TLT Hotel Samdrup Jongkhar

Got there on Sunday and that the day everything is closed... Monday it took to figure out what to do. Cultural Tourist's John agreed for a 2 days trek with a stay in village, but he was only going to start on Wednesday... got bored on Monday too and started missing Sahiem and flew back earlier than planned.<br><br>The best place to stay is Pinewood... LP recommended Hotel Boulevard over Pinewood but I think they have got it all wrong ... <br>

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>

Before heading back to Kalimpong, we stopped at the border of Bhutan. Bhutan is actually a closed country and costs about US $200 per day to get a visa to enter the country. The guard at the gate actually allowed each of us to step foot in Bhutan and take a picture. Then, we went around the corner and prayed at the gate for the country.

... years ago, she watched a Hindu movie which showed a Hindu "god", and from then on, she has been completely blind. We actually prayed for her the first 2 nights as well as the third day. She was the only person not healed the first night. But both the first and second night, she had the same exact dream, and in that dream, God healed her eyes, first one and then the other. She said that she could see many people in the ...

Today, we took another jeep for about 5 hours with 11 people to RBB Village near the border of Bhutan. We will be leading a mini Discipleship Training School here for the next 3 days along with a few locals. We will be doing two and a half days of teachings with activity nights, and then outreach the final afternoon and night. We are all stoked about this opportunity.

Shillong, the capital of the state of Meghalaya, in North East India, has always evoked great nostalgia in me. I spent many happy summer holidays there, escaping the scorching heat of Kolkata. My first memories of the beautiful hill town were of an idyllic month spent in a rented cottage at the Shillong Club. The Club has cottages for tourists, surrounded by gaily colored flowers and lush green grass and pine trees. The tranquil green ...

On the way to Guwahati airport, we stopped by to visit the Balaji temple. It had typical South Indian architecture and was made from white colour stone. It's sprawling complex and the towering gopurams captivated our minds. We also went to the Khadi Showroom and ...

... 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.

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 ...

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 ...