 
Cathy Briner's Journal
copyrighted by Cathy Briner, June 2001
Briner Journals
176 Thomason Lane
Eugene, OR 97404
541-689-1833
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Part I:
Flight from USA to Bangkok, Bangkok Sightseeing
First two days in Bhutan: Thimphu, School of Arts & Crafts, Jungshi Handmade Paper Factory, Weekend Farmers' Market, Druk Incense Factory, Archery...
SPLENDORS OF BHUTAN TOUR & BANGKOK INTERLUDE (April-May 2001)
A traveler has a right to relate & embellish his adventures as he pleases, & it is very impolite to refuse that deference & applause they deserve. (Rudolf Erich Raspe in Travels of Baron Munchausen)
Bangkok remains one of Southeast Asia's most intriguing & perpetually surprising destinations. (Joe Cummings, Lonely Planet guidebook)
Bhutan has many surprises and a visit to the country is a splendid adventure. (Stan Armington, Lonely Planet guidebook)
Tour Members:
Cathy Briner, Blyth Carpenter (tour leader), Anne Carter, Carol Crihfield (Lacey, Washington), Bette Dedrick, Donna Morgan, Linda Potter, Margo Ramsing, Sedate Redfield, Susan Rust (Ashland, Oregon), Karen Seidel, Bobbye Sorrels, Judy Tatman, Joan Taylor (Portland, Oregon), Mary Lou Van Rysselberghe, Jean Walker (all from Eugene area, Oregon except as noted)
Tour Guides:
Sonam Jatso & Pema Chhophyel of Insiders' Bhutan Travel of Thimphu, Bhutan
Note:
The English spelling of Bhutanese/Dzongkha words has varied over time, & even now is not consistent from one source to the next. In this journal, the author has tried to use the spelling currently in vogue if known.
(1)Monday, April 16
Donna & Cathy were picked up at 6:45 am by Cathy's friend, Bob Schutz, & transported to the Eugene Airport where they met up with the rest of the tour group (of 16 women who were friends or friends of friends of Blyth Carpenter, a frequent visitor to Bhutan with her husband, Russ, who had organized all the details for us with the Bhutanese tour company) for the 8:18 am United flight to Seattle. After over a 3-hour layover at the Seattle Airport, left at 12:55 pm & flew United to Tokyo (9* hours), with a special seafood lunch enroute & THREE movies in a row ("Billy Elliot,"which was pretty good, "Vertical Limit," which was harrowing, & "102 Dalmatians," which was just bad); interesting to hear the flight attendant announce that the bathrooms might be locked because someone on board had been smoking!
(2)Tuesday, April 17
Crossed the international dateline during the flight & were served a snack of a foccaccia sandwich & Oreos before landing in warm & humid Tokyo at 2:30 pm. After a 2-hour layover at Narita Airport (where we walked around but didn't buy anything because we had no yen!), flew on a bumpy United flight to Bangkok (6 1/4 hours), watching no movies this time (too tired); were served yet another special seafood dinner.
Arrived around 9:30 pm (15-hour time difference from Oregon) in BANGKOK (where it was 84 degrees & humid) & cleared immigration & customs. While the rest of the group walked across an overpass to the Amari Airport Hotel, Donna & Cathy were met & whisked in a Mercedes limousine in 30 minutes to the Sheraton Royal Orchid Hotel in central Bangkok. Checked into our 14th-floor room overlooking the Chao Phraya River, & after admiring the nighttime view, showered & crashed into bed at midnight.
(3)Wednesday, April 18 (sunny & HOT!)
Got up at 7 am, ready to explore the sights of Bangkok (founded in 1782 as the capital of Thailand & home to about 10 million people, which represents about 10% of the Thai population, with 3,600 people per square kilometer). After watching the fascinating early-morning boat activity on the river from the window in our room, enjoyed the hotel's extensive breakfast buffet (delicious pineapple & other fruits, among many other dishes) at a table overlooking the steady stream of people coming & going from the nearby ferry.
