It was up early this morning at 5am for breakfast at 6 and leave for the airport at 6.30 for my Druk Air flight to Bhutan. Predictably the hotel was not organised and I had to badger the staff to get ready so that I could have something to eat before I left. My driver was all ready and waiting and whingeing about being there since 5am and having to pay 500 rupees for gasoline ie he wanted me to give him some money and rip me off. I ignored him and he was quite happy with a much lesser tip at the airport.
Kathmandu airport was run down and disorganised. Nothing was computerised so everything was being written down in triplicate on little pieces of paper. Having put our bags through an antiquated x-ray machine and been patted down for whatever we might be carrying on arrival at the terminal we went through the same process again after passport control. This was also accompanied by a hand search of our bags. Third world countries make a huge show of security but in reality it is totally farcical as nothing is done thoroughly. We waited for ages in the holding area as the plane was an hour late coming in. Once allowed to board we went through security again together with the pat down. It made you feel that Nepalese got their jollies at the airport by feeling-up the passengers.
I had been worried about flying Druk Air. After all who has heard of it? I imagined a small down-at-heel plane held together with sticky tape that would struggle to get airborne. How wrong I was! A smart, new-looking plane was waiting for us 10 yards away on the tarmac. Waiting at the door of the terminal, we passengers gripped our bags ready for the short walk to the plane’s waiting steps. At this point Nepalese bureaucracy took over and we were held back to await the arrival of the airport bus, which just managed to squeeze in between the terminal and the plane. Stifling giggles at our ridiculous situation we boarded the bus, which did a quick circuit of the plane to make the trip look worthwhile!
The flight from Kathmandu to Paro must rate as one of the most amazing plane rides in the world. Shortly after leaving Kathmandu we were flying alongside the Himalayas. We were at 21,000 feet and almost the same height as the tops of the mountains peeping out from above a bed of fluffy clouds. We saw all the big peaks including Everest and Kanchenjunga. I had a window seat on the left of the plane so I had a ringside view. Shame my camera was sitting in the overhead locker!
The pilot warned us that the landing at Paro may be a bit rocky but I knew this as the airport is in a valley and subject to difficult winds. There are only a few pilots in the world qualified to land and take-off from there. What I wasn’t prepared for was his next statement. “You will see mountains closer than you have ever seen them before. Do not be alarmed. It is our usual approach path.” With that we plunged through the clouds in a steep descent and began our approach to the airport. Soon we were weaving our way through steep mountains on either side of the plane making sweeping turns to left and right with what seemed like 100 metres clearance on either side. Then came the grand finale; a sharp right hand turn followed by a steep descent brought us rapidly down on to the tarmac.
I loved Bhutan as soon as I set eyes on it. The airport buildings were amazing in both architecture and decoration and there were colourful prayer flags everywhere. After the chaos of Nepal it was quiet, clean and well organised. The locals were all there in their dressing gowns to meet us. Any official has to wear the national dress; a gown belted at the waist and bunched up together with long socks and shoes. This is called a Gho and the ladies wear a similar garment called a Kira. Our guide was there to meet us and we drove very carefully to our resort just outside the town of Paro. The speed limit in Bhutan is 40 kph!
The resort was in typical Bhutanese architecture; quite square with sweeping roofs and painted white with brown decorations. We were housed in little units dotted around the grounds. I am sharing with a young Canadian girl, Tiffany, and we met the other 2 members of our party, an older couple from Sydney called Pam and Bob. It was straight into lunch, which was predictably spicy as the Bhutanese love chillies and often serve them as a vegetable.
We went sightseeing in the afternoon and visited the Kichu Temple, a 7th century Buddhist temple. It had an amazing array of buildings and highly decorated temples containing buddhas in all sizes. After that we went into town and joined the masses that were in town for the festival. Locals come in from all around to see the dances, visit the special markets and generally have a good day out. There were plenty of children and family groups and most kids had a new toy. For the boys it was guns in all shapes and sizes some with pellets that they fired at the girls.
We walked down the main street and looked at the unusual shops. They were all housed in Bhutanese style buildings with small windows and doors. The name of the shop and what it sold was written over the doorway. In spite of the crowds they didn’t seem to be doing a roaring trade. We went in to a couple of tourist shops with lots of handicrafts in the form of woven textiles, paintings, metal Buddhist type bells etc and jewellery. I was thinking of buying some jewellery but it was expensive. They have necklaces etc made from semi-precious stones and silver brushed with gold. They look quite nice but were US$75-100 or more for each piece and I didn’t like that much.
We came back to the resort and had a cup of tea before going back to our room to charge our electrical appliances. Predictably as soon as we walked into the room the power went off! So far I have been typing this in the dark with the aid of a torch! I wonder how we’ll go for dinner?
No comments:
Post a Comment