Jars, Craters and Tubing

The last few days have been very full, which is why I haven't blogged in a while. I drove by very comfortable mini-van to Phonesavan with four other people: Leslie (who I had Thanksgiving dinner with) a German guy named Karsten and a couple of lovely Kiwis named Nick and Jud (both women). We had the opportunity to stop in a few villages along the way that don't normally get western visitors, which was really nice.

We all stayed in the same hotel in Phonesavan and had dinner together shortly after we arrived. There was a festival happening, so the town was hopping. It was rather like having the ex in town - lots of games for the kids and loud music for the adults. We tried our hand at busting balloons with darts, but all failed to win the prize which was a bottle of Pepsi.

The next day we spent touring three different sites in the plain of jars. These are areas outside of villages where these huge stone jars are lying around. It's kind of amazing that more research hasn't been done on these yet, and very little is known about them. It is assumed that they are over 2000 years old, but they are not carbon-datable, so I don't know how they know that. It is not even known if they are carved out of rock from a local quarry or constructed from a mixture of various things and then fired like pottery. I suspect that they are in fact carved rock and that the kiln theory is just local legend. The use of these jars is equally mysterious, but most people believe that they were used to contain cremated remains much like our urns. Nothing has ever been found in them so it's hard to know. They are hoping to find some unopened ones that may provide more clues. The jars are upto 6.5 tons in weight and stand up to several meters high. The sites are very impressive and have a very peaceful feel and energy about them.

Even more remarkable about this area are the very obvious reminders of the war. The landscape is pocked with bomb craters and discarded ammo is used for everything from house footings to candle holders. It's a pretty scary reminder of what this country has endured in the last 50 or so years. There are still many UXOs (unexploded ordinance) in the area and 800 Loas loose their life to them annually. You certainly don't go off exploring the countryside around here and you make sure that you never step where it's not obvious someone has stepped before you. Unfortunately, many of the accidents happen because the local people actually go out looking for the UXOs to sell the metal for cash.

The plain of jars sites themselves have just been cleared within the last couple of years (thanks to aid from New Zealand) which may be a major reason why more research has not been done in that area. Only three of many sites have been cleared of mines so far. Two other major sites are waiting for further aid money so that they can also be cleared.

Later in the day we visited an old Russian tank which is just lying in a field where it died years ago. We also visited the former capital of the area, Muang Khoun, which is home to a 30 metre stupa and a temple dating back to the 16th century. Both were very impressive, especially the stupa which managed to survived the bombs. Many Beerlao were consumed at dinner that night and there was much merriment among the group.

The next day we were back in the van and delivered to Vang Vieng. Leslie left us here and the rest of us booked into a little guesthouse by the river. Our rooms were side-by-side with a communal deck overlooking the river. We drank gin and tonics and watched the sun go down over the hills - it was really lovely.

This town is a backpacker haven and really offers nothing even remotely Laotian. The restaurants and bars all have TVs in them which blare out all day. One shows nothing but Friends, another shows the Simpsons, another has sports etc. In the evening you can at least see a movie in several of them. These bars are all set up so that you can actually lie down to watch TV. The tables are coffee-table height and sit on raised bamboo platforms. You lounge on the platforms supported by tons of pillows with your legs out under the table. Very comfortable for TV, not so great for eating your dinner. The town exists to provide access to the activities in the surrounding countryside. The karst mountains host a myriad of caves and the rivers provide water sports.

Yesterday the girls and I went tubing in the afternoon which was a blast. A van takes you a few kilometers up the river and drops you off with an inner tube. You sit in the tube and float downstream, stopping regularly at the little bars which have sprung up along the way. Most of them are simply bamboo decks built along the shoreline but there is one very large place about half way down. This reminded us of Daytona Beach during March break and we gave it a miss. Most of the bars have some kind of water fun going on, either zip lines across the river or giant swings that allow you to jump into the water from great heights. All had music playing which had a huge effect on our choices. Bob Marley got us every time. One place we stopped at was a simple little raft in the middle of the river with a couple of guys playing guitar and singing in Lao. We quickly found out this was a "happy" bar, with a joint costing the same as a bottle of beer.

Unfortunately, there isn't really any way to know how far you've come or how much further there is to go, so it's tough to manage your time. We ended up still floating down the river well past dark, which was a bit disconcerting until we saw the lights from town up ahead. At least we knew we couldn't get lost.

We joined up with Karsten again (who I think was convinced that we were going to end up spending the night in a drunken stupor on the river) and went for our second dinner at the only true Laotian restaurant in town. The family who run it are really lovely and had taken us back into the kitchen to answer our questions about their cooking techniques the night before. Their food is awesome. It was an early night for the women who were a bit beered-out and exhausted after our soggy afternoon.

The Kiwis left us this morning . Karsten and I hired a tuk-tuk to take us about 15 kms north of the city to see some caves. They were very cool - one had a stalagmite that looks exactly like an elephant. One of them went 7 kms back into the mountain, but we didn't follow it too far. The final one has a river flowing through it, so you climb into an inner tube to visit it. They have ropes secured to the walls through the tunnel, so you sit in your tube and pull yourself along on the rope. Very fun. We stayed and had a bit of a swim in the pool outside the cave mouth before heading back into town. I had a short walk this afternoon to another cave just south of town.

Karsten is leaving tomorrow morning but I've decided to stay on one more day and likely do some kayaking. It's very hot here, and being on the river is really lovely. Alternatively I can just go and hang out at one of the many bars along the river. They are all basically just bamboo huts and are equipped with hammocks as well as tanning platforms on the river bank and beaches. I plan to head out to Vientianne the following day.

Thanksgiving

The health care system here is apparently horrendous and I saw a flyer yesterday afternoon soliciting blood donations. I stopped in at the red cross to leave them a pint - definitely different than doing it at home. I was satisfied that the needle was new and sterile although there were no latex gloves in sight. The guy washed his hands with alcohol and was very by-the-book so I was pretty comfortable with the whole process. I got a really cool t-shirt too - probably my best souvenir to date.

I went to dinner and met up with another single woman sitting alone at the next table. We decided to eat together and it was a really enjoyable evening. Her name is Leslie and she is from southern California and travelling for a year. She had also just been in Bhutan and her experience was very different from mine (lucky thing!). Given that it was American Thanksgiving, the restaurant had a barbeque turkey special, which Leslie ordered. A tile was removed from the middle of our table, revealing a hole in the pedestal underneath. A bucket of coals was brought and placed in the hole with a dome-shaped grill for the top. There was a trough around the edge of the dome which held broth. The turkey strips were grilled on the sides of the dome and the vegetables and noodles were poached in the broth. Apart from the fact that she had trouble eating as fast as things got cooked, it seemed pretty cool.