Hopped on the express riverboat at the hotel dock & went to the National Museum, the largest museum in Southeast Asia, which unfortunately was not air conditioned & was "cooled" only by an occasional fan; as 2 of the very few tourists here, enjoyed several highlights from Thailand's past including many ornate pavilions, a full-size model of an elephant in full battle array with a howdah on top, a royal palanquin which took 56 people to carry, a display of puppets & marionettes with wonderful faces, displays of musical instruments, costumes & textiles, & ceramics (which oddly included some ancient Roman pottery), the Red House which was the home of King Rama's elder sister (the color comes from the preservative used on teak houses), & entered the Buddhaisawan Chapel (built in 1795) which contains mural paintings depicting the life of Buddha & the revered Phra Buddhasihing, a gilded 15th-century statue that gets carried through the streets as part of the Songkran Festival when water flies freely (which had just occurred the previous weekend).
Next visited the Lak Muang (the City Pillar), built by King Rama I in 1782, which is the shrine to the guardian spirit of the city (there's 1 in every Thai town), where we saw many locals (& no other tourists) & made a small monetary offering amongst the many flowers, incense & other gifts; this shrine is regarded as the foundation stone of the capital & all distance are measured from it; interesting to see the 2 freestanding phallic-shaped columns (1 for Bangkok & 1 for neighboring Thonburi) & statues of the Hindu god Shiva & other deities.
Entered the grounds of the Grand Royal Palace, the former home of the Thai Royal family which is still used for royal ceremonies; first visited the Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha); surprised to find that it is so tiny--only 30 inches tall--& made of jadeite; had to be careful that we were not impolitely pointing our toes at anyone (which was referenced on the "no's" sign along with shoes, hats, sleeveless attire). Found the exterio r architecture of the Royal Palace to be splendid (more so than the interiors), much more so than the Forbidden City which we had toured in Beijing. With Cathy practically prostrate from the heat & humidity at midday, stopped for a lengthy water & ice cream break at a small cafe on the palace grounds, while Donna took pictures of the Palace; fascinating to watch some Buddhist monks in saffron robes at an adjacent table smoking & drinking Cokes.
Forgoing other temples in the heat, rode the express riverboat to the historic Oriental Hotel instead, which is considered 1 of the finest hotels in the world, where we basked in the potent conditioning as we took afternoon tea in the lovely verandah-like Authors' Lounge, listening to a classical guitarist while drinking Darjeeling tea & iced decaf coffee & eating tiny sandwiches (smoked salmon, cucumber, shrimp, chicken), scones with clotted cream & jam, & little sweet cakes, all served to us by gorgeous young Thai women clad in elegant silk. After Donna dragged Cathy from this cool & idyllic setting, proceeded to shop in the hotel's tiny giftshop.
Returned to the Sheraton via express riverboat & proceeded to window shop among the antique stores in the adjacent River City Shopping Center, wondering who could afford to purchase such expensive objets d'art. Full from our afternoon tea repast, returned to our hotel room to enjoy watching the sunset over the river from our window while drinking wine from the small bottles we'd gotten on the plane. Went to bed relatively early after a full & hot first day in Bangkok.
(4)Thursday, April 19 (sunny & hot again)
Got up early at 6:00 am but not early enough to catch the hotel's exercise shuttle to Lumpini Park. Decided to breakfast at the hotel buffet again because the food & people watching there were so good, before heading out to Lumpini Park on our own. Took the express riverboat to Sathorn where we caught the Skytrain (Bangkok's new, wonderfully clean & air conditioned elevated train) to Lumpini Park, the oldest & largest public park in Bangkok (named after the place in Nepal where Buddha was born), where we strolled under our umbrellas (to shield us from the intense sunshine) around the large artificial lake watching groups of mostly older people who come to the park to spend the day happily singing together & picnicking & a few doing tai chi exercises.
Wilting from the morning heat, walked to the nearby Regent Hotel, the lobby of which was a wonderfully cool oasis for 2 hot tourists; enjoyed iced tea (served with ice cubes made from tea!) & Coke served by a very understanding hostess who brought us ice-cold wet towels to cool us off. Reluctant to leave, we made it as far as the hotel's lovely outdoor shopping arcade, where we shopped for postcards & souvenirs.
