Home » India » Kolkata, Monday the 8th of August

True to his word Mr. Nice has been in town at 04:00 to the tailor’s and has picked up the cover for my trumpet he is back in time to bring me a delicious breakfast with properly poached egg and good tea in bed. He takes me to the airport a few minutes drives away and takes me through to security. I am sad to leave Mr.Nice, he has truly been very kind and helpful, when I tried to give him a small tip for his work he refused kindly and pushed me along to the security gate. The land of the Thundering dragon is an incredible experience; I was very lucky that my parents agreed to finance it. During my four days here I have not seen a single foreigner, nothing to disturb or ruin the picture perfect peace of the country. Entrance to Bhutan is easy to get but terribly expensive, one can only take a tour individual or group with a minimum cost of 200Usd per day, this limits the tourists coming in. Bhutan has not been invaded by foreign backpackers in search of drugs and the ultimate truth like Nepal has. The govt. and H.M the King are aware that their two greatest resources are their forests and their traditional lifestyles, they want to preserve both. I feel sad at leaving Bhutan but I also feel that four days allowed me to see all that was essential to the country; it gave me a quick introduction to the ways and customs, to the architecture and countryside and more importantly to the people of this magnificent and proud country captured between the two super-powers of India and China. I am very glad to have seen it and in some small measure appreciated the experience.<br/><br/>

Kolkata, Monday the 8th of August

Degrubenc
2005-12-09 17:47:13

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True to his word Mr. Nice has been in town at 04:00 to the tailor’s and has picked up the cover for my trumpet he is back in time to bring me a delicious breakfast with properly poached egg and good tea in bed. He takes me to the airport a few minutes drives away and takes me through to security. I am sad to leave Mr.Nice, he has truly been very kind and helpful, when I tried to give him a small tip for his work he refused kindly and pushed me along to the security gate. The land of the Thundering dragon is an incredible experience; I was very lucky that my parents agreed to finance it. During my four days here I have not seen a single foreigner, nothing to disturb or ruin the picture perfect peace of the country. Entrance to Bhutan is easy to get but terribly expensive, one can only take a tour individual or group with a minimum cost of 200Usd per day, this limits the tourists coming in. Bhutan has not been invaded by foreign backpackers in search of drugs and the ultimate truth like Nepal has. The govt. and H.M the King are aware that their two greatest resources are their forests and their traditional lifestyles, they want to preserve both. I feel sad at leaving Bhutan but I also feel that four days allowed me to see all that was essential to the country; it gave me a quick introduction to the ways and customs, to the architecture and countryside and more importantly to the people of this magnificent and proud country captured between the two super-powers of India and China. I am very glad to have seen it and in some small measure appreciated the experience.

The flight to Kolkata is pleasant and without trouble, I am surprised to see that very soon the all too familiar Himalayan Mountains give way to large plains and straight roads. This signifies the end of phase 2 of my trip. The Himalayas, from now on I will travel westward to begin phase 3 of the trip the Middle East, my last phase. For phase 1 I used trains as the main form of transport, ...