Today was spent seeing the last few wats in town and getting myself ready to leave Luang Prabang. I also met up with one of my lecherous monks and took a ferry across the river with him to visit a very simple rural Laotian village and wat there. It was really nice but he kind of gave me the creeps as he was very persistent in his advances. I'm not sure if he was hoping for sex or money (or both) but it was just weird. I did, however, learn from him that many families bypass the alms ceremony and take their food donations directly to the temple. I was unable to discern if this is a result of the overzealous tourists or not.

I'll be leaving tomorrow for Phonesavan where the plain of jars is located. Coincidentally, Leslie will be on the same trip, so it will be nice to have her company again. In three days time I'll be in Vang Vieng, just north of Vientianne. I'm not sure if I'll be able to touch base before VV so don't be worried if there's no post or e-mail for a few days.

Silk Worms and Alms

The day after my last post, I spent another day with Patty and Angel. We went to a small village outside town where they make silk, dye it with natural dyes and weave it. In the same village they also make handmade paper using the same process I saw in Bhutan. We then headed out to another waterfall which is a bit closer to town than the last one. We spent an wonderful afternoon there - it was just beautiful. We were right in the jungle, so the terraces of waterfalls actually came through the trees, and there were many different pools of varying size and depth. We feasted on a lunch of barbequed chicken, fried rice and vegetables washed down with Beerlao. Given that this was my last day with Patty and Angel, we celebrated with a lovely dinner and a few bottles of wine, followed by cocktails at the local bar. Okay, so we celebrated like this every night for the last 5 days, but who's counting?

I was on my own yesterday, so caught up on a few things I had wanted to do. I saw the National Museum, which is really just a palace which is still set up as it was when it was being used from 1904 - 1975. It's quite spartan but there are some lovely displays of household items and other artifacts from the area. Some of the gifts to the king from other countries were really beautiful - porcelain and silver and artwork from other Asian countries, and a beautiful model of one of the Apollo missions from the USA. Seriously. I can't tell you how out of place it looked. Unfortunately the displays had very limited signage so it wasn't always easy to figure out what I was looking at, but it was beautiful nonetheless. There are also a couple of art shows in town which I took in. One was a series of black-and-white photos taken at a retreat for monks to learn meditation. It was breathtaking. The other was a display by local artists using all mediums to depict their culture. There were some really innovative and creative displays. I ended my afternoon with a massage and then did some shopping at the night market.

I got up early this morning to go watch the giving of alms. The monks here rely entirely on handouts from the community for food. They are not allowed to have money or to shop. Every morning just after sunrise, the local families line up along the street with baskets of sticky rice and the monks come along in a procession with bowls on slings around their neck. As they proceed down the line, the people drop a handfull of rice into their bowls. They can actually donate any type of food but rice is the cheapest and easiest. The families earn merit (good karma) by making these donations. Travellers are welcome to participate in this event as long as they observe the traditions and don't do anything offensive (like touch a monk or point their feet at them).

I got there a bit early and by the time the procession started there were about 12 Laos set up and about another dozen or so tourists ready to hand out rice. Each person had a pint-size basket of rice. Another 150 or so tourists were hanging around with cameras around their necks and there were about 200 or so monks in line. There was clearly not enough food there to feed 50 monks much less all of them. It was the most heart-breaking thing I've seen in a while and I was ashamed to be part of it. As I was walking home, I spotted a monk in a store doorway where the owner was privately handing over a basket of rice to him. I can only assume that they are so tired of the zoo-like atmosphere of what was once a spiritual ritual, that most of the locals have stopped going and are making other arrangements to make their donations.

I am finally ready to move on but am having trouble making my arrangements. Will likely stay another day here and then head south.

Waterfalls and Bhuddas

Spent the day yesterday with Patty and Angel. We hired a taxi and drove up river to a small town where we took a ferry across the Mekong to some caves. These are filled with thousands of statues of Bhudda in every shape, size and posture imaginable. The statues were placed by local people and the caves were once used for annual new year's celebrations. Most of the statues were placed in the 18th and 19th centuries although the caves have been used for various types of religious rituals since before Bhuddism made it's way here.

On the way back, we stopped at a little restaurant overlooking the river for lunch. All other clientele were locals and they only served fish caught directly from the Mekong. We had grilled fish as well as fish laap and sticky rice. (Laap is a local dish of minced meat with various herbs and mint. It's really good and can be ordered with any type of meat.) Given what the Mekong looks like, I was a bit concerned about eating fish taken directly from it, and also about eating the fresh salad that came with our meal, but we are all feeling fine today so obviously they took care with their preparations and the fish weren't too contaminated. The meal was delicious and I'm really glad we took the chance to stop somewhere off the beaten path.

After lunch we headed south of town to the an awesome waterfall where we were able to swim in beautiful blue water. It is really a magical place and we'll likely go back for a quiet day of lounging by the lagoons. We had another stellar dinner last night.

I am spending today on my own exploring more of the town, which continues to enchant me. I truly don't think I'm going to be able to drag myself away from here in time to go to Vietnam before Christmas. Much of the charm has to be attributed to the Lao people who really have a special quality. I have been trying to figure out how they differ from other Asians I have encountered, and I think it's a sense that they treat us all as equals. There is no attitude towards us as rich westerners who should be parted from our money. Nor is there any disdain for us descending on their country. We're all just people co-existing here. Perhaps this is born from a stong sense of Bhuddism, but I can't really say. All I know is that I'm incredibly comfortable and happy here.

A few other reasons why this place is awesome:

- Bakeries. I can only assume that this is left over from the French colonial days, but there are fresh baguettes everywhere you turn and baked goods to die for.
- Right-hand drive
- No traffic lights, and no need for any
- Wine. Did I mention the wine? My Canadian friends have been a very bad influence on me in this regard :-).
- By law all restaurants/bars must close by 11:30 and by law all guests must be in their hotel rooms by 12:00. Nights are quiet as graveyards.
- A total feeling of safety and comfort
- No neon lights. The stars are amazing at night.
- 10 minutes into my morning run and I'm out of town in the Lao countryside with no other westerners in sight. Everyone calls out "sabawdee" (hello) as I pass although they appear to be wondering what on earth I'm doing.