Rode the Skytrain to Erawan Shrine, a memorial to Brahma (the main Hindu god which is credited with magical powers); it was erected at the corner of a major intersection after construction of a nearby hotel was beset by several disasters; interesting to see the sidewalk vendors threading fresh flowers into garlands for sale & so many people praying & bringing their offerings of flower garlands, incense & elephant images (in recognition of Erawan the elephant god, the 3-headed mount of Brahma).
After a stop at the always-reliable toilets of McDonald's, enjoyed a tall iced tea & mocha frappuccino at Starbucks, before boarding the Skytrain to Jim Thompson's House; Thompson was an American architect (& former OSS officer) who came to Thailand at the end of the war in 1945 (& who disappeared mysteriously in 1967) & who was largely responsible for the growth in popularity of Thai silk; enjoyed an excellent guided tour of the 6 teak houses that Thompson brought together from all over Thailand to create his home compound here along a canal in 1959; guided by a beautiful young Thai woman in training whose English was sometimes hard to understand; impressed by both the exteriors & interiors which were beautifully furnished with art objects from all over Asia, including gorgeous Chinese porcelain & teakwood carvings; while walking around the lush gardens, saw a 6th-century Buddha statue, 1 of the oldest in Southeast Asia, & a shrine at the northeast corner of the property (located there so that the shadow of the house would never fall on it); after the tour & a brief rest, shopped in the elegant giftshop.
Took the Skytrain to the Siam Intercontinental Hotel for a late-afternoon drink, but didn't like the lobby, so proceeded to the Shangri-La Hotel on the river where we enjoyed white wine, iced tea & nuts in the huge lobby. Returned to the Sheraton, collected our stored luggage & took the Mercedes limousine to the Amari Airport Hotel, where we checked in & found inexplicably that we had been upgraded to the Executive Floor. Cleaned up & joined the rest of the group for dinner in the Kinaree Restaurant, the hotel's Thai restaurant, where we ate from the extensive buffet & drank good (Thai) Klosters beer. After packing a bag of our Bangkok "stuff" to leave at the hotel, went to bed early.
(5)Friday, April 20 (sunny)
Got up at 4:00 am, checked out & wheeled our luggage across the overpass to the airport; after checking our luggage (with a sigh of relief that we were all within Druk Air's 44-pound weight limit!), ate breakfast (ham omelette & fruit) in an airport cafe. At 7:50 am, flew Druk Air (the royal national airline of Bhutan, inaugurated in 1983) in a 65-seat BAe 146-100 jet from Bangkok to Paro with a brief layover in Calcutta (where we were not allowed to get off the plane); were served an English breakfast on the first leg of the flight & an odd (but tasty) hotdog croissant on the second leg by lovely attendants in Bhutanese costume.
Enroute read up on Bhutan, a small country about the size of Switzerland or half the size of Indiana (18,147 square miles), with a population of about 600-650,000 people (less than 35 people per square mile), located in the eastern Himalayas (east of Nepal) between India (Bengal & Assam) to the south & Tibet, China on the north; the country, which measures only about 150 miles from north to south & 300 miles from east to west, has an extraordinary range of topographic & climatic conditions packed into such a small area (in less than 60 miles, the country rises 25,000 feet from subtropical jungles in the south to the arctic cold of the Himalayan range); learned that we would be spending most of our trip in the middle western & central regions of the country which are riddled by many low-level mountains & valleys where the primary east-west road is located. Until the late 1960's, the country had been a feudal society with little or no exposure to the outside world & had no national currency, no telephones, no roads, no schools or hospitals, no postal service or tourism (as the author, Pico Iyer, said in one article:"Yuri Gagarin had circumnavigated the globe before Bhutan had installed its first road"). It has the distinction of being the last independent Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayan region (others like Sikkim, Ladakh & Tibet have been absorbed into other countries).
After only seeing many clouds as we neared our destination, finally glimpsed snowcapped mountains, beautiful green scenery & the Paro Dzong as we began our descent into Paro at about 11:30 am (14-hour time difference from Oregon), as we all cheered & clapped. The country's only airport is located in Paro (altitude: 7,382 feet), the third largest city, since it is one of the few populated areas in Bhutan with sufficiently flat land for an airport runway.
