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!
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