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Exceedingly early morning, considering I am on holiday: up at 05:00. Once at the airport, I am faced with the usual mind-boggling burocracy, get papers from left, go to right and get a stamp, pay in centre, bring luggage at front for security check, get another stamp, go and get tag on baggage at front left, bring luggage at rear where my paper is taken, etc..
 
Of course, the paper for the visa for Bhutan is not waiting for me as was planned. This means we need to call the agency in Bhutan to get the number; bad luck, both the people in charge of it are in Bangkok and unreachable. After much phoning and begging, the under secretary for tourism confirms that they are waiting for me.
 
I am allowed to board the plane.

Paro, Thursday the 4th of August

Degrubenc
2005-12-09 17:57:05

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the Pa-chhu, found ourselves, as though caught up on some magic time machine fitted fantastically with a reverse, flung back across the centuries into the feudalism of a medieval age”

The look of the country is utterly different from its neighbours: the mountains are covered in vast pine woods, dotted with swiss style chalets sporting tibetan decorations, there are rivers flowing rapidly at the bottom of the valleys, winding roads dominated by the snow covered peaks of the Himalayas. It would take little imagination to think that I am in Switzerland, everything reminds me of it, even the numerous cows on the roads.

Bhutan is not an ordinary place: it seems to have one foot fermly anchored in the past and the other testing the temperature of the future, tentatively dipping in a big toe.

H.M and the country as a whole are very concerned that allowing modernity to take over the country will destroy traditions and the ancestral way of life. Everything seems to be based around the holding of traditions: there is not a single house built in "modern" style. The houses are good looking, rectangular in plan and usually of two storeys, the lower one for lifestock, stables, grain reserves and tools, the higher one are the living quarters of the familly with a little temple. There is an open loggia below the roof, sadly not used for Pimms and coktails parties but rather drying crops or storing wood. All the houses have traditional wall paintings, somtimes worringly large penises, wood carvings and elevated roofs. Every house looks to be in a good state, they are well kept and maintained. Everyone wears the national costume at all times. There are few imports, all of them heavily regulated by the govt.

There is only one shop where one may buy a car and it is governement owned. The villages have a system where, in the centre, there is a wholesaler ran by the govt. and all the small shop buy from the wholesaler to resell in smaller quantities. There are no supermarkets but a large week-end market with vegetables, chillies, meat and fish on offer.

There seems to be very little or no poverty, there are no beggars, the streets are clean, everyone seems to be in good health with clean clothes on. For the first time since I am in Asia, my arrival in a place draws no reaction, no beggars, no children come rushing to my side, not even a flicker of intrest form the local population. A welcome rest. The children all coming out of school in their colourful uniforms are well behaved and look like a procession of parrots.

My guide is a terribly kind chap. As to his name, I asked three times, he told me three times and I forgot three times. Thereafter, I called him Mr Nice. He insists on treating me like a prince and seems thoroughly dissapointed if I carry a bag or open myelf a car door.

We find ourselves in a very singular hotel, where the lights don't always work but the waiters wear white gloves to serve dinner. The hotel was built at the occassion of the coronation of the present king to host foreign royalties and dignitaries. It is large, well appointed, comfortable and absolutely empty. I am given 7 keys and told to choose the suite I prefer. I take the suite which was prepared for the Nepali King. He has a large terrace, 2 sitting rooms, 2 bathrooms, a dining room, and countless other rooms whose purpose I have not yet defined. I am not quite sure what to do with all this space.