Luang Prebang

Spent the entire day on the slow boat down the Mekong. That sounded so romantic to me until a day ago, but the reality is that it wasn't really all that exciting. The ride was pretty, but the scenery remained totally unchanged for 11 hours. There weren't even any villages along the way - just a brown river with rocky shores and jungle hills leading up from the riverbanks. All that aside, it wasn't a bad way to spend the day. I met a couple of Canadians on the boat, Patty and Angel (he's originally from the Dominican Republic), who are both flight attendants for Air Transat. They are close to me in age and are very well-travelled. They have proven to be really good company and are staying next door to me. After we settled into our guesthouse last night we went for dinner together.

The restaurant was one that Patty had chosen from the guide book because it has a large and reasonably priced wine list. It turns out that the food was absolutely out of this world and we also did get to enjoy some really nice wine. So much for my hope that the food here would be horrible - I will definitely not be losing any of that Thailand weight.

I spent much of today wandering around town. Got sidetracked for a couple of hours by some young monks who engaged me in conversation. It was very enlightening - I learned a lot about their way of life and their Buddhism, which is quite different from that of Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan. They shattered all my illusions when they began hitting on me. The novices have 10 rules they have to follow and the ordained monks have 227. You can be sure that getting busy with a westerner twice their age is breaking at least one of them, but they didn't seem to mind. In fact they were quite happy to list all the rules they have broken (killing a mosquito, telling small lies, eating after noon, drinking Beerlao etc.). You'll all be happy to hear that I managed to extricate myself from their company without helping them to break any others.

Luang Prebang itself is a fabulous place. I have truly fallen in love with it and am not sure when I'm going to be able to tear myself free. Every stress has just fallen away and I feel an incredible peace here. It is really special. Perhaps after a few days the novelty will wear off - I'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I just plan to enjoy this incredible feeling of well-being.

Things that make it wonderful here:
- Laid-back attitude
- No vendors in your face
- Little traffic
- Beautiful architecture
- Massages for $3 per hour
- Awesome food
- Wine. Real wine from other countries priced reasonably
- Cool wats (temples) everywhere
- Beautiful arts and crafts - lots of shopping and markets
- $12 per night for a clean bungalow with hot/cold shower, TV, air-con

It seems like the trend for weather is overcast and cool in the morning and hot and sunny in the afternoon. I'm hoping to go for a run tomorrow morning (who knows - it may lead to a habit). I'm finally in a place where I can run without having to worry about traffic, pedestrians and other interruptions. It will be really nice to have some real exercise again - I've really missed it.

Gotta run - there's a bottle of wine and another great meal waiting for me.

Huey Xai

I was scheduled to leave Chiang Mai at 5:45 this morning. Much to my amazement, the van was there to pick me up at 5:45 sharp. After picking up the other passengers, we headed for Chiang Khong on the border with Laos. We arrived there on time and were escorted into a lovely open air restaurant where we filled out our visa forms for Laos. They took these away to process them and gave us lunch which we ate looking across the Mekong river at Laos. I was very impressed by the smooth and professional way everything was being handled. Can you see where this is going...?

After lunch they announced that the boat that we were supposed to board at 1:00 had left at 11:30 because they had overbooked it and we would have to wait until tomorrow for another boat. There was also some speculation that the very few guesthouses in the town where we were supposed to spend the night were in fact full and couldn't accommodate us. As usual, we don't really know the true story. One way or another, we were not boarding a slow boat today.

We finished with our visa arrangements and then took the ferry across the river to Huay Xie in Laos where we will be spending the night. We will take a slow boat all the way to Luang Prebang tomorrow - a trip of somewhere between 10 and 12 hours. Because we're doing the trip in one day, there will be no stops for food or anything else, so we'll have to try to find something to take with us to eat. They sell water and beer on the boat but nothing else.

I got settled into a hotel here and explored the town. This took about an hour total as there is only one street here so the sight-seeing is pretty limited. I figured I might as well spend some time catching up on e-mail since there's really nothing else to do except drink.

Laos is very inexpensive, laid-back and charming. The people are friendly and don't harrass you to buy things like they do in Thailand. It's easy to find a lower-end guesthouse for $2-3 USD but I've decided to live in the lap of luxury. My hotel is not exactly the Ritz, but has air-con, TV and hot/cold showers in the rooms. It costs about $12 CAD per night , but some of my travelling companions were still trying to haggle for a better deal. It's really rather embarrassing.

I changed a bit of money at the bank. The currency here is the kip and $1 CAD will buy you 8,400 of them. I changed about $150 and got a bundle of money such as only bank robbers see at home. I don't think I'll find an ATM here, but if I do I will be sure to withdraw some money just to get my bank balance in kip. I was a millionaire in Thailand and expect I'd be a billionaire here. Funny how much this amuses me....

Chiang Dao Trek

Took the 2-day trek as planned. Our first stop was to the Karen village, which was nothing like I had been led to believe. There was a group of women and children selling trinkets to tourists and that was about it. They are refugees from Myanmar (Burma) and as such don't have Thai citizenship or status. They don't have a great lot in life, but it was difficult to feel much empathy given that we met them in yet another tourist trap making a money-grab. I had taken some toilettries with me to leave with them for which they appeared gratefu (they are unable to go into towns to shop as they will get stopped and asked for proof of citizenship). Fortunately it was a short stop, and yes, I did take some pictures of them, distasteful as it was. (These are the people referred to around here as "long-necks" as the women wear an increasing number of rings around their neck which stretches them.)

We then proceeded to have lunch and go for an elephant ride. I'm becoming rather old hat at this now, but it was still fun. I was glad it didn't go on any longer than it did - the scenery doesn't exactly rush by from the back of an elephant.

We split off into our respective groups and headed out. I was grouped with a wonderful couple from Germany in their late 30's. They were awesome company. We also had a 23-year old Israeli man, who thought he was the best company in the world. Our trek through the jungle lasted about 2.5 hours. This was really nice as I finally got to do some real exercise. The trail was actually pretty tough and I would have been a lot better equipped with hiking boots than running shoes. Given it was about 35 and very humid, we worked up a good sweat. We came to a small waterfall that we had to cross, so we all changed into our bathing suits and jumped in. The water was surprisingly cold but amazingly refreshing. Shortly thereafter we arrived at the village where we spent the night. (Sorry, I don't have the name of the tribe on the tip of my tongue - will look it up and add it later.)

The people were very hospitable and cooked us a wonderful dinner. Their homes are made entirely of bamboo from the frame to the wall and floor material. They make "sheets" of bamboo for the floors and walls. They take a dried bamboo pole (round and hollow) and then flatten it. Once broken, they "unroll" it and flatten it some more. (In Bhutan this do it by laying it on the highway and letting the cars drive over it.) The result is a bunch of slats that are about 1/2 inch wide and 1/4 inch thick and all connected to each other in random places. So if the bamboo pole they began with was 10 feet long with a circumference of 8 inches, they end up with a sheet which measures 10 feet by 8 inches. (Is this making any sense?) For the floor, they lay these sheets across the beams, which are whole bamboo poles spaced about 6-8 inches apart. The entire house is built on stilts, presumably to stay dry and to provide housing for the animals which live underneath. I was amazed that we never put our foot through the bamboo flooring between the beams. We slept on straw mats on the floor.

