Kalilandia

One of my last adventures is the widely known climb to the Tiger Nest monastery - it is on the photo that always appears when one searches online for Bhutan - this miraculously nested in the rocks monastery. Hence, I am a bit conscious of the fact that it will be very visited and crowded. And my fears come true...but that's OK, because there are enough events that day to compensate. While Tashi is extremely knowledgeable about Buddhist history and traditions, he is quite young and not yet very immersed into the essence and philosophy of Buddhism. That, by itself, helps me understand the fact that Buddhist philosophy does not connect automatically with Buddhist religion, and while there is some level of common values within the nation, Buddhist values and beliefs are not automatically integrated within the citizens of Buddhist countries. This might seem quite obvious, but it was part of my goals to explore namely the common values in a Buddhist country and compare them with the W

We will set to an exciting trek, which will turn out to be THE highlight of my trip. I have no expectations but I am absorbed by curiosity as this is the only nunnery I have managed to sketch in my trip. There are just five nunneries in Bhutan as usually and historically mostly men take the way to enlightenment. I spend the night in Paro. I have my own bungalow by a small and picturesque river and as I am already ahead in my travel, I already feel I am more and more connected with the nature, I notice more little plants and bugs around me, I notice the fog above the water, I hear the sounds of the river. I start understanding better what it actually means to connect with the nature and that it is not just a matter of being among the nature, but to feel it and accept that we are part of the same system, we are interdependent and that indeed nature is so much greater and vaster than our own lifetime. I have a dog...again...in front of my door...morning and night it is there. This ti

I spent the night in Punakha valley. That was AN EXPERIENCE. First of all, I tried for the first time the best Bhutanese beer, called Red Panda. It is 600ml, it is dark and has a very rich and creamy taste, close to dark Belgian beers and it is made by...the Bhutanese army. Since Bhutan is not engaging in any wars and conflicts, the army has a very symbolical role in the society and deals with many different activities, one of which is making the Red Panda beer. I am sleeping in supposedly a 4-star hotel and this is where I see the largest and scariest cockroaches in my entire life. As I am in my bed reading, first one suddenly appears looking at me from the top of my blanket and I am like "OK, we have a situation here." I try to kill it but without any success, it hides under the bed. Then I look in the bedroom, another one is watching me undisturbed from the sink...I have grown up in a village but yet, I am truly petrified. I go to reception and bring the receptionist

One of my main goals for this trip is to immerse in Buddhism and to discover as many monasteries as possible. Close to the capital city Thimphu, is Tango monastery, which offers everything. The climb is around 2-3 hours but the path is absolutely mind-blowing. The monks have built a path to the monastery, which is also a path of Buddhist teachings - the higher you climb, the more you learn. There are numerous hidden signs along the way with selected teachings of Buddha and life. My favorite ones are that "Happiness is not something already made. It comes from your own actions." and that "In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher." The monastery is impossible to reach by any sort of transportation. Like all other monasteries in Bhutan - I am fascinated by the idea how they were built at first place. Nowadays there is a "Cable way", which connects the bottom of the mountain with somewhere close to the monastery. There is a big bas

Bhutanese people have this unique tradition of twisting prayer wheels. There are some grandmas and grandpas who spend their entire days just twisting around the prayer wheel by the stupa. There are prayer wheels as well placed in the rivers - for constant rotation, as well as in some places where they can be rotated by the wind. There are prayers written on these wheels and when rotated, they send these prayers to the universe. I "spoke" through my guide to this one old lady who doesn't do anything else but pray and twist the wheel and she told me that "life is too short and we have to be good" . In Bhutan it is normal for people to wear their traditional national clothing and it is compulsory to do so in any administrative place. The one for women is called Kira and the one for men is called Ghos. It is really unbelievable how much requisite a man can collect in his Ghos - sometimes I have the feeling they could take out a whole goat! Another o

Bhutan is fascinating for numerous reasons, which I will try to briefly explain, as it is a rarely visited destination. People tend to be prejudiced towards the country due to its very strict policy for tourists and unusual political order with an "elected king".  I do think, however, that the approach towards tourists is genius - the government makes sure that only real enthusiasts (like myself!) would visit the country and will be respectful towards its culture, nature and specifics. It is also ensured that the prices locally will not jump due to the incoming (since recently) tourists because the tourists are charged for all their expenses before they even enter the country - so the government is sure that the tourists will spend a certain minimum and the life expenses of their people will not be impacted. The people are loyal to their king and his face is all over the place - men and women worship him, his deeds and his beauty (he is indeed, like most Bhutanese men qu

In the night after my trip to Taj Mahal and just hours before I need to take off for Bhutan...my biggest fear comes true. Indian food & hygiene gets me...I sleep 2 hours, I spend 6 hours in great suffering. I drawn in self-pity. I get on a taxi to the airport only praying that I will not vomit on the way as Monsoon sent another portion of pouring rain. The driver doesn't stop talking, he asks me a million questions. I don't want to be impolite, I respond to everything although his English is some sort of a coded language. He writes down for me his phone number "to contact him on WhatsApp if I ever want to come back and get an Indian husband, he is only 27 and can shave his beard if I want." I am like OK...I realize that from putting so much effort to understand him, I stopped thinking about my stomach, my poor stomach. I am thankful, I think he actually prevented me from vomiting in his car. While checking in for Bhutan, I meet a very friendly Bhutanese person,

Early in the morning I get on a tour to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is situated, 3 hours away from Delhi. I only see Agra through the car, so my impressions are not complete... I find that there are more cows on the streets than in Delhi. There are more barracks and nylon shelters. There is a hair-dresser by the street: a chair in the middle of the mud with a mirror in front & a sign "hair-dresser". We reach Taj Mahal, there is a huge amount of people, camels, horses in front. Everything is organized separately for Indian passport holders and foreigners. Indians pay 20R, foreigners 750R. This is totally fine by me, as I think that nationals of any country should have the right to visit their national monuments at low cost. There are different queues, the one for foreigners goes much faster, as we are much less. We go through scanning again....and here we are in front of the Taj Mahal. I am suffering a bit as I can understand 1 of 5 words of what our guide is saying and