Flying

Four flights (IVAN - all 737s. Ethiopian air in a particular has a unique ability to make relatively new aircraft look shabby inside! And the discount Indian airlines are masters at cramming more seats into the same plane, but I cannot complain when a 2.5 h hour flight cost 1 rupee I.e. 5 cents; $44 with all fuel surcharges and axes included) 6 hours in taxis, and the constant joy of trying to figure out new airports - e.g the domestic terminal in New Delhi is 7 km from the international terminal. Who would have thought? But no worries, there is a bus! And it's free, but you need to show ain inbound domestic ticket, an outbound international ticket, proof of citizenship, last year's taxp return and pictures of one of your best friends with the head in a toilet bowl. And it only comes once an hour. Sure glad that we saved a few rupees for taxis! I could probably write an entire blog post about the protocol for waiting in line for the toilet in the airport at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Hell, I could probably do a doctoral dissertation on the subject, so don't get me started. The good news is that we made it safe and sound to Nairobi. The interesting news is that I was boredon one of the flighs so I went into my around the world trip of planning worksheet, and figured out that over the five months that we are traveling, we will spend 100.5 hours on 30 flights on airplanes. 

Leaving tomorrow for 9 days of safari. Unlikely to have internet access until we return.  

Goodbye Asia - Hello Africa

Enjoyed a couple do misty days in the Himalayan foothills of Sikkim. We stayed in a pretty amazing place - a luxury hotel and spa in the middle of 80 acres of jungle. Turning 50 is pretty good! In Delhi right now, flying at 0300 to Addis Ababa and then on to Nairobi later tomorrow morning. 

Thank you Bhutan

Our trip to Bhutan has been a truly amazing journey.  The people, culture, religion, government policy and the environment make it a unique and special place. We were fortunate to learn about and discover Bhutan with Sangay and Sangay who were both very knowledgeable, professional and a lot of fun.  They quickly learned of our love to hike and worked in every opportunity for us to hike to our destinations rather than drive. In our days with them, On our first day we hiked to a monastery in Thimpu and arrived in time to hear the monks in prayer. Listening to the chanting, singing and instruments was the perfect way to start the trip. We were treated to several more musical experiences with monks and nuns. The Sangay's have made us feel not felt like tourists, but instead as very honoured guest. I am very grateful for all that they, Sonam and Tak, Seng Chung, Druk Excursions have done to make our visit in Bhutan special and memorable.

Bhudism in Bhutan

IWe are leaving Bhutan tomorrow for a couple do days in Sikkim in northern India and a night in New Delhi before arriving in Nairobi, Kenya on Tuesday. 

Bhudism is the state religion of Bhutan, and it permeates all aspects of Bhtanese life. We have spent much of the last ten days in Bhudist temples. Many of them date from the eighth century, when Bhudsim was introduced to Bhutan. 

One recurring image in just about every temple is the wheel of life. In the centre are the three evils - the snake represents anger, the pig ignorance and the rooster represents desire / greed / lust. The next wheels shows those who have lived a life of evil being dragged down to hell, while those who have preformed good deeds and have accumulated karma are lead to a higher realm - the world of animals, humans, demigods or gods. 

One temple that we went to was built in the 15th century by a famous monk known as the "Divine Madman". He was the one repsonsible for the popularization of phallus symbols in the country, and his temple is dedicated to fertility. While at the temple, a monk stroked each of on the head with a pair of large wooden penises. 

I don't think that's going to work on us, but I admire him for trying. 

The most spectacular temple in the country is called the Tiger's Nest, based on a myth that a Bhudda flew there from Tibet on the back of a winged tiger to subdue an evil spirit.  

This temple is 900m above the valley floor. We were fortunate that our guide got us there early, so we beat the crowds of tourists and got to visit all nine chapels all alone plus a cave where the wife of the temple builder spent many years meditating. 

 At one of the nunneries that we visited, we were sitting listening to the nuns chant when one of the nuns came by with a bowl full of treats. Our guide said that it was polite to accept something, so we had treats to eat with the delicious local Red Panda brand beer ( much like Belgian Leffe, for those who know their beers!).

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Our trip to Bhutan has been fantastic.  The scenery, the culture, the people, and especially our amazing guide and driver have been awesome. 