Up until a couple of months ago they had no electicity, but the government recently provided them with a few solar panels. They now have a communal TV and radio. I didn't really see any other use for the electicity except for one light on the front of a hut. They still cook on fires and use candles for light. I'm not sure if this was the government's intention or not.

After dinner, we sat around and showed each other card tricks and other tricks that they could do with a string. They also had a couple of guitars so we had some music. It was really a lovely evening.

Sleep was another story. My hips hurt from the hard floor so I tossed and turned alot. Roosters started crowing at about 3 AM and dogs barked on and off all night. The village woke and cranked up the one radio by about 6:30 AM so there was no sleeping after that.

After breakfast we trekked for another 2.5 hours or so. We saw a very cool cave filled with bats. We had lunch and then proceeded to the river. We took a short but very fun white-water rafting run. The guides were really fabulous and clearly really knew the river well. I felt very safe in their care. (It would have likely been lest frustrating for me if the Israeli guy didn't think that he knew better than the guides and chose not to follow their instructions.) These weren't exactly class 5 rapids, but we got a good ride with some great splashes and bouncing around.

Following that, we hopped onto some traditional Thai bamboo rafts for a more leisurely ride on the current. This was relaxing and fun but not nearly as much so as the white water - I would gladly have gone back for another round of that.
After that it was back to Chiang Mai to find a shower and soft bed.

I'm off for dinner now and leave for Laos very early tomorrow morning. I'll travel by bus to the border and then a slow boat down the Mekong river to reach Luang Prabang. This is a 2-day journey and I'll spend the night tomorrow in a small Laotian town called Pak Beng.

I'll be in touch again once I'm settled in Luang Prabang.

Chiang Mai 2

Last night turned out to be a lot of fun. I did, in fact, cross the river and found the bars where the live music was. I encountered three Irish lasses who had picked up a Mexican woman from their elephant trek earlier in the day. By the time I joined them they had also ensnared a couple of Aussie women, so we made quite a gaggle of women. The band were Thai and did top-40 type cover songs and they were pretty good. One guitar player sang a bang-on Bob Marley followed by a bang-on James Blunt. You have to give some credit to anyone who can imitate both those voices. It was a very late night, but good fun. Another guitar player had on a Rush 2112 t-shirt, which I found rather nostaligic. For those of you who don't know, Rush is a Canadian band and the 2112 album came out in 1976.

I received an e-mail from my father the other day asking me if I could find him seeds or bulbs for a flower called the parrot flower. He had received photos of it over the internet. I did a quick Google on it, and found a couple of chat rooms. If indeed this is a real flower, it originates in northern Thailand. However, there is some speculation that the photos are doctored and that the flower doesn't actually exist. It apparently doesn't show up in any botanical guidebooks.

I went out this afternoon to the huge flora expo which is going on outside of Chiang Mai in search of the elusive parrot flower. This expo is in fact a tribute/gift to the king of Thailand who celebrates his 80th birthday in a few weeks as well as 60 years on the throne. He holds the record as the world's longest-reigning monarch. The Thais love him, and rightly so. He's done great things for them and many of these were celebrated at the floral expo.

Alas, after several hours I gave up my search and had to admit defeat. As seems to be the case with other Asian gardens, the Thai gardens are focussed much more on form and shape than on colour and flowers. There's no denying that the gardens were spectacular, but it was more a landscaping show than a flower show. Even the "World of Flowers" pavilion was dedicated to floral arrangements rather than to the flowers themselves. The only exception was the Orchid pavilion which totally took my breath away. I must have 50 pictures of orchids - it was truly amazing.

Anyway, I found no sign of the parrot flower and there wasn't really anyone to ask about it. This was truly an expo of the people for the people and most of the signage wasn't even translated. Sorry dad - not much more that I can do. I'll keep my eyes open during my trek over the next few days and if I spot one, I'll dig it up for you.

Speaking of which, I'm leaving tomorrow for a 2-day trek outside of Chiang Mai and Chiang Dao. I'll do some hiking, swim under a waterfall, ride an elephant (again), ride a bamboo raft and do some whitewater rafting. I will be visiting a couple of families in the hills but have been promised that these are not the "human zoos" that many tourists impose themselves upon during their treks.

The day following my return to Chiang Mai, I'll leave early in the morning to catch a bus to the Laotian border and then take a slow boat down the Mekong river to Luang Prabang. It's a two-day boat ride so I'll have to overnight on the way. It will therefore probably be about 5 days before I'm able to blog or check e-mail again.

Chiang Mai

I got here a day later that expected. My flight yesterday was overbooked so I had to wait a day. Such is life on this side of the world - I am trying to learn to be a bit more flexible but we all know how anal I can be about plans. I got an extra day in Bangkok to do a lot of nothing. Tried to spend some time reading by the pool but just got comfortable there when a man with 5 kids under 6 came and they all decided that the water was best right in front of me. After five seconds my books were totally soaked and the chilled-out mood was lost, so I left the pool. As I was leaving, anther family with two small kids were just going in, so I suspect there was no more relaxing by the pool for anyone that afternoon. (This was all rather strange since I haven't seen a child in the hotel on any previous occasion.)

Anyway, I am now in Chiang Mai and really enjoying it. It is a bit cooler here, so you don't drip with sweat the moment that you leave an air-con room. The Sunday market is on at the moment and practically every street within the walled part of the city is closed to traffic. The shopping is much better here than in Bangkok and also has a much more relaxed feel to it. I really wish that I had held off on Christmas shopping until I got here, but who knew?

Given that I lost a day getting here, I was planning to leave for Laos the day after tomorrow. I'm now thinking of taking a two-day trek into the hills. As I've said, I could really use the exercise and I'm really enjoying the atmosphere around here. My major concern is that these treks inevitably include a visit or two to a hill tribe. While this is of interest to me, these visits are somewhat like going to a human zoo and it really rubs me the wrong way. I'll see if I can find one where the emphasis is on the trek rather that ogling these poor people to death.

I am hardly recognizing anything here - I can't believe how much has changed in 12 years. To be fair, it's probably my memory that has twisted everything around, but it all feels totally new to me. At the same time, it's very comfortable to be here, and as I said, much more laid back than Bangkok.

