Man did we do alot of running around today. We started out at the weekend market when one there are fruits & vegetables as well as ceremonial paraphanalia like prayer flags and mala beeds. Susan did her bargaining thang buying things for breathe books and then we went to the Heritage Museum which has traditional rural Bhutanese house complete with a special phalic totem said to ward off evil spirits. The modern Bhutanese houses have replaced the phalic sculputures with paintings on the side of the buildings.

We then went to the King’s Memorial Chorten, the National Temple (aka the baby temple where children are taken to be named and blessed), and the “zoo” which has only one species - Bhutan’s national animal, the takin.

Susan made an afternoon visit to a nunnery for prayers but I chilled for a bit before joining her for a little interneting. Sadly, Kaphel (our guide) and Dorji (our driver) are under the weather so they postponed a plan to take us out for extra spicy local cuisine tonight. Tomorrow we start out with a 3 hour drive to Kaphel’s hometown.

Sue Borchardt in Thimpu, Bhutan. February 18 at 6:18 p.m.

and from Susan…

Hi All,
I just wanted to remind those interested to check out the alternative perspective of our trip at www.sueborchardt.com ! She’s got some photos up of the trip. She’s also very good at recounting exactly where we’ve been while I’m just kind of vague - this temple that temple…but this evening I did have a wonderful experience. Our guide took me to a local nunnery for evening prayers. The temple was built in the 1600’s especially for Green Tara. We meditated while the nuns chanted their prayers. It wasn’t a very sacred time - little nuns (kids!) were running in and out with messages. The chanting nuns would continue undeterred, nodding, or scolding to the kids - but never stopping. It was a unique experience to see everyday Buddhism in action. No cushions to sit on - just a hard wood floor. But I loved it. We will visit more temples as we travel around.

Tomorrow we drive for three hours to another part of the country where we will see more spectacular views. The weather has been fabulous - warm during the day and cool at night. The sun is unbelievably hot - we are so close to it you can almost touch it.

PLEASe NOTE!: For those of you who read Sue’s post on her website yesterday about the traditional dress the men wear - please know that I did NOT ask our guide what he was wearing underneath it!! I was simply talking about the similarities to Scottish Kilts…and anyway - we don’t know what’s underneath it…

much love to everyone!!

Love,

Susan

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