Hello All,

Two days ago on Friday I arrived in the smallest capital city in the world Thimphu of Bhutan! So far, I have checked in to my hotel. It is called Simplicity. My hotel room is decorated in traditional style paintings and serves traditional style food. Yak meat is a very common type of food and is commonly stewed or curried; it also seems that steamed red rice is served with everything.  

One thing that I have noticed is that there are no traffic lights in Thimphu which gives it the record of the only capital city in the world that does not have traffic lights.

 I also want to go up to the Taktsang Monastery which is a stunning Buddhist temple built on the side of a mountain. One thing worth noting about Bhutan and especially Thimphu is how great they are for mountain biking, mountain trekking and bird watching. I was surprised to see all of the bike riding that was taking place, I guess this is because it is surrounded by mountains. Today I have been on a small trek in a stunning valley and in Bhutanese culture, to walk between mountains is very special. This is said to be because of a pilgrimage that walked in between a valley 1000's of years ago, their aim was to build a monastery but it has never been proven. Built around the 16 century, is an absolutely stunning palace called Punakhu Dzong.  Next week the Thimphu festival is on and it is all very exciting. People are putting up decorations all around the city. There is red and yellow everywhere. The festival was originally held in honor of Bhutan’s first patron saint, Buru Padmasambhava.    

Some dangers and annoyances are theft and haggling. Already there has been lots of haggling and I have been lucky that my wallet has not been taken. This is due to the small population with Bhutan having only 725,296 and Thimphu having only 104,000 people and the fact that most of those people are living below the poverty line. The transport is very expensive with the average tourist paying $200 a day just to get around.  There is also a lot of water borne diseases so if any of you were to come you would probably need to look into being immunised.  I am hoping that I won’t catch any hepatitis or Deli belly.

Other than those dangers and annoyances, Bhutan is a place of wonder and breath taking beauty. In two months I will be going to Phuntsholing (if I can get my visa!)

Bye for now.