Blogging Bhutan

I was lucky enough to spend nearly three weeks of April in the kingdom of Bhutan, a tiny, rugged country nestled between Tibet, China and Assam, India in the eastern Himalayas. It is sparsely populated, heavily forested, peaceful and religious, and has wonderful birding. I was there for a recce--checking out the place so that we can run tours there in the future. April is a great time to go, since spring migrants are passing through on their way north and breeding birds are arriving in high mountains, plus the huge flowering rhododendron trees are at their spectacular peak. Admittedly, I say this about every place I go, but I am dying to get back to Bhutan.

I actually missed the first two days of the tour because of difficulties obtaining a visa to get me through India (there are few ways to get into Bhutan, the easiest for me coming from South Africa is to fly from Delhi). I was told they thought I might be a journalist trying to sneak into Tibet via India, and it took a visit to the vice consul of the Indian consulate in Johannesburg to sort it out. I was incredibly lucky to be able to change all of my flights (Cape Town to Joburg, Joburg to Mumbai, Mumbai to Delhi, Delhi to Paro, Bhutan via Kathmandu), so once I got the visa sorted I was able to be on my way.

Here are a few photos from the trip, taken by my boss Christian Boix.

This is the group birding along the road to Shemgang, in the central part of the country. That's me on the far left.

The man is selling fiddleheads, new growth of fiddlehead ferns that he has picked in the forest. It's a common food in Bhutan that we regularly ate and is pretty tasty.

All the major towns in Bhutan have a dzong, which usually is translated as fortress-monastery. The are built in strategic places to protect the towns, but now they serve as both monasteries and administrative centers. They are built without building plans (except in the architect's head) and, traditionally, entirely without nails (though they use nails in renovations we noticed).

It snowed on us a couple times at high elevations. This is at Chele La (Pass), near the capital of Thimphu. Unfortunately this was one of the days I missed.