This will be another very quick blog post as I'm on limited time. After three days out towards the east in Bhutan, I am back in Punakha where there is better internet. But it's expensive so will write more back in Thimphu tomorrow.
It has been a few days of spectacular mountain scenery viewed from some fairly hairy roads. The National Highway 2 in Bhutan is one of the great road trips in terms of scenery, but the narrow, bumpy and winding roads rates it pretty highly in the adrenalin stakes as well. There is a hell of a lot of road works happening as well. The roads traverse high mountain passes and skirt the edges of some pretty deep valleys. A bus went over the edge last week costing 9 lives, and we drove past two trucks that went over the edge (I believe the drivers were okay). Fortunately the driver is good and speeds are fairly low, so it hasn't been all that stressful (except when a truck squeezes past and a look out the window sees a drop of about 100 metres straight down.
I've been to Trongsa, Bumthang and Gangtey over the last few days... each of theses places (basically a different valley and community in each valley) are amazingly different. Trongsa has thick temperate rainforest, but once you head over the pass (which provides some great Himalayan views) you end up in a broad, pine-covered valley similar to Big Sky country in Montana. Gangtey is a high glacial valley where some very rare black-necked cranes spend the winter in the wetlands.
So all good so far. This is a very interesting and intriguing place...
More to come.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
Christmas Eve in Bhutan
This will just be a quick post because I'm on a time limit... I'm in Punakha at the moment, which is in central Bhutan. It is much warmer here... almost balmy! and the scenery is quite different. It would be beautiful in the spring, because at the moment all of the rice paddies are empty and brown and not altogether appealing to look at.
The drive yesterday took me over the Dochu La pass, which offered amazing views of the eastern Himalayas... photos to come. We visited a stupa this morning after a 45 minute steady climb (slowly getting the hang of it!) for great views over the valley. We are visiting the Punahka Dzong this afternoon, which is a spectacular old fortress and the confluence of two rivers.
I will write more when I have more time. We are driving further east tomorrow where internet apparently hasn't reached, so I will wish Merry Christmas to everyone now. My guide has offered to let me use his computer this evening, and if he does, I will write another post then.
The drive yesterday took me over the Dochu La pass, which offered amazing views of the eastern Himalayas... photos to come. We visited a stupa this morning after a 45 minute steady climb (slowly getting the hang of it!) for great views over the valley. We are visiting the Punahka Dzong this afternoon, which is a spectacular old fortress and the confluence of two rivers.
I will write more when I have more time. We are driving further east tomorrow where internet apparently hasn't reached, so I will wish Merry Christmas to everyone now. My guide has offered to let me use his computer this evening, and if he does, I will write another post then.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
First full day in Bhutan
Today has been a very good day, and I'm really enjoying Bhutan so far. After breakfast, I learned that the rest of the travel group had cancelled, so I had my own private tour of Bhutan. This kind of sucked because the reason I opted for a tour was for some company over the Christmas / NY period, but on the upside, I can pretty much direct how the tour goes from here... If I'm tired I can cut out a walk, or add a night at a destination. This doesn't mean much considering I have no idea which places are worth seeing, so it's not like I can change things I don't know about...
We drove from Paro to the capital, Thimphu... the only capital city in the world without traffic lights. The city itself seems fairly new, and all the buildings look fairly similar... it kind of seems a touristy version of itself. We stopped off at one monastery in the south of the city, before settling into the hotel and heading off for the first steep walk of the trip... to Tango Gompa, where there was very little tangoing and a great deal of meditation. It is a meditation centre in a fort-like structure up the hill. The hike was steep but not terrible, and the view up the top was great. As it is just the guide and me, we were able to talk about a fair bit, and we spoke about a great deal of things, such as politics, religion and daily life in Bhutan. He is very informative and seemed interested in some of the Australian ways (although I suspect a lot of that is politeness as he obviously works closely with travellers all the time and knows a fair bit about what is going on.)
