Shongar Lodge 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>

... the community to a program held outside. We did songs, dances, dramas, shared the Gospel, and then invited people to come up for prayer, and after that, a movie was played on a big screen. During the prayer time, we estimate that almost 100 people came up for prayer for healing, and God healed most of them including another completely deaf person. Also, some believed in Jesus for the first time, and 2 families joined ...

... poorest people of the country, and reduce the extravagant wealth of the richest, and he did this with a land reform which set a maximum number of acres that a family could own (I think 65), and a minimum of five acres. Those who owned such big palaces could no longer afford to maintain them. Many fell into ruin, but it is a good thing that Ogyen Choling has been saved for posterity. Our drive takes us onto a gravel road through some of the most beautiful mountains and ...

... hit by stray arrows. In order to let the archer know how he did, either his teammates would do a dance or sing a song when he hit the target, or, if he missed the target, the other team would start trash talking - it was pretty funny! Outside of Thimphu, we hiked to a monastery called Cheri Goemba. It was in a beautiful location atop a peak, and since it was a holy day, the monks were chanting all day. We were allowed to sit inside and enjoy the chanting ...

The festival, not one of the more famous main religious ones but established by the government in the last few years, proved to be really compelling and attended by many locals, especially families all proudly wearing their costumes. The location in Jakar Dzong was also very atmospheric as the dancers whirled around in the sunshine (yes the weather was now perfect). There were also a couple of jokers ...

Our second attempt at a trek in Bhutan was chosen not so much for the mountain views but rather the "culture" aspect. Sadly there wasn't as much culture as we had hoped and we traipsed through the forest for much of the time. It was also extremely muddy after the heavy recent rains, though luckily we didn't have to suffer too much more rain ...

... beautifully. The temples are different to those we saw in Tibet, which are much darker and full of pilgrims making offerings. In Bhutan there are fewer people but they are in much better condition and the paintings and statues are really colourful. We often discussed the similarities and differences with Tibet with Phub who educated us really well on Buddhism, though it remains really complex to us as there are so many images of the same deities. At least some of it makes sense now ...

... brought sketch pads and colouring pencils and they start drawing the geometric patterns inside the temples. Now instead of moaning bored girls, I can't get them out of the temple! We drive up to Pelela Pass where it is snowing. Pelela is 3420m (11,200ft) and there is chorten and prayer flags here to mark the pass. If we went down the other side we would be in Central Bhutan but this is ...

... climb but we finally made it. But we could hardly make it up to the fourth floor of the museum. Luckily given tea and biscuits before making our descent. The rain had picked up again and we were soon soaked yet again. We descended through a ploughed field of clay which all stuck to our boots and trousers, adding to the weight we were carrying. After that the path was made of very slippy and muddy stones and we used every part of our bodies trying not to fall over in the mud. We ...

... the giant flying grasshopper who invaded our room late one night. In the evenings in Trashigang we ate outside in the balmy weather. One evening we even accompanied Phub 2 (Phub Gyeltshen)to the snooker hall. Over the next few days we went north to Trashi Yangtse, east to Radhi and south to Khaling and Kanglung. Trashi Yangtse has a great Nepalese chorten copied from the Bodhnath Stupa in Kathmandu. We also visited the Dzong (fortress ...