INTRODUCTION NEWMARKET, ONTARIO, CANADA

"You're going where?"

"Why would you do that?"

"Aren't you afraid of getting shot?"

"Where the hell is that?"

"You'll get sick, won't you?"

These were some of the reactions when we told people where we were going on our trip. It was, of course, nice to think that our family and friends were concerned about our health and safety. But, after a short while, the reactions became tiresome, to a point. We found that we were always trying to justify not only why we were going to travel to Nepal, Bhutan, India and Tibet, but why we were travelling at all.

It's a difficult thing, this justification for travelling. I've done it before, in conversation with many of you and in previous travel blogs. Each time, I say more or less the same thing, and, while my words make perfect sense to me, they often don't to others.

So, for this trip, I'm trying a different tactic. I use the phrase below not to be nasty or condescending ( traits that I'm sometimes accused of being ) , but to be truthful and honest. And, of course, I know deep down that family and friends are not really asking me to justify travelling at all: they just don't know how to react when I tell them "I'm going to Bhutan" when they ask me "what's new?"

So, the answer to the above questions is simple.

"If you have to ask, you'll never understand."

Let the adventure begin.

DAY 1 FRI. OCT. 3 TORONTO, CANADA - HONG KONG - KATHMANDU, NEPAL

This is iniquitous. Fifteen hours at the end of a thumb-twiddling day at home. The polar flight to Hong Kong was actually fairly easy. Cathay Pacific knows how to long haul. But the twelve hour layover in Hong Kong is killing us. What's beyond boring? Mind-numbing, I guess. What's beyond that? Hell. We've napped, eaten, walked around a faceless airport, found a decent passenger lounge where we were at least able to have a shower and stretch out in relative comfort. The next leg is a flight to Kathmandu via Daka, Bangladesh which will take another 7 hours. What the hell were we thinking?

Well, the flights to Kathmandu were punctual and good. First part took us to Daka, but we did not deplane. By the time we were airborne for Kathmandu, my body and mind started to shut down. By force of will, I stayed conscious and lucid as we navigated the endless bureaucracy that is Nepal. We found our contact and our van took us through dark, forbidding streets, with people and dogs appearing in our headlights like strange and wondrous phantoms. These streets made those we encountered in Bolivia look modern and ordered. Finally, to our hotel and into a deep unconscious sleep. Tomorrow, the adventure begins and I can't wait to ...... zzzzzzzzzz.

DAY 2 SAT. OCT. 4 KATHMANDU, NEPAL - PARO, BHUTAN - THIMPHU

A quick breakfast, a quick introduction to our tour leader Subash Tamang, quick hellos to our tour mates, and a quick reunion with Gail and Michael and we went back to the airport. More endless waiting: more paper work. This tour used Kathmandu as a jumping off point only for Bhutan. But my luck's holding: I have a window seat for the plane ride into Bhutan and the Himalayas.

And the luck held. Once airborne, the views were ... well, there are only inadequate words. About 15 minutes into the flight, the snow capped peaks of the Himalayas poked above the clouds into a clear, shockingly blue sky. Then, on its own, a rock and ice island emerged in the cloud ocean ... Mount Everest. Everest is a pyramid fortress of a mountain. I took videos which, sadly, cannot be reproduced on this blog site, because the files are too big. I have since posted them to my facebook page, which I hope you get the chance to view. But, as I was taking the video, I felt strange. I had really seen Everest .... really? Or was it a dream?

The peaks rolled on for the next 20 minutes. I fell in love again with Lhotse, not as tall as Everest, but broader, more rolling and massive. Then, abruptly, the show was over. We began our descent into Paro airport, the only international airport in Bhutan, and an airport with a reputation for a steep and hairy descent. We strapped in and anticipated an airshow. Our destination was unclear. Clouds and mountains closed in and I got an uneasy feeling about this: such close quarters and rock walls are not a good combination for an airbus losing altitude. Then, through the cloud barrier into one of the most impressive landings I've ever experienced. We twisted and turned through tree-lined valleys, sometimes only meters away from our wing tips ... or so it seemed. Out of my window, as our pilot performed his aerobatics, I could see our runway, a hard left, then a hard right, miles away. "No way," I thought. But our pilot nailed it, perfectly, even smoothly. For a few brief moments, our fat clumsy airbus flew like an F-18.

Paro was beautiful. The buildings and the people are out of "Lost Horizon". We bussed along a twisting, breath-taking mountain road which followed a raging river, past landslides into the fairy tale capital of Thimphu. We unloaded and melted into our hotel. In the evening, we walked through a bustling market to get our first sense of Bhutan: sights, sounds, smells ( good and bad ) assaulted us. The altitude began to insinuate itself upon us, and the jet lag from the last couple of days beat us up. We were done in completely. A good dinner, with a Diamox-polluted local beer (actually a really good beer: I enjoyed one at lunch without Diamox and it was great ), a birthday celebration for one of our company and then complete surrender to sleep. Why are we doing this to ourselves ? Oh yeah ... Everest.