After clearing immigration & customs, were met by Sonam Jatso (owner of Insiders' Bhutan Tours who was to be our chief tour guide), Pema Chhophyel (assistant tour guide), Chozang (the bus driver) & Sedate who had flown into Paro the previous day after a tour of India/Nepal. Delighted to find that the weather on the ground was pleasantly warm, with a mostly blue sky above punctuated with white puffy clouds. Loaded up the bus & drove immediately to Thimphu, a 1*-hour drive on a very narrow & winding road, passing along the Paro Chhu River filled with brown trout, lovely green terraced fields (onions, garlic, mustard) with cows roaming freely (the government feels that the cows are "unproductive" & has urged the farmers to stop raising them, but they refuse) & seeing many wild roses, willows & apple trees in springtime bloom along the way, as well as fluttering prayer flags of many colors, monasteries & meditation huts up in the hills (in a landscape which looked a lot like Central Oregon or Idaho in some places), while Sonam busily tried to answer all of our many questions; intrigued to see new houses built in the traditional Bhutanese style (which is somewhat reminiscent of a Swiss chalet), as well as the dried mud remains of old houses left to disintegrate (the Bhutanese believe that spirits may still live in a vacant house so it would be bad luck to dismantle it & disturb them); fascinating to learn that the fields are owned by the farmers, while the mountains are owned by the government & that no trees may be cut without government approval; passed a set of 3 chortens, distinctively round religious monuments (which must be circumambulated clockwise), which Sonam told us housed relics which had been blessed by a lama (the one on the left in the Nepalese style, the one in the middle in the Tibetan style, & the one on the right in the Bhutanese style); also went by an army barracks & learned that Bhutan has a small basic army (all soldiers are volunteers as there is no draft) which operates, it sounded to us, more like the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Arrived in Thimphu (altitude: 7,710 feet), "the funky little capital town" (according to Blyth) & largest city of Bhutan (population: 40-45,000), located on the Thimphu River; checked into the Yeedzin Guesthouse where Cathy & Donna had a 2-room suite; ate a very good lunch at the guesthouse's buffet (rice, mixed vegetables, chicken, noodles, spicy potatoes, with fruit cocktail for dessert), & celebrated the first time that the whole group was together & finally in Bhutan! Unfortunately, Linda became ill (perhaps with altitude sickness) & went to the hospital where she was treated for free.
Cathy & Donna proceeded to walk the main streets of Thimphu, passing the city's distinctive white-gloved traffic cop in a decorated kiosk (1 of 2 in town) in the center of the main intersection & the Clock Tower; had read that there had been a modern traffic signal installed at the intersection but it had been removed within a day because the people didn't like it & preferred the quaint traffic controller they had before; shopped for postcards & souvenirs at the Art Gallery Shop & for some of the famous Bhutanese stamps at the post office, spending all the rupees they had brought with them (the Indian rupee is equivalent to the Bhutanese ngultrum which was about 46.5 nu's to the US dollar). Returned to the hotel for a brief late-afternoon nap with ear plugs (to keep out the sounds of children playing nearby).
Enjoyed dinner at the Blue Poppy Restaurant, where we had our first taste of Bhutanese apple juice (a specialty, the making of which was taught by the Swiss), onion soup, Bhutanese red rice, mixed vegetables, ferns with cheese sauce, fish, chicken, cole slaw & tea (although adherents of Buddhism, most Bhutanese are not vegetarians & do eat meat); interesting to watch the restaurant bar which clearly served as the local TGIF hangout for non-Bhutanese aid workers & volunteers. Went to bed early & feeling exhausted, with Cathy's pre-trip cold having returned.
(6)Saturday, April 21 (sunny, then a slight drizzle in evening)
Awoke early feeling better, especially after getting some sweet bread from the Jichu Drakey Bakery next to the hotel; after enjoying a group buffet breakfast (oatmeal, hard-boiled eggs, toast, juice, coffee/tea) & feeling much relieved to see that Linda had recovered, headed out to see the sights of Thimphu.
