Continue from Introduction to Bhutan

After having only seen the hotel in the 1st few days, I decided to go out for a walk on a Saturday morning. The next day my colleagues decided to go for a walk as well. The 1st part of the walk is similar to the path I took the day before.

[IMAGE: Petrol Kiosk]

This is the only nice petrol kiosk. I saw another 1 recently, but it's quite bare.

[IMAGE: Archery]

There's an archery range beside the stadium. Archery seems to be a popular spot here. Something like soccer to us. The costume you see them wearing now is not special costume for archery. It's their normal costume.

[IMAGE: River]

Thimphu is built along this river. The area is like a valley. I am crossing to the opposite side of the river for a short walk.

[IMAGE: Ministries]

The transport and City Corporation and a few other government agencies are situated beside the river.

[IMAGE: City view]

The white thing is the bridge across the river. Behind the structure with green roof at the bottom is the river. Behind the river is the Petrol Kiosk. My hotel is to the right of the kiosk, out of sight in this picture.

[IMAGE: Road sign]

I wonder what this means.

[IMAGE: City view]

This is the side of the city where my hotel is in. I can't make out where is it though.

[IMAGE: Cherry Blossoms, Sakura]

I was told Cherry Blossoms are in season in Bhutan now. As they have a very short span, I wanted to take a picture of it before they drop. There were really quite a number of them around. Another plant that is quite common here is marijuana. But I don't really know what it look like. The people here don't smoke marijuana.

This is a closeup of the Cherry Blossoms.

[IMAGE: Ministries]

This looks like some outpost. It's a ministry building as well I think.

[IMAGE: Games]

They were playing some dart projectile game. There were 2 teams. The dart thingy is about the size of a palm. They took turns throwing the dart at each other. I think there's a target, but I can't really see it. And they were singing and dancing as well.

[IMAGE: School]

This is the entrance to a school.

[IMAGE: Road sign]

Another unfamiliar road sign.

[IMAGE: House]

It looks tiring to be living there.

[IMAGE: Riverview Hotel]

This hotel looks nice from across the river, so I decided to come take a look. It looks quite empty, but the view is quite good.

[IMAGE: Riverview Hotel view]

Tell me that this is not nice?

[IMAGE: Riverview Hotel view]

Or this?

[IMAGE: 4 friends]

This is what people called the four friends. It signify harmony. The 4 friends are working with each other to get the fruits from the tree. This picture is taken on the entrance to Riverview hotel, but you can see it everywhere in Bhutan.

[IMAGE: Riverview Hotel back gate]

This is the back gate to Riverview Hotel. There's nothing much to it. I am just curious why is there a big stone lying on the floor in front of the gate.

[IMAGE: Mountains]

And we go on.

[IMAGE: Another resort]

There's a resort up there, and there's a small road leading up to it. Looks scary. But the view should be nice.

[IMAGE: Another city view]

Another city view.

[IMAGE: Bridge]

This bridge brings us back to the city side of Thimphu. The other end of the bridge is their market place. It's under construction, and most of the vegetable sellers have moved to an open space on the other side of the first bridge. The 1 with the ministry beside it. There are still a lot of meat merchants/stores near this bridge.

[IMAGE: Washing clothes]

There are quite a number of people waching their clothes by the river.

[IMAGE: Sunbathing]

And even sunbathing.

[IMAGE: Construction truck]

I've see such trucks on the road a few times already.

[IMAGE: And we walk on]

And we walk on. The red structure at the back is their main government offices. Even the King's office is in there. It's called Dzong, or fortress.

[IMAGE: City view again]

I know I have a lot of city view pics. I hope you are not sick of them already.

[IMAGE: Bridge]

This is where we decide to turn around.

[IMAGE: River]

This part of the river is so beautiful. Especially, the left bank. Well, that's His Majesty's garden.

[IMAGE: Dzong]

That's a closer view of the Dzong. Nice?

[IMAGE: Road sign]

This picture looks like no horning. They can't have people disturbing His Majesty, I suppose. If you tilt your head to the right, it looks like no standing. :P

[IMAGE: Nice driveway]

This driveway looks nice, though it's under construction.

[IMAGE: Archery]

This is another group of people doing archery. It's quite interesting they way they do. They have 2 targets on each end of the field. They stand on 1 end and shoot at the other end. When they finished, they walk to the other end and shoot back. What's interesting is that before the last guy finish shooting, the others start walking back. Right beside where his arrow is going to fly! Without protection! Such trust in the shooter's skills. I hope he don't sneeze or something. I've asked, arrow wounds could be deadly.

[IMAGE: Library]

The picture says it all.

[IMAGE: Huts]

Though Thimphu isn't the most developed city, huts like this is still out of place in it.

[IMAGE: Warning]

I can't believe there's actually a need to put up such warnings in the city...

[IMAGE: Special building]

This building looks different? That's because of it's 2nd floor windows. In Bhutan, all windows looks like those on the 3rd floor and above.

[IMAGE: Branded]

They do have branded stuff. There's even a bowling alley in the basement. 6 lanes.

[IMAGE: Plum Cafe]

This Plum Cafe is opened by a Singaporean woman, Sarah, and her Bhutanese husband. She has been here more than 10 years.

[IMAGE: Mobile shop]

iPhone sold here. 2nd hand though.

[IMAGE: Sony]

They have a HP licensed distributor as well, but I did not take their picture. Sony is nearer to our hotel.

[IMAGE: Clock Tower Square]

Finally we are back. Yes, the name of this square is the Clock Tower Square.

Till next time.