Jerry's 40th Birthday

Trip Start Jun 11, 2005
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Trip End Dec 22, 2005


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Monday, October 3, 2005

We cleaned and dried ourselves off after the walk and Maggi put into action the plan she had been forming with Phub. To mark Jerry's arrival into maturity (yeah right) as an old man of the grand old age of 40, he was dressed up in a Gho, the national Bhutanese costume. Despite protests that it might offend the locals and the challenge of finding one big enough, Phub and Tcheko skillfully wrapped the beautiful robe onto the birthday boy, joking how similar he looked to the king! Well he's beginning to go bald too...

To Jerry's relief the restaurant we went to was empty of other people, so no further embarrassment, and the staff comically tried to follow Maggi's instructions to keep things in a certain order and secret from Jerry. They tried but there was no hiding the birthday cake and nice bottle of wine! We were told afterwards that birthdays are not really celebrated in Bhutan and that birthday cakes are not very Buddhist as you have to blow the candles out (butter lamps in temples are continually lit) and you have to cut the cake through your name! Oh well...

We enjoyed a fine feast of local fare, mostly with chillies, and Jerry opened up all the cards that Hazel had brought out from the family as well as a great old single malt whisky which we cracked open after the wine.

No dancing on tables, but a really memorable birthday.
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