Nepal & Bhutan

 Twice a year there is a dance festival held at Jakar Dzong , a fortress in the Bumthang region.  Dancer are dressed in beautiful festival clothes and wear masks, some of which are quite scary.  The dancing goes on most of the day but we chose to attend for a few hours in the morning.  I also so mention that the rain from yesterday continued today.   There were lots of onlookers, both local and tourists, so finding a place to take pictures was a challenge.  A very steep ladder led to more perimeter viewing.  I finally found a place in a corner on the main dance area and a local even gave me a cushion to sit on.   In between the main dances there were also dances by locals that didn’t involve masks.  Children also participated in the dancing.  One of the characters looked a little like a devil but I think he was actually more of a trickster.  These dancers roamed among the crowd to collect donations.  Also happening at the same ...

 This morning we had our first review of our photos that we’ve taken so far.  Everyone is getting really great stuff.  It helps when you’re visiting such interesting places! The plan was for us to take a less than one hour flight today to Bumthang this afternoon.  However, the rain and low lying fog meant that flights into Bumthang were cancelled for today.  On to plan B.  We stopped for a quick lunch in town and started our 9 hour drive west.  It appeared that there are no straight roads in Bhutan which explains why a one hour flight equates to a 9 hour drive.  Everyone kept a good attitude which helped. To pass the time most of us donned headphones to either listen to music or books.  I was near the back of the bus which I count as a blessing because I couldn’t see exactly how bad the driving conditions were.  I kept thinking about newspaper headlines where a bus full of tourists plunges over a cliff and are killed on impact.  The...

 Another early morning, we left early to head to the airport for our flight to  Paro Bhutan .  While the airport doesn’t offer many services there is a nice lounge available to Priority Pass holders.  They served a fairly nice breakfast buffet.  Afterwards we went through our second security check to arrive at our gate where they were already boarding passengers on a bus to the plane.  We made it but didn’t have a lot of time to spare.   The approach into  Paro airport  is considered one of the hardest in the world.  The pilots must weave among mountains as they make their final approach.  There’s only about 50 pilots in the world that can fly into Paro.  Because it was a cloudy day we didn’t get the full effect of the approach.   After gathering our luggage, we boarded a bus for our visit to  Paro Dzong .  Originally a fortress built in the 17th century it now serves as a monastery.  The architecture was qu...

 After yesterday’s failed attempt we were assured that the festival was actually happening today.  We left the hotel early to head to Kamal Pokhara lake where the  Chhat Festival  was in its fourth and final day.  Women gather on the banks of the river to make offerings to the rising sun by pouring milk over food offerings.  They also get in the lake to offer prayers for their children or particular needs they might have.  Fireworks are also used during the offerings.  When the celebration was over we drove to  Swayambhnath  also known as the monkey temple.  It quickly apparent where the name comes from as we took the steps up into the temple.  Monkeys were everywhere, on trees, the stupa, the ground, anywhere we could think of.  This Hindu temple sits on top of a hill which affords beautiful views of the valley.   Our final visit for the day Patan and the  The Golden Temple .  Because we had skipped breakfa...

 One of our guides had been told that there was to be a water ceremony this morning at sunrise so we had planned an early start so we could attend.  However, it turned out to be a false start with the ceremony taking place the next day.  We all were still in jet lag mode so it didn’t make a lot of difference what time we got up! Our first stop this morning was Bhaktapur Durbar Square .  Durbar generally means palace, so this square once was the residence of the Kings of Nepal.  Earthquakes over the years have caused much damage to the temple complex but there’s been restoration projects to reverse some of it.  Because we arrived early we got to see people praying at the various shrines scattered throughout the complex.  Incense is prominently used as well has paint to adorn the worshipper’s head.  The people are very friendly and willing to have the photos taken although they won’t turn down a ‘donation’ if offered.  We ate breakfast at the S...

 This is one of our more exotic trips in my mind.  Nepal and Bhutan sound like they are from a part of the world that very few venture to.  This is also going to be one of my longest trips (including a separate trip to Thailand) weighing in at 25 days. To get here we flew from Dallas to Doha and then in to Kathmandu.  Because of our twelve hour layover we booked a room in the Doha airport which gave us time to refresh and grab a few zzz’s before continuing on our trip.  The Doha airport is new and big and full of people using it has a hub point.  If you’re a shopper you should plan on bringing an empty suitcase because there’s an abundance of shopping opportunities. A four hour flight took us to our home for the next several days, Kathmandu.  Most of our group, including our instructor Ira Block, were arriving a couple of days early to get acclimated before our workshop official begins.  We had previously traveled with all but one of the participa...