Rose early to write to the King re forced labour…
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…
…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.
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:
