Bhutan - Fortresses

Each valley in Bhutan had a fortress. Bhutan has only been a unified nation for about 100 years. 100 years ago the warlords that ruled each valley met up battled each other to the death, and the winner became the king of Bhutan. There have been 6 kings, all of the same lineage. The current king is 29 and unmarried. His father gave him the crown in 2008. The fortresses are where the government does its business, and also where the monks live. Half of each fortress is administrative, and half is religious. You aren't allowed in the administrative half, and you cant take pictures in much of the religious half. But they are pretty amazing.




My guide talked for over an hour at this painting of the wheel of life, explaining in amazing detail how the Buddhist faith believes souls pass between the six realms. Really interesting stuff. Heaven is actually not as good as the human world, as you have to go to hell after you go to heaven. The goal of the whole game is to become enlightened and break out of the wheel like Buddha did. Sounds too hard. I'm shooting for either another run at the human world, or the ghost world, it sounded pretty cool.

Bhutan - Tiger Nest

So, now in week three of fighting this pneumonia shit, everyone at work, and myself, are astounded that I'm still sick. A million times better than week one, but still gasping for air and coughing whenever I talk. Amazingly resilient shit. Anyway, enough of my sob stories, lets look back at better times - the hike to the Tiger Nest in Paro Valley, Bhutan.
Sadly, this is another story of gasping for air, though. This trek was day two in Bhutan. It was -11 Celsius, and the hike was a day hike (up and down in one day) at about 15,000 ft altitude in the Himalayas. Let me tell you, when you aren't acclimated, the air at that altitude feels whisper thin. The trail to Tiger Nest is a constant 40 to 45 degree incline, culminating in the traversal of a crevasse by walking down a few hundred rock steps and then back up 800 rock steps, as opposed to rigging some suspension across. If you check out the distance pics of the Tiger Nest, the crevasse is just to the left of the temple.
So, needless to say, this hike damn near killed me. I was begging for mercy just a couple hours in, gasping for air. You have to constantly remind yourself to slow your breathing, because your body's reaction to the thin air is to pant, which causes your heart to race. I didn't wear gortex, and should of, because I sweat my ass off while hiking, and then as soon as you stop to rest the sweat makes you freezing cold. This is an easy trek as far as trekking in the Himalayas goes, and it kicked my ass. Gotta be in better shape and give myself a bit of time to acclimate to the altitude for next year, as I want to go on at least a 3 day.

So. Goddamn. Sick

I've got several more Bhutan posts to do, but I figured this week's little adventure is part of the adventure so I might as well blog about it. On the end of day 4, well, actually, 29 minutes into day 5 of a bought with pneumonia. Woke up Saturday night with a high fever, and didn't get out of bed until Monday morning. Made it downstairs to clean up after the housebound dog, finally let him out, and refill his water and food. Tried to play some Uncharted 2, but in the game you are running around villages in the Himalayas and I'm thinking - meh, been there, done that... in real life. Of course it could be argued that the Uncharted 2 dude's experience is quite a bit more acrobatic and harrowing, but with an ample dose of poetic license I'm comfortable claiming I have personally lived the Uncharted 2 experience. But I digress. Reading is a pain because the book I'm reading is a huge hardback (I really hate hardbacks) and I'm so GD weak that holding it wears me out. Internet was out until just this evening. So mostly I just stare at the wall. Went back to bed till Tuesday. Made it the doctor on Tuesday. I had no idea what to expect but I thought it quite erudite to expect the worst. Surprisingly, it wasn't too painful of an experience. The doctor washed his hands, was well spoken, and asked good questions. And the whole thing with 5 different medications was like $25 US. Crazy.
Not sleeping much, just when I dope myself up enough to sleep cough for a couple hours here and there.
The dog was worried for a while and even threw up Monday from nerves, but now he's totally over it and spending most of the time in the spare bedroom away from the noise and flailing.
Cried for a little bit today. It was terribly emasculating and quite pitiful, and as I haven't cried for years I kind of had forgotten how, but it seemed to help a bit. How's that for hard hitting honest blogging. Take that Julie and Julia woman. That might be a bit too obscure a reference for some readers. Let me try again. Take that Perez Hilton. That's better.
I have a strong feeling tomorrow is going to be the hump and then a quick road to recovery. The rare and delicate combination of the severity, the duration, and the location of this malady definitely places it in my top list of worst crap ever.
The India Adventure will continue as normal soon...

Bhutan - Archery

Bhutan's national sport is archery. In each village I was in, they have an archery field set up. They shoot 150 meters (3 times the olympic distance) onto an 8 inch target. With a traditional longbow. And they hit that goddamn target too. Amazing. The opposing team stands around the target and taunts the shooter. The shooter lets the arrow fly, and the opposing team watches it coming and then at the last second dodges it. No fear of dying by arrow. The women stand next to the shooter and dance around and wave ribbons to distract him. When an arrow hits the center of the target, they do a victory dance in front of the target. I saw several victory dances. The whole village shows up for these matches too; lots of people.
A bunch of dudes in plaid ninja outfits shooting arrows at each other deep in the Himalayas. Beat that for a weekend getaway.

Bhutan - Land of the Thunder Dragon

The Kingdom of Bhutan is an amazing place. A closed country for most of its existence, it is slowly opening its doors to tourism. Very slowly, and just a crack. There is no tourist industry as we know it. There is a government per day charge to be in the country, and travel must be arranged through a government agency and accompanied by a government approved tour agent. It all sounds very controlled and uncomfortable, but it wasn't. The tour agent I had was incredibly polite, informative, and spoke good enough English. The driver spoke no English.
Travel into Bhutan by foreigners is only allowed through the governments airline, DrukAir. No border crossing. You land in Paro valley, a small valley in the middle of the Eastern Himalayas. You approach so close to the mountains it feels like the plane is going to scrape the trees, and then the plane reduces altitude so steeply it feels like you are crashing. The airport consists of a single airstrip with a small building adjoining. Getting off the plane you go through customs, which is a counter with two lines; the line for Bhutanese and the line for foreigners. There were three other foreigners on my flight so it went quickly. The first thing I noticed was the crazy outfits the guys were wearing. Its like a plaid ninja outfit without the pants, and with knee high socks pulled up tight with dress shoes. I assumed this was some cruel decision by the airport manager - I quickly found out its the national dress. All men are required to wear the same outfit in any government building (which is most buildings), or at work. Woman are required to wear an outfit similar to a saree, but made of the same plaid material.
Bhutan is cold. Really cold. The mornings were -11 Celcius, warming up to 0 or so midday.