Either Hari or Ming drew us a map of the walk to Kafalgari, which we were about to undertake that morning.
…off on another short walk for circa 2 km, circa two hours, through Kafalgari Village and accompanying flora and fauna.
Rest up for the rest of the morning (Janie wants another go at bagh-chal, unusually). Lightish lunch of Nepalese style. Spent afternoon relaxing around (but not in) the pool.
Early supper of a chilled tomato (almost gazpacho) soup, beef and fresh vegetables followed by banana thing. Quick game of bagh- chal with Romie before early night.
One abiding memory of the stunning Tiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge was the rather set, almost regimented way of the place. The staff seemed most put out that Janie didn’t want to dine sitting around a large table with all the other guests, because “that’s the way we do things around here”.
In some ways, I think we “mended” with the in-house team through learning bagh-chal. I have my bagh-chal somewhere at the flat still, probably under the bed. I expect Janie would be horrified at the thought of having a go at the game again, 25 years later. She’s not a great lover of those sorts of games.
You can see all the pictures from that lovely day on the Flickr album linked here and below.
Another splendid Yak and Yeti breakfast before checkout and short flight to Pokhara.
Arrived at Tiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge well before lunch. Nepali style lunch, then short siesta before taking a 4 km 2 1/2 hour walk through neighbouring village Kandanidada and observing the local flora and fauna.
The village is mainly Brahman and the people very friendly. We are invited into many homes etc. Our guides are Hari and Ming. Hari teaches English to local children so is well known to the villagers.
Either Hari or Ming drew us a map of the walk we had just done:
Home just before dark for showers, spray, change and excellent dinner and learning bagh-chal (tiger and goats). Earlyish night – “Geddo zonked”.
You can see all the pictures from that lovely day on the Flickr album linked here and below.
The printed itinerary tells you all…indeed probably more than you want to know about the relentless touring we did on the preceding day and on this one. Described as a half day of touring, our second day around these parts felt even more intensive than the day of touring the day before…perhaps because they were trying to cram it all in to half a day.
Bhaktapur, Pashupatinath and Boudhanath were the three areas involved.
We took loads and loads of photos – about 120 of them ended up in our Kathmandu album, which is, in itself, a pretty good diary of our touring, as I labelled the photos well on our return and transposed those labels onto Flickr. You can review those through the Flickr link here or the picture link below.
Here are the words from my log for 29 March, with some sample pictures, to give you a taster.
1st stop: Bounhanath – huge Buddhist stupa. Saw beautiful Buddhist temple by side. Quiet and peaceful. On next to Pashupatinath, sacred Hindu temple on the banks of stagnant but holy by Bagmati River. Amazing monkeys and sadhus (mostly fake I think) but no actual cremations to be seen
On next to Changunarayan – stunning Hindu site not far from Bhaktapur. Achuote irritated Jamie beyond even yesterday’s heights with long-winded explanations on all of Vishnu’s manifestations.
I had forgotten about our Kathmandu guide, Achuote, and his “attention to detail”. Janie tends to give guides lots of clues, to the fact that she is not interested in ALL THAT MUCH detail and that I tend to mug up in advance, from the guide books. That we like to tour at our own pace and that we prefer to ask questions rather than have everything explained in depth. The best guides get it straight away, most guides get it with just a little prompting, but occasionally we’d get a guide like Achuote who was determined to spew out every detail he had learned about everything on our itinerary.
On to Bhaktapur – went to Peacocks for lunch – on through our town old town – saw Peacock window – more temples and stupas. Durbar Square then back to car.
Got pulled over on the way home as the king was going to pass (this is becoming a habit!).
Quick stop in Thamel to get bearings and booking of Kilroy’s – back to Yak & Yeti for R&R, plus repacking. Dinner at Kilroy’s. Momos, daal baht [thali], chicken supreme with yak cheese, amazing bread and butter pudding and a chocolate thingy.
At the time, we voted Kilroy’s the best meal of the holiday.
All the pictures from that intensive Kathmandu touring are in the Flickr album linked here and below:
The printed itinerary tells you all…indeed probably more than you want to know about the relentless touring we did on this day and the next.