First visited the School of Arts & Crafts (which used to be known as the Painting School), which was instituted to preserve & promote Bhutanese culture & where we watched students learning various Bhutanese artforms, including painting, woodcarving (using wood from the blue pine tree), embroidery & sculpture; of these, painting is considered the most important; there are 3 types of painting: thangka (a religious wall hanging which is the most important type, one of which every family has; this art started in Tibet so that Buddhists could take a meditation object along when traveling instead of a statue), wall painting, & statue painting (statues are made of clay & then painted or of bronze in which case only the faces are painted); also saw beautiful examples of slate carving (an artform much too heavy to cart home on the plane!); learned about the 2 types of Bhutanese weaving (one usually of cotton or silk woven on a backstrap loom & the other of wool, called yathra, woven on a horizontal frame loom) which traditionally is the only craft done by women, while embroidery traditionally has been the province of men, but women are now starting to do embroidery too; Sonam told us that every Bhutanese house has a private altar room, which may have paintings, statues, etc., in addition to incense burners & butter lamps. Visited the School's Thangka Room briefly, where we saw many beautiful paintings & where Sonam explained some of the standard icons of Bhutanese/Buddhist art (which is very prescriptive & nearly always anonymous), like Green Tara (who was born from the tears of the Buddha of Compassion who was crying for the sins of mankind & is the deity to whom women pray for fertility), White Tara (with 7 eyes), Guru Rinpoche (the 8th-century saint who is sometimes called the Second Buddha who can be identified by the feather in his crown & his scepter of skulls) & his 8 manifestations, the 6 Objects of Longevity, the Four Friends, & the Shabdrung (the religious leader who unified Bhutan in the 17th century who can usually be identified by his distinctive beard & hat); learned that it was the Shabdrung who had first classified the traditional arts & crafts of Bhutan into 13 categories: slate carving, painting, papermaking, bronze casting, carpentry, wood carving, hand forging, masonry, bamboo craft, weaving, metalwork, embroidery & pottery; some made their first purchases of the trip in the school's small giftshop.
Had the special opportunity to attend an archery competition which had been organized at the request of the Crown Prince (HRH Dasho Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck), who was home on break from his studies at Oxford University; archery is the wildly popular national sport of Bhutan & the country fields an Olympic team; in Bhutanese archery, the range is 400 feet long (the Olympic standard is only 165 feet!) & the wooden targets are plate-sized (12x47 inches); archers shoot aluminum arrows with modern compound (carbon tension) bows; after each successful hit, the archer tucks a colored sash into his belt & does a little dance with his team members who all cry out "wah-hah," in an imitation of the mating call of the black-necked cranes (this cry was readily adopted by our group & soon fit all occasions); learned that archery takes a lot of concentration (a little like golf). Watched the preliminary procession with the royal band & costumed dancers & the blessing ceremony before the competition & then watched the archers shooting, & were even able to stand close by to watch while the Crown Prince was shooting; Anne & Cathy struck up a conversation with a gentleman in a handsome black pinstriped gho who turned out to be a member of the Crown Prince's entourage; disappointed that there were no female cheerleaders present at this event as they usually are (we had heard that they are known for their often-ribald comments yelled at the opposing team's players in an effort to shake their concentration).
Learned about Bhutan's monarchy & the Royal Family; the current King (Jigme Singye Wangchuck) is the 4th hereditary monarch of the Wangchuck family which began with the crowning of the first King in 1907; when the current King was crowned in 1972, he became the youngest ruling monarch in the world. It was the third King (Jigme Dorji Wangchuck) who started the modernization of the country, but he died young. Now the 6 primary goals of the current King are: self-reliance, sustainability, efficiency & development of the private sector, people's participation & decentralization, human resource development & regionally balanced development, all to be pursued while maintaining the "gross national happiness" of the people; as a result, the King is extremely well-loved by his subjects (as Sonam said: "we respect & love the King so much; he lives a simple life & he has not taken advantage of his position").
