Paro- Thimpu
Early morning there was the option to either walk or ride a mule up a mountain to see a Buddhist monastery. Many started out but only 6 made it all the way in the end! The walk up was very top was testing and I personally did not expect it to be so hard but the monks who live up there have to do the walk nearly everyday!
Paro also had its very own festival on so everyone paid a visit there. It involved a distinctively Bhutanese style of dancing which involved masks and a very weird village fete kind of stall set up. Everyone was dressed in their national dress. The national dress for the men creates a huge pocket at their chest which they carry all their personal belongings in!
The drive onto Thimpu was only an hour. However Jean Paul broke down shortly after Paro. This time his fuel pump had packed up and the mechanics needed to either fit a new one or fix the present one. With darkness falling the only option was to tow the car to Thimpu and fix it the next day. The road condition had worsened since the recce so the route which was meant to take an hour actually took double the time. Meaning that Jean-Paul, Conrad, John and the mechanics were not in until very late!
The rest of the group went for a meal at a restaurant called ‘Bhutan Kitchen’ where we all sat on cushions on the ground and ate a traditional Bhutanese meal.
The next day was used by most people as a shopping day. Some decided to go to the local zoo, which had just one animal- The Tarkin. This is the national animal of Bhutan. It is an endangered species that lives only in the Bhutanese mountains and in the Southern parts of China. In the evening there was a cocktail party arranged for us by Thinly again. There were Bhutanese singers and dancers there to entertain us all. It was also John Noble and Sverre Berge’s birthday. Both their partners presented them with a Bhutanese national costume which they put on in front of an amused crowd.
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