Bhutan Diary

Noah and I join Mike in his rooms in the Executive Hostel on the RIM campus. We are the only guests. Chokie, the head cook serves us breakfast and dinner there. I get my first taste of the most common Bhutanese dishes, red rice and peppers in cheese sauce. Red rice is only grown in Bhutan. It has round grains and a nutty flavor. I had trouble imaging what peppers in cheese sauce would taste like. The green peppers are cut into strips about a half an inch width and three to four inches long. The cheese sauce is thin and white. It’s good. On potatoes, it tastes like au gratin.

The RIM campus is about 7 km south of downtown Thimphu, just up the next valley. Lawns surround all the buildings which are constructed in the Bhutanese style, with white plaster walls, colorfully painted prominent timbers around the windows, and wide over hanging roofs in two or three layers. The roofs are corrugated metal these days, but painted red or green. The main instructional and office building is in the shape of an H, giving it four wings and two three-sided courtyards. The central part of the “H” has four roof levels, the top one painted gold with a short spire. One of the courtyards contains a rose garden, the other is just lawn, use for official events. Cement walkways, about 5 feet wide, surround each building. A drain is cut into the walkways right under the edge of the roofs. The faculty housing buildings have sets of four auspicious animals painted between their first and second stories, a tiger, a snow leopard, a magical bird, and a dragon. These same animals are seen on house in Thimphu. Tall Himalayan blue pines line a Wang River tributary, running right outside our window, clear and rocky. It’s rushing actually kept me awake the first night.

We join Mike in the last two days of his orientation program. Saturday morning, a driver takes us and our guide, Thinley Namgyal, a senior RIM faculty member, to pick up the Japanese volunteers and drop us all at the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital. The director of the hospital gives us an powerpoint overview of the Bhutanese health care system. Noah was a real trouper through it all. Then we take a tour of the hospital, which is really, really crowded, just room enough to walk. After lunch in the Wangchuck Hotel, we visit the National Textile Museum where there are examples of ceremonial costumes and national dress from the royal family. I spend a bit of time finding a bathroom for Noah and so miss the chance to spend money in the museum shop. I’ll definitely have to get back there.

Next we’re told we’re going to the “Valley of the Buddha.” We drive slowly up a lovely forested hill; there are still a few wildflowers blooming in the undergrowth. The top of the knoll is covered with prayer flags, some bright and new, others old and faded. There are strings of many prayer flags and tall single white prayer flags topped with a stylized knife (for wisdom) and wheel (for the lotus blossom). Prayer flags are placed on hilltops so the wind will carry the prayers to all sentient beings. If the hilltop overlooks a river, the water can carry the prayers even further. The tall white prayer flags are also erected in yards or on the edges of gardens, and min versions appear on rooftops. From here, we can see all of Thimphu.

Dogs are everywhere in Bhutan. They are not pets, not brought inside, but are allowed to roam freely. Enough people feed them that they are friendly. Certain dogs will hang around certain houses or places and every popular picnic spot has its resident dogs. “The Valley of the Buddha” was no exception. I found three curled up under some bushes that were festooned with fallen prayer flags.

On the way back down, we stop at the Motithang Takin Preserve to see the national animal. The takin is often described as having a cows body and a goat's head. I think it's head looks more like a moose with goat's horns. The takin is said to have been created by Drukpa Kunley, Bhutan's "Divine Madman," in the 15th century during his wanderings throughout Bhutan and Tibet. In one town he visited, the locals demanded that he prove himself by performing a miracle. He first asked to brought a cooked cow and goat. After devouring them, he began to reassemble the bones, putting the goat's head on the cow's skeleton. Then he sent it running on its way and it became the takin. We also see deer and muntjacs in the preserve.

The Delhi airport is very clean and modern. We changed money and paid 610 rupees for a government-approved air-conditioned taxi. Several policemen in tan uniforms were coming in and out of the airport exits, some with small rifles slung over their shoulder. Some of the policemen wore dark blue berets, others tan berets, and others bright blue Sikh turbans. Outside, the airport was very dusty, even in the dark. Two large cranes dominated the view. The airport is undergoing massive expansion. It was warm and humid, but only in the 80s.

Our driver was very good. He knew when to cross to the other side of the street to pass ten cars at once, and when to sneak left to pass just one or two. (They drive on the left here.) The horn is used as commonly as the gas pedal. The brightly painted trucks even say on the back “Blow Horn” or “Use Dipper (sic) at Night.” Lane lines mean nothing. At one point I thought of the dramamine buried somewhere in my luggage. At 9:30pm the roads were still crowded with cars, ice cream carts, and especially trucks. Most buildings were dark, just a light here and there, but occasionally we’d pass a restaurant pouring light and people (men) onto the street. Not many women around at this time of night. Near our hotel the streets were almost empty. From the window of our 18th floor hotel room, the city lights seem to stretch on for miles.

In the morning we can see what’s out there. One very tall smoke stack, four unfinished and abandoned concrete sky scrapers, a school with domes, sports fields, and a large swimming pool, a few domed white temples with minarets, and buildings as far as the eye can see.
A thin brown line hangs above the city, about at the level of the smoke stack; it disappears later in the day. There must have been a short rain earlier that morning, the streets and the streets and sports fields are wet. Later, I find a newspaper headline declaring “Monsoons Arrive but Miss West Rajasthan.”

