Punakha, Bhutan

I wasn't that fussed about coming to Punakha tonight. I heard 'blah blah blah 5 degrees hotter than Thimphu' but we are stopping here on the way to the school because the road is quite bad at the moment, makes it tough to get all the way to the school in one day.

I also wasn't that fussed about the golden bhudda this morning either, but it was pretty spectacular. You've got to hand it to religion for getting impressive edifices built.

Me taking a picture of Nema taking a picture of my travelling companion

And also, I got to see a little kid in a gho (traditional dress) which pretty much exploded my head with the cute.

It was a bit slow and bumpy on the road to Punakha because of all the road works (they are widening the east-west road [there is only the one] from one lane to two by carving the second lane out of the cliff). We stopped at the pass, I can't remember what it was called because I hadn't had lunch and I am no good for anything if I skip meals, but there were 108 of those white things (something to do with religion) and the queen mother had it made in 2000 and something after a war to drive (Indian militia?) out of Bhutan.

There were magnolia trees for a while at that altitude (really high), and I thought of grandma because they were her favourite.

Karma (one of the organisers) was driving us and he taught me how to count and praised me for my language efforts thus far (hello, thank you, good luck, delicious, rhododendron) and taught me how to say 'very delicious'.

I took this picture of a tractor because I like tractors and it gives you a bit of an idea of how the road is. I didn't even take a picture of the holy spring we stopped at and all the people selling vegetables around it or the man having a wash under it because I was so 'whatever' with hunger, but I took a picture of the tractor. That is how much I like tractors.

And then we arrived at Punakha (Lobsa Hotel) and I damn near lost my mind when we got in the hotel room. I feel like my whole life has been leading up to the moment when I walk into a room and there is a swan made out of towels on the end of the bed and teddy is sitting on the pillow. Respect, Bhutan.

And the valley is stunning.

And the toilet has a view.

And I carefully unfolded the towels and took photos to work out how to do it so that from now on all of my towels for ever will look like swans.

Dinner was a buffet and I got to try momo (dumplings) with chili paste (delicious, I started to eat one before I took the photo, I was pretty hungry) and red rice and chilis in cheese (not that hot actually). Then there were a range of crunchy seasonal vegetables and pumpkin and fiddle head ferns (they don't taste as exciting as they look, but they're still good).

I didn't get to take any photos of the phalluses painted on the walls (there were hairy ones and anatomically improbable ones and stylised ones), but I there are carved wooden ones about the hotel. I'll put them in a separate post so that no one gets any surprise penis photos.

We will be coming through 'Fertility Village' on the way back so I'll 'be able to take as many pictures of them as I want'.

Dogs in the Himalays give zero f@$ks

This dog at the Kathmandu airport doesn't care about your baggage trolleys

This dog in Thimphu doesn't care about your cars

First day photo dump, Thimphu Bhutan

Bhutan Air carry on baggage tag

Bhutan Air snack and snack bag

Coming in to Paro. Very spectacular introduction to Bhutan

The mall.

A cat in a yarn and fabric shop. I pretty much wanted to spend the rest of the afternoon right there.

No traffic lights, only traffic police.

A little girl at a sweet shop.

A game called cannon ball. You use the orange token to knock the other tokens into the holes

Hairwax with garlic

Textiles shop. I wanted to buy all the things

The man in the crossing sign is wearing traditional dress. The man crossing is not.

The food is hot, damn hot! (but delicious)

Bhutan musings

I feel like we have been in Thimphu for three or four days, rather than 24hours. I've just been back to the Ambient cafe for some lunch (delicious) and a break from my travelling companion. Lunch was a salad of raw carrot, cucumber and red cabbage with sharp vinegar, a peppery mini omelette with red onion and herbs on a mound of broken rice and a bowl of black bean dal (I added chili, so good!).

The flight was delayed out of Kathmandu, so I settled in to the 'wait' mode that I found when I spent 12 hours in a bus full of fish (dried) in Madagascar. There was also one chicken. No toilet stops, no food breaks (though I did lean out the side of the bus and buy three bok bok (fluffy balls of fried dough covered in sugar) from some children at some point.

The flight was delightful (they gave us two bags of snacks), and the descent into Paro airport was spectacular. Then coming in through the airport was the fastest, cleanest, politest air travel process I've experienced. And then my bag was right there waiting after immigration.

Karma came to pick us up and the drive to Thimphu was a delight. He saw my ukulele and asked me if I could sing and said that the children would expect me to play for them, so I might get a crash course in getting comfortable playing in front of people.

