Day 11: We can cross climbing Mount Everest off our wish list

Day 11: Thimphu, Bhutan

I realized I have been writing way too much in these as I have also been using it as notebook to capture everything we are learning. Luckily today was more of a doing type of day than a learning type of day so we will all get a reprieve from my ramblings.

Today started with a short drive out of town - about 12 km - to take a hike to the Cherie Goemba, which is the country's oldest monastery. The hike was about 45 minutes. As we are all in reasonable good shape, we thought it would be a piece of cake. We forgot about acclimatization. We were at the 24 hour mark at this altitude and our bodies still haven't adjusted to being at 7,000 feet up. As Lallande said her below sea level lungs (from growing up in Louisiana) aren't used to this. Moira probably had the least trouble but it makes hiking straight up for 45 minutes a bit challenging. Your heart beats much faster. The good news is that if you stop and rest for even a minute, you breathe normally. And at least we felt like we got a bit of a workout. Tomorrow has another small hike and then we do the biggie to Tiger's Nest on Friday, when we should be more adjusted. Regardless, as Lallande said, after seeing what a 45 minute hike up in the Himalayan region felt like, we can now cross Mount Everest off our list of places to go. Or Mount Kilimanjaro for that matter.

Back to the Cherie Goemba...it was built in 1620 by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyl. It,mike many of the monasteries here is built into the mountain and is very peaceful and serene. The only things we could really hear were the sounds of the water way below and the fluttery of the prayer flags. That totally makes sense as it is a meditation monastery. There are about 30 monks here and each stays the standard 3 years, 3 months and 3 days.

We were the only people there at the time (other than the monks) so it was so peaceful. Dawa had us sit on the wood floor and meditate...or try to. He said to concentrate on an item, like a Buddha, close your eyes and visualize that item, place it in your head and then have it become part of you. I am not the best at clearing my mind but I did for a bit. It felt nice.

The walk down was easier on the lungs but not on the legs.

Our next stop was to see the world's tallest sitting Buddha. For those keeping count of world's superlatives, we have now also seen the largest bell and the largest book. I guess every country likes to have bragging rights to something. This Buddha is relatively new and actually the temple around it is still under construction (won't be done for 3 more years). There are 125,000 smaller Buddhas within the big Buddha. The Buddha is 169 feet high and made of bronze. Its hair (or should that be his hair?) is made of turquoise and his third eye is made of diamond. It is really quite impressive. It overlooks the city and provides great views of the area.

After lunch, we visited a wildlife area (sort of like a nature preserve) which had some of Bhutan's national animal, the Takin. It is an odd looking thing. Here, they say it has the body of a cow and the head of a goat. It sort of lumbers along and looks out of proportion with its small head and big body. They are mostly found at higher elevations and have lifespans of 12-15 years. I don't think we will be importing any to the US any time soon. We also visited the textile museum and then went to a place they make paper. It is amazing what people still do by hand in this world. I can't even sew a button on a shirt if it falls off.

Tuesday is dry day in the kingdom. All bars are closed and you can't buy alcohol at restaurants (supposedly) or hotels. The hotel warned us in a letter when we checked in. We did see some people having beer at lunch and Dawa told us that sometimes they will serve foreigners. We asked him why Tuesday. He said they wanted a dry day for rest and to also give workers in bars, nightclubs (?!?) a day off. Weekends are too busy so they randomly chose Tuesday. Given that there was a 200% tax on our bottle of wine last night, we may end up having more than one dry day here. But we got around dry Tuesday by going to an outside restaurant for dinner and ordering the local beer, Druk Beer. On the label it says "Super Strong Beer Druk 1100."  I hope it wasn't there version of Colt 45. It tasted better, that is for sure.

One last funny thing (at least to us)...we passed the local soccer stadium with the lights on while driving to dinner. Steph said, "Lynette told me the king gave his inaugural speech at the stadium" Moira and I looked at her wondering "Who is Lynette?" Lallande looked at her thinking, "I told you that." Steph quickly said it was Lallande, not Lynette and Lynette is her orchid lady. But it was too late. Lallande may have a new name for the rest of the trip.

Things we learned:
- There are no traffic lights in the entire country but there is one traffic cop directing traffic in Thimphu.
- Dzongs were used as fortresses in the 17th century.
- There isn't a tradition of celebrating your birthday here. Instead you celebrate the first day of the lunar calendar.  You are considered one year when you are born. They consult the astrological calendar before they get married. If the signs are not compatible, they can still get married but have to do some work to get rid of the incompatibility.
- Bhutan had its first national elections (they now have a parliamentary system) in 2008 and its second was this year.
- The former king abdicated to his son as some of these changes took place. He (the former king) has ruled since we was 17 and wanted their to be new blood as these other democratic changes took place. He also never had anyone to learn from when he became king (as he was so young) that he wanted to be available as an advisor to the new king.
- The former king has 4 wives, all sisters. When asked why he had so many later in life (this isn't a plural marriage society), he said it had been a mistake to out such a burden on the people to fund that. So he had written into the new constitution that moving forward, kings can only have one wife.
- In both Myanmar and here, fruit, particularly watermelon is standard for dessert. So it was a very nice surprise that we got some vanilla ice cream at lunch today. And then strawberry at dinner. It was like a holiday for us.
- I found out the length of the archery shooting here is 145 meters. I am terrible at conversions but I think that is longer than a football field. Olympic length is 50 meters.

Final sidenote: The royal family's last name is Wangchuk. Moira and I both keep reading it as woodchuck. And then Lallande...or should I say Lynnette...told us she keeps thinking of the song "Everybody Wang Chung tonight."  Now that is in my head. Which is better than Moira singing "She'll be coming around the mountain when she comes" every time we are in a horse cart.