The hotel restaurant has a highly varied breakfast buffet. There is ham, turkey salami, cheese, bread, rolls, a variety of pastries, toast, watermelon juice, mixed fruit juice, cereal, yogurt, eggs prepared to order, French toast, potatoes, baked beans, oatmeal, peach pudding, ginger rice, sweet and sour vegetables, and several Indian dishes including curries potatoes, steamed tomato bread patties, and a vegetable soup. The fruit spread consists of sliced tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, pineapple, papaya, musk melon and cherries.

We stay in our room all day and sleep. It is looking much better in the afternoon when we go down to lunch. There is another large buffet which is just closing, so we have to order off the menu. Noah gets hot chocolate and chicken fried rice. I order vegetable momos, described as Tibetan steamed dumplings. They are good, but salty, as is Noah’s rice, which was prepared “unspicy” for him. Breakfast the next day is similar, with several items swapped out. Today there is lichi juice, Burmese noodles, raisin pancakes, chickpea curry, and a lamb hotpot.

On our un-air conditioned ride back to the airport, we see that there are also pretty parts of Delhi, and monkeys! and horses! We don’t see any cows, though. The streets are even more crowded mid-morning than at night, with cars, buses, motorcycles, three wheeled blue and yellow mini-taxis, but no trucks.

There are no signs to direct one to the different airline counters in the Indira Gandhi International Airport. I ask a couple of young women in airport uniforms where the Druk Air desk is and they direct me to the other end of the terminal. There’s no Druk Air desk in the last row of counters. I ask another uniformed woman and she says, “Well, it’s not here.” We walk along the next row of counters, no Druk Air. On our way to the next set of counters, I see a man in a traditional Bhutanese gho and black socks and shoes. I wave, saying “Excuse me, sir,” but he waves me off, turning to his cell phone. In the next row I ask the first uniformed personnel I see and am directed right across the aisle to the end of the row of counters. Finally, Druk Air!

We have to pay for overweight luggage, so I have to go find a currency exchange. When we get back to the Druk Air counter, 24 bags are being checked in at the first class desk. Another man in a gho is counting the bags and putting “Fragile” stickers on them. The young woman behind the counter giddily tells me that the Prime Minister of Bhutan is on our flight! Could I have tried to flag down the Prime Minister of Bhutan to ask for directions? No, more likely just one of his entourage.

On the plane, we are seated with a group of older French women on a tour. The passengers on our flight are pretty much half Asians and half Westerners. Noah has a left window seat on the plane, but it will prove too cloudy to see the high peaks. Above the haze of Delhi, the sky is bright blue.

Nepal is green! no skyscrapers. Katmandu lies in a broad valley bounded by green and blue mountains. Disembarking and embarking in Katmandu is via the rear of the aircraft so as to not disturb those in first class. The people getting off all look Indian or Nepali, those getting on are other Asians. A mist descends on the tarmac and I can no longer see the mountains but it is gone by the time the airplane turns around for takeoff. Then we get a better view of the city, which completely fills the bottom of the valley. Lots of five story apartment buildings, white cement or stucco, red brick or tile, and rusted corrugated roofs. We can see the gold spire of the famous Bodhnath stupa rising out of the buildings, not far from the airport.

The Paro Valley in Bhutan is narrow, with emerald green fields and blue-green mountaintops. On our descent we turn a corner in the valley and skim the treetops. The wing tips almost touch the trees on the far side of the valley shortly before we reach the runway. Stepping off the plane in Paro, I am momentarily blinded by green. Well, ok, it was probably really the sunlight, and the very fresh, clean air.

I take a number pictures of the airport buildings and the billboard of the five kings of Bhutan before going in to customs, a health check and Mike.

In our informative ongoing orientation, the seven Japanese volunteers and myself received a great overview on the natural environment of Bhutan. Bhutan is a very beautful and rugged country. There are three general eco-zones including subtropical in the south, alpine forest in the middle, and cold alpine tundra in the north in the high Himalayas. One hundred percent of the country is covered by mountains and 72.4% is covered by forests. Fresh water is in abundant supply, which includes about 2500 mountain lakes. Currently, in Bhutan, there are over 300 medicinal plants, 50 species of rhododendrons, more than 40 species of orchids, and over 770 species of birds. Various publications on Bhutan's environment can be found on the web site of the Bhutan's National Environment Commission, here: http://www.nec.gov.bt/publications/publication.html

According to the Bhutan National Environment Commission, see: http://www.nec.gov.bt/ there is a strong commitment to keeping 60% of Bhutan in forest cover permanently. Major environmental issues, though, facing Bhutan include global climate change, waste management, and watershed management.

One of the four pillars of Bhutan's major national policy--Gross National Happiness--is environmental conservation and sustainability. The authority to meet environmental issues includes Article 5 of Bhutan's Constitution--http://www.constitution.bt/ and Bhutan 2020: A Vision for Peace, Prosperity and Happiness from the Bhutan Gross National Happiness Commission--, see: http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN005249.pdf. Currently, these middle path environmental policies seek to balance enconomic development with environmental protection.

A very good video on the philosophy and practice by Bhutan to protect the environment can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcAjE--rQQE