I'm off to check out some live music - there are supposed to be some good little bars across the river from my hotel. Of course I haven't been back to my hotel since I checked in this afternoon, so I hope I can find it again!

Bangkok 3

Just a few comments about my third stay in Bangkok. First of all, you'll remember that I lived through a lot of rain when I was on Koh Chang before I went to Bhutan. It turns out that these rains were much more extreme than the average monsoon - the whole country is under water. Toni and I took a day tour a couple of days ago to Ayutthaya which was the former capital of Thailand. I saw some really beautiful temples and countryside, but was amazed at how much water there is standing in the fields, on the sides of rivers and canals and just about everywhere else. It's good to know that the rains I experienced weren't normal - I just couldn't imagine how anyone could live through that on an annual basis. We came back to Bangkok via a boat on the river - it was a lovely, relaxing afternoon on the boat with a few beers and great scenery of the Thai countryside drifting by.

On the same tour I overheard the guide speaking about a festival of some kind during which the Thai people apologize to the river for something (I didn't hear what exactly they were apologizing for). Due to his Asian accent the word "river" came out as "liver". Needless to say, I have decided to adopt this annual practice of apologizing to my liver. In fact I may make it a monthly event. It's rather ironic that this festival will likely do more damage to my liver than good.

I have spent the last 4 days in Bangkok largely running around. I had the one day tour and the rest of the time was spent doing my laundry, planning my next steps, catching up on mail and blogging and putting together a box of trinkets to send home for Christmas. I have had dinner with Toni a few times, have run into Bob drinking beer at roadside bars and last night drank copious amounts of red wine and Black Russians with a Nepali jewelery importer/exporter. I feel like a very "bad" traveler at the moment, given that I've done virtually no sight-seeing but I guess this is my life now and the mundane stuff needs to get done too.

I was hoping to do another tour over the next month but couldn't get a spot as I left my booking too late. I have decided to go it alone and will be heading north to Chiang Mai tomorrow. After that I will head into Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, assuming all goes well. They are working on my visas as I am typing this. I don't have too much time, so will hit only the major spots. I figure if I fall in love with any one country or place, I can go back in the spring after I visit Australia. I have booked my flight to Oz and will be heading down under on Dec. 20. I had hoped to go a bit earlier but again left it too late and all the flights were booked. My return ticket is open so I can come back whenever it feels like the right time.

So I'm off to Chiang Mai tomorrow. I wasn't planning on spending too much time there, but they have a floral expo on at the moment, which is supposed to be spectacular. I may have to spend a day or two checking out the flowers and plants. Not really my bag but again, I've heard so much about it it may just demand a look. Will also try to check out Chiang Dao as per Chris and Erin's recommendations. I'm feeling a bit out-of-shape despite the half-trek in Bhutan. It's so hot that I haven't been able to bring myself to run, so a trek or bike ride in the countryside would be really good. I will force myself to start running at least a few times a week, heat or no heat.

That's it for now. Will try to be a bit more regular about my posts from now on.

Bhutan 3

I just tried to post some photos but it didn't work. I think that the connection is just too slow for it and it's giving up half way through. I did get a chance to scroll through my photos though, and there are some good ones, so hopefully I'll find a way to share them before too long.

Here's the next installment of my adventures in Bhutan. The following are my impressions of various aspects of the trip. They are Heidi's musings on:

Trek Organization: As I'm sure you've all gathered, this trip was a bit of a dog's breakfast. The company that I booked through in Canada is the same one that I used when I went to Nepal. They were stellar for the Nepal trek, but they really messed this one up. To be fair, much of the problem lay with the Bhutanese sub-contractors, but the Canadian company could have done a lot more to ensure our safety and enjoyment of the trek. We had poor equipment, poor leadership and no recourse once we were in Bhutan. We'll definitely be following this up with them.

Food: I was pleasantly surprised when I first got to Bhutan as the food was better than I expected. However, after leaving town and eating the same thing every day for 4 weeks, my enthusiasm waned. Meat is hard to come by and of very poor quality. In order to avoid the avian flu, they have basically eliminated chicken, and therefore eggs, from the country. On the trek our breakfast consisted of chipatis and cheese slices (you know the ones that are made of an edible oil product and don't need to be refrigerated?). Twice we got porridge but it was as thin as water - couldn't really locate any oatmeal in it. This isn't exactly stick-top-the-ribs kind of stuff. Lunch usually consisted of spaghetti noodles and every 5th day or so we got some ketchup to put on them. We also had the same vegetables that we had at every meal: beets, turnips, radishes, onions - basically anything that grows underground and keeps well. We got some tough beef or pork hanging onto its gristle, and a couple of times some fish in a sauce. Dinner was essentially the same. Bob eventually asked for some plain boiled potatos which were a great hit with most of us, so they began to cook them for every meal. I lived on them and pretty much nothing else for about two weeks. In his defense, Atchula could make the best french fries in the world, but unfortunately he only did this 2 or 3 times. When we ran into other trekking groups, we drooled over their food.

Kinley (guide) and Atchula (cook): What a pair. As mentioned in my last post, Kinley had the intellect of an 8-year-old. His English was poor and his communication skills worse. We very rarely knew what he was talking about. This was one of his best traits. Others included a tendancy to lie or to make up answers to questions, a spinelessness that was terrifying given than our life was in his hands, and a total lack of knowledge of the trek we were doing. One of the reasons that I pay so much money to do these treks is that there is a real comfort in being met at the airport and then not having to worry about anything else. In this case, not only did we, as a group, have to look after ourselves, we also had to look after our guide and our staff. Kinley had no concept of where we were in relation to where we had to go, or what needed to be done to get us there. Here is a sample conversation from our trip east:

Kinley: What time would you like to get up in the morning for our drive to Thimpu?
Us: How long will the drive take us?
Kinley: 3 hours
Us: Okay, it took us 8 hours over the last 2 days to travel 3/4 of the distance that we have to travel tomorrow, so let's assume that it will take 10 hours. We'll have breakfast at 7:00 and plan to leave at 7:30.
Kinley: How about breakfast at 7:30?
Us: Okay.
Kinley: I think it would be better if we had breakfast at 7:00.

I really can't describe this guy's incompetance. It was really frightening that we were so dependant on him on the trek and that his company thought that he was fit to lead us. When we were trying to determine whether we should abort the trek or not, he actually broke down in tears.

Our only saving grace was Atchula, the cook, who had hiked the trail about 10 times and seemed to know what he was doing, and more importanly, where he was at any given moment. Unfortunately, Atchula confessed to us on day 2 that he was unable to walk without a beer in his hand. He therefore drank all day on the trail and ended his day with a joint or two. I can't really say that this affected his job (although you'll note what I thought about the food), but it was somewhat disturbing that the only guy who could get us out of the mountains in an emergency was wrecked all the time.

