Tiger's Nest, Bhutan

In all my travels before Bhutan, I had never attempted to climb or hike up any mountain because I am aware of my own limitations and low tolerance for thinner air at high altitudes. However, when I decided to go on this trip to Bhutan I forgot about having to hike several hours in order to reach this beautiful 17th Century monastery that was rebuilt and restored in 1998 after a fire destroyed much of the buildings and the precious artefacts.

It took me 7 hours to hike up to this monastery and to get back to where I had started. I was the last in the group because I was not as fit as the others who were out of my sight the minute I began to feel the strain of the ascent. The good thing about my slowness was that I was able to pause and survey the scenery while I caught my breath and rested my tired knees and of course to take many photos for a day like today when I miss the mountains of Bhutan.

I consider it a personal achievement to have made it up to Tiger's Nest without collapsing or suffering from altitude sickness. Now, Tibet is possible...

Tiger's Nest Monastery - see my slideshow here.

Bhutan - Travelling across mountain roads to Thimphu

Reading about the obnoxious polluted air in Beijing and living in a city where traffic congestion and over-crowdedness everywhere is getting to be the norm, I seek relief just looking again at the hundreds of photos I had taken on my trip to Bhutan last September. 

I feel a yearning for the vastness of the mountains, the blue of the skies decorated with awesome white clouds, the waterfalls and the swift-flowing, roaring waters of the rivers.  

This post features the 7-hour long journey on a medium-sized bus travelling along narrow mountain roads that skirted the mountain slopes where the passing scenery was really out of the world that I have known all my life living in a city. More photos can be accessedhere>>>>>

 The air and everything was greener and fresher as we ascended the mountain slopes.

 

The University of Bhutan at a high altitude.

 

 

We were above the clouds!

 

Water weaving its way down the mountain.

 

Laundry guarded by dogs. 

 

The river, clean and green.

 

Gateway to Thimphu.

 

My favourite picture of the mountain roads.

Fresh produce from the farm.

Thimphu Festival, Bhutan 2012

 

One of the highlights of a trip to Bhutan should be witnessing the colourful nature of a Festival where masked dancers commemorate the occasion with spiritual dances and appearances throughout the day. We managed to have our trip coincide with the Thimphu Festival in September and it was an eye-opener for me. Suddenly what I had been seeing on documentary channels on TV came alive before my eyes. Beneath the clear blue skies where cotton-white clouds stayed suspended over the Festival courtyard, people were out in their best national dresses - women and children, men and monks turned out in large numbers as if to fill up the white spaces of a vast canvas. The result was fantastic, a feast for the eyes! 

There was much happiness and deep respect in the behaviour of the people of Bhutan for festivals, I observed. There was no sloppy dressing and though there was a law requiring such dress codes, people seemed to enjoy being decked out to the nines. I wish I could have dressed up too in the same way although the day was rather hot and that left me wondering how people could look so cool beneath those layers of exquisite clothing. 

We only spent about 2 hours at the Festival and really it was not enough to gain any in-depth understanding of the performances that took place at intervals as people drifted in and out of the festival grounds. Those who had chosen to spend the entire day came well prepared with food and drinks. Time was precious and while I did get some close-enough shots of the colourful dancers I decided to turn much of my attention to the people who came for the festival and that helped me capture the best of the Bhutanese people in terms of their dressing, behaviour and loveliness as people who have a wonderful tradition to hold on to while the rest of the world went shopping in the malls.

 Photos below are only excerpts of a bigger album here.

Kolkata

I spent a night in Kolkata with the rest of my travel mates before making our way to Darjeeling the next day by plane and car. That was a 12-day trip to India, Sikkim and Bhutan last year in October. Stopping over for a night in Kolkata was necessary to break down a tedious journey from Singapore to Darjeeling. We arrived rather late in the night in Kolkata and only spent two hours in the morning walking around the vicinity of our hotel the following morning.

We did not visit any tourist sites and most of Kolkata was experienced walking around the bus station and the streets near our hotel as well as what was seen from the hotel van during the long hours travelling in the traffic-choked roads between our hotel and the airport. On the way to the airport we stopped by to visit Mother Theresa's house. On the last day of our journey, we returned to Kolkata and spent the better part of the day travelling in the van on a "city tour" and Kolkata was felt once again through the blue-tinted glass of the window of our van.

Below are photos that I have selected from the many that I have in my web album to show what had captured my attention in a city bulging with a population that went about its daily routine amidst vehicles that moved centimeters from each other without touching, pulling and balancing loads on their heads, bathing in the rain-swelled drains in a drizzle, hidden in slums next to main roads, making a living, busy and not asking for hand-outs. It is unbelievable how the city lives in Kolkata but it does in its own way. I only have a superficial view of what Kolkata is through fleeting moments as the van I was in ferried me from hotel to airport and vice-versa over just 2 days. I can understand why Mother Theresa is a saint and rightly so. My brief glimpses of Kolkata gives me strength to resist petty inconveniences back home and appreciate greatly that I am blessed. I cannot forget this city because of these photos here and elsewhere in the following web albums:

Kolkata 1

Kolkata 2