than the monks. The girls we talked to after we watched
the dancing for a while felt the same way. They said
the monk dancing was too long and too boring! |
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| More dancing monks. |
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These Bhutanese girls loved our girls - they hugged on them, touched
their hair and skin and said they looked like "Barbies!" Their beautiful
traditional dresses are called kiras. |
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| Jake made a new friend who is checking him out! |
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| People all up the hillside to watch the dancing |
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| The dzong in Paro |
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| Anna definitely warmed up to Dorji during the week |
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The kids loved this big window sill in our old palace/ hotel. It was
big enough to put the cushion from a small couch and make a little
hideaway bed. They played and played in the window sill! |
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Regan was so very excited that she didn't have to have someone
hold onto her mule's rein on the way up to Tiger's Nest. |
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Jane and Meredith were a little nervous but they did great
and ended up having a great time on their mules |
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Anna and I shared a mule. She did *not* like it at first (hence the binkie),
but she got used to it and managed to have a good time. It was
a small wooden saddle just meant for one person - I kind of hung
off the back and was pretty sore the next day! But there is no
way she would have ridden it without me and I did not want
to have to carry her up the whole mountain! |
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