Wildlife: The main wildlife in Bhutan is dogs. It's incredible how many strays are in this country - more dogs than humans I suspect. (As Bhuddists, Bhutanese will not kill any living creature.) The dogs followed us on the trail and were everywhere in the city. They slept all day so that they would have the energy to bark incessantly all night. Sure loved those dogs...

Scenery: This is a stunning country, no doubt about it. I think Lunana would have been really stellar if we had made it there. Even so, I have no complaints about the views - it was all very spectacular.

Religion: I was quite surprised to find a much smaller religious presence than I had expected. While there were a few dzongs inhabited by monks along the trail, we really didn't see much evidence of Bhuddism at all. In both Tibet and Nepal, there are chortens and mani-walls everywhere and even prayer wheels in the middle of nowhere. Not so the case with Bhutan. There also wasn't that general feeling of spiritual well-being that was so evident in Tibet. Having said that, once we were off the trek and spending more time in villages, we saw more evidence of Bhuddism. We made a concerted effort to visit monasteries and other religious sites, but we really had to go looking for religion to find it.

Smoking: Bhutan is the only country in the world to ban smoking. It's a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, everyone in the country smokes. There's a pretty healthy smuggling route for cigarettes into Tibet and India.

Roads: Bhutan has a major east-west highway that keeps the country connected. It's kind of like our Transcanada highway but it looks more like the bicycle path along the western parkway. In some places they have optimistically painted a line in the middle of the road, but there is no question that it is not two lanes wide. The Lonely Planet guide book says that there is a turn in the road every 17 seconds. I would suggest that the steering wheel of our car was never straight in over 10 hours of driving. There is one valley that we passed through in the east which is noted in guidebooks as being the home to the only straight, flat stretch of highway. This stretch of road is about 500 meters long. The rest of the road winds in and out of valleys and along mountain sides. Most often there is a cliff up on one side of the car and drop on the other. We averaged under 40 kms per hour as we crossed the country. I have to give kudos to our driver, Dawa, who was excellent and always made us feel safe, even when being passed by huge trucks, or having to wait while roadwork was being carried out (often blasting!).

Bhutanese people: This is a bit of a mixed bag. Kinley and his boss obviously left a bad taste in my mouth, but you can't judge an entire population by one or two bad apples. Barbarians aside, we were generally met with great hospitality and warmth. Toni and I met some wonderful people on our trip east and they really made the trip special for us. The kids are great and anxious to practice their English, which they all learn in school. They have discovered digital photography, so they all stop you to ask to have their photos taken. They love looking at their pictures in the display of the camera. This is also secretly true of most adults, although they don't usually won't ask you to take their picture.

Society: There is no homelessness or hunger in Bhutan. The king is awesome and the people are looked after. How can you not love a country like that?

Night Life: I can't say that I got out that much. However, one night in Thimpu, Toni was going to bed and I decided to check out a little bar that I had heard about from a UN worker we had met at dinner. I went in and ordered a beer at the bar. There were no seats available, so I hovered over a bunch of Bhutanese guys playing a dice game at the bar. In time, I joined right into their circle. A couple of them had been to America and spoke excellent English. I ended up staying there for several hours chatting and laughing and enjoying their dice game. They music got louder and the bar busier as the night when on. They professed to a love for Bob Dylan and had the Travelling Willburys blaring full blast on the CD player. A song came on that was very country and western-sounding (turns out it was still the TWs) and they all started singing along at the top of their lungs. I found this to be quite a surreal situation: sitting in a tiny bar in Bhutan with a bunch of guys playing a dice game and singing country and western music at the top of their lungs. I looked around and said "Where am I?" because it was just so strange. One of the guys answered "Kapuskasing". I asked him to repeat it, so he did. I said "How do you know where Kapuskasing is?". He then made reference to Huntsville, Nipising, Moosonee and Antigonish. After some questioning, he said he had spent a lot of time in Ontario and that he had a 13-year-old son in Toronto. I asked him if his wife's name was Jamie Zeppa and he said yes. Of course I quizzed him and tried to catch him out, but he appeared to be the real thing. So my surreal situation just got weirder: I was now sitting in a tiny bar in Bhutan with a bunch of guys (one of which was Jamie Zeppa's husband) playing a dice game and singing country and western at the top of their lungs. It was a very cool evening.

(For those of you who don't know, Jamie Zeppa is a woman from Sault Ste. Marie who went to Bhutan about 15 years ago to teach primary school in a small village. She later taught in a college, married one of her students and had a son with him. She wrote a book about this part of her life which everyone who plans to go to Bhutan reads at some point. )

My travelling companions and me: I have found that moments of clarity often arrive not during the events that trigger them but rather in an airplane seat days later when I'm sipping a glass of wine and mulling over my adventures. Such was the case with this trip. After 30 days with the same six people, I started to see myself mirrored in their faces. I saw traits that I hope I possess, traits that I hope someday I may possess and others that I hope I have left behind. My travelling companions tought me something about the kind of person I would like to be, and maybe even pushed me down the right path a bit. At the very least, I am armed with new insight and new direction.

No experience is ever a waste of time and I'm happy to say that even with the fairly serious disappointments I faced in the last month, I came out ahead on this one. I have yet to decide if I will ever return to Bhutan and take another stab at entering the elusive Lunana valley. I'll need to let some time go by and hopefully the sharp edges of the experience will soften. Even if I never see Lunana, I'll carry some great memories of Bhutan with me.

Bhutan 2

I'm not sure where to start. The beginning of my trip to Bhutan feels like it happened about a year ago. I have decided to break this blog up into at least two posts. One of which will describe the chronology of events and the other will describe my impressions of the country and my experiences. I fear that if I try to combine everything into one narrative, it will grow into a wild and unwieldy beast and you'll never be able to figure out what happened. I guess it's the business writer in me taking over. So here goes the story...

I arrived in Paro and met up with my fellow trekkers. They were: Toni, a 50-something social worker from Hamilton; Brendan, a 34 year-old accountant from Toronto; Carol, a 50-something geologist from Calgary; Amy, a 27 year-old patent lawyer from Boston; Bob, a retired jam-maker from Niagara-on-the-lake (anyone ever hear of Greaves jam?); and Roland, a 30-something telecom manager from Sweden. We were all planning to complete the fabled Snowman trek except Roland who would leave the trek half way through due to time constraints.

