Handicrafts and shopping

After an epic trivia night on Bhutan organized by Rachel accompanied by Andrew’s whisky we got up this morning and sadly said goodbye to Caryll and Andrew as they went further into Bhutan. We have made new friends on this trip.

Let’s just pretend that those of us left in the group didn’t have to drive out of the valley back up the winding, car-sick inducing road to Thimphu. In that period that didn’t happen we saw monkeys, the distant Himalayas, and stupas.

Back in Thimphu we visited the national arts and crafts school. There are 13 traditional crafts the Bhutanese make significant efforts to maintain – painting, sculpture, weaving and so on. It was great to see the young people learning their craft with every sign of enjoyment. But wait, there was more: Next up was the National Textile Museum. Bhutan has a deep and rich history of textiles using wool, yak hair, silk, and nettles. Beautiful stuff.

After yet another amazing lunch, we drove back to Paro. Our 4 days of mountain hiking was covered in about 90 minutes on the road. In Paro it was time for some serious souvenir shopping focused on the aforementioned textiles. Jennifer got a lovely scarf.

And that basically leaves the farewell dinner tonight and the mechanics of getting to the airport. Given we can see the runway from our room’s window – Paro is small – the logistics are not extensive. We do have to get through a final Bhutanese town night with its chorus of barking stray dogs first; but that’s just a final reminder of how fascinating and different Bhutan has been.