Bhaktapur, Nepal & Trip Musings

So our last day in Nepal was spent in a town just outside of Kathmandu with a really neat “old town”. As I just found out from online research, Bhaktapur has been settled since around 1000 AD.

It is known for its woodcarving…

… and temples -

This Nyatapola Temple is one of only two five-story temples in the the Kathmandu Valley, and is the tallest building in Bhaktapur, as well as the tallest temple in Nepal, at 108 ft. It was built in 1702, and has withstood 4 major earthquakes.

Many temples and buildings in the various squares were unfortunately destroyed or damaged in both 1833 and 1934 by earthquakes…

… and you can see both old and restored buildings side-by-side throughout the city -

There was also a major earthquake in 2015, and reconstruction continues…

I happened upon this neat shop during our wanderings -

This Peacock Window dates from the early 15th century, and I found it by perusing Google Maps for places to see as we explored -

Speaking of earthquake damage, I’m not sure I’d visit this second story -

Some beautiful stone and bronze work -

Here was something that made us laugh. This couple had their wedding photo engagement crashed by some Asian tourists! (so of course I had to grab a photo too)

An interesting tidbit about Nepal — nearly all buildings, and even rooms in hotels and tea houses, are secured with a sliding bolt and padlock, from the very simple…

… to quite ornate -

Odds and Ends from the Trip 

 With the extreme differences in altitude and geography during this trip, at times we forgot that we had started off by diving!  That made some folks a little bit crabby: 

Midway through Bhutan, we visited the country’s tallest statue of Buddha, which is over 50 meters/170 feet tall, and watches over the capital of Thimphu:

Our flights on this trip were uneventful despite traveling in the Himalayas—albeit with one exception.  Our Bhutan domestic flight from Bumthang to Paro (as part of our return to Kathmandu for the trek) was cancelled due to wind concerns.  Thus, we unexpectedly received the opportunity to travel 300 kilometers by car that day—which was around 50% of the width of the country.  Between that and our other automotive travels, we are comfortable in agreeing with our guide that the country does not have a single traffic light!  Overall, Bhutanese roads were in good condition, and I don’t know that we heard more than a handful of horns over the 17 days we were there. (Nepal, on the other hand….)

Another interesting thing, which apparently is consistent with Indian practice as well, is that the people in both Bhutan and Nepal commonly eat without utensils—even when dinner consists of rice heavy meals with sauces.  At first, this struck us as a bit strange, but we quickly became used to it.

Lisa previously provided many beautiful pictures of towering mountains from our trek.  Just how high were they?  During the trek, we saw ten separate mountains that were at least 6500 meters (21,325 feet) tall--more than 1000 feet higher than Mount McKinley (Denali)!

The trek also made us realize how lucky we all are to live in wealthy countries.  As you could see by the previous pictures of porters carrying such things as construction supplies and water tanks up the mountain (and, in one unphotographed case, a queen size mattress!), mechanical assistance is at a premium in Nepal.  Even our guide, however, was surprised at one instance of human ingenuity overcoming the lack of a donkey or ox:

Two things that surprised me about this trip were: 1)Both Nepal and Bhutan have rhinos and elephants in their low-altitude southern regions (I’ve always just thought of them as being the home of towering mountains); and 2) Both countries, despite their snow-capped peaks are basically in the same latitude as Florida—with most of our travels ranging between the latitudes of Orlando and Tampa.

Finally, in a 2022 post, we remarked that because of the impact of tectonic forces under the Andes, the patron saint of Colombia should be “Our Lady of Perpetual Construction.”  To which Nepal says “Let me introduce you to Lord Vishwakarma, our god of engineering and construction.”  Between the forces uplifting the Himalayas and the annual monsoons that attack the most recent improvements, the roads all seem to be under repair and construction—and progress is slow.  Our 190 Km (118 Mile) trip from Chitwan National Park to Bhaktapur on the main highway took 6 hours…  And when you got off the main highway in the mountains, things became interesting:

 Luckily, the jeep driver in that video was a local who knew the road and his vehicle well.  Over the course of a 2 hour drive, we were comfortable even as he took phone calls, and drove with one hand in our seatbelt-less vehicle!  Perhaps someone was looking over us that day:

In any event, that is it for this trip, and we will be back with something completely different in the not too distant future.

Chitwan National Park

This is the first national park of Nepal, established in 1973. It is located southwest of Kathmandu, near the Indian border, and has an area of 368 sq. miles. We stayed in a hotel just outside the park, and on our first evening there, went on a walk along a river and through a local village. The rice paddies were lush and green…

… and the animals along the river…

… were quite varied -

The fearsome guy above is a Mugger Crocodile. That common name comes from the Hindi word “magar” meaning water monster. These live in fresh or stagnant water, in contrast to saltwater crocodiles. The latter have a much narrower snout.

We next encountered Eurasian Hoopoes…

… and a White-throated Kingfisher -

And just as we were about back to the hotel, we spied a mother and youngster…

… Greater One-horned Rhinoceros! We were told very emphatically by our guide that they are not called Indian rhinos.

