Photographing Street Painting

Each year over Memorial Day weekend, Mission Santa Barbara hosts I Madonnari, a revival of Italian street painting. This is a very popular event which draws many of the visitors in town and also local residents. The event benefits the Children’s Creative Project, sponsored by the Santa Barbara County Education Office (http://www.sbceo.k12.ca.us/~ccp/ccp_catalog.shtml ). Local businesses and non-profits purchase squares and sponsor members or independent artists to decorate the square with appropriate art work.

I have visited this event numerous times with my camera, usually focusing on the art work. This time, I decided that picturing the artists themselves would be more creative. As the day was sunny, I realized that they or their faces would be in deep shade, due to umbrellas, hats, or just because they would be facing their work on the ground. There is an example in the first picture.

In order to combat this, I brought my flash and one set of my PocketWizard wireless controls, a MiniTT1 and a FlexTT5. These devices allow my Canon 580 flash to communicate with my camera and control the amount of light produced by the flash. I set the flash on the ground pointing toward the artist, as shown the second picture.


I normally have my Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC) set to +2/3 (about 150%) and left it there for my tests on Saturday. Looking at the LCD on my camera, I could see that it was working. However, when I looked on my computer that night, I could see that it was really too much, so I went back Sunday to try other amounts of compensation.

It turns out that, the correct amount may be a matter of trial and error; somewhere between -1 (50%) and -2 (25%) of the amount computed in the camera. This probably depends upon factors which are outside the photographer’s control. You can see in the last picture the natural looking light with the FEC set to -12/3 or about 30% of the metered amount of light.

May 4 – The Trip to Tiger’s Nest

One of the “must do” events on any trip to Bhutan is the visit to Tiger’s Nest, a monastery perched high in the mountains above Paro. There are two ways to travel there, either to walk all the way or to rent horses part way and walk the rest of the way. To the traveler, there are three important stages on the journey. First is the cafeteria, about half-way up, where most of the horse trips end. The second stage is the view point across a valley from Tiger’s Nest, where you can go by horse if you pay extra for the ride. This is as far as anyone can go by horseback. The third stage is a walk down about 300 steps to the valley floor and then back up another 300 steps to the monastery itself.

April 27 – April 29 – A Sixteenth Century Palace and a Village in Rural Bhutan

During this period we experienced really one of the highlights of the trip. We visited the village of Ugyen Choling. This village just received electricity in the past year, and is not presently reachable by car or bus. The main attraction is the 16th century palace of a former governor, which the descendants have turned into a museum and formed a foundation to maintain it as a cultural asset.

After a morning visit to the Jakar Dzong and the winter palace of the second king of Bhutan, we are on the road. Fifteen minutes after leaving Jakar, we turn off the paved road to a hard-packed but unpaved road. We will drive this road for about a half-hour to a nunnery which we will visit. While we are there, James will have his head shaved by one of the nuns. At the end of our visit it is noon and we have our lunch on some tables adjacent to the nunnery.

The Bridge at the end of the road and the start of our hike

After lunch, we climb the unpaved road for an hour until we reach a village at the end of the road. There awaiting us in a field by the river are women from Ugyen Choling, who will help carry our luggage the rest of the way to the village. We have all pared down our luggage to essentials, clothes for two days, and our camera equipment. We and our own guides and drivers will carry the camera equipment.

We started up the trail under cloudy skies and all brought ponchos or other rain gear. We had a one hour uphill walk ahead of us. The trail is hard packed dirt about as wide as a single lane road. It rises in slopes about 50 yards long with a landing at the end before the nest slope in the opposite direction, like a set of ramps in a building. As we went on, it started to drizzle, and then rain, and then rain harder, and then rain was mixed with sleet. We are at 8,000 feet climbing upwards with a camera or two on our persons, and I was making it to the next ramp, so that I could catch my breath for a minute or two. When the sleet started, I forgot about catching my breath, and just wanted to get to the end of the journey and under shelter as quickly as possible. Finally, we reached the village, and then the guest house, and up the stairs into the great room, where a bucari was warming the room. The hike up the hill had taken an hour and four minutes, at least thirty of those minutes in pouring rain and sleet. Our luggage had already arrived and I went to my room and took off my soaked jeans and put on my sweat pants/pajamas for the trip. We had tea and our evening meal. I then retired to my room with its own lit bucari, arranged my jeans near the bucari to dry.