He left us at our hotel, Kham Sum Inn, which is lovely. And we went straight out for a walk.

There is one main street in Thimphu, so I figured we couldn't get lost and we went for a wander. We saw the traffic police and and all the shops and some men playing a came called 'Cannonball' which is a bit like pool, but with flat discs instead of balls.

The air here is soft and clear. Out of town it smelt sweet and sometimes incense-y, in town there are open drains, so you get the pong of rotting refuse, but unlike everywhere I've been with drains like this, you also get overpowering top notes of chili. There are lots of cars, so you also get wafts of exhaust and petrol fumes. Apparently there were hardly any cars five years ago, but that has changed.

On the way home, we got lost.

Dinner was the first chance to try Bhutanese food and I ordered 'Beans Po' and was told it was quite mild. It nearly blew my head off.

Today we were being picked up to meet the program organiser at 9.30, so we headed down into town to 'Ambient cafe', which is bloody lovely. I admit that I had the granola - I struggle to be adventurous at breakfast time.

We met the organiser who is fabulous. She told us about how upset some foreigners get when they get here and everyone isn’t super happy (GNH misconceptions) and that it is not shangri la here. It sounds like the Bhutanese feel about those two things the way Australians feel about ‘oh, do you ride a kangaroo to school?’ She pointed out that even if they are bhuddist, everywhere you go people are people, most are nice, some are okay and a couple are horrible.

Then the driver came to take us Kira shopping. We need to wear formal dress at the school, we are not required to wear the Kira (national dress) because we are volunteers, not government employees like the rest of the teachers, but I decided it would be easier and cheaper than trying to get stuff at home. (I was right). Our driver helped pick colours and he has a very good eye. Every time I pointed at something he said 'no, I think this will be better.' So I think I will be far more stylish than usual.

My travelling companion was able to buy her outfits pre-made in the fabric shop, but I am too tall so we had to take uncut fabric to the tailor to have them made up. All together it will be about $50AUD for the two outfits. I'll be sure to model them for the blog once they're done.

When I write it out like this, it doesn't seem like so much, but everything I do is full of unexpected sights and sounds and the mountains are huge around us and the altitude makes even the short walk up from town hard work, I puff and carry on like little fat pony who has been out in the paddock for a month.

I don't know if they have any more planned for us today, but tomorrow we are going to go and see a bhudda (it is large and golden) then start the drive to the valley the school is in.

Now I am going to eat this ginger cookie on the bed and no one can stop me.

Karma for coins

A priest stopped me in the street yesterday and sprinkled marigold petals on my hair, put a burgundy tika on my forehead, put his hand on my head and blessed me. He told me he was giving me very good karma and was helping me on my path to nirvana.

Then he asked me for money.

And I felt like I should give him some.

Another man came up and praised me for giving money to the priest because it was very good karma and the priest would help the street children and it was a very good thing to do.

He asked me what I was doing in Nepal and when I said I was going to Bhutan to teach as a volunteer, he was even more effusive and almost couldn't express how much karma I was going to receive and what a great thing it was that I was doing.

And it made me feel better.

I have been thinking a lot about just why I'm doing this and what good it's really going to do and why couldn't I just have gone overlanding in Africa like I planned to do. I have deep reservations about what it is going to be like at the school, that have only got worse with information that has come to light in the last few days. And some how the whole karma thing has made me feel better.

Skeptical about nirvana, not about being nice to people

Nepali humus is happy humus

Kathmandu

I hadn't really thought about the fact that I would be in Kathmandu. It was just a stopping point because the flights wouldn't match up to get to Bhutan. So I didn't think about whether I needed a visa (I did, it cost $25USD [$42AUD - I should have paid in USD]) or whether I'd need rupees (not really, the hotel (Encounter) came and picked me up, and, if I wanted to eat all of my meals here, I could charge them to my room and pay all of it at the end with credit card.

It is hot, the drive from the airport was past fallen down buildings and slums and the traffic was horrendous and beggar children banged on the windows of the car trying to get me to give them money. I was pretty unhappy, but it is wonderful what dinner and a good night's sleep will do to my sense of humour and I woke up this morning in a much better frame of mind.

I went for a wander around Kathmandu today, but I can't seem to integrate photos with text, so they are all below.

We changed money at Google money exchange, but we didn't eat at Big Belly restaurant

There are lots of sparkly things strung across the streets.

The wiring is astonishing, I had to stop myself from taking pictures of just the wiring

There are temples everywhere, was this the Anapurna temple? I don't remember. Lots of them are damaged from the earthquake last April

Durbar Square.

