Digitally Exploring the world

It had been a year since I had picked up my backpack and been on my solo trips . Had been to the mountains twice earlier this year, Kashmir in the winter and Ladakh ( Mountains and Monasteries ) in the summer and wanted to go somewhere quaint and peaceful, walk around and soak up some history from the past. Myanmar came to my mind , since mom had gone there 2yrs back when it had just opened up for visitors. Did a bit of research on the internet and booked my flight tickets and got an evisa done. I don't have any bookings, when I travel but do read up on places and have a general idea about hostels/hotels and bus/train connections. I linger and wander around a place a bit longer if I like it or move on .  As Dr Suess said in his poem ' Oh, the Places You'll Go!   You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own.  And you know what you know YANGON So after early morning tennis...

Paro After couple of days at Thimpu, started the last leg of the journey towards 'Paro' .  It takes about 2hrs from Thimpu in a share taxi. Lovely freshly laid Tarmac.  After checking into a hotel and lunch , walked around town . Paro, is a small town compared to Thimpu. Houses at Paro are just two storied and spare traffic unlike Thimpu. Most people who travel to Bhutan fly into Paro and then move on.  On the way back of exploring the place , I found a gathering and school children and it turned out to be an evening where students were dancing to various tunes - some old traditional songs, some new ones.  I had by then gotten familiar with most of the songs , from my long journey to bumthang. Some had nice catchy pop tunes. After that it was just reading and rest. Next day was a buffer day at Paro , kept for any travel related delays like land slides etc.  Basically a day to just rest , eat , walk around and that's what I did. Walked...

Back to Thimpu After spending two nights at Bumthang, it was time to move on and the next pitstop was Thimpu.  Was a the bus stand at 5:30a.m. in freezing cold to start the 12 hour long bumpy ride to Thimpu. It was just my luck that Tshechu (festival ) was scheduled at Thimpu and I wanted to take part in the festivities. Its a 3day annual festival that attracts tourists from around Bhutan and other countries. I had called up a hotel the previous night ,to book an accommodation since I had heard it would be tough to find a room during this time.  After a long journey over the evergreen mountains reached Thimpu in the evening and went to the hotel but was told nothing was there on my name, I hadn't called etc etc. I showed them my mobile call list but nothing they could do at that moment. So I walked across the street to the hotel, where I had spent my first night at Bhutan. Had called them earlier but even they had told me nothing was free. However, found that they had an ...

Bumthang After having spent two nights at calm and serene Punakha , it was time to move on to central Bhutan.  The next destination in mind was Jakar or if that wasn't possible Trongsa . Wokeup early to a cloudy rainy morning. I walked to the taxi stand in the drizzle and found a share taxi to Lobesa. It was cold , misty and lovely outside and the taxi passed through some yellow and green paddy fields with the mountains fading away with the clouds. If only had a camera handy but alas !! There is only one bus from Thimpu that passes through Lobesa and onto Bumthang everyday and its usually difficult to find a seat even from Thimpu if not booked in advance, since these coaster buses have just 15 seats. Taxi was out of question since I was told it would cost 8-9k one way ,just to get there. So I prayed for some divine intervention :) and was at the Bus Stop at 7a.m., would need to figure out Plan B/another destination if this didn't workout. I waited at the bus sto...