Raising Prayer Flags

The next day we awoke to a breakfast of porridge, eggs, and toast in the great room. After breakfast we went outside to help Namgay raise a set of prayer flags that he had wanted to place around the chorten at Ugygen Choling.. We had some long poles made from shaved trees. Long strips of different colored cloth were tied almost the whole length of the pole and then each pole was placed in it s position around the chorten.

Afterwards in the morning, there was an archery match between our guides and drivers and the men of the village. I watched for awhile and then toured the museum which has artifacts from the original owners of the property. Afterwards, Robin invited me to tour a local farm house with him. It was well constructed and in the traditional style. There was an extended family of grandmother, the farmer, his wife, and their grown children. The grandmother is 83 years old and has lived in the house all her life. It has a wood stove in the kitchen, a treadle-powered sewing machine, and everyone sleeps on quilts on the floor. However, electricity reached Uygen Choling last year and there is a flat screen TV with cable input. It is interesting to see the shift to modernity play out in Bhutan.

Lawn Darts

Lawn Darts

The Peanut Gallery

After lunch, there was a lawn darts match between our guides and drivers and the local men. This was a holiday for the village, and the whole village turned out to watch. Lawn darts is somewhat like archery on a shorter field. There is a target at either end of the field and the players alternate throwing at the two targets to compensate for wind effects. Interest is added to the game when one of the spectators (tourists) sponsors a target. The sponsor places a bill either dollars or ngultrum (Nu) on one target or the other, and the first player to hit that target wins the money. Nu is the Bhutanese currency, which is pegged to the Indian rupee, and both currencies are accepted equally in Bhutan.

The lawn dart game continued all afternoon with women and children from the village watching and cheering the players on.

The Palace

Dancer in Costume

During the match, I went into the temple in the main building to photograph a dancer that Robin had hired to dress in costume and pose for the photographers on the tour.

Awards Ceremony and Dance

We had dinner at six, and then went over to the main building for a ceremony to present the awards for the archery and dart matches. Again all the people from the village were present and there was dancing to Bhutanese music. After the dancing, there was an award ceremony. We had brought all the prizes. A local farmer had won both the archery and darts matches and he was awarded with a new set of arrows. However, there were prizes for everyone. Prizes for all the other local players, prizes for the local girls who had sung and danced during the lawn darts match. In addition, the tourists had brought gifts which were handed out, including reading glasses for some of the older people. After the awards there was more dancing and celebrating.

Guesthouse where we stayed

The Way Down

The next morning we woke up and after breakfast started the hike back down to the cars. This time it was downhill and the weather was pleasant. The walk was easy and we took pictures of the farms and fields on the way down. When we reached the footbridge and the cars, it was the end of a wonderful part of our journey. It is likely that people who visit Ugyen Choling in the near future will be able to arrive by car or at least four wheel drive vehicle. There is a plan to construct a vehicle bridge across the river, which has only been delayed due to a local official misappropriating the funds allocated, but the bridge will probably be complete within a year. While tour busses won’t be able to make the climb, certainly the 4WD vehicles that we were using could, and the village will be changed, in some ways for the better, and in some ways not.

April 26 – Another Festival and the Ride Home

On Monday we woke up at the River Lodge and went to the village of Ura for the second day of its festival. This was a quite different experience from our two days at Domkar. We were just a few of the many tourists attending this festival. In fact, the tourists outnumbered the Bhutanese attending the festival. According to Robin, this had started out as a small local festival and was now becoming quite commercialized. This might be the last year that he would bring a group here.

We did see some dances that we hadn’t seen in Domkar. The highlight was the Black Hat Dance. In this dance the dancers assume the appearance of yogis who have the power to kill and recreate life. The dancers wear brocade dresses, wide-brimmed black hats, and black aprons with an image of the protective deities whose images are kept in the chapel devoted to them.

