The very hard white squares on a string is yak cheese. OK, yaks are MALE, so it’s would be very hard to have yak cheese. A female yak is call a nak. So it SHOULD be called nak cheese. But it isn’t.
A few fellow travelers popped it into their mouths, sucked on it for five minutes, it got soft enough and they chewed it up and ate it.
I licked it. Tasteless. And then put it into my pocket. When I returned home, my sister said “Those are the things we bought at the Orlando dog show. They are dog treats. If you want to soften them up, you put them in the microwave.”
Sure enough my other sister’s dog LOVED it.
This was an incense factory — all produced by hand. These are the better incense sticks that don’t have the stick inside it. They burn totally down to ash. Incense is a staple in the temples.
We stayed in this hotel for three days. It took us 25 minutes to drive off the main road and up, up, up dirt roads to get there. But everyone agreed it was worth the trip. It was beautiful, crisp, clean and quiet. I had my own balcony. This is where I got my second massage of the trip. Heavenly!!
I could not believe the huge beautiful flower growing outside my balcony!
Coming from 85 degree weather in Florida, this was not a happy sight for me. However, I had my Uggs and a puffy coat, good for 5 degree weather.
Looks like a painting.
We whipped through this Bhutan Museum. It was very strange inside because the building was round and it had different levels and nooks and crannies.
No photos allowed inside.
Now I just want you to feel sorry for me. ….or realize why I got sick on this trip. Cleanliness is not Bhutan’s forte.
It is amazing how these buildings were built! This is the thickness of the walls. And that’s why some of these buildings survived the earthquakes.
They would build a form out of planks, but instead of pouring concrete, they would fill it with dirt and tamp, tamp, tamp. It would get rock hard, and then they would build a higher level of plank and put more dirt into it until the building were up to three stories high.
When all the walls were finished, they would make the roof out of planks or corrugated metal and just put rocks on it to hold it down. Sheesh.
Another dzong. The wood carving on these buildings are amazing!!
Sanom met a boy from his village here. He is 13 now, but arrived to become a monk when he was 9 years old.
Note Sonam needed to wear his scarf in this place.
Also notice the beautiful cloth prayer flag hangings inside the temple. I bought a miniature one from a souvenir shop.
This reminds me that at some point in Bhutan we went to a Nunnery, where all the monks were women. They learn the same stuff and do the same stuff, but no men are around. They shave their heads and wear the same rust colored robes as the men monks.
At one point I saw Maria with her camera showing Sanom a photo asking why this man was outside when he clearly said it was a nunnery and there were no men. Maria couldn’t believe the photo WAS A WOMAN. Too funny. I, personally, think the women should wear different colored robes so an not to insult them by thinking they are men. It really is very hard to differentiate.
Bridges are fun.
The horizontal ‘road’ in the back is the Paro airport with its one runway. We watched a plane take off and have to bank left to miss the two mountains in front of it.
There are only 8 pilots who know how to take off from this airport without crashing. ….good to know!!
EVERYBODY was excited for the brewery tour. Much like our winery tours in Georgia and Armenia. Lots of stainless steel. Note the women taking the cardboard and arranging them by hand. You would think this could be automated.
I tried the wheat beer because I was promised it didn’t have that silage aftertaste and it was true. Also tried the pineapple beer, which tasted like kombucha/vinegar.
We had wonderful entertainment of 8 dancers that gave us a sample of ten different native songs and dances.
Very entertaining.
Much of their singing is quite nasal. But I think it’s because they have eighth-notes and we only have quarter-notes. But I just pulled that one out of something I knew decades ago.
One dance had a two-person bull, which proceeded to bite many of the lunchers, including Tom’s arm.
More bull biting people.
More dzongs.
We had a couple hours to shop in Paro, Bhutan before heading back to Katmandu, Nepal. This is just a photo to show not everything is beautiful in Bhutan.
Because I needed nothing and we had time, Tom and I walked off the beaten tourist path and found our way into this store. I bought a small backpack because the big talk was getting up those 700 steps to the Tiger’s Nest Temple the next day.
I caved and figured a backpack was better than my utility purse I carry for every trip.
The salesman could barely speak English, so we did a lot of miming. They wouldn’t take a credit card, they wouldn’t take American money. Tom came through in a pinch and had the Bhutanese ngultrum.
It worked out because he needed U.S. ones and fives that I had plenty of, so we traded.
Turned out the backpack had to be slung over only one of my shoulders to be comfortable hiking upwards. Coming down the mountain, I COULD use it like a normal backpack.
What I’ve learned about backpacks. No matter how many zippered pouches they have, IT WILL ONLY HOLD SO MUCH. Once you fill the thing, another zipped pouch is too tight to get anything into it.
Also, unless there’s a pouch on the front of the thing, you’re going to have to take it off to get to anything (like a water bottle). I still do best with my purse hanging on one shoulder — everything available to me without taking it off.
The art store was wonderful.
Here’s my new backpack, on my way up to the Tiger’s Nest Temple — the one site you will for sure see every time you look up Bhutan on the Internet.
I did not take a walking stick because I didn’t think it would help me more than hinder me with one more thing to carry. Glad I didn’t take one.
This is Ilene on my right. I think the perspective is a little off (she’s not THAT short), but she was a little Energizer Bunny.
Tom may have beat her up the mountain, but she beat everybody on the way down!!
There’s Tom, elated, about knowing he would beat everyone up to the Tiger’s Nest. He wasn’t looking quite as happy coming down, because his knees seem to work best going up; not down.
But he DID make the entire trip to the top; whereas I stopped midway at the café and just watched them traverse the rest through my binoculars.
This is what we were up against. Lots of obstacles, lots of uneven steps and and increase in altitude from 7000, to 9,300 feet. Ilene and the men headed out and I stayed with them. But once I realized I couldn’t keep up, it was too late!! I didn’t want to stop and wait for the women behind me, since there were decisions to be made on the way up. So I spent 55 minutes literally GASPING for air all the way up.
I vowed to get to my doctor becuase I have COPD. Needless to say, now that I’m at sealevel again, my breathing is fine.
On the way up I met me two handsome plane buddies. They did make it up to their festival, were hiking the Tiger’s Nest and then would be on my plane back to Katmandu. They made it look so easy, they almost skipped past me. Later I saw them sitting on a bench ahead of me eating sandwiches and then taking off and passing me once again.
I arrived at the halfway point, the cafe, and had to drink juice, eat cookies and a banana to stop from shaking. After 15 minutes, the men asked “Ready to do the rest?”
AAUUGGHH! NO!! I needed another hour to settle down and rebuild strength. I chose to stay behind with Maria and Michael. Michael did not do the second half because he is deathly afraid of heights; and making it to the café was impressive as it was!!! Way to face your fears, Michael!!
So we sat around for 2 hours, had lunch and headed downward. I chose to leave with the ladies and took a leisurely trip downward. One knee was giving me some pain and the deep steps downward were not fun. I just made sure I stepped with the good knee first for every step and have not had any problems since.
This is the famous Tiger’s Nest Temple — the white buildings built into the mountain. There are still no roads to this place. To build it, all supplies had to be brought by horses or carried by hand.
The brown building is the café, a halfway stop to the temple.
It ITS a beautiful sight.
The rest of Tiger’s Nest is in the last blog, along with my fun Business Class 5 hour trip to Doha!!
Safe travels!