In 1950 there were an estimated 800 rhinos in the Chitwan area, but after the area was opened to settlement by farmers, that number had dwindled to 95 by 1970. With the establishment of Chitwan park and strong anti-poaching work, their numbers are back up to near 800 again.

The next morning we went on a river in a dugout canoe -

… and silently floated by…

… our closest encounter during our entire stay.

We also saw lots of neat birds, including this uncommon Lesser Adjutant Stork…

… and this regal Little Egret -

At the Elephant Breeding Center (which breeds elephants for use by the army and park rangers), it was very difficult to see them chained up, but the 10 day old baby was pretty cute -

That afternoon we were to go on a jeep safari, but even before we boarded the jeep, the river treated us to another mother and youngster…

… as well as a Gharial, another type of crocodile -

Our guide told us they need fresh, flowing water, rather than the stagnant water that the Muggers prefer. We visited the breeding center in Chitwan, where eggs laid in the wild are collected and hatched, and the gharials are allowed to grow undisturbed for 5-6 years before being released. This species is considered critically endangered.

Ok, back to the jeep safari…

(of course a reflection) :)

We saw several large herds of Spotted Deer, which are fairly small (see how they compare to the peacock in the next picture)…

… while they sport quite impressive antlers -

when they raise their heads, the tips of the antlers nearly reach their tail!

On our second afternoon, we had another jeep safari in a different portion of the park, and we came close to three different rhinos deep in the bush -

This was my attempt at video -

(as usual, click the link at the bottom of the email to watch the video in your browser)

We also spied some Black-faced Langurs…

… with their amazing tails -

Since I don’t have a spectacular ending photo, I’ll just wish you a happy roll-in-the-mud!

Last word on Nepal trekking

I’ll open with the flag, so I don’t forget to share -

It’s the world’s only non-rectangular flag. The red stands for bravery and the rhododendron, the national flower, while the blue border represents peace. The moon and the sun are included in hopes that Nepal will have the same longevity.

Ok, back to hiking… we took a last look around at the pass, before tackling the descent. At the pass, we actually didn’t know what the back side was going to be like until we were in the thick of it. It was steep, with innumerable switchbacks loaded with snow and ice. It was also beautiful.

These shale looking hills with glaciers behind them were striking -

Speaking of “hills”… our guide told us that, in Nepal, names are only given to mountains higher than 7000 meters. All the others are just hills. :)

As we continued descending, we started to see trees again -

Just to summarize… the day of the Pass crossing, we hiked a total of 22 km (13.67 miles), taking 12 hours (including an hour break for lunch), while ascending 2,000 ft, then descending 5,000 ft. Whew! Did we sleep well that night!

Above is the little village we spent the night in, and you can see the mountains we descended from, while the next picture shows the view we had as we left the next morning -

Now, this day’s hike was probably my favorite of the whole trek. We were heading down and out of altitude (no more thin air and panting), the pines surrounding us were bathing us in fantastic aromas, and flowers started showing up.

Rhododendrons, cherry blossoms and ‘old man’s beard/Spanish moss’

We had already seen the bright red rhododendrons, but when we saw magenta…

… and then pink…

… I was in seventh heaven! I had already resigned myself to only seeing a few red rhododendrons, because we were too early for the hillsides to be covered in the variety of colors I was dying to see. Needless to say, I was a happy woman… until I saw what the trail was like ahead -

There had been multiple rock- and landslides…

… but luckily, plenty of boots had trod a fairly well demarcated path until we got to…

There actually was a trail there, heading upwards in the sand, but I sure didn’t like walking on a thin ledge of shifting sand that was only as wide as one boot -

This was truly the hairiest part of the whole trek!

Here are some random pics that didn’t fit the storyline, but I wanted to share -

Our stats summary - 11 days of hiking, totaling 148 km (92 miles), starting at 930 m (3051 feet) elevation and peaking at 5130 m (16,831 feet).

Keep on Trekking...

As we descended from the yak pastures and the Pungan Gompa monastery, we passed a herd of Himalayan Tahr (mountain goats). The males are much hairier and with bigger horns…

… than the females -

We had not only donkeys pass us on the trail, but yaks too. (another video here, so click the link at the bottom of the post to open it in your browser so you can watch)

(note the variety of horn sizes and orientations above)

Now a few words on accommodations on the trek. We were told we’d be staying in “tea houses” but had no idea what that meant, other than it wasn’t camping in tents. We had to provide our own toilet paper, shampoo and soap for the trip, as well as bring our own towels. A ‘luxurious’ room would have a double bed and in room electric socket to charge our devices, while less fancy places had a bed and hopefully an “en suite” bathroom -

For those who might not recognize it, the attached bathroom above had a squat toilet. These are everywhere in Nepal, and our thighs got very strong on this trek! Sinks and running water are a rarity, and soap and towels are not to be found. Locals think nothing of running their hands under a pipe at the side of a trail and then letting them airdry in freezing temps. We were lucky to have hot showers at a number of our stays, but most of the time, they were in a separate shed away from our room, and if there was a window, it was just a square opening in the wall with minimal cover over it. Try getting all wet standing on a cold concrete floor with 40 degree wind blowing on you, and I’ll bet you won’t be too happy with your “hot” shower. So we treated this trip as glorified camping (but definitely not glamping). Nicely, every bed had clean sheets and comforters with clean duvets, even if none had heat.