I have included two photos of the dance, one of the dancers lining up at the beginning of the dance and one of a single dancer, taken from the second story of the temple. You will see in both cases, tourists in the picture.

We had our lunch, which we had brought from the River Lodge, watched one more dance and then left to return to the River Lodge for our second night, before leaving for Ugen Choling the next day. On the way home I took a couple of pictures of typical passing situations on the roads through the front windshield. These are not noted for their photographic quality, but I believe give you the idea of the roads in Bhutan. These were taken on the main highway that crosses the country from east to west. There is a new section from Paro to Thimphu that is straighter and wider, but what I have shown is more common.

Just before arriving in Jakar, we had a great view of the valley with storm clouds billowing up. Tomorrow we leave the River Lodge for the village of Ugyen Choling. It is the site of a sixteenth century palace, now a museum, and a guest house where we will spend two nights. In this setting we are able to interact with the local farmers, who were recently brought into the 21st century when electricity came in.

April 25 – Last Day of the Festival, a Monastery, and More

We packed and left early to return to the festival grounds by 8:30 to catch the important event of the last day of the festival, the unfurling of the Throngdroel banner and the blessing of the crowd. Everybody was out in their finest clothes, used only on festival day for the event. We arrived in time and as we had the day before roamed the grounds looking for interesting photos.

The Throngdroel was hanging on the temple when we arrived shortly before 8:30, and the musicians were assembling their instruments. At 8:40, the ceremony started, the abbot and dignitaries facing the Throngdroel and gathering around the altar set up beneath it. They then moved to the other end of the festival space, donned ceremonial headgear and the music began. After this ceremony, the Throngdroel was taken down and furled up. The people then lined up to pass by the abbot by the altar near the temple to receive the blessing.

After the blessing there were several more dances and at noon the festival was over. We then left for Jakar in Bumthang where we checked in at The River Lodge, our hotel for two days and had lunch.
Actually there are two villages near each other, one called Jakar, and the other Chamkhar. It was unclear to me which was which, so I’ll refer to the area as Jakar.

After lunch we were free to select several sights in the Jakar area. James and I were with Namgay. Our first stop was the Kharchu Dartasang monastery, where 500 boys are training to be Buddhist monks. When we arrived they were in a common room reciting the scriptures before lunch. We saw them and were able to take pictures of the boys from the doorway of the large common room that they were in. There were three lamas at a table at the back wall opposite the doorway, leading the recitation. We were not allowed to take their picture, however,

We are learning the do’s and don’ts of visiting Buddhist temples as we have entered an average of two a day on our trip. Do take off your hat. Do take off your shoes. Don’t take pictures of the altar.

After the monastery, we visited the Then on to the Kurjey Lhakhang where we took pictures of some young boys playing in the yard and Namgay had the disciplinary lama pose for pictures in the doorway. I gave Namgay a copy of the picture, so that he could have it printed for the lama.

From there we went and walked up the main street of the village, taking pictures. The people of this village are also going to be moved a short distance away. We saw their new homes under construction on our drive to the monastery. Like the others, they will be concrete apartment blocks, with less character and charm than the houses they presently live in, but hopefully with safe water and a better infrastructure.

We returned to the River Lodge for dinner and our nightly guessing game as to how long the power would be off. The previous night a rain storm had shut down the power for some time. This night, the lodge was running on a generator, supplying lights and other low current items. It appears that a previous storm had caused a transformer to blow out. The power company was replacing it, and the replacement was scheduled to be completed at 9:00 PM. The power actually returned at 9:45.

With no lights after 8:00 and an early start to get to the Ura Festival the next day, I retired early. The next day was to be the second day of a festival in Ura.

April 24 – Domkar Festival – Day One

We left the Yangkhil Resort at eight for the Domkar Festival. The power still had not returned. Outside of the power failures, the Yangkhil provided very comfortable and clean accommodations. The room was large and the bathroom plumbing in good shape. There was even one large bed in the room as opposed to the two smaller beds in many of the hotels. We will return to Trongsa and the Yangkhil for two nights on our return trip to Paro.

