Bhutan, plus tons of pictures

Hi all,

We had a fantastic time in Bhutan. truly one of those once in a lifetime experiences and we lucked out big ime with accomidations and guides.

Bhutan breakdown
For those that don't know how it all works, Bhutan just rececently, and very cautiously, opened it's doors to foriegners and tourism. Seeing how overrun with tourism Nepal and Tibet have become, Bhutan wanted to do things a bit different. So basically, you can only come into the country with an approved guiding organization with a flexible itinerary and it costs about $250/day/person to be there. Now while that seems a bit much, it's actually great value for what you're getting. You work out you're itinerary with your guides, they spend all day with you driving around and giving history and answering ALL of your questions. Plus we got mammoth portions of food for all of our meals.
Since we could only do 5 days it was a bit rushed and we tried to cram as much in as possible. we got up early most days and we were exhausted by the end.
Not only did we see some incredible architecture, but we also got a 5 day crash course in Buddhism as went to some very holy sites. Here are some highlights of the stuff we saw (plus there are some pics below)
- Saw some cool fortresses and monasteries. we had one of those "National Geographic" momets where we stepped into a monastery and there were about 40 monks praying and chanting and it felt very surreal. Unfortunatly we couldn't take a picture there.
-Spen a night in a proper, 400 year old farmhouse and ate with th family. It was amazing. It was like going back in time. They only got electricity 4 years ago, no water pumped into the house. Pictures show the woman churning butter, then she proceeded to make cheese with the leftover whey. Then the liquid left from that they drink. We tasted it, not very pleasing to the western palate but they love it.
-Hot stone bath after a 10 hour hike. The rocks get heated in a fire then put in water. The water gets pumped into a wooden bath filled with herbs. Imagine sitting in a bamboo hut, in the hot bath, drinking ara (distilled wheat wine). Not too shabby.
-10 hour trek from the farmhouse back to town. Straight uphill for about 6 hours till we reached a monastery. They had hired a man just to carry the food, poor bugger. It was no ordinary picnic. Food galore with lots leftover.
-Each lunch was like a feast. Maybe they think westerners eat a lot, but one meal we counted 8 small dishes, plus rice, plus dessert and fruit. There is a picture of that one. We just kept laughing at how the food just kept coming and coming.
-Private concert by a few people of a performing group. Our driver told a few lies to get us in to see some traditional musical instruments. The leader of the group used to be the best guitarist and singer in the country. Jon got to try out the guitar which was beautifully painted and shaped like a dragon.

We could go on forever about 5 days but the pictures should speak for themselves. We didn't even put all of them on because Jon has a picture limit as he has to do all the coding for the pics and it takes a while.

On to Japan tomorrow (we changed our itinerary a bit). Can't wait for that one! Although Gay is starting to not hate Bangkok so much. How can you hate a place where you can buy two shirts for $2?

Pictures

Bali

Thailand

Bhutan