Blessed Rainy Day

In Bhutan, September 23rd is a day to celebrate. It is the Blessed Rainy Day Festival which celebrates the end of the monsoon. The day starts with a breakfast of special porridge which tastes like a thick beef, black pepper soup. It is a day off work and school. People spend the day playing games, picnicking and dancing. The men participate in dart and archery tournaments. 

Darts are most common competition as it is affordable for anyone.

 The archery tournaments are played with either the traditional bows or new modern compound bows. The  compound bows are from the US are made of carbon fibre and cost $2000 for the top of the line bows. The distance from competitor to the target is 145-150m. We watched darts and archery with the modern bows. At the end of the competition the women dance. 

Red Panda Beer

In the town of Bumthang we toured the Panda Beer Brewery and enjoyed sampling the beer. 

The brewery was started by a swiss man, named Fritz Maurer. He joined us for a beer and shared his story. He is a cheese maker by training. In 1969 at age 26 he finished training as a cheese maker. As was customary, he planned to travel for a year before working. He saw an ad in a local newspaper advertising for a cheesemaker in Bhutan. The third King had visited Switzerland for vacation and medical reasons. He came to enjoy Swiss cheese and decided that Bhutan should make cheese. He instructed an aide to find a cheesemaker to come to Bhutan. At the time that the swiss man answered the ad he had no idea where Bhutan was. He flew to Calcutta and then took another plane to a small landing strip near Bhutan. He travelled the rest of the way to the Black Hills by road, The King gave him 50 yaks for cheese making and a one year contract. After a year at the Kings request the swiss man went to Bumthang and started a cheese factory there. The area was not well populated, so when people would pass through they would stay with him. As a result he decided to build a guest house with a little bakery/restaurant. He began making apple juice, apple cider and spirits from the abundant apple crop. Next he started a brewery. Like cheese and baking, beer has a fermentation process so he had the basic knowledge, He learned what he could from a brew master and then started brewing beer. The  equipment, hops and yeast all come from Germany. 

The whole process is down by hand including the capping, labelling and stamping of the expiry date. The beer is made in the weiss style, is not filtered, has no preservatives so is only good for 4 months after it has been bottled. It is also not widely distributed in  Bhutan. I have not been drinking much beer of late, but Red Panda is among the best beer I have ever tried. 

Bhutan architecture

Bhutanese homes have some unique architectural enhancements. Apparently, these decorations are supposed to enhance the virility of the occupants!

Faces of Bhutan

The school kids are shy but also very interested in talking with us. They wear traditional Bhutanese dress as their school uniform. 

Pilgrims at monasteries

Monks at Temples

More kids...cause they are so  incredibly cute

It was Saturday so a day off of school. These boys swam in the local swimming hole and then were shivering after their swim. I suggested jumping jacks as a way to get warm.  They decided to give it a try 

Asia - India and Bhutan People

People can really make or break a trip. One guy who really helped make our short time in Darjeeling was the chef at the resort we stayed at. The first night, we had the most amazing kofta  - basically a dish with a cardamon cashew sauce. It was amazing! We told our waiter how much we liked it, so the chef came out of the kitchen and explained where it originated from and how it was made. The next night there was no kofta on  the buffet, but the chef made us a special one with saffron because he knew how much we enjoyed it the previous night.  I definitely put on a few pounds in India. 

Every time we check in for a flight, Jackie points out that it is our 25th wedding anniversary and our 50th birthdays. Air Canada upgraded us to business class. Air New Zealand gave us premium economy seats. Thai airways sent back premium champagne and deserts from business class, along with a couple of souvenirs and a congratulations note signed by the captain of the 747. Nice people!!

Two people who are making our Bhutan trip are our guide and driver. They are both incredibly knowledgeable - it does not matter if we ask them the name of a bird, how the central bank of Bhutan sets prime interest rates, the meaning of a specific deity on a mandala, how marriages work, the name of a crop in a field, what the most common criminal offence is ( Jackie had lots of questions on the local justice system and they had all the answers!), the name of a flower, the difference between different branches of Bhudism - these guys know it all! Plus they don't mind cranking up the stereo so that we can sing along ACDC's Highway to Hell or Bob Marley's One Love while we are driving. Driving rules here seem to be based on "hey, do feel like going first? Or do you mind if I do?"  The speed limit on the national highway is 50 km/hr. On the good road between the airport and the capital, a few people were going faster than that. On the drive east of the capital, we were doing 40 and passing most people because the roads really couldn't handle any travel that was faster than that. Our guide has an arts degree from a university in India, while our driver has a degree in IT. He usually works full time on the company's website and information systems, but they were so busy that he got sent out with us - lucky for us, since he is incredibly knowledgeable and a good complement to our guide. 