I was in the car with Robin as guide and Djordi as driver. Robin was not feeling well, he had gone through a bad night, waking up with chills, fever, and intestinal problems. He left the festival early and went to the hotel where he went to his room all day. Marcia, who is a nurse, visited him later and discovered that he had a case of food poisoning. However Namgay is very capable and is leading the trip as required.

Robin and our Bhutanese tour company, Rainbow Tours and Treks, have supported the Domkar Festival and the local temple, so we are treated as honored guests. When we arrive, there are several other groups of tourists already present, they watch as we are led into the temple of a welcoming tea with the lama. The dances and dancers are outside while we have tea and present some donations to the lama.

After the tea we go out to spend the rest of the morning watching the dances and photographing. This is a relatively small festival, compared to the ones in Paro and Thimphu, but as we find out, it provides excellent photographic opportunities. The festival is a holiday for the local area and families sit around watching the entertain ment. Everyone is free to circulate to get their desired camera angle and picture and there are many pictures of the audience as well as the dancers. As I said yesterday, the Bhutanese are in the main willing to have their and their children’s pictures taken, and their reward is ust being able to view the picture on the camera. The photographer’s first reward is the broad smile on the face of the subject when they see their picture.

Besides us there are perhaps twenty other tourists, some from Poland and some from Australia. There are maybe 100 – 200 villagers in attendance. We have very little problems taking good photos without tourists in the way. A couple of times during the day, one of the other tourists would stand in from of my position by the bandstand to take pictures of the band. I would then take a photo of them.

The Festival consists of a series of dances each about a half hour or more in duration. These are all traditional and handed down through the generations. There are the masked dances with men in costumes doing extremely physical gyrations, and these alternate with women in traditional costumes performing is a more restrained fashion. The women’s dances are really an intermission for the men to rest and change costumes for the next vigorous performance.

After about three sets of dances, it is noon and time for lunch. Again we are honored to have lunch with the lama in the temple. The other visitors must go offsite to a hotel or restaurant for theirs, or bring a packed lunch.

The afternoon continues with more dances men in costumes alternated with women in kiras. The men’s dances in costumes are depictions of the viewer’s journey after death to nirvana. The women’s dances are times for the men to rest and change costumes for the next act of the drama. During one of these “half-time” periods, we have an invitation to go up to the temple, where the men are dressing and take pictures.

We alternate taking pictures of the dances in their costumes with pictures of the villagers attending the festival. At 5:00 the last dance of the day is performed and we return to our lodging for dinner. We will arise early to attend the last day of the festival, when the ________, a large banner is unfurled and all the attendees pass by the lama to receive his blessing.

Wangdue to Trongsa - Worse than the road to Hana

We left Wangdue at about 8:00. I was assigned to a car by myself with Wangdi and Thinley as guide and driver, respectively. Robin had given the guides, a challenge to find a beehive, an orchid, and a monkey along the road. The road we were to follow for the next seven hours is a windy road cut into the sides of mountains, following the course of a river. The paved surface is barely wide enough for two cars to pass. Many times we had to stop and pull over to the minimal shoulder to allow a truck coming toward us room to pass. The top speed is about 25 mph. Large trucks in Bhutan are marked 30km which means that they are not allowed to travel faster than 18 mph. Robin had figured that from curve to curve on the road was about nine seconds of driving time or about 100 yards. Sometimes one can see around two curves. This was the road all day up to a mountain pass where we had lunch and then back down on the other side.

I will give a few incidents and a few pictures; to recount the whole seven hours would be tedious and I am a day behind writing this up as I will explain later.

