A day in Bhutan

Today, as a warming-up for our coming trek, we hiked to a monastery high up in the mountains. A little over 3000 meter. Beautiful walk. On the halfway point was a watermill, that powered an immense prayer wheel. It was very skilfully built, they obviously know about engineering here, only they use it for purposes we wouldn't even think of. If you want a full description of the monastery, read Michael Palin,s 'Himalaya', the chapter about his visit to the Buthan - Tiger's Nest. He,s better then I am at telling things like this.

After this , my travel companion went to the hotel for a siesta, while I went to the Buthan National Museum. This museum had a scale model of the hotel where I'm staying, and a whole floor dedicated to stamps: did you know that the Bhutanese gouvernement issued a series of stamps on Donald Duck in 1982 :-)? Apart from the countless Buddhas, the main showpiece of the museum is an exact replica of the Buthanese democratic constitution that they accepted in 2008. Maybe we take too much for granted in our Western lives.

The museum closed at 5 PM, and we (guide & me) were running a bit late. By the end of our visit, the whole crew was walking behind me, and each time I left a room, they closed it up immediately behind my back. We ended up giving two of the wards a ride home back into the town.

After that, my guide & I went for a beer in a local bar again, and it got to us. When might say we ended this day a little drunk.

Next 15 days are on trek, through no-internet, no-mobile-phone, no-electricity (!)country. So it will be a while before you here from me again.

Zen (and beer of course).