After a quick descend downhill, we headed over to Yangche’s place for a really nice lunch. I had prawns! It’s been a while… Very yummy and totally hit the spot. Much as I love the seasonal vegetables here in Bhutan, I’ve learnt that you can take the girl away from the sea (by hauling her 2,300 metres above sea level), but you can’t take the seafood cravings away from the girl…

After lunch, it was another attempt at shooting the VAST guys on their bikes. Was a little distracted and the panning shots didn’t turn out so well this time. Kuenga was a lot more successful with the video cam, and got some nice footage. Photos from both our rides out with the guys are here.

This post is dedicated to the friend who called me out for being lazy and not updating more, and is the generous sponsor of the 20 bars of dark chocolate that will arrive with my parents next week.

Small set of photos can be found here.

Taking advantage of the long weekend last week, I tagged along with some friends on a road trip to Phobjikha to see the famed black-necked cranes. Kuenga and I drove out to Punakha to spend the night at her aunt’s home. After a short hike from the nearest feeder road, we were welcomed warmly by the family and treated to a traditional outdoors Bhutanese stone bath in the evening. Naturally no photos were taken because this blog is rated G (okay okay, the truth was that I was too lazy to grab my camera). A fairly good description of a Bhutanese stone bath can be found here.

We then met up with Tashi, Passang and Phuntsho at Lobeysa and set off in Tashi’s car to Phobjikha. After a two-hour drive or so, we arrived at the beautiful and peaceful Phobjikha valley. Unlike many other towns, no electricity poles and cable mar the landscape. This is an attempt to protect the valley as the cranes’ ideal habitat during their winter hiatus away from Tibetan plains. At the information centre, we got a good eyeful of the foraging black-necked cranes through the telescopes available. After a spot of photo-taking, our hungry stomachs demanded lunch and we picked a picnic spot with an excellent view of the valley.

We took a stroll around the valley after lunch, taking the chance to document as much of our picturesque surroundings as possible. We headed back to Lobeysa late in the afternoon, spending a night at another of Kuenga’s family home before driving back to Thimphu Saturday morning.

It’s always great to escape the dust and cold of Thimphu. My thanks to my lovely companions on this trip, you made it all the better…

I sent off 2007 with a VAST rock climbing outing. I’m embarrassed to say that being the ultimate Singaporean urbanite, the first image that sprung to mind on hearing about it was that of artificial rock-climbing walls with the mounted hand and feet grips. It was not until I heard someone talking about the location of the rock-climb “Oh, the rock just behind Rinchen school…” that I realised that when they said rock, they meant *rock*, not some fake wall. Duh. Still holding on to hope despite my paralysing fear of heights, I said sure, I will give it a try.

Yeah, sure. When I finally laid eyes on the rock face that we were to be scaling, it was not one of my proudest moment - I chickened out. Getting up to the base of the rock face was a bit of a struggle and there was no way I’m going to haul my butt up that *thing*. I settled for taking snapshots and shouting out words of encouragement to the rest of the crew. So what if I was put to shame by a 12 year old, at least my two feet were safely planted on solid ground.

I kicked off 2008 with a nice New Year’s Eve dinner cooked by Gelay for everyone at VAST. I was originally supposed to join some folks for a new year party at some pub but a nice cosy VAST dinner sounded infinitely better than being stuck in a packed bar and infusing my lungs, hair, and clothes with second hand smoke (Bhutan’s ban on smoking is definitely not working).

So that’s what we did. Kuenga and I went to pick up a chocolate cake from Seasons for dessert, before heading back to VAST for a really delicious dinner (thanks Gelay!). Some folks had a little too much to drink, but I am not telling who.

It was a bummer having to work on 1st January, but 2nd January was Winter Solstice and a public holiday (Nelo) here in Bhutan. I was invited by Asha Karma and family to their new home in upper Motithang for lunch. Their new home was lovely and again the food was the excellent. Basking in the afternoon sun during winter is always fun; with good food, wine and great company, all the better!

Being invited for Choku was my chance to experience a little of life in the village. For this Singapore-bred city slicker, the traditional Bhutanese village was an experience like no other. To get there required a morning on winding moutain roads, sometimes over iced-over patches (snow wheels? doesn’t exist) and another hour on unpaved feeder roads. Despite the numerous bumps, the newly-dug feeder roads were a god-send, allowing us to drive right up to the house instead of a 2-hour hike uphill from the main road.

As we travel eastwards from Thimphu, a different landscape met my eager eyes. Instead of the brick and mortar apartment blocks found in Thimphu, traditional Bhutan houses made from mud and wood dot the green mountainsides and valleys. The air warmed up and the fragrance of Daphne (a local woody plant used to make paper) blooms drifted by.