We took loads and loads of photos – about 120 of them ended up in our Kathmandu album, which is, in itself, a pretty good diary of our touring, as I labelled the photos well on our return and transposed those labels onto Flickr. You can review those through the Flickr link here or the picture link below.
Here are the words from my log for 28 March, with some sample pictures, to give you a taster.
Touring today. First stop, Monkey Temple (Swayambhunath) and it’s amazing surroundings. Lots of mini temples (stupas) with shops and houses in between.
Then on to the House of the Living Goddess, but Kumari was out at a ceremony. Saw the 12th century Kasthamandap all made from one tree – then onto Durbar Square, Teleju Temple, Royal Palace, Statue of Hanuman and saw sadhus galore.
Strolled through old city to modern part – then drove to see Tibetan refugees weaving, a handicraft centre and then a temple. before lunch at Taleju with stunning views of Patan’s Durbar Square.
On to tour Patan – slaughtering courtyard, stunning museum – loads more temples including the Thousand Buddhas Golden Temple etc.
I snapped this scene of a pop video being made, which i noted in my photo album although I had clean forgotten to note it in my log.
On through shopping street (I got a pair of tongs and a monkey and two CDs)…
On of those CDs, Chautari by Pancha and Shanti, became a favourite of Janie’s for the rest of that holiday and indeed since. It is available on YouTube music and you can hear it through this link.
Then home for rest and dinner at Chimney (founded by Boris Lisanevich).
All the pictures from that intensive Kathmandu touring are in the Flickr album linked here and below:
Rose at 4 am to catch early flight to Kathmandu. Bid a fond farewell to Pema.
Arrived in Kathmandu to discover that there was a general strike going on. After a false start (being sent back to the airport by the police) we had a police escort through the streets to the Yak and Yeti.
On arrival, we were handed our “Tiger Mountain” itinerary for our five night stay in Nepal. Fortunately, there was nothing on our itinerary for the arrival day anyway.
Warned that nothing was open, we settled down to our fate within the Yak and Yeti [hoping to relax by the pool], only for it to start pouring down. Anyway, we got our bearings, snacked on momos and tuna melt, relaxed in our room, [then] ate at the Naachghar [within the Yak & Yeti]. Thali in my case and duck tandoori for Daisy.
We tucked in…The musicians were playing it largeNaachgar was doing good business that night!
Went to the [in house] casino which I found truly foul – I was delighted part with my £9.50 and get out quick!
I had never visited a casino before. 25 years later, I can report that I have never visited one since. Not for me. The light-suited gentleman did not want to be photographed, we were loudly and repeatedly informed by the supervisor, but the request came after Janie had taken the above photograph of me.
All the photographs from the Kathmandu leg of our trip are in the following Flickr album. All the pictures from this day are shown in the article above:
Janie and I spent a most memorable week in Bhutan as part of our trip to Delhi, Bhutan, Nepal and Dubai in the spring of 2000, looked after by a wonderful guide, Pema Gyalpo.
This page links to all of the Bhutan pages, the photographs and a music sample.
Actually, let’s start with the music sample. I bought just one album on that trip: Endless Songs From Bhutan by Jigme Drukpa. Here’s one of the tracks.
Here are links to the pages I have written about our visit.
The best of the pictures are included in the articles, but if you would like to see the albums in full, all of them (more than 180 pictures) are included in two Flickr albums, links in the list and also with embedded links below.
and then go off on hike to Taktsang (aka Tiger’s Nest) monastery.
It’s a long uphill hike – Daisy even considered giving up a couple of times…
…I think the altitude got to Janie on this occasion – the only time I remember her suffering from it on any of our altitude trips – possibly caused by the rapid ascent from high altitude to even higher altitude c2,200 m to over 3000m.
…but we make it, taking tea and biscuits at the cafeteria…
Villagers near the tea house“Volunteer labour” (aka a photo opportunity) inside the tea house
…and then descent, followed almost all the way by two dogs. Janie [also] befriended a couple of forced labour girls from the high valley.
The encounter with those girls was an interesting coincidence, given the letter I had spent a large chunk of the night writing.
