Hotel Jor-Yang'Z Paro

... the time of the second<br>king, it served as the seat of the Government. The Dzong was named Druk<br>Pungthang Dechen Phodrang (Palace of Great Happiness). The war<br>materials captured during the battle with Tibetans are preserved here.<br>Punakha is still the winter residence of Je-Khenpo and King Jigme Dorji<br>Wangchuk convened the new national Assembly here in 1952. In the<br>evening short hike to Chimi Lhakhang(Temple).It is a gentle walk<br>through beautiful farm ...

... the phallus as a symbol of good luck and blessing painted large on some buildings. Bhutan seems a unique haven in the modern world.<br><br>But Bhutan is also changing. TV and cell phones have recently arrived. Internet access is spreading. Tourism is growing in importance, and their major source of income-- hydro power sold to India-- has ...

... visit - a somewhat mediaeval farmhouse - cattle on the ground floor, croips drying under the roof space and steep stairs leading to first floor living quarters. Typically houses are built of compacted earth wood and plaster. Dad had died last year so a boy of 10 was head of the house - with mum's help. We tasted fermented buck wheat juice like sour beer in front of several giggly children before moving to one of the ...

... vegetation and thin blue green rivers. The final approach twisted several times between the hills on VFR (Visual flight rules) - at one point I felt the wing might touch the hills that seemed just meters away from me. (Paro) Then Paro airport - the only one in the countr - and reputedly Bhutan's straightest road (PS almost true after the whole trip - a few straightesh ones near Thimpu). It certainly looks that way round here. Imigration was straightforward ...

... playful, elegant, and genuine and I can say for teh first time in a while I've felt proud of my country's President. People over in Asia seem to be taking the inaugeration with a sense of positivity and that the veil has been lifted. Its clear from over here, that only in America could you have a country that has a Black President with such a mutt upbringing. On TV, the news has been showing a lot of interviews with people from otehr ...

... 13 regional dialects as spoken (so much so that one person from one province couldn't understand the next one!) Though there was shortwave TV signals before, cable TV was only introduced ten years ago. The internet, only five years ago. The country is developing rapidly yet working hard to maintain its traditional roots and culture. Sangay took me on a very nice short walk up a hill to see and old fort that was made in the 1500s to battle against the Tibetans ...

... in finding her in the large crowds over the course of the weekend! We opted not to stay in cosume, and instead packed everything up and went shopping next for silk scarves that would be our offering to the fifth King at the public ceremonies the next day. Back at the hotel, it was dinner and drinks and back to the room just in time to catch the US Election results which I watched in earnest for several hours before nodding off to sleep.

... of the temple whilst waiting for it to be opened, and once done, it was your usual fare. It is a pity that no photos are allowed as there were some impressive ones. Oh well, you will all just have to come here for yourselves !!! Once we had finished, we drove back to Paro. whilst driving, I asked our guide why independent tourists were not allowed in, and he told me that Bhutan's motto was, low in volume, high in value. I ...

... manufactured goods that are sneaked across the ill-protected Tibet-Bhutan border. The trek then brought us on what felt like a roller-coaster of a walk (up and down and up and down and up and down...for about 10 hours) through a dense forest of oak trees drenched with Spanish moss. As we continued to climb the forest morphed around us with dense trees growing more sparse and the void being filled with an explosion of color. Rhododendron grew like crazy in ...

... a bag of chips, but no we had to have lunch in a restaurant! I hate tours! So at 2h30, I had to go eat lunch so my guide and driver could eat. After that, we couldn't go back to the festival yet, we had to check in in a new hotel, I wanted to cry! Finally we went back to the festival, but it was almost finished. After I walked around with my guide, had dinner and went out again to walk around and watch all the people and check out a few shops. The next day I ...