It was about 8:30 when Wangdi spotted a beehive on the cliff across the river. The beehive is a large black half-circle that stands out on the white cliff. I documented the find with a picture and we moved on. About 20 minutes later, Wangdi spotted several trees with orchids growing in the branches, and we photographed several plants. We finally finished the trifecta when I had pulled over to photograph a white rhododendron and Wangdi spotted the monkey down at the bottom of the cliff. I took the picture with the longest lens that I have with me and the monkey is hardly distinguishable. The picture here is a crop of the full frame from my camera, which makes it a 2:1 blow up.

We passed a group of women sitting under prayer flags at the top of he pass and they were gracious enough to allow me to take their picture. Almost without exception, the people here are willing to have their picture taken and some even ask when they see your camera. The big reward is when you show them their picture on the camera screen, they giggle and laugh and are really pleased.

We continued along. Either I would see something that I wanted to photograph and ask Thinley to stop or Wangdi would see something and ask if I wanted to photograph it, which I usually did. We stopped to photograph several nice waterfalls along the way.

The three cars joined up for lunch at about 2:00 PM. After lunch we moved along much quicker as the scenery was not as interesting and it was clouding up and beginning to look like rain and this road did not seem like the kind of place I wanted to be after dark on a rainy night.

We reached our destination, the Yangkill resort a little after four and went to our rooms. They were supposed to have an Internet connection so I could send the three blogs that I hadn’t been able to send before, because of time constraints and because the place we stayed in Wangdue didn’t have Internet.

A Queens's Project, a Town Reborn and More

After a relatively late breakfast at 8:00, we are on the road again. I’m in Namgay’s car again; today with Eleanor. She is a very good photographer with a specialty of nature. She has made 19 trips to Africa and produces several “slide” shows a year that she shows around Dallas. She also competes vigorously, and has won some national PSA awards.

Our first stop is the 10,500 foot Dochula Pass. On this pass are the 108 Druk Wangyal Chortens. They were built in 2004 by the prior queen (fourth wife of the fourth king) “to celebrate the peace and stability that His Majesty has brought to the country. We stay for quite a while, photographing the chortens through the prayer flags, the chortens close up, and a small temple on the hill, also built by the same queen. Inside, some soldiers are on a ladder replacing lamps. The King and the Head Abbot (Bhutan’s spiritual leader) will be visiting soon and all must be ready. In Bhutan, the King and the Abbot are ranked equally, and we see two throne-like chairs next to each other where they will sit during the visit.

I go back down the hill to take some close up pictures of the chortens. On the way out Eleanor is photographing an old couple. After she is finished, I ask if they mind and I take some pictures of them. When I show them the pictures on the camera they both smile and tell me a little about themselves. He is 85 she is 83. Most Bhutanese are happy to pose for pictures and in many cases, a view of the picture on the camera LCD is their reward and brings out a big natural smile. Namgay suggested that Eleanore and I work as a team one taking a picture and showing it while the other captures the big natural smile.

We move on and around noon we come upon a house under construction using the Bhutanese Adobe wall technique. The framing is partially up and sand is poured into brick-like openings in the wall and then pounded with a wooden mallet to compress it. A lot of the work is done by women. Women are carrying filled bags of sand on their back up to the proper area of the frame and then dumping the sacks and returning for more. Another woman is pounding the sand into place with a wooden mallet.

After lunch, we move to the Punakha Dzong, which is the winter residence of the Head Abbot and the central body of 300 monks. We are lucky as the jacaranda trees fronting the dzong are in full bloom, giving us some really beautiful pictures. We go inside and take pictures of the monks scurrying around and are treated to the musical presentation from a tower as the monks pray inside the temple. We also catch many photos of the parade of 300 monks leaving their assembly hall after prayers.

Our final stop of the day is the village of Wangdue. As you can see in the photo, the central part consists of tightly packed wooden buildings. This old town will soon be no longer. It is crowed, and built on a high cliff above a river. There is a hydroelectric plant nearby. There is some fear that the town could fall down the cliff, in addition to the fire danger inherent in the closely packed buildings. A new town is presently being constructed a short distance away which will consist of three story concrete apartment buildings and shops. It will have safe running water and sewers, both of which are a rarity in Bhutan. After the new town is finished and the people moved the old town will be demolished. So the people will have a better life, but some old charm will be forever gone

April 21 - From Prayer Flags to Prayer Wheels

I awoke at 5:15 and by 6:00 had a quick cup of coffee and we were on our way. Our destination was Chelila Pass, 12000 feet high, where we would have breakfast. I was in Namgay’s car with James as my companion. We started out of town and up the windy road. All roads in Bhutan are windy. There is a short stretch in Paro alongside the runway that is supposed to be the longest straight stretch in Bhutan. The skies were blue with lots of nice cumulus clouds, that make a good backdrop for photos.

