September 19th to September 22nd 2011 Katmandu, Nepal and Bhutan arrival

Today in going to check out of the Shankar Hotel we realized that we had never changed our watches from China time and hence were not even aware of the 2 hour time difference! Even this morning we were muttering that the wake-up call was not reliable as it came at 9 am instead of 7 am. We had lovely candlelight dinner at the famous Copper Chimney Restaurant at the Yak and Yeti hotel that we had eaten at 34 years ago when we visited Nepal last time. We thought we were there at 7:30pm and were curious why we were the only ones there....no wonder, it was really only 5:30pm. Obviously we spent the three days here in Katmandu just regrouping and trying to get over colds, possible sinus infections and other ailments. While in Tibet my left hip was so painful that I was using a walking stick many times. Thank goodness that pain is totally gone now at this lower altitude.
We took a hotel courtesy cab to the airport and checked in to our Drukair flight without incident. American tourists were the most numerous, a big change from Tibet or Nepal.
Processing through the Katmandu airport was not too bad and within 1 hour we were sitting in the departure lounge. Leslie enjoyed her first diet coke of many weeks, and we were served our first wine in three weeks on the plane. Mount Everest and several other peaks were visible to the north above the clouds as we flew toward Bhutan.
We were met by our guide Chencho, who advised that we would not be able to visit the museum as it was closed due to damage inflicted by the same earthquake we felt in Nepal. Upon checking in to our guest house in Thimphu,we noticed that they were frantically patching up the walls that had cracked from the earthquake as well.
On the way from the airport in Paro to the capital Thimphu we stopped to look at one of the iron suspension bridges that were constructed by Gyalpo, a Tibetan saint who built 108 iron chain suspension bridges in Tibet and Bhutan in the 1400's. Many of these are still functional for human and animal traffic, but not big enough for vehicles.
The guide told us that next day was an important holiday, the Blessed Raining Day, which marks the end of the rainy season. Bhutanese will have a special holiday porridge and then go out on picnics, try archery, etc. We will not be able to change money at the bank until the day after this holiday when banks open again. The Director of Bhutan Travel, Chorten Namgay, came and had tea with us at our hotel before we went with our guide Chencho to Trashi Chhoe Dzong. This is the city's main fortress, also the seat of government with the King's throne room and secretariat, and also contains a working monastery. The King's palace is a modest building nearby which it is forbidden to photograph. We learned that the king, just 31 years old, will be married about two weeks after we leave, and we heard the monks practicing their dances for the wedding celebrations (unfortunately they were hidden from view and tourists were not allowed in.) This leads to the point that Bhutan has made a major effort to restrict the number and type of tourists and to limit their access so that their own culture would not be lost compromised by hordes of tourists. You are not allowed to take photos in any of the temples and you must remove your shoes In addition to any hat you might have on. The guide made a donation at the alter and then the monk came over to the three of us and poured a small amount of holy water into our hands from a sacred vessel called a bumpa. You are supposed to take a sip of the water and then put it on your head. It is to cleanse your spirit. We did not sip the water but put it on our heads.
The Dzong was built in stages starting in the 17th century, but was damaged by fires and an earthquake, so large portions of it were renovated in the 20th century.
We returned to our hotel for an early dinner as David has Kathmandu belly. We are pleased that we have working wireless Internet in our room.