Where does the time go?

It has been a long time, hasn't it? But rather a lot has happened in the meantime.

First I retired - early retirement, I've not quite reached pensionable age yet, but it felt like time to stop and let life become less stressful and more focused on my wellbeing; time to begin to look at all the various projects I've had in mind for a year or two. So at the end of August I hung up my library hat after 40 years and started wondering what to do.

Well that question was answered, in the short term by an utterly amazing two week trip with Colouricious to Bhutan. This wasn't a flash in the pan plan you understand, but something that I'd booked a while back and had been preparing for and getting gradually more excited about as time went on. Having decided on retirement, following that with the Bhutan trip seemed the most sensible thing to do, so off I went in late September.

It was simply amazing, the most "exotic" trip I have every taken, being rather a home body. And without anyone I knew, including the dear Man, who stayed at home, indulged the cat chaps' every whim and breathed a sigh of relief that he didn't have to go all that way..

Colouricious, who specialise in textile focused travel,  were a marvellous choice; the trip so well organized, that we eleven ladies (christened "Team Happiness" by our delightful local guide Subash) felt really well cared for. And the trip itself was such an experience.

Team Happiness at Buddha Point - Thimphu

What can I say about Bhutan, a country which defines itself by the measure of gross national happiness? So different in so many ways from home that it's hard to give you a sense of how it was. A mixture of some urban, but much more rural, awash with the sound of the breeze in the prayer flags; shining silver clouds and mist, that gave way to incredible blue skies and views through clean clear air. The sense of huge mountains in the background and vast spaces in between - I cannot begin to describe it really, but some photos will give you at least a little idea.

Chortens in the mist - Dochula Pass

Prayer flags flutter above Paro valley

Himalayan ranges in the distance - Dochula Pass when the mist had cleared

Our first couple of days were marked by urban dogs barking in the nighttime streets of Thimphu, shining mist and a very long road trip - roads the like which you haven't seen until you've been somewhere like this. For a significant part of the journey we rattled and bumped along exclaiming at one moment at the beautiful waterfalls and prayer wheels, and the next covering our eyes and wondering if we were going plummet down the mountainside - the Himalayas are doing their best to reclaim, despite the valiant efforts of the country to provide a safe modern road to get the population from A to B, or in this case from Thimphu to Bumthang, our furthest point East.

Where Thimphu, the capital city of Bhutan, was urban and obviously undergoing a huge amount of development,

Thimphu - bamboo scaffolding reaching for the sky

the more rural areas were, green, lush, captivating; views appearing and disappearing through the mist and cloud.

Gangtey valley

Paro - storm over the hills

Along the way, both there and back, we saw rice fields, their bright green layers echoing the contours of the land;

Punakha valley rice

Chorten in the rice fields on the way to the fertility temple

numerous temples and several dzongs - the administrative centres of each region in the country;

Monks gathering for a ritual - Paro Dzong

Trongsa Dzong rooftops

prayer wheels, which are everywhere; some that you can turn yourself, others that utilise the flow of water to turn them, all intended to release the chant "om mani padme hum" into the blue air to bring blessings to all living beings

Mother and child with prayer wheel - Gangtey Goempa

Prayer wheel with Trongsa Dzong in the background

We visited weaving centres where we saw the amazingly intricate weaving, on simple backstrap looms, for which Bhutan is so famous

I could have watched her all day

and went to the arts and crafts centre where students are taught the thirteen traditional crafts of Bhutan, including embroidery and painting.

no embroidery frames, and surprisingly low light levels for such fine work

such concentration - but he was larking with his friends a minute ago!

GNH? Gross National Happiness

On our travels we stopped at roadside markets to purchase local crafts,

opportunities to buy

lady with drop spindle enjoying being photographed by one of us

weaving centre wares

waved at passing traffic

captured the smiles of the locals

watched monks and lay people practice dancing for an upcoming festival

enjoyed the bright colours of the chillies drying in the heat (yes, it was surprisingly hot)

admired the beautiful faces of the nuns we met at their nunnery

enjoyed the theatrics of Subash, who explained so much to us, with such delight

did our very best to climb to the Tiger's Nest Monastery - a feat I and a couple of others didn't manage, but I was so proud of myself for making it to the half way point (2 1/2 hours of steep walking, puffing and panting all the way) that I didn't feel I'd missed out on the further climb, followed by 750 steps down and up to get to the monastery itself. Several steps too far!

The views on the way up were wonderful,

and our trusty driver Mr Chimi, who negotiated all those bumpy roads with a calm smile, took good care of we three stragglers, and posed in a tree over a steep drop for our fearful delight

On our last full day there we had the chance to see for ourselves what a Bhutanese festival looks and feels like - in our case Thimphu Tshechu. This was the most overwhelming experience. The day was scorchingly hot, the crowds all dressed up in their festival best - Kira and jackets for the ladies, Gho for the men, both are the national dress of Bhutan and people are expected to wear them for any formal occasion.

The dancers twirled and swirled in their fantastic costumes, all in the hot sun, while the music, very alien to our western ears, created an almost mesmeric backdrop to all the excitements

the clowns did their naughty clown stuff!!

the audience were seeing and being seen in their best festival dress

It was a wonderful trip, with great company and full of so many marvellous things. I will be thinking back on it for a very long time indeed, and could probably do several more long blog posts with endless photos had I the time and you the attention span!

Now, about those projects ….