A couple of interesting things... Bhutan has only been a constitutional monarchy for a few years, starting democratic national elections in 2008. It was an absolute monarchy for the rest of the 1900s and has a history of turmoil in regards to leadership and government before that. I also learned that Bhutan is matriarchal in nature, with property moving from mother to daughter, husbands moving to live with the wife's family, and the women having most of the wealth. Often you see the very flash cars driven by women, and Petey my guide was telling me how wealthy his sister is because she inherited everything. He also told me it is not uncommon for wives to have strict curfews for their husbands... he has to be home by 5:30pm!
This part of Bhutanese society is particularly interesting, considering the monarchy is patriarchal in nature, and that the vast majority of new parliamentarians are men, and men - particularly in rural areas - have higher levels of education than women. Considering Bhutan has only had TV since 1999, it will be interesting to see how society changes. You can already see it Thimphu with a number of younger people dressing in very western ways, and acting in very stereotypical teenage ways (except for rebellious smoking because the sale of tobacco is banned.)
As a result of the changes, there is been a bit more freedom for the people (the guide reckons they have about 10% freedom now). However, the government still tells people what there jobs are. Petey wanted to be a teacher but was told to be a tour guide, which bugged him earlier on because teachers are one of the most respected professions in Bhutan (are you listening, Australia?) along with health care and monks. In Bhutan, your parents will sign you up at the monastery when you're about six years of old and you're stuck for life. It often happens when a family has many sons but no daughters, because the monk son can still provide once the sons have moved in with their mothers-in-law.
Have uploaded some Delhi photos onto Facebook.... add me if you want to see them: facebook.com/steveh4750. Will add some of Bhutan this far when I get to a computer that will allow me to plug in an SD card.
We drove from Paro to the capital, Thimphu... the only capital city in the world without traffic lights. The city itself seems fairly new, and all the buildings look fairly similar... it kind of seems a touristy version of itself. We stopped off at one monastery in the south of the city, before settling into the hotel and heading off for the first steep walk of the trip... to Tango Gompa, where there was very little tangoing and a great deal of meditation. It is a meditation centre in a fort-like structure up the hill. The hike was steep but not terrible, and the view up the top was great. As it is just the guide and me, we were able to talk about a fair bit, and we spoke about a great deal of things, such as politics, religion and daily life in Bhutan. He is very informative and seemed interested in some of the Australian ways (although I suspect a lot of that is politeness as he obviously works closely with travellers all the time and knows a fair bit about what is going on.)
A couple of interesting things... Bhutan has only been a constitutional monarchy for a few years, starting democratic national elections in 2008. It was an absolute monarchy for the rest of the 1900s and has a history of turmoil in regards to leadership and government before that. I also learned that Bhutan is matriarchal in nature, with property moving from mother to daughter, husbands moving to live with the wife's family, and the women having most of the wealth. Often you see the very flash cars driven by women, and Petey my guide was telling me how wealthy his sister is because she inherited everything. He also told me it is not uncommon for wives to have strict curfews for their husbands... he has to be home by 5:30pm!
This part of Bhutanese society is particularly interesting, considering the monarchy is patriarchal in nature, and that the vast majority of new parliamentarians are men, and men - particularly in rural areas - have higher levels of education than women. Considering Bhutan has only had TV since 1999, it will be interesting to see how society changes. You can already see it Thimphu with a number of younger people dressing in very western ways, and acting in very stereotypical teenage ways (except for rebellious smoking because the sale of tobacco is banned.)
As a result of the changes, there is been a bit more freedom for the people (the guide reckons they have about 10% freedom now). However, the government still tells people what there jobs are. Petey wanted to be a teacher but was told to be a tour guide, which bugged him earlier on because teachers are one of the most respected professions in Bhutan (are you listening, Australia?) along with health care and monks. In Bhutan, your parents will sign you up at the monastery when you're about six years of old and you're stuck for life. It often happens when a family has many sons but no daughters, because the monk son can still provide once the sons have moved in with their mothers-in-law.
Have uploaded some Delhi photos onto Facebook.... add me if you want to see them: facebook.com/steveh4750. Will add some of Bhutan this far when I get to a computer that will allow me to plug in an SD card.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Kathmandu & Bhutan
I can't really post much about Kathmandu. I arrived in the mid afternoon after another interesting drive to Delhi airport (where I saw the first beggars of the trip... I expected to see many more in Delhi, but there were none where I was staying). Security at the airport is incredibly tight, but very efficient. It is interesting travelling in a place like this where the terror threat is very genuine and the chance of attack much higher than in a place like Toronto where the security is terrible, inefficient and seems to exist just to annoy passengers. Bags and passports are checked repeatedly, pat downs are common (without the groin grope, thank you TSA) and everything takes time.