We were on the road for a half hour when we spotted our first group of prayer flags. We stopped the car and went out to photo graph them. This is the great benefit of this trip. When we see something, we can get out and photograph without holding up a whole busload of people. James is a very artistic photographer and had a plan in mind for his prayer flags. We spent about a half hour walking around and photographing them from various angles and in various groupings.

On the road again, until we came to a small shrine by a stream. A wheel in the stream drove a prayer wheel above in the shrine. There was an altar with many miniature stupas, called tsa-tsa. There was also a field of prayer flags. Again another stop for photography.

Other photo opportunities along the road were a group of yaks with bulls, a mother, and a calf, and the yak herder’s lonely house. Yak herders may have two houses, one high during the summer, and one lower for the winter months as they follow the herd.

Finally, at 9:20, after almost three hours on the road, we reached the pass. Robin and Eleanor had since stopped for breakfast and photography and gone on. John and Marcia were finishing breakfast as we arrived. The crew had a hearty breakfast prepared for us with cashew porridge, juice, coffee, sandwiches, and rice to which peppers could be added to taste. The pass was filled with many fields of prayer flags. In the photo, you can see just a part, along with a communications tower, and an electric transmission line. This photo is somehow a metaphor for Bhutan. The strong religious influence, the modernization, and the transmission line, representing Bhutan’s main export, electricity to India.

India and Bhutan have a very close relationship. India supplies many of Bhutan’s teachers and also many laborers on India funded infrastructure projects. The Bhutanese nugultrum (Nu) is pegged to the Indian rupee, and rupees are used as well as Nu in Bhutan.

After breakfast, we returned down from the pass almost to Paro, where we took the new Paro – Thimphu road to Thimphu. This new road cut the travel time between the two main cities in western Bhutan to one hour from two hours. It is mostly two lane, but smooth and in good condition. We saw laborers patching one section on our way.

Arriving in Thimphu, we saw workers on a ceremonial arch, one of many being prepared to welcome guests from South Asian countries for the South Asian Association Regional Conference (SAARC) to be held in Thimphu on April 28, 29. Hosting this conference is a great honor for Bhutan, and Thimphu, the capital is busy preparing with arches and other welcoming signs.

We arrived and checked in to the Kisa Hotel just in time for our 1:00 lunch. The Kisa is a fully modern hotel, probably the best in Bhutan, and accommodations are equivalent to a western name brand hotel. This is probably a portent of things to come in Bhutan, as a McKinsey study told them to build more western hotels if they wanted to increase their tourist traffic. Robin says this is a good time to come as Bhutan will be changed in the future.

This was only the morning. In the afternoon we visited the national handicraft school, where young people learn the traditional crafts, such as woodworking, embroidery, painting of religious pictures, sculpture, and more. We were able to enter the classes and photograph the students at work.

Afterwards we visited the Memorial Choten (temple) where residents come to chant their daily prayers while spinning large prayer wheels outside.

For dinner, we all went to Thimphu’s best pizzeria to have a really delicious pizza. And then to bed to prepare for our next exciting day.

April 20 - Entering the land of the Thunder Dragon

The wakeup call came as requested at 2:30 AM. It meant that I had one hour to shower, take my luggage to the lobby, have some coffee and be at the hotel shuttle to the airport for our 5:40 flight to Paro, Bhutan. It had been over four years since I first signed up for a trip to Bhutan, before I was finally on my way. I met Robin, the tour leader, and Eleanor, another photographer, in the lobby restaurant for coffee and pastries. John and Marcia, two other members of the group were at another hotel in Bangkok, we would meet them at the airport. The final member of our tour James was already in Bhutan on trek and would meet us in Paro.