On an acclimatization day, we stayed at our tea house (at 12,000 ft) for 2 nights, and only took a short hike to Biendra Lake (above). There we met a cute little guy sharpening his pencil to practice writing his English letters -

We also strolled through the village, discovering that the locals lived in the house level above the yaks and chickens in the yard, and laundry was always hung out to dry everywhere on a sunny day -

This was also where we saw yak dung drying on walls…

… and higher up the trail warmed up next to stoves in tea houses (above the treeline) powered by dried patties.

Our hiking next led us to a stop around 12,700 ft where we did a short walk above the village…

… to sit and watch for marmots -

We were surprised at how stocky and muscular they were -

From what I read about Himalayan Marmots - they are among the largest in the world, weighing 9-20 lbs! I found their long tails, legs and toes fascinating.

Onward and upward was the plan every day. Our itinerary originally had us spend another rest day at this altitude, but because we hadn’t developed any signs of altitude sickness, and the weather was forecast to be great for the next 2 days, our guide recommended we push on. We were game for this, so we just kept climbing…

… past glacial moraines…

… until we found the Stairway to Heaven. :)

At this altitude, we were just crawling up the mountain. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other at an unbelievably slow pace (about 1 mile per hour) so I wouldn’t be panting, and we always finished our planned hikes. We were among the oldest people we saw during this trek, with most hikers being 20 - 40 year olds. The younger ones would blow past us, but then take longer breaks, and we would be the turtles, just plodding by them, not stopping.

This was the camp where I started the Nepal posting…

(sorry it’s kinda distorted - I must have tapped the ultrawide option on my cellphone)

… and there definitely were no en-suite cabins. In fact, the stone hut in the left side of the picture above contained the only 2 squat toilets for the 15 or so hikers spending that night, at over 14,000 ft. Of course, that would be the night that I had to get up three times during the night!

So that we would be at the pass the next day before winds would pick up, we had to leave at 0430. Steve took a reasonably good selfie -

And we hiked on… and up … and on…

It was brutal, but gorgeous -

there were hanging glaciers everywhere we looked

The Larke La Pass was anticlimactic…

… as we still had to climb higher…

(see the tiny people near the right side of the picture?)

… before we could start to descend. Steve’s tracker marked our highest elevation gained at 5133 m (16,840 ft). Thus, this is officially the highest we have ever hiked. It took us 5 hours to get up, and more than that to descend to our tea house for the night. We were completely wiped out by a grueling descent in snow, ice and loose rocks, which made us glad we had brought micro-spikes to attach to our boots. As our toughest hike ever, we were glad that this is now in the books. I didn’t take many pictures as we cursed, slid and trudged our way down, but I’ll close with this one, and take up the rest of the story later -

(did you notice the glacier at the right side of the photo?)

Nepal Trekking

I wanted to hike in the Himalayas to truly experience their majestic and rugged beauty.  We signed up with an experienced trekking agency that was very thorough in describing the hiking, and ensuring that we had all the appropriate clothing and gear for a successful journey.  Our English speaking Nepalese guide took excellent care of us all along the way, and prepared us well for each day’s undertaking.  Our porter was a man smaller and thinner than me who carried our 50 lbs of clothing and gear along all the miles of trails that we covered.

That picture above was the first of many suspension bridges we crossed.  For our first two days, we basically parallelled the course of the Budhi Gandaki River.

I’ll summarize all the stats at the end of our trip, but just know that we covered 38 km (24.5 miles) in those first two days, and sweated a lot as we hiked.  We started at about 3,000 ft of elevation.  They grow bananas here!

The ranks of hills…

…definitely grew more imposing as we hiked on –

This was a common sight…

… and we quickly learned how to safely pass donkey trains heading at us – stay on the side of the trail that is against the mountain, so they won’t nudge you off. For the next video, click the link at the bottom of the post to open it in your browser, so you can watch it.

As that train passed us, I was telling the one donkey that got out of line and headed for me, “This is my rock and I’m staying here”.  As you probably noticed, none of the donkeys had lead ropes or were tied to another.  The driver of the train always brought up the rear, and usually there were one or two stragglers walking slowly after him.  The driver in the video said “Namaste!” as he passed.  This is a common greeting in Nepal.

one of those stragglers I mentioned

We saw several interesting things being carried by people (rather than donkeys), like rolls of tubing…

… and a large water storage container (1,000 liters) -

This bridge was called Long Bridge, and it truly was the longest one we tramped over -

Here’s another view of Long Bridge after we crossed it and continued upriver -

As we slowly climbed higher, we saw more snowy peaks -

The trek we were on was called the Manaslu Circuit. It is a less traveled trek than Everest Basecamp or the Annapurna Circuit, and that is exactly why I chose it. Mt. Manaslu is in the western portion of Nepal and is the 8th highest mountain in the world at 8163 m (26,781 ft). My favorite morning (our fourth) was when I got up to catch sunrise lighting up Manaslu…

… and the peaks around it -

That day we started by visiting a new Buddhist temple…

… that wasn’t occupied yet -

My favorite day continued with us climbing really high into yak pastures…

can you see the yaks and stupa in the lower center?

