Continue from Getting to Bhutan

My time in Bhutan is mostly spent in the office. There is a lot of work to be done. And 3 meals are provided free at the hotel. There's hardly any reason to go out.

[IMAGE: Traditional Dance]

On one of the nights, somebody organise a traditional dance show for his guests. He rented a space in our hotel for it. And we sort of gate crashed in to watch it as well.

[IMAGE: Some Square]

My 1st walk around town is a few days after we arrived. We do not have any local money with us, and our Bhutanese colleague bring us to the bank to buy the local currency. Along the way, we pass by this big square, with this structure in the middle.

[IMAGE: Good Lucky Thingy]

I don't know what this is called. You can see it in a number of places. It's for good luck. I forgot the exact name as well. :P

[IMAGE: Good Lucky Thingy]

This is a close up of the thingy. What's inscribed on the drums are Buddhist scriptures. You supposed to spin the drums by spinning the handle at the bottom. You have to spin every single drum. It's like you are reading it.

[IMAGE: Spinning the good Lucky Thingy]

There. This local is doing it.

[IMAGE: Traffic Junction]

This is the traffic junction. There's no traffic lights. I was told Bhutan is the only Asian country where the capital do not have traffic lights. They installed traffic lights before, but the people complained it's too impersonal, so the government removed them.

[IMAGE: Orchard Road]

We call this Orchard Road. There are malls and plazas and complex along this road. See the mountains in the distance? We are surrounded by mountains. The 2 guys in black on the bottom right corner, the 1 on the left is our Bhutanese colleague, while the 1 on the right is my Singapore colleague.

[IMAGE: City Center Complex]

This is the City Center Complex.

[IMAGE: Druk Shopping Complex]

This is Druk Shopping Complex. There's a hub at the basement level called Hub(pronouced Herb) Pub. The hotel recommended it when I ask them where can I watch soccer and drink beer. Not a bad place.

[IMAGE: Store display]

This is a creative way for placing their store display.

[IMAGE: Carom]

I see carom tables in quite a few places and a lot of people are playing. I wonder if they have to pay.

[IMAGE: Centerpoint]

Cool. They have Centerpoint here. Again, notice the mountain in the background?

[IMAGE: Cinema]

And right beside Centerpoint, is their cinema. The only one here. It used to show foreign films, not it only show Bhutanese film.

[IMAGE: BNB - Bhutan National Bank]

Finally we reached the bank. It's isn't far actually. Took us about 5 minutes by walking.

I was told they don't accept SG dollars, so I bought quite a number of US dollars. Unfortunately I left them all at home. So I bought additional US dollars from the airport. On reaching the bank, I realise they accept SG dollars. Duh. And worse, when I went to buy something, I received an India Rupee as change. When I asked the sales person about this, I was told that India Rupee currency is accepted in Bhutan just as Brunei dollars is accepted in Singapore.

[IMAGE: Post Office]

Anyway, the BNB shares the same building as their Post Office. I came here once to buy stamp and post postcard.

[IMAGE: 7-11Neighbourhood Convenience Store]

On the way back to hotel, we passed by this grocery shop.

[IMAGE: Stadium]

We also saw this stadium in construction. I heard the King's coronation going to be held there.

[IMAGE: Bhutan Kitchen]

After having eaten at the hotel for 1 whole week, we decided to went out for dinner 1 night. We were told this place is good. It looks nice, though the chairs are a bit low.

[IMAGE: Bhutan Kitchen]

The food is quite expensive. It taste not ok. I think this is a tourist place, that's why so expensive.

So that's it again. Till next time.

Recently, I am assigned to a Bhutan project. I get to go there and stay for 1.5 months. This quite a rare opportunity as their government imposes a daily tax on tourists. Including your logdging and food, it's going to cost you at least US$200 daily. And the visa application currently has a 7 months waiting list. Wow.

Before going, my CEO had already told us how beautiful the place is. I am about to find out if that's true.