On arrival in Kathmandu I was surprised not to be met by the tour company, but luckily a helpful tour operator (perhaps the only one in Kathmandu not looking to fleece me for a dollar...) made a few calls. It turns out the rest of the tour are stuck in London and they weren't expecting me. Instead of going for a wander around Kathmandu, I was stuck in the hotel (which wasn't so bad because it was amazing...) to wait for phone calls, emails and the like explaining what is going on. Turns out that of the four people scheduled to join me on the tour, two have cancelled and two others were likely to cancel. So at this stage, I am on a tour on my own.
This morning saw an early return to the airport for another experience of tight security (although in the first part we were wending our way around the room all the while a stray bag was sitting in the middle of the room with no apparent owner, which was somewhat disconcerting...) I had luckily scored myself a window seat on the right side of the plane, but on boarding a local family asked if they could all sit together, and I did the karmic thing and relented. After the pilot said how great the view was going to be, I asked the flight attendant if there were any more window seats, at which point the family took pity on me and rearranged themselves. Thank god they did because the view was incredibly, and I can now say I have seen Mt Everest (albeit from the sky).
I am in Paro now... One of the main towns in Bhutan. Not the capital, but it is where the airport is. The weather, although a tad cold, is beautiful and clear and the scenery and architecture are fantastic. As I'm currenly the only tour member, I may be able to shuffle a few things around, so that will be a plus. I had hoped the guide would be hip and happening and maybe willing to push the edges of an otherwise very tightly regulated tourism industry, but no luck. He calls himself Petey and he seems nice but certainly not the rebellious type. I guess there is much to risk in pushing the boundaries. So at this stage, it will be me, Petey and the driver whose name I didn't quite catch, and who I am calling Silent Bob in the interim until I can get his name again. He, obviously, doesn't say much...
Anyway, the camera will get a work out. When I get to a computer that has an SD card reader, I will upload some photos... most likely to Facebook. (Although from what I can gather from news.com.au most people are using Facebook to look at nude pictures of Nick Riewoldt, so maybe there's no point....)
On arrival in Kathmandu I was surprised not to be met by the tour company, but luckily a helpful tour operator (perhaps the only one in Kathmandu not looking to fleece me for a dollar...) made a few calls. It turns out the rest of the tour are stuck in London and they weren't expecting me. Instead of going for a wander around Kathmandu, I was stuck in the hotel (which wasn't so bad because it was amazing...) to wait for phone calls, emails and the like explaining what is going on. Turns out that of the four people scheduled to join me on the tour, two have cancelled and two others were likely to cancel. So at this stage, I am on a tour on my own.
This morning saw an early return to the airport for another experience of tight security (although in the first part we were wending our way around the room all the while a stray bag was sitting in the middle of the room with no apparent owner, which was somewhat disconcerting...) I had luckily scored myself a window seat on the right side of the plane, but on boarding a local family asked if they could all sit together, and I did the karmic thing and relented. After the pilot said how great the view was going to be, I asked the flight attendant if there were any more window seats, at which point the family took pity on me and rearranged themselves. Thank god they did because the view was incredibly, and I can now say I have seen Mt Everest (albeit from the sky).
I am in Paro now... One of the main towns in Bhutan. Not the capital, but it is where the airport is. The weather, although a tad cold, is beautiful and clear and the scenery and architecture are fantastic. As I'm currenly the only tour member, I may be able to shuffle a few things around, so that will be a plus. I had hoped the guide would be hip and happening and maybe willing to push the edges of an otherwise very tightly regulated tourism industry, but no luck. He calls himself Petey and he seems nice but certainly not the rebellious type. I guess there is much to risk in pushing the boundaries. So at this stage, it will be me, Petey and the driver whose name I didn't quite catch, and who I am calling Silent Bob in the interim until I can get his name again. He, obviously, doesn't say much...