At the airport Namgay, our lead tour guide met us with a group of guides and drivers and three SUVs which were to be our transportation for the next 15 days. We piled into the cars and headed for the Gangtey Palace Hotel, which had been the home of a governor in the late nineteenth century. It was a very authentic place to spend our first night in Bhutan. My room was small, but clean and with a private bath with shower, tub, toilet and sink.

We take all our trips in three cars, with a guide and driver for each two tour members. The guide driver team stay with a specific car all during the tour, while the tour members rotate each day to get to know all the guides and drivers. The attention on this tour is very personalized, with one of the members of your guide/driver team at your side all during the day. If you take two cameras, he carries one, if you want to change a lens, he helps, if you need a “typical” Bhutanese for one of your pictures, he poses.

Our first trip was to the National Museum, to learn something of the history and culture of Bhutan. This was once the watch tower for the Rinpung Dzong, located high on a promontory overlooking the Paro Valley. A Dzong is a combined fortress-monastery that has both governmental and religious functions. Dongs are located in every major valley in Bhutan, and I will visit several on this trip. The museum is a circular five storey building which starts with artifacts from 1000 or so BC up to the present. Much of its written history has been lost in fires and earthquakes. Buddhism was became the dominant religion in Bhutan when the Guru Rinpoche, exorcised a demon from the king of Bumthang and converted the demon and the king to Buddhism. The present monarchy of Bhutan started in 1906 and the present king is the fifth in the line. The Bhutanese monarchy was recently converted into a British-style constitutional monarchy with a parliament, a prime minister as head of government, and the king as titular head of state. Adjacent to the museum is a more modern building, which is the kings “ego wall”, showing pictures of the king and other royals visiting foreign countries and meeting other world leaders.

Lunch followed which consisted of cream of mushroom soup (mushrooms are big in Bhutanese cooking) and a buffet of Bhutanese items, none of which were too spicy.

In the afternoon, we visited the Paro Dzong, taking pictures of the architecture and the monks. Afterwards we went to the archery field to watch a match. Archery is the Bhutanese national sport, and most towns have archery fields. The match we watched there were two teams of four players each, all dressed in the Gho, which is the national dress for men. The national dress for women is called the kira. National dress must be worn in schools, government offices, and on formal occasions. The man in the picture is wearing a gho, which may come in a number of different patterns..

After watching the archery, I took a Bhutanese hot stone bath in a wooden tub. The tub is divided with a small chamber at the end which is filled with hot stones, brought by an attendant. The attendant carries the stones in pair of tongs and drops them into the chamber at the end until you ask him to stop. After the water cools a little the bather can request more stones to keep the water hot.

I was accompanied to the bath house by Wangdi, my guide for the day. I also brought my camera, so we could document the event. When I got in the water was already hot, but as I eased myself in little by little my body acclimated to the heat. James had just returned from his trek and was in the next tub. He is a 39 year old city planner in Signal Hill CA, and the youngest person on the tour by 20 years. Namgay joined us in a third tub, and we had a group picture taken.

After a Bhutanese dinner, we all retired early for a 5:30 wake up on Tuesday morning.