There's only 1 flight to Bhutan. Their own airline, Druk Air. Druk means dragon in Bhutanese and it's also an alternate name to Bhutan. Druk Air flies from Bangkok to India and then to Bhutan. You board the plane at either of these 2 places. It's early in the morning, so we decided to go to Bangkok the previous day and take the flight from there.

We took a 12:25pm flight from Singapore to Bangkok. Our flight to Bhutan is 5:50am. So we checked into Novotel Hotel. There was some issue with the taxi to our hotel. 5 of us came. Normally, 5 person can be squeezed into 1 taxi, but we had too much luggage, so we have to split into 2 taxis. Or 2 vans. I know that the taxi fare to the hotel is about 300B. There are people at the airport to entice us to take their vans/limo for 1200B. Normally, if they let me go at 600B, I am willing. It's the same price of 2 taxis anyway. And normally, we can find such deals. But on that day we can't. So we went to the taxi queue to get 2 taxi. 2 of my colleagues board 1 taxi and left. 3 of us board the 2nd taxi. Unfortunately, there's not enough space for our luggage. I felt, it can go in with a bit of squeeze, but the driver is not willing, so we took out our luggage to find an alternate 1. The other taxis refused as well. A taxi van offered to take us for 800B, but we disagree. Finally a taxi van agreed to take us for 600B. So we spent a total of 900B for 2 taxis. This taxi driver is quite helpful. He even offered to take us from our hotel to the airport at 3am for only 600B. We thought it's a good deal so we took up his offer.

[IMAGE: Novotel Room]

Novotel is quite nice. The room is quite spacious. Too bad they don't provide free Internet. I still prefer Bangkok City Suite.

[IMAGE: Minibar]

The mini bar is quite comprehensive. Looks like a lot of things there. If you look carefully on the bottom right corner, you might see a packet of condoms.

[IMAGE: Toilet]

I think the toilet is quite nice a well. there's a bathroom scale. And I especially like their bathroom amenities. You can see it under the the left side of the mirror.

[IMAGE: View from the window]

And the best thing about my room? The window view of course! :P

On checking in, we went for some shopping in MBK and Pantip Plaza. It's a bit shiok in that it's an official working day and we are shopping. One of my boss is here with us as well. After that is dinner and back to hotel for a short nap.

Getting up at 3am to go to airport is really a killer. We were all so tired. And the worse thing is that our Bhutan customer forgot to send us the visa numbers, and the airline counter refused to let us check in. We have to talk to the manager for awhile before he agreed. The view on the plane is good though. We were told by my CEO that we should sit on the left side, and all of us took the left window seat. However Ser Wah gave up his window seat to the pretty lady sitting beside him. Should have gotten her phone number at least. Haha!

[IMAGE: Air Stewardess]

This is the Druk Air Stewardess. I think her costume is interesting. Looks Chinese.

[IMAGE: Mud River]

First thing I see is this. I think it's a mud river. Looks like a river, but there looks like no water...

Then I see this. There's nothing much. Some mountains in the distance that I can't really make out.

Then I see this. The mountain in the middle is Mt Everest.

[IMAGE: Mt Everest]

This is a close up of the great mountain.

I forgot to take a picture of the airport. I will have to do it next time. It's beautiful. There are someone at the custom to receive us. The airport is in Paro. The capital, where we are supposed to work at is in Thimphu, which is 1 hour drive away.

[IMAGE: Hotel Dragon Roots]

1 hour later, we arrive at Hotel Dragon Roots. It's quite a small hotel, but it will do fine. The people here are nice and friendly. And the food here is pretty similar to what we have at home as it's mainly indian and chinese influenced.

[IMAGE: Office]

They set a space in the hotel for our office.

[IMAGE: Room]

This is our room. It's quite small.

[IMAGE: Hotel View]

This is the view out our window.

[IMAGE: Outside Hotel]

This is opposite our hotel.

Overall, it's quite cold when we first arrived. It has since moved towards the summer season, so temperature quite ok. My lips were cracking though. And as the air is thin, we pant easily. Walking briskly up the stairs to the 4th floor has been panting like no tomorrow.

That's all for now, till my next post, if I ever do it...