Orchard Hotel Wangduephodrang

... Nyingmapa monasteries including Tamshing in Bumthang. Explore Phobjikha<br>valley, famous for the Black Necked Cranes during winter. These cranes<br>are very rare and endangered and highly protected by the Government.<br>These cranes fly to Phobjikha valley which is their winter Habitat. The<br>Cranes circle three times in a clock-wise direction around the Gangtey<br>Gompa as a reverence to the Monastery before landing in the valley.<br>They repeat the same practice before ...

... country.<br>If carefully planned, tourism can assist in a country's conservation and development goals. Bhutan's experience with tourism has been positive because the Bhutanese government has controlled and carefully managed tourism policies within the country. Bhutan has learned from the experiences of other developing countries and tried to limit the extent to which tourism can damage the natural and cultural base of Bhutan ...

... sort through the dozens of photos taken along the route from Thimphu. The scenery along the way was priceless - people tending rice fields, herds of Yaks and goats, children playing along the sides of the road, shop owners tending their wares of vegetables, textiles, etc. It is an incredibly authentic place, genuinely interesting and full of colour and texture. I have a tone of amazing photos that Ill have to post once I get ...

... of my face - and my knees (the Goa did not cover far enough to protect my knees from the sun), and having seen the king, we elected to leave the stadium behind, with locals quickly filling our seats to watch the remaining events which would continue well into the evening. After a quick lunch, we set out around town to visit some local landmarks, including a chorten with some lovely prayer wheels. We did a little post card ...

... did go inside of the temple, and it was covered with monks, all banging drums and chanting. We watched it for a while, and then once it was over, all the monks received tea and rice. Three metres to my left, a guy with glasses sat on a throne. And then the word came out, it was the head honcho himself, the chief Abbot, the highest Lama in Bhutan. Our guide got down and started praying, and on the way out, I pulled out a ...

... some reason, the people who had used it, couldn't find the hole !!! Once done, we had a ninety minute trek to do through the countryside to another temple. Whilst walking along, it was once again like the Annapurna circuit, well it was until we went down off of the track. Apparently there use to be a lake here, and the earth never dries, so it was wet, and then muddy, until we started to sink !!! Obviously, whoever is out there had not been ...

... and future Bhudda. **** I'm getting good at this !!! And then we went back down, to the last site. Wangdue In Wangdue, on top of a ridge sits another Dzong. This one had not been restored, which made it more special. There were monks everywhere, and we walked around spinning the prayer wheels until once again, we were in the temple and I was wearing my tour guide hat doing the explaining. Actually, I'm getting quite good at this and I'm thinking of ...

Thursday, March 27, 2008 Bumthang to Thimphu Dear Readers: The long drive commences today at 6:30am. We just grab coffee and bread and jam before departure, opting to have breakfast further down the road. As usual, everything takes a little longer to get to than expected here, so breakfast isn't until about 10am, after we climb the watchtower at Trongsa. We eat at a beautiful hotel overlooking the Trongsa Dzong, and ...

... and the women modelling their finest jewell**y. The drum beat was rising from the centre of the crowd so I slowly wiggled through to gain a grandstand view of the action: a c**emony being p**formed by the village shaman as she swayed in a trance to the pounding of the swinging beat** on the double-sided drum she was turning before an altar of modelled rice and butt**. H** actions would bring the village protection ...

... rausgefahren:-) Auf dem Pass grasten ein paar Yaks , die aber scheinbar mit Rindern vermischt worden sind, haette sie zunaechst nicht als Yaks eingeordnet (da zu wenig Fell:-) Dann ging es ein langes Tal hinab gen Wangdue Phodrang. Dort habe ich in einem Hotel in der Stadt uebernachtet, so dass ich abends und morgens Fotos machen konnte (und ein Internet Cafe besuchen konnte:-). Die Stadt liegt direkt vor dem Dzong, in dem sich eine Moenchsschule ...