How many varieties of rice are there? Lots !

Vendor in Thimphu market

Market

Lou at the Thimphu market

Kids having fun

Thimphu cafe

Kids at the market ... their favourite place?

Typical outside wall decoration in Bhutan .. minus the penises

Our Thimphu hotel ... the next day !

DAY 3 SUN. OCT. 5 THIMPHU

A lovely early morning boded well for us. We visited the huge and ornate Tashicho Dzong in Thimphu. This is one of the most important dzongs in all of Bhutan, not just because of its vast size and religious importance, but also because it houses many offices and departments of the Bhutan government. It is also the site of the Thimphu Tsechu, an annual festival in which elaborate songs and dance are performed to commemorate many events in the religious belief system of the people of Bhutan. We happened to arrive on the third day of the festival, which had me salivating for I'd watched these ceremonies on TV and in movies: "The Man Who Would Be King" comes to mind. The nice thing about this event is that it truly is for the locals. Thousands gathered in intense sun and gathering heat inside the public amphitheatre of the dzong to listen, observe, and meditate. They were all in their finest traditional dress: gho for the men and kira for the women. The ceremonies were long and strange to the handful of tourists, but to the Bhutanese, they represent important concepts of their beliefs and culture. The costumes, ritual dances and strangely hypnotic music were alien to us. But we enjoyed the combination of reverential devotion and joyful exhuberance that this family occasion brings.

In the hot afternoon, we hop-scotched around the capital. We visited a truly impressive construction site where a colossal Buddha, gold-clad and glinting in the sun, dominated from a hillside over the city valley below. We were introduced to the takin, a weird bison-mountain goat creature native to the Himalayas and Bhutan's national animal. We strolled the crowded and chaotic craft market, where so many people walked after visiting the dzong on this holiday, and where the weather started to change. And we visited the holy sanctuaries of a large stupa, a local nunnery and then back to the dzong for the dignified flag lowering ceremony. In the holy places, the peacefulness of the chanting seemed to clash with the ornate carvings and statues: not unlike what one would find in temples of other religions.

We learned that, until very recently, around 2008, Bhutan was a theocracy and a very closed nation. But the fourth king initiated many reforms designed to bring Bhutan into the modern world: albeit very slowly and carefully. The transition from theocracy to constitutional monarchy, from isolated, to welcoming visitors, from low tech to high tech, has been done in a relatively short time, with very little pain or difficulty ... or so it seems. The fourth king abdicated peacefully in favour of the very youthful fifth king, his son: this was seen as being symbolic of the changes going on in this fascinating land. Bhutan bears watching over the next few years to see how the reforms are going.

Tashicho Dzong, with Subash in the foreground

The Dzong under brilliant sunshine

Thimphu Tsechu at the Dzong

Kira for the ladies, gho for the men

Brothers?  I think so.

Lou at the festival .. note the dancers in the background

Bhutanese kids ... having fun on a big day

Impromtu soccer game while festival was going on

Royal palace just off to the side of the Dzong

The takin

Colossal Buddha ... it really is huge

Looking from the Buddha site down to the valley of Thimphu

Central Stupa

Massive prayer wheels

Looking back onto the Dzong

Sending a prayer for a good trip

Back to the Dzong

DAY 4 MON. OCT. 6 THIMPHU - PUNAKHA - DOCHULA PASS

Today was a trial in the truest sense of the word. Lou has begun to exhibit cold symptoms that grew progressively worse through the day. The roads from Thimphu to the Dochula Pass were good, and the Pass itself was magnificent, but from there to Punakha and back, the roads were hell. I used to think the roads in Bolivia were the worst, but Bhutan takes the prize. Not only are they narrow and winding through the gorgeous pine mountains, but they are under constant construction. The construction proceeds at a snail's pace, and the road must be closed according to a schedule, so major work can be done without traffic. The problem is that the schedule is never accurate. The result for us was  2 to 3 hour delays, turning a 6 hour drive into a 10 to 12 hour endurance contest. Lou suffered badly as we headed into night, but our reward was a stay in a charming isolated mountain lodge and a decent dinner that, unfortunately, Lou had to miss because of her mounting illness.

The dzong at Punakha was massive and impressive, sitting at the forks of a beautiful mountain river. The interior was fortress-like, but featured the fine ornate carvings and colossal statuary typical of Buddhist shrines in Bhutan. It was truly a lovely site, but the ride back was tough and never-ending narrow trails that stretched an already long journey into a marathon. But this is travel, isn't it? You take the good with the bad, the inspiring with the inconvenient.