… to reach the Pungen Gompa Monastery at 13,175 ft (4016 m). The yaks were as peaceful as the surroundings -

The monastery was very simple…

… but the setting was just superb -

I’ll share more pictures in the next post, as we continued climbing ever higher.

Return to Kathmandu

As I type this post, I’m sitting looking over a desolate hillside at 14,750 ft. waiting until tomorrow morning, when we set off at 0430 to cross the Larke La Pass, at 16,751 ft.  This is the view from our (unheated) shed:

But I’m getting ahead of myself – After we flew back from Bhutan into Kathmandu again, we went on a day tour of areas in the city that we had not explored on our own.  Our first stop was the Boudhanath Stupa, the largest in Nepal and one of the largest in the world –

We had a nice breakfast in a restaurant overlooking it –

Our next area to visit was the Pashupatinath Temple, one of the most revered Hindu places in the world.  According to our guide, many Hindus try to make a pilgrimage here at least once in their life.  It was a huge complex…

… that became very crowded in places -

Also included in the complex was a crematorium…

… where we watched one family…

…send their recently departed member on to the next life –

(as usual, to watch the next video, open this post in your browser by clicking the link at the bottom of the post)

Our final place to visit was Patan Durbar Square.  We had seen the Kathmandu Durbar Square (Royal Palace), and this one was in a neighboring enclave –

There were numerous temples…

… and buildings originally built in the 1600s (but rebuilt over the years due to earthquake or fire damage) –

The actual palace grounds had been turned into a museum -

Now the next day, we set off on an 8 hr road trip to the west…

… through the Nepali countryside covered in terraces…

… and got to see rice planting –

It was actually early in spring that we arrived, and there were few fields planted and even fewer blooming plants.

We drove on rough gravel roads…

… until they literally ended in this town of Machha Khola, where we spent our first night –

As I was doing my yoga (to keep my back limber enough to withstand hiking) out in the common ground of our “tea house” (read rustic hostel), these local girls wanted to have their picture taken –

Their smiling faces are a good place to end this post.  I’ll continue our trekking adventure in the next one.

Bhutan notes continued

I always try to get a photo of a country’s flag when we visit, so here is Bhutan’s -

The “Land of the Thunder Dragon” is depicted in the center, while the yellow represents the king as head of the government, and the orange represents Buddhism and the importance of religion to the people.

Now my next topic is food, starting with growing…

because so many of the fields need to be terraced, there is little mechanization.

… selling…

This was a massive 2 story market in Thimpu, hosting local farmers, which is open daily. Note the huge bags of red chiles in that front stall.

… and serving. The Bhutanese love their chiles! The picture below depicts a typical lunch…

the dish above the rice is solely sauteed peppers (and they’re very hot!)

… with rice being the largest portion, the majority of the dishes being vegetables, and for us Westerners, a small dish of some type of protein (often so tough or dry as to be almost inedible). There are many kinds of rice grown here, with Red being the main staple –

Because we were not visiting in the height of tourist season, Steve and I would often be the only ones eating in the large hotel dining room. This felt pretty odd. We would first be approached by staff, asking if we wanted “teacoffee?” - always run together like that - and be met with surprise when we asked for cold water. Once we were brought drinking glasses filled with hot water. “Milk tea” is offered when you visit a home, or as you first come in to a hotel and are getting registered. It was not very tasty to me, but “butter tea” was better. The names of the drinks describe their ingredients.

As I mentioned in my first post, staircases are just not a thing here, unless a building was built in the last 20? yrs or so. We learned to maneuver up and down the steep ladders pretty well, but this one, in a “heritage” house (read over 100 yrs old) really tested us -

the tread was so narrow that you couldn’t fit the entire ball of your foot on it

Besides little space heaters, wood stoves are used everywhere, including in our last hotel room stay in Bumthang -

We thoroughly enjoyed a Hot Stone Bath at our farmhouse stay. To heat the bath, stones were taken from a roaring fire and dropped into the water on the other side of the wooden partition. Wow, was that hot!

The stone column in the next picture shows the most tasteful example of a common good luck symbol, which we saw in many places in the country. It is based upon the legendary exploits of a 16th century guru commonly referred to as “the Divine Madman” -

The national dress, Kira for women and Gho for men, are worn daily, not just for festivals, and this is also the uniform for children at school.

the man in grey on the left of the picture is holding a handheld prayer wheel that is spun, in addition to holding his prayer beads

It was interesting to talk to some school children, noting no accent to their English (they sounded American), in contrast to their parents. This is probably because instruction at school is delivered in English.