Those friendly young women taking a break, while one of our “guard dogs” sniffs aroundOne of the girls helps “have a go hero” Janie briefly to bear the load…very briefly!Seen it all before? No, she looks impressed. We made it, back to the bridge at the foot of the Tiger’s Nest trail
Took lunch at Sonam Trophel [restaurant in Paro] – best meal we’ve had in Bhutan, with Momo’s, spring rolls, chicken (plain) pork (spicy for Pema).
Writing 25 years after the event, I suspect that the food available in Bhutan now is much better, on the whole, than it was in 2000. But that place proved what was possible even then in a remote hill kingdom!
Next stop the National Museum which was better than we expected and finally Paro Dzong which was a tiring walk after Taktsang.
Home exhausted for tea and snacks in the room tonight and hopefully an early night.
We did indeed get an early night after taking snacks in our room, but I have one strong memory, undocumented in my journal, about that last evening in Bhutan.
We were staying, unexpectedly, in the Olathang Hotel, as we chose to avoid the forest fires that were too close to the Druk Paro for our comfort. We had a large cottage suite at the Olathang, which had been built originally, as we understood it, for visiting dignitaries who came to Bhutan for the coronation of the King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in 1972. I don’t think the Olthang had seen too many western tourists in the months and years leading up to our visit.
Our room attendant was a very young fellow, I’d guess a teenager. We ordered our room service snacks and I decided to take a shower while we were waiting for the food and drinks. We had been tipping our attendant regularly, and/but I left a more substantial sum out, with Janie, as I suspected we wouldn’t see him again ahead of our early morning departure.
While I was drying myself after my shower, Janie called out to me, asking me to come out to say goodbye to our friend, as he didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye to me personally.
I hurriedly made myself decent and entered the room, to find the young fellow crying, saying that we had been so kind to him and that he would miss us so much. It took quite some time to calm him down and let him go, so we might enjoy our snacks and drinks. Janie told me afterwards that the boy had been in that emotional state since she told him that we’d be departing at the crack of dawn the next day. Not our everyday experience of room service.
Photographs from this day are pictures 086 to 106 in the album you can click through below:
The forced labour Janie and I witnessed in Bhutan was, to say the least, bugging me. The night of 25/26 March, ahead of our last full day, I found myself unable to sleep for fretting about it.
I decided that night to write an open letter to the King, which I would ask Pema to deliver via Kuensel after Janie and I had flown out of the country. My ruse, to render Pema blameless for the content of a letter which might be deemed to be criticising the King, was to tell Pema that the letter was a thank you letter to the editor of Kuensel for publishing, a few days earlier, my letter with thoughts about the Bhutanese stock exchange.
Criticising the King of Bhutan was, at that time, a criminal offence subject to imprisonment, hence my extreme caution and in depth planning to arrange the timed delivery of my 26 March letter via my wise and savvy friend Pema.
I was not expecting the letter to be published in Kuensel and suspected that the letter might not find its way directly to the King, but I had written out a full draft in my log book and planned to send the letter to various relevant parties on my return to England. That I did, a few week’s later.
The Economist didn’t publish the letter, but word did reach me from Bill Emmott that he had passed the letter on to the Economist journalist who was working on pieces about Bhutan. I recall the matter of forced labour in Bhutan being raised in occasional Economist pieces in the subsequent months/years, which I sensed was, to some extent, informed by my letter.
26 March 2000: Forced labourers briefly relieved by “have-a-go-hero” volunteer, Janie
Interestingly and more directly, a few month’s later, I received a phone call “out of the blue” from an investigator at the International Labour Organisation. He was very hesitant and cautious with me, explaining that the call was entirely informal and off the record. Contacting complainants was not part of the protocol, but, he explained, the ILO had received several communications about this topic and he wondered whether I could provide him with some more specific evidence about what we had seen, where and when we had seen it, etc.
I spent some time on the phone with the ILO dude, delving into my log and photos, explaining in as much detail as I could the sightings that had motivated me to write my letter.
At the end of the call, he told me that I had been very helpful and/but that he would not be able to communicate with me formally, either to thank me or to let me know what the ILO had done/was planning to do. He did assure me, however that the ILO was pursing the matter.