It is super hot and I am wearing all the clothing and this dog looks how I feel

Pigeon temple?

A street scene

I'm pretty sure that is an elephant tea cosy. If I have room and the inclination on my way back from Bhutan, I'm coming back for it

This is one of the many tattoo shops. Mum will be pleased to know that I didn't stop in

I warned you about the wiring photos, right?

I don't want to bring a mask home, and I don't know that customs would let me, but I do like them

Phobjika School in Wangdu

It is one week and four hours until I head off.

I will be at the Phobjika School in Wangdu. It is about 3,000km above sea level, so it is just as well I will be stopping in Kathmandu for a couple of days (1,400km) and I think we will be spending at least a night in Thimphu (2,330km). That will be enough to adjust to the altitude, right?

I'm guessing that we will be spending a night in Thimphu. So far I only know the name of the school. I don't know what age I'll be teaching, or when exactly we get there, or where I'll be staying...

I have seen some pictures of the valley, though. From the potato sowing a few weeks ago.

Rural.

Don't buy through bestjet. Even if it seems cheaper, it's not cheaper.

I searched for flights to Kathmandu on Skyscanner which linked me up with Bestjet for the cheapest price. It all got a bit dodgy when they sent me multiple emails to verify my credit card and I told them I didn't want to go through them. They refunded my money - less a 'fee'. I managed to get the 'fee' back as well. Their final email tipped me over the edge, though.

This was their email:
Sent: Thursday, 10 March 2016, 17:55
Subject: Re: Booking Cancellation

__________________________________

Type your response ABOVE THIS LINE to reply

---

donotreply
Subject: Message from Bestjet.com: Your Order - Colquhoun-King - 4Apr16 - BJT145731672121

---

MAR 10, 2016  |  04:55PM EST
Bestjet Customer Support replied:

Hi Celia,

We have refunded your merchant fees however if you please go back through the reservation process you will note that our PAYMENT PAGE is secure and your payment most certainly is secure

Bestjet.com
Customer Support
And this my reply:

Hi there. 

Thank you for refunding the fees.

I do have to disagree with you on the security of the reservation page, it is not completely secure. And it was that, coupled with the complete lack of security on the page where I was to re-submit my details, that made me concerned that you were some sort of phishing operation and made me choose to go and buy direct from the airline, even though it cost $250 more.

Going back through the initial reservation process I get this:

Firefox - warning symbol:

Firefox - explanation:

Firefox - further explanation

Then when you click on 'Learn More' it takes you to a page that explains the risks of using the site

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/mixed-content-blocking-firefox?redirectlocale=en-US&as=u&redirectslug=how-does-content-isnt-secure-affect-my-safety&utm_source=inproduct

Including this information

I decided to go ahead with the purchase because in a moment of foolishness, thinking that I could just be extra vigilant to people trying to acquire sensitive data about me.

Then I received this:

Which at this point you must agree, seems pretty dodgy. And if you open any of them you get an email that looks pretty suspicious if you are already concerned about phishing

The link from that email takes you to a page to fill in personal details that has no security on it whatever

At that point I called your help line and was told that the only way to verify my details was through this website, so I changed the http to https myself and set about doing what I was asked, even though all the alarm bells were ringing, and THEN the photos wouldn't upload and the website had a pop up message saying I had to email them. I called back to find out about this and the person on the phone wasn't sure about it and I decided I'd rather pay an extra $250 dollars to buy from the airline and pay whatever this has cost me in time and telephone calls than go through with the purchase.

Also, when people answer the help line they don't use their name, they just say 'hello, how can I help you' which adds to the impersonal spam/scam like feeling of the whole process. 'Hello, this is Sally speaking, how may I help you' would be a big improvement. 

I was going to go back through and show you the whole process in Google is the same, but the fit of pique set off by 'your payment most certainly is secure' is fading. 

I can't believe I've spent this much time trying to help you appear less dodgy.

Celia

Moral of the story - read the reviews on Bestjet before you next search for flights so that you are not tempted to buy through them. I did get all of my money back, but the whole process was a giant, anxiety-ridden, pain in the bum.

A month in Bhutan

I've applied to go teach in a rural school in Bhutan with the Bhutan-Canada foundation for a month. I know almost nothing about what is going to happen. It is going to cost a fair bit and it is going to eat up all everything I saved to go on an overlanding tour in West Africa later in the year.

Do I remember how to teach? Will there be electricity? What if teaching wipes me out again? Why am I doing this?