This is good bye to Bhutan as far as my blog trip goes. Bhutan was a great place to visit. The country was green and beautiful with the snow-capped Himalayas in the background. It’s largely an agricultural country which I liked and they grew far more plants and had a much longer growing season than I had expected. Flowers were planted and growing everywhere, even in late October and early November. The people were very friendly to us including the Queen. It was amazing to visit a country where the roads were not the focus of the country, like they seem to be in California. The food was very good, though the meals blended together since we seem to have very similar food served with every meal. I loved that the architecture of the country was actually somewhat homogeneous. I liked being in a Buddhist country. I loved their sports and the fun that everyone playing seemed to be having. Bhutan does have its problems and I would put problem number one as too many dogs. Some nights, we heard what had to be hundreds of dogs barking all night long. Beetle-juice spitters was another small annoyance from my standpoint.

Our guide showed us some marijuana plants growing the first day. He said it was not illegal to use marijuana, but it could not be used for the purpose of giving yourself pleasure. It could be used, however, for spiritual or medicinal purposes. On the day that we drove over Dochula pass, we left very early in the morning. It was very cold and there was a frost that morning. As we were driving up toward the pass, we came to a place in the forest where a guy had a fire burning alongside the road. The fire’s smell was quite distinct and we asked our guide about it. He said it was just a warming fire. We said it was most certainly marijuana. He said it was okay to use marijuana for a warming fire, as long as it was just to get you warm. What a country.

Maybe the most interesting thing about Bhutan was when we visited the Bhutan White House. In the parking lot, we saw a sign for the “Minister of Gross National Happiness”. We asked our guide about it. He said that Bhutan measures its success by how happy its people are, not by its gross national product. So we were seeing the parking place for the Minister of Gross National Happiness. Our guide said that they actually do try to measure happiness and devote resources to improving how happy people are in Bhutan. Again, what a country.

The first photo is one that really reminds me of Bhutan, high up in the Himalayan Mountains. The entire country was mountainous and we saw plenty of snow-capped peaks.

The second photo is another village in the central area of Bhutan. We were on a hike when I took this photo. It reminds me that Bhutan is primarily an agricultural country, despite being mountainous.

I loved the architecture and the architectural consistency of Bhutan, from the grandest palaces to the simplest homes. Below is a hotel where we stayed for one night near Paro.

The highlight of our visit to Bhutan was our hike to the Tiger’s Nest. From before we started to the time that we returned, it was an exciting and fun adventure. The Tiger’s Nest is a true world treasure.

The last photo is just a woman in one of the small villages. It’s not a very good photograph of her but every time that I go through my photos, she strikes me as the face of Bhutan. All the people that we met were very nice to us and seemed both genuinely interested in us and in our opinion of Bhutan.