Hotel Shamling Mongar

I love the Dominican republic we just got back<br>and it was fantastic. We stayed at this beautiful luxury villa in Cap Cana<br>called Villa de Cap Cana. It was amazing! We had a private pool and wonderful<br>ocean views. If that weren&#8217;t enough we were on the 14th hole of the Punta<br>Espada golf course. We can&#8217;t wait to go back. Check out the pictures at http://www.capcanavilla.net/ <br> <br>

Wow, God has moved powerfully in this village over the past 3 days. The first night, we had a fun night which turned into prayer toward the end, and God completely healed about 20 people including a few people who were deaf and regained their hearing. Then, the second night, we had a talent show which also ended in prayer, and 6 or 7 people were completely healed of sicknesses and pain. The final day, we went door to door ...

Wednesday, March 26, 2008 Touring in Bumthang Dear Readers: Our destination today is Ogyen Choling Museum, a palace once owned by a powerful family which has been preserved to show how people lived in an earlier era. Our guide explains that the family owned thousands of acres of land, and that all the tenants and villages on their property had to give a sizeable percentage of their crops and goods to the family every year as a tax. The fourth king of Bhutan decided to bring up ...

We spent two nights in the country's capital Thimphu. Our guidebook proclaimed that it is the only capital city in the world without a traffic light. While we were in Thimphu, we saw the national sport - archery. The target is quite small, about 3 feet tall and 1 foot wide, and it is 500 feet away from the archer! We could barely see the target when we stood next to the archer. The crowd stands pretty close to the target. We were amazed that people weren't ...

... around with the dancers and audience throughout. We watched the performances for about 3 hours before heading off for lunch and some more sightseeing in the afternoon. We visited Kurjey Lhakhang where there is a body print of Guru Rimpoche in a cave, and a couple of other temples. If truth be said we were getting a bit "dzongked" by this stage, so 2 weeks proved to be the right length for our Bhutan trip.

... really looking forward to a decent trek. At least we had enjoyed spectacular mountain treks in earlier countries. We finished up at Ugyen Choling, a fascinating old museum of a royal residence which had loads of well presented artefacts. We also stopped at a nice river waterfall called "burning lake" before returning to our hotel in Jakar.

The journey from Wangdue to the Bumthang valley was long and windy taking about 7 hours. Tcheko's driving was very safe but quite slow in our comfortable minivan. Bhutan is 70% covered by forest and the houses became more spread out as we ventured east. The people too are a little different and more traditional. We visited another Dzong at Trongsa, again really atmospheric. You are not allowed to take any photos inside which is a shame (though understandable) as they are decorated ...

Leave at 8am to drive the short distance to Wangdue Phodrang. Here we visit the Dzong where the girls have their photo taken with the young monks here. Seems strange to imagine your tiny sons going off to the monastery and not seeing them any more, but it seems to be an accepted way of life here, and even auspicious to have at least one person in the family who is a monk. Roo, Lulu and Name ...

... and hot milk) we set off in the rain. The trail was totally waterlogged and after half an hour so were we! We were so soaked that it ceased to matter when we waded through a large stream or stepped into the squishy mud. It was all downhill at this point, and very slippy. Phub of course hopped along like a mountain goat while we staggered and slipped along behind. It was great fun! We then went uphill again to Ugyen Choeling palace which is now a museum. This was a bit of a ...

... in Mongar. There was a suite of rooms with 4 beds, sofas and a bathroom with oodles of hot water and a bath. Bliss. The following day we drove the 4 hours to Trashigang, our base for exploring the East. The journey took us up over the Thrumshingla Pass at 3725m and down to 500m where it was distinctly tropical. The hotel in Trashigang was a bit of a contrast with cold washes in a bucket, a clanging prayer wheel and barking dogs all night, and not ...