Headed out this morning to the capital of Bhutan, Thimphu City. Lovely drive through valleys with cattle, dogs, and villagers occaionally along side the road. Visited a monestary that you have to cross an ancient iron footbridge over the river to get to. A little sketchy, but doable. Once in Thimphu, we visited the school of the 13 arts. The students were in class working in sculpture, painting, wood carving, weaving, just to name a few. Went to a paper making 'factory'. They collect the bark from a particular plant, soak, boil, pulp it, squeeze, and add things like real flower petals. All of this is done by hand, producing a beautiful product. Saw the national animal, the Takin, at a preserve. Quite an odd looking creature. It is said to be the combination of the head of a goat with the body of a cow. Later on, after all of the administrative people were getting ready to leave for the day, we lined up the get into the huge dzong that the king has his office in. We were fortunate enough to see His Majesty in person as he walked out the building in his way to his home across the bridge. He waved and said, "have a nice day". Photos are prohibited otherwise I would have taken one.
One thing that amazed me in this city is the scaffolding for the large buildings being built. Can you say...bamboo? The scaffolding is made from lashing bamboo together. It looks so rickity! But apparently it works!
I got a lot of souvenir shopping done here. Best selection of Local crafts. Tomorrow we are off to Punakkha.
