Punakha Dzong
Built in the 17th century, this great monastery and was the seat of Bhutan\'s capital until 1955 when they moved the capital to Thimpu. Exploring the monastery can take anywhere between one to three hours and walking thru its dark, narrow corridors with Buddhist mantras chanting in the background is a feeling I can\'t quite describe...
Bhutan: Photo gallery | Bhutan travel stories
Charms of an animal farm in a little town in NorthEastern Ontario
I spent few days of the 2009 Christmas holidays at Chad’s dad’s place, in his charming house near Timmins, a town about 800km north of Toronto. He keeps reindeer and rabbits (among other animals) and it was fun to spend time watching them.
That’s what the house is called
Bunnies of all colours… always on the look for food
Reindeer
The herd.. Just chillin’ (literally!)
The rabbits love stealing reindeer feed and are skilled at escaping their horns. The reindeer are fed twice a day and they will quickly gather around the dinner table as soon as a bell is rung.
Reindeer pen
More wild rabbits basking in the sun at -15ºC. They run around outside the house all day long unless a predator is lurking in the bushes.
The deer seem to love sleeping out in the open
Yo
Everytime I see animals I feel weird. Animals just exist – grazing and mating. Why don’t they want to read books or eat Thai food?
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An idle one-street town on the outskirts of Moscow, Pereslavl Zalesskiy was the last orthodox religious center I visited…. by then I was stuck with church fatigue.
I had seen so many Russian churches, that I grew tired of them… they all start appearing the same after a while, don’t they? You get the same fatigue after spending a week visiting Bhutan’s Buddhist monasteries or Peru’s colonial churches. 
Purification church of Alexander Nevsky.
Pereslavl Zalesky town and a sign of faded communism.
‘AZS’ fuel station and a convent in background.
More churches… I was so bored that I didn’t bother to go inside any of them.
Small town Russia
Fishing in the still river.
“Здравствуйте!” (Zdravstvuyte झ्द्राव्सत्वुअीच, meaning “hello”). People greeted me, you know how it is in small towns, they wave and smile at you. It seemed that they don’t get many visitors, especially since it was a quaint settlement along the river. I was simply walking along the bank because I found it interesting. I was inviting curious stares too.
Quite quiet.
I want to go home
I waited for what seemed like ages at the bus terminal, waiting for my bus back to Moscow. The scheduled bus at 19:30 was cancelled and the next one was at 21:00. It was cold and dark outside. I was kinda worried to be stranded at that place at such a time – there was nobody to keep me company except a drunk man and a babushka who sat behind the ticket window. She looked grumpy on first look (like most Russians) but as soon as she heard my Russian, she got delighted and asked me to come inside her office. Her office had heating, tea and cookie, wonderful!
Look. If you are learning a foreign language, don’t learn it all the way. You get more points if you are seen to fumble with words yet attempting to talk.
Waiting for the bus… only 2 hours. The floor is clean only because it was cleaned 5 minutes ago.
Ticket and information window.
I reached Moscow at 23:30 – not a good time for an outsider to be on the streets. By the time I changed subways and went to the place I was staying at (other end of the city), it was past 00:30. I will be honest: I was shit scared. Every man looked like a criminal or a skinhead.
While I never had a problem myself, Moscow’s streets are not known for safety at night, especially when it concerns foreigners. There are shady characters, often drunk, and women are seldom seen. My safety index at night is directly proportional to the number of women on streets – I think its one of the most visible indicators of how safe a place is.
Factual information
Peresavl Zalessky is about 2.5 hours from Moscow and buses run few times a day from Shchyolkovsky (श्चयोल्कोव्स्की) terminal. Once you get to the town, you could walk to the interesting places, or take the only Marshrutka that runs down the road from city center to the bus terminal.
Not a highly recommended place unless you want you have a relaxed day walking through a sleepy town and visiting a church or two on the way.
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Eight Chortens, River Punka Tsang and the road to Thimphu/Punakha.