Anyway, the camera will get a work out. When I get to a computer that has an SD card reader, I will upload some photos... most likely to Facebook. (Although from what I can gather from news.com.au most people are using Facebook to look at nude pictures of Nick Riewoldt, so maybe there's no point....)
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Delhi explorations continued
On the tour, I visited a couple of temples (the Sikh and Jain temples... Sikhism is more appealing, if only for the fact they didn't hassle for a "donation" to the temple and to the guide...). We also went through a number of marketplaces, including an old market that is now used for housing (a term that I think should be used differently in India to just about anywhere else in the world...). The views were great and the camera got a workout, although I did my best to avoid intruding too much. It has been a real dilemma here... sites such as the Red Fort are great, but it is the everyday of existence of people that really appeals to me, and I'm not too sure how ethical that is....
After a couple of quick stops at the Mahatma Gandhi museum and memorial (and a stop at a shop, no doubt for commission purposes, where I was guilted into buying a couple of souvenirs... no doubt always part of the tour!) I arrived back, through the mass of humanity that are the markets, with hoards of people vying for either a bargain or a sale, spending an hour or so watching the sun set on the rooftop terrace. A few things struck me as I sat there... first, the number of mobile phone towers seemingly attached to anything, but more interestingly was the amount of life that is conducted on roofs. Some boys were playing cricket, others handball, but the biggest craze by far was kite flying. There were more kites than birds in the sky, with a huge number of men on the roof flying kites. I wonder if its a craze (like the occasional yo yo crazes of my childhood) or whether it is firmly entrenched.
Anyway, off to Kathmandu tomorrow. Will have to return to India again for sure!
After a couple of quick stops at the Mahatma Gandhi museum and memorial (and a stop at a shop, no doubt for commission purposes, where I was guilted into buying a couple of souvenirs... no doubt always part of the tour!) I arrived back, through the mass of humanity that are the markets, with hoards of people vying for either a bargain or a sale, spending an hour or so watching the sun set on the rooftop terrace. A few things struck me as I sat there... first, the number of mobile phone towers seemingly attached to anything, but more interestingly was the amount of life that is conducted on roofs. Some boys were playing cricket, others handball, but the biggest craze by far was kite flying. There were more kites than birds in the sky, with a huge number of men on the roof flying kites. I wonder if its a craze (like the occasional yo yo crazes of my childhood) or whether it is firmly entrenched.
Anyway, off to Kathmandu tomorrow. Will have to return to India again for sure!
Crazy, crazy Delhi
Well, the sun has set on my first day in the craziness that is Delhi... There aren't many words that can be used to describe it... except crazy! I arrived later last night, at around 7:30pm, where I was to be met by a driver to take me to my hotel. He was about 45 minutes late, and appeared flustered and apologetic. If he had been driving back and forth to the airport all day, I don't blame him for being flustered! I thought the traffic in Bangkok was bad... There was a young American bloke staying at the hotel as well, having a few days in Delhi and Agra after being flown (business class) to Bangalore for work. I ended up flying to Delhi from KL on Air Asia Premium class, because bizarrely, the tickets were the same a regular fares at about $170 for a six hour flight. Admittedly it's not the full business class experience, but the lie flat (on an angle) seats were awesome and such a comfortable way to travel. Too bad the cheap tickets weren't there for the return leg.
Today I have been out sightseeing. I started the day with a potato curry for breakfast at the hotel, the Hotel Tara Palace, which is in the Chandni Chawk area of Old Delhi. There is a rooftop terrace with great fews of the Red F0rt and the Jama Masjid mosque. I wandered over to the Red Fort after breakfast for a look around, and ended up getting cornered by a guide who wanted 200 rupees (a couple of bucks...) to take me on a 45 minute tour, so I agreed. It was money well spent as there's bugger all signs or information. Lots of see and photograph, and the SD card has been given a bit of a workout! I wandered back to the hotel, getting humbugged a lot by people who wanted to sell me USB sticks (times are a-changing) for a bit of respite, then decided to walk down to the mosque. On the way, a bicycle taxi driver asked me if I was keen on a tour, and I decided to give it a try. He only wanted 150 rupees for a 90 minute tour. It ended up going for four hours, and not surprisingly, he was keen on a bit m ore than a 150 rupees, which I was happy to pay considering he had to drag my lard arse around the alleyways (and motorways... an experience on a bike taxi, I can tell you) of Old Delhi.