Visited Thimphu's colorful Saturday Market to which people come from all around the countryside every Saturday; the market is set up outside in rows under tents & tarps, & all matter of food & other items are sold, including dried fish, vegetables, chili peppers, spices, tea (in bricks), butter (wrapped in leaves), hats, religious objects, jewelry, masks, tourist items, etc. After being instructed in bargaining which is an accepted practice in this market (but not necessarily in stores around town), the group was released to shop; Cathy bought yak teeshirts, an auspicious signs bracelet made from yak bone, & a hungry ghost dough mold, while others bought individual prayer wheels & tourist items; Pema carried our purchases for us in his gho pouch.
Ate lunch at Plum's Cafe (rice, noodles, mixed vegetables, fish, chicken, fries, cucumber salad, ferns with cheese & peppers, with watermelon & cake for dessert); everyone tried at least a taste of the Bhutanese national dish of emadatse (a thick soup-like mixture of chilies & cheese "that makes jalapeños seem like child's play!") which was very hot, & some tried Panda beer.
Visited the Druk Incense Factory & met the female proprietor, Karma Yangzom; the business was originally started by an old man who went to Tibet to learn the ancient art of making incense for religious purposes; after he died, his daughter continued making incense but turned it into a commercial business (that also makes it for religious purposes); learned that the incense starts out from a base (agur) usually made from juniper wood shavings to which other fragrant plants like white or red sandalwood (which come from high altitudes) are added; then an herbal glue is added to hold it all together; watched one of the workers use a machine to create soft noodle-like incense sticks which are then dried, packaged & sold. Everyone bought packages of different types & sizes of incense to take home & also for the upcoming visits to the nunnery & temples.
Drove through the Beverly Hills of Thimphu, where we saw nice examples of Bhutanese homes built in the required traditional style, to the top of a high hill overlooking the city; took lots of pictures of the dzong below & the many prayer flags & chorten on the hilltop; prayer flags are ubiquitous in Bhutan, & can be found "anywhere there is a wind blowing," according to Sonam; they are usually mounted as long strips of fabric (mostly in the 5 colors of blue, green, red, yellow & white with woodblocked-printed prayers) on tall vertical poles topped with the carving of a knife & are flown to invoke the blessings & protection from the deities; often they are placed at the time someone has died, but there are many types & sizes of prayer flags (they are usually left in place until they disintegrate, or if removed, they are burned as sacred items). Sonam & Pema pointed out in the distance where the individual homes of the Queens were located & told us the King chooses not to live in the city but prefers instead a secluded & rustic house in the woods.
Toured the Jungshi Handmade Paper Factory where we watched workers making paper; Bhutanese paper is made from the bark of the daphne bush which is soaked in water & then cooked for 2-3 hours; the workers clean out the imperfect spots & wind the strips into balls which are then ground into a pulp which is mixed with a glue & spread out in sheets to dry. Everyone bought items (cards, stationery, bags, wrapping paper, etc.) in the factory's tiny giftshop.
Returned to the hotel at 4 pm for a late-afternoon siesta; Cathy, Donna & Sedate went exploring instead & ended up at the Swiss Bakery for tea, cakes & their fantastic potato chips; amazed & delighted when Cathy recognized the gentleman in the pinstriped gho she'd met at the morning's archery competition & then realized that the Crown Prince & his entourage had come into the cafe & proceeded to sit near us, while we watched fascinated as he munched on potato chips (with catsup) & talked animatedly with a teenage trülku (a reincarnated lama dressed in a maroon & saffron robe) & his mother.
Ate dinner at the new Indian-style Midpoint Restaurant (delicious chicken soup, rice, chicken, sliced pork, cucumber salad, with caramel custard & bananas for dessert). Sonam told us that there are so many dogs roaming around because Bhutanese Buddhists believe that one can be reborn as a dog & that dogs are closest to humans; also there is the belief that dogs can help you in the afterlife; he & Pema then told us several funny stories, including one about Pema & his school chums dressing up like Marilyn Monroe, Chelsea Clinton, & Monica Lewinski for a costume party; it was interesting to reflect on what aspects of American current events & pop culture are being transmitted overseas. Went to bed after a fabulous day.
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