I’ve no idea whether my letter had any practical impact at all. I was well-connected in the international voluntary sector world at the time and I do remember discussing the matter with one or two knowledgeable people who suggested that the issue was a “banging head against a brick wall” matter at that time in Bhutan.
But my small intervention might have helped change the mood a tiny bit, or helped others to move the dial a little towards improved conditions and/or circumstances for labourers on public works in Bhutan. If so, I’d gladly raise a glass of ara to that:
Incredible luck at Dochu La – we could see the Bhutanese Himalayas clearly.
Rose early (5:45) for early set off. Left at 7:10 (more or less on time for once) for Thimpu.
We snapped one or two street scenes – we’d done a lot of snapping on the outbound journey along this route.
Collected air tickets and did email to Fiona…
I have no idea why Pema hid behind a tree at this juncture. Perhaps he thought I was going to complain about him to our Steppes East agent, Fiona. Perish the thought. I think it was just a query about one of our onward flight documents that I wanted checked/confirmed ahead of potential problems at the airport.
Then on to Thimpu weekend market which did a lot more for us: – trinkets, vegetables, spices, etc…
…and newspapers – my letter has been published in full! On to see the archers, followed by lunch at Plums
Not every day I see my letter in the press. Pema looks underwhelmed, or at least unsurprised.
After lunch set off for Paro. We actually saw and snapped Himalayas at Dochu La! [See headline picture]…
Liked the look of the vistas a lot. Did not like the look of that forest fire.
Checked into hotel somewhat tentatively as a big forest fire seemed mighty close and there was no electricity. Went off touring anyway – took pictures of Paro Dzong, museum etc…
…then up to ruins of Drukgyel Dzong for stunning photos
…on to start of trial – then back to see round stunning Kykhu Lhakhang (really old monastery).
Then back feeling very nervous via Olathang Hotel, which has room. (By this time I have concluded the Druk Hotel is not a good idea).
We get leave to leave from the manager who is in a conference with a three star general) and flee to an Olathang Cottage (which I like but at first Daisy doesn’t), as our sense of humour fades as fast as the day!
We learnt afterwards that the Druk Paro did not burn down, but it did smell smoky and was without power for quite some time.
Photographs from this day are pictures 053 to 085 in the album you can click through below:
Day trip to Pobjikha Valley. Set off a little late, delayed by interesting American, Laurie. Through Wangdue (snapped the Dzong from a distance) and through Wangdue Valley (with river, stunning in parts)…
…then climbing into Black Mountains through Nobding (where we dispensed pens)…
…and up shortcut into Phobjika Valley (stunning)…
…went to Gante Gompa (monastery) where we snapped many young monks…
…then deeper into valley. Fortune was with us, the rare black necked crane had stayed late this year. So we trekked 20 minutes or so to the observation point and saw about 20 of them. (I even spotted two that Pema hadn’t seen).
Even if you crane at the screen you’ll struggle to see the cranes on the photo. But we got a good look at them
Super picnic after that chicken, potatoes, rice with chicken, shared with farmers, about half an hour nearer home.
This farmer was deaf and dumb and very grateful for a share of our enormous picnic.All shall have picnic.
…and then drove home back the way we came. An angry looking power worker had us in stitches at the Wangdue gas station.
I cannot explain what was so funny about that power worker. He was very red in the face and he was a great big bloke who looked oversized for his vehicle. He was angry about something at the gas station but no-one there seemed to understand his growling and we (initially me and Janie. but soon also Pema) were in fits of laughter. “Power Man” possibly got more angry once he realised that we were laughing at him, but we simply couldn’t stop laughing. If you need a mental picture, think of the angry farmer in Shaun The Sheep:
This was so incongruous in Bhutan, which is a tranquil place where our instincts suggested that expressing our frustration if things were happening slowly or inefficiently could not help, indeed could only hinder.
Enough on him. We saw plenty more beautiful and interesting things while returning to Meri Puensum.
Spent late afternoon relaxing and enjoying dinner. OK. Fried pork momos, local trout, rice, vegetables, and a little pork. Met proprietor of hotel and then early night.
The photos from this day are all on the album linked below – 019 to 052:
