Final images from Bhutan: Taktsang Monastery (The Tiger’s Nest)

Jun 20 2011 under bhutan | Leave a comment

Taktsang is just one of those places. Machu Picchu, the Great Pyramids, Angkor Wat, the Taj Mahal —they don’t disappoint.

The hike was long. And in hindsight, the almost comically-large bottle of Johnny Walker Red that we somehow casually made disappear the night before probably wasn’t the smartest way to prepare for a three-hour trek uphill the following morning.

But like I said, Taktsang is one of those places in the world that’s worth almost anything to experience. A location on Earth to which very few others can be compared in any way.

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3:00 a.m. -The revealing of the great thangka

Mar 29 2011 under bhutan | 1 Comment

For days I hadn’t been able to sleep more than a couple of hours a night. On the eve of the final day of Paro Tsechu, it was no different.

And so, despite a state of exhaustion that was beginning to make me feel like my brain had been burned out of my skull, I had no trouble waking up at two in the morning for the unveiling of Bhutan’s “great thangka“. In my zombie state, I stumbled out of bed.

The thangka wasn’t going to be revealed for another hour but already, lines of Bhutanese pilgrims snaked down every street in town, merging to follow the river, and then move up the hill to Paro Dzong.

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Hitching a ride to Paro tsechu

Mar 26 2011 under bhutan | 1 Comment

We started off early, before dawn. I was hitching a ride with a UNICEF vehicle that was making a morning run to the airport. My friend Jake, a journalist with NPR who I’ve mentioned before, was catching the same free ride. Jake was on his way out of the country. I was on my way to Paro for tsechu, an annual Buddhist festival held each spring.

I’d been trying to get out of Thimphu for weeks, dying for a short break from the city. And when Jake told me about his free ride to Paro and I realized I could catch the last two days of tsechu, I figured I had my weekend getaway.

Once in Paro, locating a room wasn’t easy; a sizable chunk of the country makes the pilgrimage to the small town for tsechu. But after a couple of hours and a self-guided tour of practicably the entire town, I found a cheap enough little guesthouse. Bucket showers and no hot water, but a bed.

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Finally out of Bangkok

Feb 11 2011 under bhutan, thailand | 2 Comments

I refused to write one word stating that I was on my way back to Bhutan until I was actually there.

For a while, it looked as if the story of my return would have to be about a night’s stay in a cell in Paro. With a visa far from ensured and hundreds of dollars tied up in a prepaid flight, I was considering attempting to return to Bhutan without permission, and work the rest out from there. If I was allowed to board the plane, I figured I could cross my fingers for a congenial escort to the Indian border.

Thankfully, I have a much less interesting tale to tell.

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