Bhutan is not a rich country, but it appears to me that it is, and I figured out that the reason is that it is so clean. No offence India, but most of your of urban areas look like garbage dump. There is virtually no litter any where in Bhutan.  To show you how dedicated this country is to the environment, in the middle of Thimpu, the capital, there is a 400 year old monastery. The king decide that that the monks can only meditate if it is quiet, so there is this enormous green space around it.  The Gantey valley is the winter breeding grounds of the nearly extinct black necked crane. The government feared that power lines may disrupt the cranes' flight patterns, so they refused to put electric power into the valley until 3 years ago, when they could afford to install all of the lines underground. 

We have been to several temples, and if there is a service going on, we like to sit with the monks and respectfully observe for a while. When ever we do, eventually a monk or nun will come by and dump some food on our laps. The monks get a lot of donations of food from pilgrims and supporters, and sometimes they will chant for 8 hours continuously at a time ( don't ask me what they do for bathroom breaks - I just assume that they get up and go when they need to!) so somebody is always dropping off a little something to keep them nourished. At a major monastery and meditation centre outside of the capital, a monk dropped some bubble gum on my lap. Later that day, Jackie and I were taking in some chanting at the largest nunnery in Bhutan. A nun came over with a basket that looked like a 6 year old's Halloween dream come true - chips, chocolate bars, all kinds of junk food that had been donated by somebody. "You should take something," said our guide. "It's a sign of respect." I went for the cheesies.  I certainly didn't expect cheesies from Buddhists.

On our first day in Bhoutan, we saw a lot of vehicles that were all decorated. It was the feast day of an important Buddhist deity. Our guide told us the deity's name, but said, "his name is complicated and you won't remember it, so just think of him as the god of engineering!"

On our long drive to the probhija valley, we stopped in a little town to stretch our legs. School was just letting out. Jackie has a certain magnetic attraction to little kids in foreign countries, so it was no surprise to me when I turned around and four super cute little 9 year olds were chatting her up. They wanted to know what her profession was, but they were quite baffled by the concept of a "judge". They asked her how old she was - Jackie said 50, but we're pretty sure that they heard 15, since they were surprised at how tall she was for her age! One of the girls asked me what my profession was.  "Engineer."  "Oh, very honourable profession!"  "Would you like to be an engineer when you grow up?" "Oh no, I will be a doctor." All of this from a nine year old!

Bhutan

The two Sangay's who will be our guide and driver for the next 10 days

Bhutan is a Constitutional Monarchy as of 1998. The change was made by the  4th King before he abdicated the throne. After 35 years he was ready to retire and felt his son was ready to be coronated. The Bhutanese love their King and pictures of the current King and Queen are found everywhere inside and outside of buildings

Bhutan is 95 per cent Buddhist. Some of the monasteries date back to 1700's.

Cell phones and internet access are available and used by all including monks

 

The national animal is called the Takin. It has a head like a goat and the body of a yak 

Darjeeling Sites

IWe spent our days taking in the local sights which included the zoo, the Mountaineering Museum, the views of Kanjenjunga the local market, the railway station with the longest running steam engine and just enjoying the tranquility of our hotel and its grounds. Seeing a view of Kanjenjunga took my breath away as the view was unexpected. Unexpected because it was cloudy and because it was so beautiful being elevated above the other peaks and enveloped in cloud. Other highlights included seeing the black leopard with his leopard spots visible only under the right light conditions, the Bengal Tiger, the Red Panda and the Mountaineering Museum..The museum had an Everest map which illustrated all of the routes on Everest. It was really cool to see Sharon Wood's name on the list noting her double accomplishment of putting up a new route with Dwayne Congdon and being the first North American woman to summit Everest. 

I decided that one of the things that I wanted to do was to share a bottle of champagne in each continent that we visit. Finding a wine store in Darjeeling was a challenge. We eventually found one and bought Indian champagne. The store was caged in front with an opening in front to pass money and goods. Not sure what the alcohol laws are in Darjeeling but there seems to be restrictions.

We arranged to have Raj who drove us to Darjeeling pick us up and return us to the airport ($$30). When he hadn't arrived by 4:15 am we called. He was expecting us to call the night before to confirm. He arrived at 4:30 am and got us to the airport in 2 hours, Amazing how fast you can drive 80 km when there is no traffic. The other blessing of no traffic is no horns.

Darjeeling: getting there

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We opted for a pre paid taxi ($37) instead of facing the awaiting throng of drivers outside to negotiating ($20) for the trip or take a taxi to the taxi to the center of town to catch the shared 10 person jeep ride ($10).  We had  a short night at Calcutta but still enough brain power to remember what we learned from our last visit to India. That is the crowds, noise and pollution are exhausting AND that spending money to avoid public transportation was well worth it. The ride took 3.5 hours for the 80 km distance mostly because we encountered traffic and one section of poor quality road. Our driver was amazing. The roads are very narrow in places, so a lot of cooperation is needed by both drivers to inch by each other, Drivers are continously communicating with each other as to  when it is safe to pass. Unfortunately much  communication is done with the  horn. 

Darjeeling, being a hill station sits at 2200m and is in a rain forest. The views of the surrounding mountains were stunning. Darjeeling  was larger than we expected and of course noisier. Steve found us a fantastic hotel, The Mayfair. It was located on the end of town near walking paths, parks and the Everest view point. Entering the Hotel and it's grounds felt like stepping back in time. 

ASIA - India and Bhutan

Left our nice little island cabana on the beach at 0930 on Friday. Got To our destination of Darjeelilng, India ( yup, where the tea comes from! ) at 1530 on Monday. Took an hour to fly from Aitutaki to Rarotonga, hung out for a few hours because it was drizzling, flew 8 hours to Sydney, lost a day going over the international date line, crashed at a nice hotel near the airport, flew 9.5 hours the next day to Bangkok, had a 7 hour layover, flew 3 hours to Calcutta, landed an hour late, crashed at our hotel at 3:00 a.m.,  slept for 4 hours, back at the airport for a final one hour flight at hour long drive to our hotel. I cracked up wen I saw the attached photo at the Sydney airport, advising users to not fill up their water bottles from the urinals because the water is recycled. So, if the water in he urinals is fresh, then it's ok to fill up your water bottles there? 

95% of the people on the Calcutta flight are Indian guys. They are very LOUD, an have a vastly different sense of personal space than we do. 

So Jackie and I are waiting in line for immigration in Calcutta. The guy in front of us rips a fart - LOUD. Sounds like a chicken is trying to fly out of his ass.  Jackie and I automatically take a step back.  People have joined the line behind us, and there is a lot of consternation because we do not have physical body contact with the guy in front of us. He rips another one, we try to step back, the guys behind us are pushing forward. Said hallelujah when he finally stepped forward to get his passport stamped!  

Our flight from Calcutta to Bagdogra at the base of the Indian Himalayas is 600 km, an hour long and costs us five cents each - plus C$44 in taxes and fees. Cheap!

On the other hand, the 20 minute flight from Bagdogra to Paro in Bhutan was $275 each for the round trip! Oh well, it would have taken us two days to drive the same distance!

The contrast from India to Bhutan is very stark. Bhutan is the country of gross national happiness. There are no traffic lights anywhere in the country - not a single set. There is one shopping mall, with one escalator.  Apparently, people from the country side will come to the mall in the capital city just to ride the escalator. Smoking was banned here nationally in 2008 - not just smoking in public places, ALL smoking. If you bring in a pack of cigarettes with you when you fly in, you have declare them to customs and pay a hefty import tariff or risk huge fines.  Our guide told us that smoking is not aligned with Bhutan's ideal of " gross national happiness". The gross national happiness thing is not just a slogan - any proposed development has to show that it is good for the environment, good for the national culture and good for public health in addition to being economically attractive. 

Our guide and driver are both named Songay and were good friends in university. They are both very young, speak excellent English and are a lot of fun.  Today we visited the national library and a museum which was basically a farm house that has been here for over 100 years. Tomorrow, we are going on a hike to a temple. So far, this place has been awesome!

Highlights of Oceana

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