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Category: Travel
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For my third trip to Singapore I had few goals: 1.) Don’t fall out of bed and go to the hospital 2.) See Pacita Abad’s painted bridge 3.) Go to Gardens on the Bay greenhouses 4.) Have an excellent bowl of Laksa noodle soup Item 1 was interesting as I booked a loft room –…
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The one benefit of getting up at 4a to get to the airport is that I got assigned a window seat on the right side of the plane – with a beauteous view of the Himalayas. What a lovely transition as I make my way back to the craziness of western life! I have had…
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There are no commercial abattoirs or slaughterhouses in Bhutan – you can’t fish commercially. You can’t euthanize your pet or those sometimes annoying stray dogs. All those wandering cows will die by misadventure or old age although, if I understood Karma correctly, you can hire someone (non-Buddhist) to butcher your cow for personal consumption. All…
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Last night after dinner my cook brought me a fleeced covered hot water bottle for my sleeping bag. MUCH appreciated! (It was still warm in the morning and Thrashing used the contents for his wash up water. So glad I asked for the down sleeping bag + parka when I booked. it was a very…
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Yesterday Karma pointed out my Bumdra Trek trail from our Chele La pass vantage point: Red = Day 1 Green = day 2 It gave me pause. This is a popular 2 day trek for those who want a taste of trekking. On day two you descend to the Tiger’s Nest monastery – this would…
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A long winding drive this morning took us to Chele La pass, the highest road pass in Bhutan at just under 4000 m. From here we trekked down 5 km to Kila Goenpa Nunnery. The day was sunny and the views were gorgeous. Even though it was mostly down I still took many pauses to…
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Our big bags and bikes left yesterday and this morning respectively, on the bus and the truck respectively. This left us walking to Jakar Dzong this morning. Still huffing and puffing on uphills. There was just enough time to go back to yesterday’s shop to pick up a few things. The nice lady invited us…
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Sadly, today is the last day of biking so we had a bit of a lie in and got started on our valley ride at 9:30. Stopped in at 14th century Tamshing Lhakhang Monastery to admire some incredible murals – the exterior murals that we could photo graph were even impressive. Second stop, Kurjey Lhakhang…
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In honour of his father’s 70th birthday the king declared a 4 day national holiday. Did not get to the museum as it was closed but did get a good look around the massive Trongsa Dzong. Founded in 1647 it is the largest dzong in Bhutan. It once stood as the seat of power in…
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Said goodbye to our hosts this morning after breakfast and headed to the Black Necked Crane Festival early to snag a seat. The courtyard was packed full of tourists – the most we’ve encountered so far. Even it the third row it was hard to see what was going on so very glad we caught…
Bhutan, Land of the Thunder Dragon 