Archery is the national sport and it was very interesting to watch a “pick-up” match between friends -

The targets were 150 meters (492 ft) apart!

You may have seen prayer flags in the background of some of my pictures. They are ubiquitous here.

They can be hung either vertically or horizontally. The 5 colors represent the 5 elements - water, wind, fire, living things and earth. Their primary purpose is to spread positive energy and compassion to all beings.

As threads are loosened from the edges of the cloths, the wind carries the prayers aloft. You commonly find them hung at mountain passes.

I will bring my reflections of this peaceful country to a fitting close:

Bhutan notes

There are so many little things about this fascinating country that I’d like to share with you, but I’m afraid I can’t weave them into a cohesive story. So if you’ll bear with me as I stop and start, I promise you won’t fall asleep. :)

As so many of our trips do, I tend to focus on the animals of a country. That beast above is the national animal, a Takin. We saw several of them at the Takin Reserve in Thimpu, the country’s capital.

There is a myth that they were created by a guru who put the skull of a goat on the skeleton of a cow, clapped his hands, and the takin was created. Takins are actually most closely related to sheep.

Cows and horses wander freely along and on roads everywhere, and drivers give them the right of way. There is very little honking in this country, and definitely never used to make the animals move. These wandering cows tend to be very skinny, with jutting hip bones.

At higher altitudes like 9,000+ ft, yaks are the animals in the roadway. To watch the next video, be sure to click the link at the end of the post to open it in your browser -

Black-necked cranes are held in high regard in Bhutan, and are referred to as “birds of heaven”. Their return to marshy plains in central Bhutan each October is celebrated as auspicious. I thought that they’d all be gone when we visited, as they tend to return to Tibet by the end of February, for breeding in the summer. I was thrilled to find a lone straggler still hanging out in central Bhutan, in the Tang Valley -

They stand almost 4 feet high and have a nearly 8 ft wingspan.

Besides yaks at higher altitudes, you can also find several species of monkeys. Gray Langurs have a striking appearance…

… and tails longer than their bodies. We found this troop enjoying fresh budding branches, as did the cow that took advantage of the broken ones the langurs tossed down -

Red-faced Macaques are much more common, and are found along roadways at elevations of 4-7,000 ft generally -

Now I’ll move on to buildings. There are numerous fortresses, temples, monasteries and nunneries scattered throughout the country, and seemingly all are perched rather high up, accessible only by horribly rutted and potholed dirt roads. Our guide was fond of saying “here’s another full body massage” as we were bounced and jostled in the car on yet another dirt or rocky road. The highest one we visited was outside of Bumthang and it sat at 11,500 ft. This was Tharpaling Monastery…

… and it is a monastic retreat…

… that gave great views of Chumey Valley and Bumthang, as well as the Himalayas -

The Babzur Nunnery was completed in 2020, and was just beautiful…

… with fresh, colorful paintings under the eaves (that we hadn’t seen anywhere else). The views of the surrounding hills and valleys were awesome -

Moving onto Dzongs (fortresses) - I had shown you the Punakha Dzong where the festival was held. The longest Dzong (interesting category!) in Bhutan is the Trongsa Dzong -

It was first built in 1674, and it was definitely showing its age -

The Wangdue Phodrang (another name for fortress) afforded me one of my favorite pictures from the trip, encompassing reflection, ancient building and misty hills in the background -

Stupas are important buildings to Buddhists, housing remains or relics of holy men or other important people. This is the National Memorial Stupa in Thimpu…

… erected by the third queen of Bhutan in 1974, in memory of her husband. You can see the size of it by noting the people walking around its base. People say prayers as they circumambulate around stupas and temples - always in a clockwise direction - and spin prayer wheels, again always clockwise. Here’s an illustrative video:

This activates auspicious energy, accumulating merit and benefitting all beings.

This stupa was probably my favorite because it is in the Nepalese style, with the eyes of Buddha…

… and it was where we finally saw rhododendrons.

Before we leave buildings, I must share with you the amazing bamboo scaffolding we saw all over, including the largest cities -

would you climb that, or stand up there to paint the eaves??

I started to keep going with this post, and then realized that your eyes may be glazing over. You need a break, so I’ll pause here, and start a new post another day.

This last picture was taken at the Chelela Pass at just over 13,000 ft (the highest motorable pass in the country), and it shows how heavily forested the hills are. Bhutan mandates in its constitution that 60% of its land will remain under forest cover forever. Currently, 72% of the country’s land is forested.

A Bhutanese Festival

There are over 160 festivals throughout the country and scattered through the year. We attended one in Punakha that was a 5 day celebration held in the Punakha Dzong (fortress) -

This was built in 1637-38 and is the second oldest and second largest fortress in all of Bhutan -

A festival is both a religious and social event, and most attendees dress in their finest clothes, no matter what their ages -

Our guide arranged for us to wear the national dress, which is a Gho for men and a Kira for women -

We definitely got some double takes as we walked through the grounds, as people expected fellow Bhutanese when they first saw our dress, and then caught sight of our light complexions.

