Shangri-La: Smiling Monk

Breakfast Time

I would like to dedicate this post to the smiling face Monk-Mr. Chetri. On our trip to Bhutan we had the opportunity to meet a Monk who invited us to stay at his place. All of us were impressed with the cool, calm and composed smiling face of the monk when was saw him sitting on stage, we never thought that we can get in touch with him and actually stay at his place. When Maaji asked him about cheapest place to stay in Thimphu, he invited us at his place, we agreed at the same instant. Very few people get this much luck to actually meet a Monk and there we were staying at his place.

Chetri Sir

We completed our Thimpu tour and reached at his place where we were welcomed by a beautiful girl and niece-Chandrika. We confirmed that its Sir’s place, she acknowledged and she also confirmed our identity by asking Sirs number, great skills. There was another lovely creature who welcomed us by barking-Pikacchu. I have never seen such a courteous doggy, before entering the place she was barking on us, but when she understood that we are friends, she became excited to meet everyone. She introduced herself by meeting everyone individually, she jumped on everyone one after another, spent some time and moved to other person. Last, but not the least we met Rockstar of the house and the son-Goku. He is a guitarist and an excellent cook; he cooked a delicious sabzi named Tashi.

Bhutan's Parliament view @ Night

There was a oneness in Chetri Sir’s place, he was such a good host that we felt like home in a foreign country. All the family members were intimate. I remember an instance where Bhampi, Maaji and Pahadi were cooking in kitchen while me, Sir, Goku and Chandrika were eating in the hall. Sir was telling us that we should eat less in night and suddenly Maaji put one more chapati in his plate, all started laughing. Bhutan is actually known as the Royal Bhutan and fortunately we were lucky to become Royal guests as we were staying right in front of the Parliament. All of us had good conversation with the best host, he explained us a lot of things, answered our bulk of queries. He even read our hands and provided info about us that was really incredibly true. Once dinner was over, Anna and others washed dishes and then all of us headed to sleep, although no one wanted to end the conversation, but it was getting late. 

The Gang

Morning, all of us got ready fast, had a photo session with Sir and then we were back on our track towards India.We had such a great time that can’t be explained in words, the only thing we regret was none of us had any pic with Lovely Pikachu.

Time is far too precious to be wasted unhappy, Be Happy.

Trip to The Last Shangri-la : Thimpu Visit

Kings Memorial Chhorten

The Second Last day of our Bhutan trip was to explore the Bhutans Capital aka Thimphu. We started from Paro and in about 2-3 hours reached there, had a little breakfast and soon reached the first location: King's Memorial Chhorten. This place was getting renovated so not much of a scene.

Museum

Folk Heritage Museum-Must Visit

Next we visited the library, but it was lunch time there, so instead of waiting, we continued our tour to the Museum. Now let me tell you, I have been to a few museums but this was extraordinaire, one of its kind, again salute to Bhutan for this Museum. It was established in 2001 and provides visitors and tourists with fascinating insights into the Bhutanese material culture and way of life. The Folk Heritage Museum is set inside a three storied, 19th century traditional house.

The museum gives us a glimpse of the traditional Bhutanese lifestyle, in addition to artifacts from rural households; it also displays an impressive collection of typical household objects, tools and equipment. The museum also organizes regular demonstrations of rural traditions, skills, habits and customs as well as hosting educational programs for children.

The activities of the museum follow a seasonal rhythm, just like the activities of a true rural household, offering you something new to see every time you visit the place. The museum does a remarkable job of recapturing the rural setting and ambiance of a traditional household by setting up paddy, wheat and millet fields, a traditional water-mill with mill stones more than 150 years old, traditional style kitchen gardens with vegetables that were typically grown during the past 100 years. So sad that photography is not allowed, but then we have google.

@ Library

National Library and Archives of Bhutan

Frankly speaking, im not much of a reader guy, I like to watch movies/seasons instead, so Library didn’t had much charm for me. I must add an appreciation to the point that this Library had 2 sections, one for Foreign Languages like English and other for their own Bhutanese language. Bhutanese language Library is a 5 floor building and the most amazing thing about it is that all the floor schematic is exactly same, in computer terms it’s like copy and paste one above another.

Buddha Point

Buddha Point

A place with a big Buddha’s statue, another cool place to check out.

Handicraft's Place

Handicrafts Place

Last but not the least we have handicrafts place from where you can take souvenir’s for your loved ones There are numerous shops lined up one after another, you can purchase a variety of things from there, you can bargain and select the lowest cost shop also.  Try to purchase something unique of Bhutan like we purchased hanging clothes (its incorrect name, I don’t know what they call it, but they hang these cylindrical colorful clothes in their temples.). See picture.