Hello everyone. I imagine things are getting busy in the few days before Christmas. However, we are having a relaxing time, sipping darjeeling tea in darjeeling where we arrived today.
So following on from the last email, after we returned from Pobjika we spent another week in Thimphu. We spent one day on a hike to Taksang, the most famous of Bhutan's lakhangs. It is the 'Tiger's nest' monastery perched on the side of a cliff which is featured by a lot of books and postcards. It was quite a steep walk, taking us two hours to reach the monastery. We then spent a couple of hours there at the various shrines and Dylan crawled in the cave where Guru Rinpoche (the man that brought Buddhism to Tibet and Bhutan in the 8th C) meditated. It took one hour to walk down. We then saw Drukoyel dzong, an old fortress where they fought against the Tibetan invaders. That night we went out on the town with our friend Lobsang to a karaoke bar.
On the 17th we joined in the celebrations for National Day. There were many colourful dances and the King attended and gave out awards to some citizens for their meritable activities. The King walked around the stadium mixing with the people. We were lucky enough to meet him! He talked to us and shook Dylan's hand. He is quite a popular figure because he is quite down-to-earth and charismatic, but not as popular as the 4th King (his father).
After National Day we caught a bus to Phuentsholing to stay with Dylan's friend Sonam. Phuentsholing is on the border with West Bengal, so it has quite a lot of Indian influence. We had a great time, seeing the local temple, crocodile and alligator park, going paddleboating and seeing tigers and leopards at a nature reserve, picnicking by the river, feeding catfish, meeting her family and drinking Bhutanese whiskey. We also dressed up in the national dress, for males the gho and women the khira, and took some photos. Because Sonam is a police officer we were able to stay a couple of extra days in Bhutan off-the-record.
Sadly we had to leave and we are now in the quintessential Indian hillstation of Darjeeling. There have recently been some strikes in West Bengal by Gorkhas fighting for an independent state, but we have been reassured there are no strikes planned for the next few days. We plan to stay here for 3 days and then move on to Bodgaya after Christmas.