The power keeps dropping out a bit... I will post this now just in case.
Today I have been out sightseeing. I started the day with a potato curry for breakfast at the hotel, the Hotel Tara Palace, which is in the Chandni Chawk area of Old Delhi. There is a rooftop terrace with great fews of the Red F0rt and the Jama Masjid mosque. I wandered over to the Red Fort after breakfast for a look around, and ended up getting cornered by a guide who wanted 200 rupees (a couple of bucks...) to take me on a 45 minute tour, so I agreed. It was money well spent as there's bugger all signs or information. Lots of see and photograph, and the SD card has been given a bit of a workout! I wandered back to the hotel, getting humbugged a lot by people who wanted to sell me USB sticks (times are a-changing) for a bit of respite, then decided to walk down to the mosque. On the way, a bicycle taxi driver asked me if I was keen on a tour, and I decided to give it a try. He only wanted 150 rupees for a 90 minute tour. It ended up going for four hours, and not surprisingly, he was keen on a bit m ore than a 150 rupees, which I was happy to pay considering he had to drag my lard arse around the alleyways (and motorways... an experience on a bike taxi, I can tell you) of Old Delhi.
The power keeps dropping out a bit... I will post this now just in case.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Last night in Langkawi
After a three country jaunt with my parents, we've reached our final night of travelling together. It has been an opportunity for dad to visit some of the places that impacted on his family during World War Two, including a visit to his uncle's grave. I have a couple of posts about my first trip to Kanchanaburi earlier in the blog. This time, we stayed a little more upmarket (this whole trip has been four star minimum!) and also had an opportunity to visit Hellfire Pass, which is a very fitting memorial; it was closed during my last visit.
We also had four nights in Singapore, which was about my sixth or seventh trip, although this trip saw me make it to Sentosa Island for the first time. I'm also now back in Langkawi, having visited in the April holidays in 2009, travelling with my good buddy Brandon in our week off from our educational duties on Groote Eylandt. There are no blog posts of that trip, with some of the details on Facebook, which has replaced this blog. I'm starting it up again, since having read through a few of the old entries, this is probably as good a way as any to keep recollections of my travels. Having visited Moonbi to catch up with the Hillier and Leedham clans, I was able to proofread Fred's stories of travelling to India in 1970. The level of detail is fantastic, no doubt a result of him keeping detailed diaries. I'd like to do the same, but I find typing easier than writing... though I am making some attempt at keeping a written journal too.
Tomorrow we have a late morning flight to Kuala Lumpur, where I part ways with my folks and head to Delhi, as they head back to the Gold Coast to have Christmas with my sister and her husband. As I will be meeting up with friends early in the new year, I figured it would be easier to stay in South East Asia, rather than returning to Australia just to return again in a couple of weeks. As it turns out, a spur of the moment decision is seeing me head to Bhutan via Delhi and Kathmandu, at considerable more expense and flight durations than a return to Australia. Still, it will be far more of an adventure! I decided that since I would be spending Christmas away from family and friends, it would be best to replace it with an amazing experience, and a 14 day gentle trekking tour through Bhutan seemed to fit the bill. Bhutan is an expensive destination... you cannot travel without being associated with a tour company, which charges $US200 a day minimum. But with the Aussie dollar doing so well, and the fact that the minimum charge is going up, now is an affordable time to travel.
Off to Delhi tomorrow, for the first small chapter of this trip. A $100 visa was needed for two short stopovers, so I will have to make the most of my only full day there. I'm staying near the Red Fort in Old Delhi, so it should be a good introduction. Hopefully my visa can be used again later in the year for a follow up visit.
Oh, and I get to travel Premium Class tomorrow... with a lie flat bed! Admittedly, it's on Air Asia, but with premium seats on sale for less than a regular seat, I was mad not to book it!
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Back to blogging
I have been keeping a diary but writing hurts my hand so will blog instead. Damn the computer age and its impact on my ability to hold a pen! I know nobody really reads this, but it's a great way for me to keep track of my journeys. In Langkawi at the moment... Details to come.
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