The Snowman trek is actually made up of three parts. The Jolumahari trek usually lasts about 5 days and takes trekkers from Paro up to Jolumahari mountain and back. This is basically a trek that goes into and out of the Himalaya range fairly quickly. The Laya-Gasa trek is another 6 days or so and also goes into and out of the Himalaya range fairly quickly. Our plan was to climb into the Himalayas once and pass through both of these regions. We would then continue on into the Lunana valley which is protected by high passes at either end, as well as a handful of passes within its confines. We would finally leave the mountains at the far end of Lunana.

As mentioned in my last blog, we did a day trek to the Tiger's Nest monastery on our first day in Bhutan. This was spectacular and a wonderful start to our trip. The next day we started our Snowman trek. There were a few things about this trip that were different and somewhat disconcerting right from the beginning. First, I found it virtually impossible to carry on a conversation with our guide. His English was poor, but other than that, he was just very hard to talk to. When he did speak, he was unable to communicate his ideas in any kind of coherent format. The other odd thing was that we used animal porters instead of humans, which was new to me. The plan was that we would take horses as far as Laya and we would then change to yaks as they thrive in the higher altitudes. This meant that our staff consisted only of one guide (Kinley), a cook (Atchula) and 3 kitchen helpers as well as one or two animal handlers. This is a much smaller entourage that when human porters are carrying the load. It means that there are less people around who know the trails and can help out in an emergency.

The first few days were fairly easy and we were below the tree line so we hiked in the bush. While there are some differences, it was very reminiscent of the Gatineau hills or Algonquin park. There were lots of pine and spruce trees, as well as deciduous tress. Spanish moss hung everywhere, and we constantly followed a beautiful river. We shared the trail with a couple of other groups doing the Jolumanhari trek.

Sidebar: In preparation of my trip, I had downloaded a screensaver of Bhutan from the National Geographic website. I had no idea of where this photo was taken, only that it was of Bhutan.

On the third day of the trek we rounded a corner to arrive in camp and I was staring at my screensaver. It was absolutely beautiful - it turns out that the photo is of a ruin at the base of Jolumahari mountain. We stayed an extra rest day here and did a day hike to a nearby lake on the rest day.

Over the next few days, we continued to gain altitude and the terrain changed. We came out above the trees and caught sight of some incredible mountains. We woke to frost on the tents and spectacular views. We camped by the river and on a couple of occasions were in small villages where we played with the children and even managed to have a beer once. We crossed a couple of 16,000' passes during this time and it appeared that we were all acclimatizing well, although some of us did so at a slower pace than others. A couple of times we camped below the tree line, and on those nights we had bonfires. As the weather got colder, it became increasingly clear that Kinley was not properly outfitted for the trek. He only had a pair of jeans, a long-sleeved t-shirt and a cloth jacket (like a golf jacket). I gave him a pair of gloves, and Brendan gave him some pants and a jacket. I also mended the zipper on his sleeping bag, which was broken and therefore not providing him with any warmth. He told me that he was only given one day's notice to prepare for the trip and that he wasn't able to go home to pack. His boss was supposed to have picked up his gear from his home town but hadn't done it. We later found out that this was a lie and that he had had a month to prepare.

On day 10 we arrived in Laya, which is a signficant town, and bought a couple of boxes of beer. We had the top floor of a house at our disposal, so we rigged up Amy's iPod to a radio and got a party going. There was much merriment, dancing and singing. The next day was a rest day, so we were able to buy heated water for a sponge bath and to wash out some clothing. I explored the village and enjoyed the rest.

We awoke the next morning to a snowstorm. Visibility was bad, but it was fairly warm so the snow wasn't staying on the ground. Strangely, when we left Laya, we were still using horses to carry our gear, although it was clear that we should have changed to yaks here. It was a long day of uphill trekking and we dropped Roland off about 3 hours into it. He was heading out via Gasa to continue his travels in Nepal. At the end of the day we arrived in Rodufu where there is an empty building in the middle of a field. This was our last camp before we went to the high camp just before the pass into Lunana. We arrived in snow, although very little of it was staying on the ground. The building there was built by the government for the local yak herders to use. It is in the traditional Bhutanese style, although there was no glass in the windows. There are some half-walls which sort of segregated it into rooms, and there was stone fire pit right in the middle of the main room. It offered some protection from the elements, but very little warmth. Our crew cleaned it up for us and pitched our tents inside. We were told that we would probably be joined by the yak herders who would sleep there after crossing the pass on their way from Lunana.

We had our dinner and were then joined by our "hosts" the yak herders. They came in, built a very smoky fire and refused to close the door as they felt they needed the draft to keep the fire going. None of us could figure out why the cold air that was pouring in through the windows wasn't sufficient, but apparently it wasn't good enough for the yak herders. They prepared and cooked their food wherever they happened to be sitting, and just left their waste where it lay. Imagine your worst vision of viking looters and you'll get the idea. They were loud and boisterous all night, not that any of us would have slept anyway as we kept our hiking poles close at hand as weapons. The next morning we awoke to them pulling chunks of wood out of the walls to feed the fire. Bob started to confront them about this, and Kinley finally informed us that they were considered barbarians by both the government and the people of Bhutan. We kept very quiet from then on and were really happy to see them leave.

Meanwhile, it had been snowing all night. There still was very little snow coverage on the ground, but it was enough for Kinley to persuade us to wait a day before going up to high camp. We had a few buffer days built into our program so this wasn't a problem. Long after this decision was made, we found out that all our horses had run away in the night, so our rest day was not really due to weather after all, but to give the horse herded a chance to find his animals. This was another of many lies that we were told by our staff.

We were concerned that if the snow didn't stop, we would be unable to continue into Lunana, so we sat down with our guide books and devised an alternate plan. If we had to abort the trek due to bad weather, we would spend our time exploring the cultural sights of Bhutan. We used the satellite phone to call the tour company in Canada to find a weather report for the region. He checked the satellite weather images and assured us that the snow would end shortly and that there was nothing but blue skies following that. We used up one of the satellite phone batteries to make this call and discovered that the other two batteries were also dead. Kinley had assured us that he had charged all the batteries in Laya, but this proved to be another lie. We were now without any communication with the outside world. Amy had a solar battery charger with her, and we hoped to use it to recharge the batteries if and when the sun shone again. Fortunately the barbarians did not return for the night and we spent a much more pleasant evening and even got some sleep.