This was the entrance to the Dzong…

(did you see the big black things hanging under the eaves? look closely and you’ll see massive bee hives)

… and this was the packed inner courtyard where the dances were held -

The bright colors everywhere were gorgeous -

There were dancers in traditional dress…

… and in resplendent costumes and masks -

The dancer in the center of the picture above is the Black Deity, who is the “gatekeeper” of Hell. Other costumes portray protector gods…

… or some of the great Buddhist masters -

As you can see in the background of the picture above, people were lined up. This is so they could offer monetary gifts to the monks and receive blessings from Buddha -

I took a number of videos of the dances, but I’ll only subject you to one here (as usual, click on the link at the bottom of the email to be able to watch this in your browser) -

Here, Steve is demonstrating that the gho (a knee length robe tied at the waist with a belt) has “the largest pocket in the world” -

The social aspect of the festival was easily seen as friends visited…

… families gathered…

… and everybody enjoyed the fair-like grounds outside the fortress, including bounce houses!

I got a behind-the-scenes picture, as we took a break from the crowd…

… in a religious courtyard, behind the main one for the festival -

I don’t have a favorite festival photo to close with, so I’ll share the signs of early spring we’re seeing here - a white magnolia tree flanked by cherry trees (growing just at the side of the road outside of town):

The Tiger's Nest (Taktsang Monastery)

Because it’s such a special place, I wanted to devote a whole post to it and the hike.

That was our goal as we saw it near the start of the hike. 

We set out about 0700, and there were very few cars in the parking lot.  Our starting elevation was 8520 ft.  We tackled this challenge on our third day in Bhutan.  The town of Paro that we flew into stands at 7218 ft., and we noticed a little puffing and panting as we climbed stairs in our hotel.

I found that I didn’t take any pictures on our ascent, as I was just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other and trying not to pant too much (getting dry mouth, don’t ya know).  As we passed these prayer wheels…

… we knew the café was close, and we’d pause for breakfast.

We had hiked for about an hour and covered about a mile, while gaining close to 1,000 ft.  The view was nice…

… but it still looked pretty far away.  I was surprised at the small building in the upper left of the picture.  I had never seen any photos or mention of something higher than the Tiger’s Nest, but our guide said it was another monastery!

Somewhat refreshed after our break, we climbed on, past prayer flags…

… and little stupas as prayer offerings for departed loved ones –

We were finally rewarded with this much closer look…

… and it was so interesting to see how these buildings truly were built right into the cliff (note that lowest roofline ending up against an apparent angled boulder).

This monastery was built in 1692 to commemorate the arrival of Buddhism in Bhutan.  Legend has it that guru Padmasambhava arrived at this place of meditation on the back of a flying tigress (which was his consort who magically transformed).  Hence, the name.

This is the view back over the Paro valley…

… from the famous viewpoint stop –

The light wasn’t the greatest , arriving in midmorning, but I got better pictures when we came back down.  You may have noticed the staircase in the lower left corner of that picture above.  Yes, we had to descend several hundred stairs, before climbing yet again –

This little corner sure can’t be seen from the base of the trail, let alone from the viewpoint…

… and I found this perspective to be very interesting (as we had just been seeing it from eye level) -

I had always wondered how you actually got over to the monastery, from where all the pictures were taken that I had drooled over for years.  This next picture is looking back at the viewpoint…

… from the base of the stairs leading to the temple…

… where we were required to put all cameras and phones in lockers.  Steve noted the altitude there was 10,128 ft., but all references to the Tiger’s Nest say that it’s at 10,240 ft.  We definitely climbed more stairs, visiting the nine temples contained within the complex.  Because you are not allowed to photograph inside temples, the only pictures and stories online are of the exterior.  It took us an hour to see the temples and hear all the relevant stories.

(the person climbing the staircase/ladder gives a little perspective on the immensity of the complex)

I was actually surprised by how old everything looked, but I shouldn’t have been, given its age. There have been several restorations and renovations after fires, earthquakes and war necessitated this, with the most recent in the early 2000s.

Here is the view from the Café, as we headed back down. Our stats for the hike were: 4.4 miles roundtrip in 4 hours hiking time, with 2,000 ft of ascent (according to AllTrails).

I’ll close with my best picture, in the best light. :)

Bhutan

I had seen pictures of the Tiger’s Nest (Taktsang Monastery), especially since we retired, noting that it was one of the top places in the world to ”visit before you die.”

As you know by now, when we visit a country, we like to explore it for a couple of weeks, minimum.  This trip was one where I needed to use a travel agency, due to difficulties obtaining a visa, and the requirement to have a Bhutanese guide and driver when outside of the main cities of Paro and Thimpu.

I’ll start with the flight into Paro.  This town (population 11,400+) in the western portion of the country has the only international airport in Bhutan.  The approach to the airport is so tricky that only 50 pilots (with only two airlines) are certified to land there.

We flew from Kathmandu past the gorgeous Himalayas…

… and even got to see Mt. Everest!