Legends relate that Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, the unifier of Bhutan as a nation-state in 17th century, met a small boy named Wangdi (वांग्डी) playing in the sand on the banks of the Punak river and was moved to name his new dzong ‘Wangdi‘. While the name of the town was later changed to Wangdue Phodrang (Wangdi’s place), local people still refer to the town as Wangdi.
Small stores near the village center
After touring the Wangdue monastery, we frolicked around the little town until it was time for the bus. Remember that it is very important to book bus tickets in advance since they get full pretty fast, especially on weekends. There are few (sometimes just 2 or 3) services from Wangdue to Thimphu and the next option, i.e. shared taxi, is expensive.
Wangdi bazaar. Very noisy, crowded and full of nice smells.
Radak Natshang is a 17th century temple near the bazaar. This temple is dedicated to an ancient warrior king and there is a large collection of helmets, arrows and shields in the anteroom. The caretaker family lives on the lower floor while the temple is housed on the upper floor.
Taxi stand, Bus stand and space for general use
We had lunch at a dark shack adjacent to the bus stand. It was a large house probably consisting of several families. There are couple of such simple eating places around the bazaar and the options are limited. We had simple Nepali style rice and lentils (daal bhaat) with a generous serving of lime pickle.
Bridge across the Punak Tsang chhu at the immigration post. The dzong is on the hill behind.
All Bhutanese people carry a National Identity card with them. Our travel permits were checked again and the bus was let to pass on its way to Thimphu. This was the end of our little but fun filled 2-day excursion: Thimpu – Punakha – Wangdue – Thimphu. We visited the temple of Divine Madman, the grand Punakha monastery, got blessings from Bhutan’s highest Buddhist monk and saw the scenic Wangdue monastery among many other things.
Byebye Wangdue! Last view of the beautiful dzong.
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Relaxing in the countryside
Chimi Lhakhang is a 20-minute walk from the main road and the trail offers very interesting views as it passes through settlements, farmlands, an archery ground finally reaching the hill over which the monastery is built. But what’s the rush…, we spent about 3 hours, soaking the beautiful landscape and even getting lost for a moment!
Pana settlement on the way to Chimi Lhakhang
‘Kuzuzangbo la!’ कुझुझांग्बो ला was the first Bhutanese word I learnt. It means Hello. (‘झ’ is taken from Marathi, the ‘z’ sound.)
A typical rural house. Who said they had huts in villages?
It’s quite a long greeting and I started experimenting my accent on the villagers. I started saying it to anyone that passed us and after failing a couple of times, I got the sounds right. People are unbelievably delighted when they hear a foreigner speaking their language, I’m sure many of you have experienced this.
They responded in various ways….
Me: “Kuzuzangbo la!”
Old lady (smiled after a puzzled look): Zangbohhhh…
Young man: Kuzu kuzu!
Some woman: zangbo la…
Kids: Hello! Hi! (and lots of enthusiastic waving)
So after greeting about a dozen passerby’s I concluded that saying ‘zangbo… la’ is enough!
Spinning the prayer wheel at a shrine. On the top right side of the picture is Chimi Lhakhang
The settlements were tiny and spread out. As a city person, I love the relaxed pace and calm feeling of a village. There were two settlements – Pana and Yoaka – on the way to Chimi Lakhang which itself was located on a hill that looked like woman’s breast. Not surprising considering that it was built for the divine madman!
Lamas walking towards the monastery
At the end of the villages and on the foothills of the monastery is a large archery field. At that place, I felt as if time had stopped. There was the sound of the wind and flowing river, and occasionally a bird would pass by. Before us was a beautiful huge valley and your eyes could see till infinity, really! Since the weather was perfect, there was no time restriction, we sat on the dry grass and did nothing but get lost in the nature…
I was so delighted to be here!
I may not have seen something new or experienced something unique, but this simple and uneventful location was probably one of the highlights of my Bhutan trip.
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The Inca moral community code says, “ama sua, ama llulla, ama qhilla” (Quechua: do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy.) Taquileños (तकीलेन्योस), inhabitants of the Tequilé (तकीले) islands, run their society based on community collectivism founded on this code.
Clear waters of lake Titicaca
Tequile island is about an hour’s boat ride away from Amantani, which we left after having breakfast in the morning. The long and winding walk took us from one end of the island to the other via the topmost part of the island and the village center. The views were too good to describe.
View of the lake from the top of the island
Taquileños are famous for handwoven textiles. Everyone we saw on this island were spinning and weaving something. The Spanish banned the locals from wearing traditional costumes, so the islanders had to adopt European styled clothes which they still wear. Their dresses are brightly colored and show a handsome mix of Quechuan and Spanish styles. Unmarried men (bachelors) wear colored hats, but once they are ‘taken’, they wear white ones (clear indicator of married life!). There is something similar practise with the women.
Boats (how original caption!)
Altitude sickness kept hitting some people in my group. The local people carry Coca leaves (hope you remember them from my post on Puno) in their hats or little purses tied to their colorful belts.
Our path spiraling down
A long walk through blissful surroundings was followed by a long boat ride back to Puno. I made some great friends on this trip and it was wonderful to go on this little guided excursion.
Tale of two mountains. One is inhabited, the other is not!
For the complete photo set, slideshow and comments, please see my Amantani and Tequile Photo Gallery
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A welcome break from sleeping in hostels or buses, this night I spent in an authentic Quechuan village in a real home with indigenous people. The tourist company arranged to take us to Amantaní (अमंतानी) and Tequile (तकीले) (not Tequila!) islands which are inside lake Titicaca and about 4 hours away from Puno city by motor boat.
The island of Amantani
We reached Amantani island around noon and our tourist group was split into smaller groups of two and three. A “mother” led the three of us (Me, an Australian lady and an American guy) to her house and showed us to our rooms. It was a very simple house, with small rooms, a courtyard, and a backyard. The inhabitants of these islands are quite short and so the roof and the doors were quite small. The locals spoke Quechua (क्वेचुआ) language, which is the original language of the land (until the Spanish arrived). They worship traditional Inca deities, elements of nature and their ancestors.
Our house for the night.
After a late lunch which consisted of a plate full of potatoes of various types, sour cheese and herbal tea, we started hiking to a local hill called Pacha Tata (पाचा ताता – Father Earth). It had a small temple dedicated to the deity and offered a wonderful view of the lake Titicaca. We spent long time there – some people wrote journals, some people took pictures, while others sat and spent time with themselves or their partners. Things were remarkably calm, peaceful (and very cold!).
Pacha Tata (Father Earth) Hill
These islands are the highest inhabited islands in the world, and consequently some members had breathing problems. It was also quite cold (less than 10 deg C) and thankfully I shopped for some Alpaca wool sweater and a colorful hat which kept me warm.
Pacha Mama (Mother Earth) Hill (viewed from Pacha Tata)
You could see both – sunset and sunrise from this point. The splendid view of the Sun dipping into the gigantic lake behind tall mountains was accentuated by the display of brilliant colors in the sky. It was as if the sun was setting with a fanfare after celebrating a whole (and quite eventful) day on Earth.
Sunset over lake Titicaca.
We retreated from the hills. Everyone was already hungry as our little excursion at very high altitude was quite demanding and took almost four hours. After we returned, supper was ready for us. The mother of the house was very friendly, and she spoke only Quechua. With my guidebook and the limited words it offered, I tried to strike a conversation but it was useless After dinner I offered to wash the dishes, but she said that boys are not allowed to work in the kitchen. How traditional!
Fiesta. Dancing with my host mother
The night was just starting. The mother dressed me up in a traditional poncho and a hat and we went to the village hall where tourists and their mothers gathered for a Fiesta. Young boys played wonderful music, very typical while we were shown to some kind of dance. The celebrations ended after more than an hour after which we went back to our house and slept a very peaceful sleep. Away from the world, with just two light bulbs in the entire house, and ofcourse, no internet
For the complete photo set, slideshow and comments, please see my Amantani and Tequile Photo Gallery
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