Thimpu

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Trip Start Feb 11, 2008 Previous
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  Thimpu, Bhutan
Friday, February 22, 2008

Today was to be somewhat of a test for me.
We started out with a tour of the weekend market. All very average, mostly the same products we have at home with a few exceptions. One interesting one was dried Yak cheese.
After that we headed south,cos we did north yesterday. We were heading for the Cheri Monastery. Like all monasteries it is built on top of a hill. The trek up to it is said to be similar to tigers nest but this one is shorter. Well... after some time, I dont know.. about 20 min I was huffing and puffing, had a pain in my chest, heart racing had a stitch and covered in sweat I had to stop for a breather. My guide Tenzin said "very good Mr John you nearly half way there" I thought I was gonna die. With many stops on the way I eventually made it to the top where I met a French lady who has done tigers nest and she said it was same only longer. Im doing tigers nest in a few days but we have made some contingincy plans.
At the top, after about half an hour recovery time we went into the monastery and I saw the funniest sight I have seen so far. You gotta remember I have just treked up the side of this huge hill, which nearly killed me, to a 400 year old monastery and we walk in and here are 4 monks trying, unsucessfully, to put together an Ikea computer desk. We checked out the place then it took me 25 min to get back down. I hope the pics do it justice.
On the way back to town we stopped for lunch at a traditional restautant. I had rice, red rice,curried beef, curried potato, pork and dried spinnach, with spinnach soup for starters. To say it was hot would be an understatement. My lips were still burning 4 hours later. I noticed neither my guide nor driver had any. Pussies
I then had a free arvo to check out town and recouperate. I walked around for a while checking the place out and found the corner. The corner where Bhutan put their first traffic lights. There not there now cos they took them out again, they thought they were too impersonal. Now they are back to a cop doing point duty in a kind of rotunda in the middle of the road. Well he doesnt really direct traffic he more like waives at it cos there is not enough to direct.
In the evening Mr Deepak, the owner of Raven Tours and Treks came to visit me. We had tea and a long disscussion about many things from tourism to the stolen generation. He was a really great guy and I now see why he has a team of great people working for him.
Tomorrow I think we head east.

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Guru Rinpoche painted on rock	Cheri monastery	bridge to Cheri monastery	Thimpu
prayer wheels	Chorten under renovation	again	not a power tool in sight
Cop on point duty

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