As mentioned above, our hotel is a lovely mountain lodge, perched on a high hill, miles from nowhere ... literally. It is warm, inviting, comfortable and serves good food. As Lou rested, I enjoyed a good evening with the travel group: a hearty meal, cold beer and the promise of a 5 am wake up to watch the sunrise over the Himalayas: weather permitting.

Apple vendor on the road to Punakha

Punakha valley

Dochula Pass

Road delay ... Indian lorry

Another delay .. another Indian lorry

A third Indian lorry ... lovely decorations on a working dump truck

Punakha Dzong ... lovely site

Big prayer wheel

Punakha Dzong ... interior view

Punakha Dzong ... more interior

Punakha Dzong ... interior carvings

Waiting for sunrise

DAY 5 TUES. OCT. 7 DOCHULA PASS - THIMPHU - PARO

Awake at 5:30 to witness a glorious sunrise over the hills and distant peaks of the Himalayas. This is indeed Shangri-La. Why try to write about it? It was beautiful beyond measure, silent, serene and proof that there is a higher power. Humanity could never duplicate this!

We bumped our way back along the highway to Thimphu. Back at the Dochula Pass, we stopped again and walked among the stupas commemorating those who lost their lives in a short campaign against "Indian terrorists", apparently led by the King of Bhutan himself. Our local guide, Tamden, gave us an informative tour of a late 19th century Bhutanese home. In typical fashion to homes from that time period around the world, the house had 3 stories: the lower floor was for the animals, the second floor was for storage and workshops, and the upper floor was the family's and servants' living quarters. Tamden is an amiable and informative young man who later was particularly helpful in finding a pharamacy so that we could purchase some remedies for Lou's cold.

Tamden also told us more of Bhutan's recent past. Until 2000, for example, there was no television in Bhutan. There was only one AM radio station. Now, a mere 14 years later, there is a government run channel for news and cultural events. But the airwaves have been flooded with international, particularly Indian TV. Tamden also went on to explain that in the same time period, Bhutan has become completely wireless with a 4G network. Quite a huge technological turnaround.

But, politically, Bhutan is still a wary place. Only 2 political parties may legally exist. And we were told that if you were to form a group of more than 5 persons, you could be arrested. Protest of any kind is not tolerated, nor are workers allowed to form unions. Democracy? Not quite there yet: baby steps, baby steps.

Outside of Thimphu, the road to Paro improved. We visited another much older dzong  for another highlight. The monks were observing a ritual inside and so we listened to the strange droning sounds of weird instruments and the guttural throat chants of the monks. It was a wonderful peaceful moment and we felt honoured to be part of it.  The road beyond Paro airport to tonight's lodgings was the worst yet. It wasn't a road, but rather a dirt washboard that rattled our bones, jumbled up our insides, and filled our lungs with dust. But the lodgings at Namsay Choeling Resort are superb.

Himalayan sunrise

Sunrise on the foothills

Sunrise in the distant Himalayas

Dochula Pass

Lou among the stupas ... Dochula Pass

John at Dochula

Dochula Pass ... stupas and temple

DAY 6 WED. OCT. 8 PARO

This was a fairly leisurely day for most of us. However, seven of our group took a challenging hike up to the Tiger's Nest monastery, Bhutan's holiest sight. I thought about taking this hike, but it sounded just a bit too hairy to try it. After talking to the hikers, I was happy to hear that the hike, while a challenge, was certainly do-able. One of the worst feelings in the world is regret, and I regret my choice to not take the hike. But, it's done and no use crying over spilt milk. Lessons learned, though. Congrats to the hikers, they were happy and proud of their accomplishment, and have a memory for a lifetime.

As for us, our day was indeed nice and informative. We visited the base of the Tiger's Nest and peered up in astonishment at how a monastery could possibly be built on a sheer cliff face. It also made me admire our hikers' achievement. From there, we went to Bhutan's oldest temple but were not allowed to enter due to a special ceremony. The positive was the chance encounter with Bhutan's Queen Mother, who was attending the ceremony. We were not able to photograph the Queen Mother, but enjoyed a brief conversation with her. She is a charming and dignified lady and it was a pleasure to meet her, albeit briefly. From there, to the old and wonderfully ornate Paro Dzong, an old fortress/temple/administrative centre so typical in Bhutan. It was a beautiful building, in a wonderful and picturesque setting. We finished the afternoon wandering around Paro town, a small but lively place, doing a little shopping and conversing with some locals.

View of Tiger's Nest

Tiger's Nest

Close up of Tiger's Nest

Farming village in Paro valley

Lou at Paro valley

Paro's old temple ... where we met the Queen Mother

The old temple

Paro Dzong

Tandem at Paro Dzong

Interior of Paro Dzong

Interior of Paro Dzong

A lovely bridge

At the end of the day, we rejoined our hikers in our nice hotel and toasted their accomplishment with beer and stories. A fine day !