(the tall, wide mountain on the left side)

I videoed the approach and landing in Paro, but it was anticlimactic because it was so smooth.  Flights both into and out of this airport occur only in the morning, when the wind is calmer.  It was pretty neat to see and feel the plane bank first left, then right, then left again, following the valley in as it descended. 

These were the beautiful buildings greeting us as we walked into the airport –

We soon found that all buildings throughout the country have this decorative artwork.  This includes homes, shops, temples and even government buildings.

We toured SO many temples and monasteries!  Some were very old…

Dra Karpo Monastery built in the 8th century

…some were in the process of being refurbished…

Dzongdrakha

… and a few were nunneries –

Kila Nunnery

We learned an amazing amount about Bhutanese Buddhism from our guide, but couldn’t take pictures inside the temples.  However, we spent one night at a farmhouse, which has been in the host’s family for 7 generations (the 8th are her sons), and they had a family temple as part of the farmhouse complex.  I was allowed to take pictures and video, as they had a ceremony which occurs annually just before their version of Thanksgiving.

There is a whole lot going on in that picture above. The brightly colored circles are carefully painted rice cakes (which are fed to birds after about a week). There is always a Buddha statue in one of his incarnations, in the center, and flanked by numerous, smaller, different incarnations. There is a row of butter lamps behind the front row of rice circles. The walls are intricately painted with stories of Buddha, and are often the oldest thing in a temple. There are numerous colorful pennants hanging everywhere.

Next is a video (so click the link at the bottom of the post to be able to see it in your browser) that shows a musical portion of the ceremony. There are reed instruments that resemble oboes, long horns that play deep notes, cymbals and drums, as well as a very interesting instrument traditionally made out of a human femur. In the video, I try to zoom in on it, without much luck. I have a still picture of it following the video.

The next video features the leader of the ceremony (the monk on the raised chair) and others throat singing (you may need to really turn the volume up as the singing is in very deep tones) -

Now to describe typical rural or farmhouses. Doorways are often covered with a beautiful hanging…

… that you must hold aside, and carefully step over the raised threshold, as you mind your head on the low doorframe. :) The raised threshold is believed to trip up spirits of the dead who are “hanging around” on earth, causing them to fall and reminding them they are dead so they will pass on to their next life.

In older houses, there are no staircases, just steep ladders…

… and lots of drafts. The kitchen is the warmest place in the house, as there is always a wood fire heating the stove.

Well…I’ll be mooooving on now, but I’ll be back to yak, yak, yak.

Kathmandu, Nepal

When we were heading here, the Bob Seger song kept playing in my head…”I think I’m going to Kathmandu - that’s really, really where I’m goin’ to”. :-)

It is very smoggy…

… chaotic (to see the video - click link at end of post to open in browser)…

… and crowded -

It was pretty intimidating at first to walk in the street where motorbikes and cars were passing right by you, as well as pedestrians and bicycles (some going in the opposite direction on the same side of the street as you), but we actually quickly got the hang of it, mostly just by following locals. Crossing a street, or heaven forbid, entering a four way intersection, remained unnerving and a bit like a live version of Frogger.

The sign on the left in the picture above made me smile, because that’s what you do to cross that intersection, which we had to. You have to do it in 2 steps - get to the thin middle line, standing there while cars and motorbikes zip by you on both sides, honking all the time, then cross the other half when a rare break in traffic occurs. (since I was concentrating so hard when we’d do this, I didn’t get any video - sorry)

We were heading for that temple on the hill, commonly referred to as the Monkey Temple, but its formal name is Swayambhunath Temple.

We climbed a lot of stairs, then they got steep -

At the top…

… were numerous temples and worshippers…

… as well as the namesake mascots. They were much less numerous than in Bali, and more skittish around humans (which was fine by me).

Prayer wheels are turned clockwise…

… while the faithful recite the mantra there -

The “Eyes of Buddha” are painted on all four sides of the stupa, symbolizing his all seeing wisdom -

this largest shrine was my favorite

We had a nice view of the city from up here -

As we headed back into the city, we thought we found the winner for the “OMG-look-at-those-wires” award:

We then headed to Durbar Square, which is a former royal palace complex. It is difficult to show in one photo because it’s not a compact area, and encompasses 50 temples.

The oldest area was constructed between the 4th and 8th centuries, and had intricate wood carving -

As I was photographing this temple, I noticed this amazing porter -

The intricacy and extent of the wooden carvings and screens we saw on many buildings was just stupendous -

I thought this little temple was very inspiring -

I’m gonna keep my eye on you!

Singapore

Last time we were here, we focused on Gardens by the Bay. This time we ate our way through Hawker’s Markets for street food, marveled at the Jewel in the Changi Airport, and walked through the Botanic Gardens.

For the Gardens, we headed out early to avoid the worst of the heat and humidity. Even so, we ended up getting pretty sweaty and sticky with the temp at 88 F/31 C and the humidity at 70% or more. There are numerous small gardens devoted to specific plants, like Frangipani…

… or certain architectural sites like this reflecting pool…

… but hands down, our favorite area was the…

There were over 1,00 species (!) here and it was interesting to learn that orchids make up 10% of the world’s flowering plants, with around 30,000 different species.

