here's a catch-up blog:
bhutan was beautiful, as expected. but somewhat disappointing... we spent a shit-ton of money to go there, and so it was really difficult to hold it to the same standards as everywhere else. morgan and i have talked this through a lot, and there's probably much more to say, but i'll try to summarize.
the country is amazing and unique in so many ways. it's several years behind the western world in terms of development, which is both good and bad. the king there has been very forward-thinking in several different areas. the environmental protection there is phenomenal, with 70% of the country preserved in national forest. another component of conservation (of the environment, and the culture in general), is a limit on the number of tourists who can enter. the taxes alone are prohibitive, but go toward public education and health care. yet, the infrastructure is trying to keep up with the growth of the tourism industry. the result is a system where one must plan their entire trip through a travel agency. there are some great things to see, and we saw a lot of them, but the whole time we were on a tourist circuit with so many other foreigners. we really had to go out of our way to get our guides to take us to local restaurants, and to meet anyone actually from bhutan. (we did manage to have some great conversations, but that was largely due to a contact we had there before visiting.)
another key component of the culture is something called "gross national happiness," which is how the state of the country is measured rather than gdp. it looks at economic, environmental, physical, mental, workplace, social, and political wellness as its pillars. now, don't get me wrong, i think that this is a great concept. but it's just that--a philosophy. impossible to actually use as a measure of the average person's experience (according to several people i spoke to). which is too bad, because it was one of the things that really drew me to the country in the first place. on the other hand, it's refreshing that the leader of a country would even consider looking at this sort of measurement. this is the same king who instituted a democracy during his rule. (most people, however, still look to the monarchy as their source of leadership.)
while we were there, and over the past week, the people of bhutan have been celebrating the coronation of their new king. pretty amazing and historical moment. we actually got to see him twice during our time there, just by being in the right place at the right time.
another really nice thing was the flight from bhutan back to nepal. we saw mt. everest! (and several other gorgeous high peaks.) our time there was definitely good, but could have been better, i guess.
since then, we've been on a houseboat in kashmir in northern india, along the border with pakistan. it is a pretty intense place. they're currently getting ready for an election of some sort so there was a curfew on the city that kept us from doing some of the sight-seeing we had planned. on one occasion we we're on a tour around the canals, and our path was blocked by military patrols on the lake. we had to pretend we had a flight to catch in order to be allowed through to get back to the houseboat. i've never experienced anything resembling the tension that we felt there.
speaking of elections, we watched the u.s. presidential election live on cnn in kashmir. that was exciting! happy about obama, waiting to see about the minnesota al franken recount, and disappointed in california for banning same-sex marriages.
now we're in dharamsala, which is a beautiful place with a large tibetan community. it should be very interesting, and we'll get a chance to start exploring tomorrow. in a couple of days we'll be back in delhi to meet up with my cousin christopher. looking forward to that!
then we'll hit the road again, continuing our circuit of india. keep you posted!
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