When we arrived, faces young and old filled with warmth and sometimes a little curiosity greeted mine. “Is she a chillip? But she looks Bhutanese…” Looking on as I struggle up the steep and narrow wooden steps to the house, it didn’t take them to long to figure out the truth. Thankfully, this chillip (foreigner) eats like the Bhutanese for the most parts. Except for suja (butter tea) which is just too rich to drink 6 times a day and sometimes over-fatty pork, I eat most of everything put before me. And sometimes a little more. An ezay-eating chillip (chilli-eating foreigner) is understandably rare and I have a feeling my enthusiasm for ezay won me a couple of brownie points.

Talking about food, oh how I ate. These Bhutanese sure know how to feast; we pretty much ate non-stop from 8 in the morning until 9 at night. The pre-breakfast meal of meat and cheese porridge was one my favourites. “Pre-breakfast”, breakfast, “pre-lunch”, lunch, tea, dinner, and lots of snacking in between. I lost track of the meals after a while, but was contented to eat when I was told and happily snack in-between.

Sitting around the bukhari in the evening, sharing in the chat and laughter as much as a chillip can, a sense of realisation hit me silently. Man, I lucked out. This is it, this is why.

In the heart of that countryside village, the magic of Bhutan finally began.

We made our way to the blood donation centre at the local hospital and it turned out that there was a mass donation exercise supported by the JICA Alumni Association of Bhutan. It was fun to observe how the donation was conducted here in Bhutan and compare it with the way it was back home. The biggest difference is that no local anaesthetic is used here. Gulp. I was too chicken to make a donation without anaesthetic, and I also remembered that my last donation was in October (just before I left Singapore) so I’m not due for my next donation just yet.

After the donation, I shared a funny observation with Kuenga. The typical donation for ladies is 300ml, which is actually less than your average can of Coca-Cola (330ml). In local Bhutanese terms, this works out to less than 2 bottles of Litchee (lychee) at 170ml per bottle. I think Kuenga felt a little deflated after that factoid but was quite tickled at the comparison.

Because it was a mass donation exercise, a small platter of snacks was served with tea after the donation. On top of that, a packet of crackers and two bottles of litchee drinks were given to the donors. It was very nice gesture in my opinion. Turnout for the mass donation exercise appeared to be fairly good; I reckoned about 200 people turned up and it must have been a good day for the blood bank.

Photo set of the whole process is here (if the mere sight of blood makes you really queasy, it’s probably not a good idea to view the set).

The celebrations in Thimphu, while on a larger scale, shared similar items with the Fourth King’s birthday celebration. There were a couple of interesting items on the programme like “Three-Legged Race”, “Tarzan Swing”, “Pillow Fight”, etc, where members of the public were invited to participate. It brought a smile to my face, wondering if I will ever see the day where a “Three-Legged Race” would feature in the national day celebrations back home.

The biggest highlight of the day was that I met the King! Yup, the Fifth King Jigme Khesar Wangchuk worked the crowd during a break in the celebrations. Because we were sitting in the front row, he stopped by and gave me a pat on my arm and said “Nice to meet you.” Naturally, my brain froze at this unexpected attention and all I could muster was a weak “Nice to meet you too, sir.” And in the next split second, I realised my boo-boo. “SIR?!?! Why did I said sir?? It should have been ‘Your Majesty’. Duh!” Oh well, too late.

During the “Tashi Lebey”, the customary dance that rounds up all formal celebrations, I managed to see the Fourth and Fifth Kings, as well as the Queens. Trés cool.

Small photo set can be found here.
Happy 100th National Day Bhutan. May you and your citizens enjoy another 100 years of peace, growth and happiness!

I enjoyed the opportunity to photowalk again. Even for just an hour or so. I should do this more often, may be during the long weekend coming up (next Monday is the Bhutan National Day, a public holiday). After a few hectic nights of working on the photomosaic, it was a lovely break to just walk and shoot, even if it got chilly after a while (reminder to self: wear warmer clothes).

Ian bought us coffee and cookies at Art Cafe after the walk (Thanks Ian!). The club will meet again on the 19th where we’ll have to share 3 of our photos and hopefully have a good discussion on our work.

Yannick was the main photographer for the thousands of Bhutanese portraits that make up the mosaic. Kuenga was responsible for the generation of the mosaic design, and I was simply the provider of manual labour, to cut and glue the 3cm by 2cm photos.

Despite the late nights, the final mosaic looked really good. So if anyone is in Thimphu on December 17 (Monday), please drop by the VAST studio for the exhibition. If you see three beaming faces next to the photo mosaic, that would be us!