The variety of shapes and colors…

… was mind blowing.

This is a type of Lady’s Slipper orchid:

We definitely dawdled in the Cool House…

… as a welcome break from the heat and humidity.

The Jewel in Changi airport is a “nature-themed entertainment and retail complex”, complete with the world’s tallest indoor waterfall at 130 ft high!

I was mesmerized…

… by both the falling water, as well as the various levels at which you could see the waterfall (video, so open this post in your browser to see it) -

In the Hawker’s food markets, you can get a plate of food starting at $5-7, and try various regional specialties. On our previous stay, we had gone to a nice restaurant that specialized in Singapore Chili Crab in a sweet, salty, chili tomato sauce and paid $100 (figuring it was a one time splurge, so why not). I sought out the Hawker’s Market where you could get it for $38, and it was just as tasty (and a mess to eat).

In the upper right corner of the picture is a plate of Cereal Prawns, which I highly recommend as another dish to try when in Singapore.

We stayed in Chinatown again, as it’s easy to get around on the Metro, has innumerable restaurants and Hawker’s Markets, and is clean and walkable.

The view from our hotel rooftop -

I forgot to close my last post with a sunset, so I’ll do so here (jumping back to Indonesia for a moment) -

Diving in West Papua, Indonesia (again)

As I’ve said many times, we hardly ever repeat destinations, but the diving in Raja Ampat Indonesia is frequently hailed as some of the best in the world (and in our dive experience, we agree). We had previously stayed at Kri Eco Resort and were quite impressed with their operation, so we made a repeat visit. It is located on the tiny island of Kri, north of Sorong on West Papua. It’s hard to try and get a realistic map here, so I’ll let you google those names if you’re so inclined. Basically, we were out on the farthest eastern reaches of Indonesia.

It’s very uncommon to see an anemone balled up like this, and it provided a gorgeous contrast to the white tentacles. White is also unusual to see, as most are greenish -

I truly loved the photos I was able to get with my new camera. It’s best at macro subjects (little critters up close), while Steve’s GoPro provided us with some stellar videos. I’ll try to not bore the large majority of you who aren’t divers, but I like to share the beauty underwater that keeps us diving. (I also just reviewed the blog I wrote 2 years ago from here, so I’ll try really hard not to repeat fish species.) This Fimbriated Eel was new to us, and had a very striking color -

On our last visit here, it was May, and we were able to see Reef Mantas at a cleaning station. Being here in Feb. this time allowed us to see Oceanic Mantas for the first time. Man, are they huge! First up is a video I shot, allowing me to zoom in and out, but I’m definitely not a smooth operator yet. This is a Reef Manta, showing its white shoulder patches. Its wingspan is 12-14 feet. [as I’ve noted in previous posts, you may need to click the link at the bottom of the post to open this in your browser, so you can see the video]

Next is the massive Oceanic Manta (with a 20+ ft wingspan), and Steve’s video was better than mine, in the murky conditions -

The Oceanic Manta has a black “T” on his shoulders and back. As it repeatedly passed over us, it felt like a bus was gliding overhead. So majestic!

Now, from the gigantic to the miniscule…Pygmy Seahorses were amazingly plentiful here, and included several different types. They range in size from 0.5 - 1 inch. Our guide was a master at finding them, and even when he’d hold his pointer right near them, I usually couldn’t see them, but just pointed my camera and let its autofocus do the magic. First, the out of focus picture that shows the silhouette…

(enlarge the picture and focus on the center area)

Now that you know where to look, hopefully you can see my favorite coy pose -

We didn’t know this creature came in such vibrant colors. The more common type (and that we’d seen before) is much harder to see on the sea fans that they mimic so perfectly -

In the picture above, find the tiny dark eye and slightly yellowish tail wrapped around the branch. There are actually 2 seahorses in that sea fan. The other has his back to the camera, and is at the 4 o’clock position to the upside down one. When they are slightly gray, they are slightly easier to see:

(hint - look in the center of the picture)

I just thought this Signal Goby was so cute as he hovered over the bottom, flashing his colors:

I’m pretty sure I showed a Mantis Shrimp before, but these Peacock fellas have such gorgeous coloration that I need to share again. Usually, they’re hiding in their holes, and this is “all” we see, but I’ll take that any day -

On a number of dives, we saw them out scurrying around, but this guy was proud and posing:

A pipefish is in the same family as seahorses, and you can see the resemblance in the snout, but that’s about where it ends. This Double-ended Pipefish was about 6-8 in long, and we saw him on a night dive -

The next video shows a Ringed Pipefish with his characteristic tail -

This is a beautiful Flatworm…

… and this is a Nudibranch, complete with 2 rhinophores to smell with, and the “naked gills” on the back that give them their name -

There are numerous types that come in all shapes, sizes and colors. That one above was about an inch or so long.

This last video shows the amazing density and variety of fish in Raja Ampat, which will keep us coming back for quite awhile -

See ya later!

Bicolor Blenny