Today was a long day but it was excellent, very different and full of more color than one can imagine. We started by driving back to Thimpu. This is where our tour guide wasn't so good at logistics and planning. It would have made much more sense to stay in Thimpu the night before but instead she booked the hotel back in Paro. Oh well, nothing we can do now. There is a royal wedding coming up (more on that in the next post) and therefore hotels are beyond scarce in the entire country.
So we returned to Thimpu for some sort of religious festival. It is a once a year, three day festival that everyone in the city makes sure they hit. The costumes and dances reminded me of similar dances I had seen in Bali. There were wonderful dresses and so much color everywhere. To say the least it was prime photo taking opportunity. In fact this whole trip was, so paring down photos has been next to impossible.
The festival was packed. This is just trying to get in.
We had to be dressed with long sleeves and a collared shirt for the guys. So the fleece was on and it was boiling outside!
After the festival our guide had a surprise for us. He had heard our disappointment in getting cake instead of pizza the day before so he arranged to take us for lunch at a pizza place. Nothing less than awesome! Honestly some of the best pizzas I had ever eaten. We scarfed down 5 large pizzas, even though the waitress said medium would be more than enough. Little did she know our appetites.
After lunch they said we were going to the zoo, but in reality it was a large nature preserve. Specifically to see their national animal, the Takin. This is one ugly animal. It basically has the head of a goat and the body of a cattle.
Here he is. Unfortunately he was in a lazy mood so I never got a picture of him standing up so you could see how large he was.
At the nature preserve we saw some child labor making beautiful scarves on these old hand looms. Interestingly the kids were also studying at the same time. Not sure it will get them far but at least they were making an effort.
After that we were off to see a Buddha. Then some tourist shopping. And finally to a bar which was its own unique experience. Basically people come to the bar and sit around on couches or chairs but don't drink! The money comes in from paying a karaoke girl to sing the song on stage.
As we were doing some shopping I noticed the Coke bottles all filled with milk in one store. Not sure Coke appreciates the extra marketing. Nor would I necessarily feel comfortable with drinking that milk..
The Buddha wasn't anything special, especially after seeing so many in Asia, but the view from the Buddha was pretty impressive.
Here's the view of the bar, not much to it.
Another "super strong" beer. Interesting that the exact same beer came in both a light and a dark bottle.
Our last stop was for dinner of Indian food. And while it's not my favorite cuisine, the place was excellent. We even met a local movie star. It was also good time to reminisce on the trip.
This was the kitchen at the Indian place. That's all there was to it. I couldn't even figure out where the food itself came from.
When all was done with dinner it was back in the van for a 90 minute drive back to Paro and our hotel. Good planning huh?
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