Visit to the Famous Floating Market and More

Our visit to the floating market started a little late as our guide had some problem getting across town with heavy traffic due to the demonstrations. Once we reached the expressway out of town we were flying along. On the inbound lanes traffic was heavy and bunched as it is when it is moving slowly or not at all. Whether this is normal Bangkok inbound traffic on Monday morning or if some was caused by the demonstrations, I don’t know. I did see two groups of white vans with flashing red lights headed toward town. The second group was trailed by trucks marked POLICE.
In the van with me was a family from Pakistan, father, mother, and a young daughter.
When we were near the market, the driver pulled off into a dirt lot. We got out and went to a counter where they were selling tickets to elephant rides. The guide said we could stay there for a half hour. I asked him if this were part of the tour. He said it was “an option.” Having ridden an elephant once and wanting to get to the market, I told him I wasn’t interested. Apparently the Pakistani family wasn’t interested either, so the guide loaded us back in the van and said that the market was just five minutes away.
When we arrived at the market, we had a ride in a motor skiff to a large shed which is the actual market site.. The guide said that we could look around until 10:30 and to meet back by where the boat had left us. He suggested that we take a half hour ride in a paddle skiff (a 150 bhat “option”) I thought this reasonable and bought a ticket for a ride. My skiff was propelled by a Thai woman at the rear and there were four others sitting in front of me. The skiff was just wide enough for two to sit side by side. Luckily, I had a seat to myself.
The market consisted of buildings on piers separated by narrow canals, which were about as wide as three of these narrow skiffs abreast. Some vendors were on the buildings, and others were on similar skiffs alongside the buildings. When two moving boats passed, where there were vendors on the buildings, it was quite tight.
It was apparent early on that there was very little variety among the vendors. There were some vendors that had fruits and coconuts and some vendors that had trinkets. All the trinket vendors had the same selection. After we passed a few, there was no buying interest, so we enjoyed the ride.
After the ride, I looked around the building on shore, went up to the bridge to take the iconic floating market picture and had some ice cream. I met the Pakistani man and we chatted about his job and his vacation with his family. The tour guide arrived as did his family and we were off again.
Our next site was the Cobra exhibit, another “option”. I wasn’t really interested and would sit it out if the Pakistanis wanted to see it. They got in the ticket line, and then decided they didn’t want it either, so we were off again.
The next stop was the handicraft factory. We could watch the workers doing wood carving and making furniture for no charge. Of course we could also buy, but saw nothing of interest. At this point, the Pakistani family, who were on the full day tour, went on to the crocodile farm, while I was passed to another driver.
He said something about a short factory stop also. There were several other people in this new group and he said that this group was going to five different hotels. Strange since there were only four of us in the van and two were obviously together. We went back toward Bangkok on a bunch of back roads, different than the way we had come. We finally arrived at the Jewelry factory. Some people were interested; I wasn’t and after wasting some time, I was handed to yet a third driver. This time I was the only one in the van.
We hit quite a bit of traffic in Bangkok on the way to the hotel. It appears that the trip to the jewelry factory required returning to Bangkok from a direction different from the one we had left toward and there was quite a lot of heavy traffic. After it all I did return by two o’clock as promised. The trip to the market had taken less than an hour and a half. The trip back with detours had taken three hours.

Tomorrow morning at 3:30 we meet at the front of the hotel for our trip to Bhutan. The next post will be from there.

Back to the Grand Palace, Wat Arun, and More

One has to be adaptable when traveling on an impromptu itinerary. This morning, I decided that instead of my DIY trip to the floating market by public bus, that I would sign up for a tour. When I told the front desk at 8:00 AM that that's what I wanted to do today, they sweetly said that I couldn't because the tours left at 0645. So, I signed up for the half-day tour tomorrow and decided to revisit the Grand Palace area and wash clothes and pack today. Actually, a much better idea as it forces me to be all packed tonight, have an early breakfast, and take my luggage down to be stored by 0645. The tour returns at 2:00 PM, which is perfect for checking in at the airport Novotel at 3:00.

So, I thought I would get an early(ier) start on the Grand Palace, took an express ferry and arrived at 9:00. Not really before the crowd or the heat. I went to the Grand Palace and took some pictures of parts that I hadn't on my last trip. After that, I walked up a local street to absorb some color. Had curry at the Thai Navy Club, which is an open restaurant, crossed the River to Wat Arun, then went to the hotel to do laundry and pack for the transfer to the airport tomorrow and trip to Bhutan on Tuesday.
Probably will have some time to post something after visiting the floating market tomorrow, but I think it will be catch as catch can after that. I'll try to make it more interesting when I have more time.
Pictures with this blog are Grand Palace, Back Street, Thai Navy Club, and Wat Arun in whatever order Google decides to put them.