Although it had snowed through the night, we awoke to beautiful clear skies. The sun started melting the inch or so of snow immediately. The horseman had finally recovered his horses and we also had a few yaks at our disposal. All seemed to be in place for us to head to high camp and hopefully cross the pass into Lunana. At this point, our entire team tried to discourage us from proceeding. They insisted that there was much more snow at the pass and that we'd never make it across. Even if we did, there was every chance that we'd get caught in Lunana valley and not be able to cross the pass at the far end. If this happened, we'd have to winter there (about 3 months). This is a valid concern and has happened to other groups in the past. Still, we wanted to see the pass for ourselves, as there was certainly not enough snow at Rodufu to support this claim. We decided to head up to high camp.

At this point, Brendan and Amy decided that they would not continue with us. They were concerned that we only had one guide, that we didn't have a satellite phone, that there were only enough yaks to carry supplies for one day (more yaks were supposed to be on the way) , that the guide had no medical or emergency training and that we were heading into the most remote inhabited place on the planet. They claimed that if we were reading about this in a book, we would have thought the trekkers were insane to continue. They were absolutely right. We stopped our trekking to discuss our options. Would the group split up and half of us go to high camp to check out the situation? Could we let Amy and Brendan descend without a guide? This was an incredibly emotional discussion for many of us, as the money and time invested were huge and for some the opportunity to do the Snowman trek would never come again. To abort now was a devastating blow. While we were having this discussion, Kinley arrived to tell us that the yak herder was refusing to go forward into Lunana. Everyone (including Kinley) agreed that the weather was not a deterrent at this point, and that the yak herder was clearly in breach of contract. We had no choice but to abort the trek and descend. The mood was grim on the way down and many tears were shed.

We retraced our steps down trail that day and over the next few days we exited the Himalayas. We encoutered other groups who were doing the Laya-Gasa and the Jolumahari treks, and it turns out that we were famous in the Bhutanese trekking community as the 6 poor Canadians who were living a trekking disaster.

When we arrived in Gasa two days later, we were able to use a phone to call our company in Canada and voice our complaints. We decided to proceed with our alternate plan to visit some cultural sites, and we indicated that we wanted a new guide. We walked the final couple of hours to camp at the Gasa hot springs. We spent an extra day here enjoying the hot springs and the beer. We walked out the following day and were taken to a beautiful hotel in the relatively tropical town of Punhaka. At this point Carol decided to leave us and head back to Canada immediately. She was hoping to get a contract and start earning back some of the money she had wasted on this trip. The rest of us sat down with Pem, the owner of the Bhutanese tour company to go over our plans.

Much to our surprise, Amy and Brendan decided that they did not want to follow the itinerary for the cultural tour that we had put together as a group. As a result, we ended up splitting up. Toni and I headed east to follow the itinerary, and Amy, Brendan and Bob headed to Thimpu (the capital city) to shop for 5 days.

Much to my dismay, Kinley was sent east with Toni and I, while the others were attended to by Pem, who was waiting on them hand and foot to try to make ammends for the trekking mess. I understand that they had a fabulous time in Thimpu. For our part, Toni and I also had some excellent experiences, but really struggled with Kinley. We determined that he is not only ill-equipped as a trekking guide, but has the intellectual and emotional capacity of an 8-year-old. He provided no benefit to our trip and in fact detracted from it in many ways.

We spent our first morning in Punhaka as a group. We visited the dzong there, and Pem gave us a fabulous tour. Unfortunately, some bug caught up with me that day so I spent the afternoon using buckets, toilets, towels and anything else at my disposal trying to wrangle the various fluids that were all exiting my body simultaneously. By dinner time I started a course of Cipro which had me feeling much better by morning.

Toni and I left the next day and headed out to Trongsa. The dzong here is spectacular and although we were not allowed in the temple, we did get to explore it a bit. There was a national level archery game happening right outside the dzong so we got to watch that for a while. It was much more entertaining that you'd expect. Our hotel overlooked the dzong and we had spectacular views from our bedroom. The hotel owner was very bright and spent some time with us discussion politics and the upcoming elections. (The king will pass on the crown to his son in 2008 at the same time as declaring the Bhutan a democratic monarchy. Bhutanese will vote for the first time.)

The next day we drove to Jakar in the Bumthang region. We arrived here to find that they were having their annual tsechu (festival). We spent the afternoon at the dzong watching the dances and enjoying the environment. The woman who owned the guesthouse we were staying at is a weaver and makes some beautiful textiles. She was a wealth of information on her textiles as well as many things Bhutanese. The next day she dressed us up in kira (the traditional local dress) so that we would fit in at the tsechu. We certainly made a splash. In the afternoon we explored some of the local monasteries, many of which carry great significance. The following day we returned to Thimpu to join the others.

When we met up with Pem we expressed our discontent with Kinley, which clearly didn't endear ourselves to her. She told us that he was the best guide they had and that she wouldn't be able to find anyone better. We told her that we'd rather be left without a guide than have to spend our time with him. The next day Pem spent part of the afternoon with us, and grudingly provided us with some guidance to the city. Later that day, Kinley showed up at the hotel, presumably after having been fired and tried to solicit tips from everyone. He then called up to our room to yell at Toni for losing him his job and to tell her that she had been a troublemaker from the beginning. It was just one more thing that made us wonder about his sanity - Toni was no more a troublemaker than any of us were. He had singled her out on the whole trip for some unknown reason. Needless to say, he didn't get a tip from any of us. That night we said our goodbyes to Amy, Brendan and Bob who were leaving for Paro the next day.

The following day, Toni and I were scheduled to go for a day hike. We were preparing to leave and Pem approached Toni to say that we weren't going anywhere until we filed a formal complaint against Kinley. We woke up the others and sat down as a group to write the letter. We then left for our hike. Tashi, our guide was excellent, knowledeable and bright. We hiked up to a monastery where his cousin is a monk and who invited us to tea. We visited the temple while they were peforming a ceremony for a monk who had passed away, so we got to witness that as well. It was very moving. We then hiked across a ridge to another monastery, had our lunch in the yard and then visited the temple. Everyone was very generous and gracious towards us. After the hike, Teshi took us to his father's house where they were celebrating the annual puja (blessing ceremony). Every year each family has the monks come to their home to bless the house and the inhabitants. It was another great experience.

The following day we were assigned a new guide, Rinzin, who was also excellent. No matter what we threw at him, he was able to provide information and to communicate it well. We visited a couple of sights in Thimpu and then shopped for the afternoon. We preferred to do this alone, but Rinzin would have none of that. We practically had to hog tie him to get him to let us out of his sight for a couple of hours. The freedom was magnificent.

The following day we returned to Paro and the day after that we flew out of Bhutan.

I know this has been very long-winded but I have truly hardly scratched the surface. I need a rest so will sign off for now and come back tomorrow to write another post. I also got my photos on DVD so will try to get a few uploaded as well.