19. november

Nice to wake up slowly knowing it was Saturday and I had all morning till 12 when Kinley (a very nice girl from the Ministry) would pick me up to go shopping - even though it was Saturday and she was off work!
I decided to start with a bath in the bathtub. It was a long time since I used a bathtub and it felt wonderful lying there with rainbows all over from the window. I had to take a picture of it (only the rainbows!) ;-) Then I went down for breakfast and I had just come back up and had opened my computer to start working on my report when Carsten called to tell me that if I wanted to change some Euros into Bhutanese Ngultrum the bank was open this morning. Yes, I wanted to get my hand on some Ngultrum because I was going shopping today!
So instead of working, surfing the Internet and writing e-mails I grabbed my backpack and hurried down the stairs to find a cab, which is really easy here - and cheap.
The National Bank of Bhutan was very crowded, but the line for foreign exchange was rather small so it didn't take me long to get 20.000 Ngultrum for my 300 Euros. I felt rich! And of course I had to go into the nearest nice shop I saw, which was just opposite the bank. It was called Lungta Handcraft and sold nice stuff from both Bhutan and Tibet. They offered me a shopping basket when I came in - it was a small "flettet" basket with a piece of paper in it saying: "Shopping Basket" that I could carry in my hand and put small things into. I wondered what I should do if I wanted to buy some bigger ;-) I bought myself a nice little bag- purple and with nice embroidery on it and a yin-yang - I couldn't resist it ;-) I also bought some health lotion and a prayer flag and I will have to come back some other time I think. They had jewelry, mugs, music, tea and a lot more.

Lasse had gone to visit to the automobile institute in Thimphu this morning. He returned at noon and Kinley postponed our shopping trip till 1.30 so Lasse and I had lunch at the hotel and at 1.30 we both went with Kinley to shop. The most important thing she was to help me with was finding a kira - the national dress for women here in Bhutan. She took us to a very nice store and I found a beautiful blue jacket and a skirt to go with it. Then there was another very nice green jacket that would fit the skirt and another nice skirt - ha ha! I ended up buying 2 skirts and 2 jackets and a belt to use with them and Kinley promised me to come to work a little early on Monday to help me get dressed. It is not so easy because I say skirt but actually it is just a piece of cloth to be wrapped around me in a certain way, which I'll have learn!

After this purchase we said goodbye to Kinley and went by ourselves along the very long main street here in Thimphu, which is also the shopping street. There is a very long row of little huts where you can buy all kinds of Bhutanese handcrafts. We walked along them all to see everything before Lasse decided on some things to bring back home. On the way we were stopped by a group of students who wanted to interview us about the shopping and who told us that things were a bit more expensive here but that they were genuine Bhutanese handcrafts compared to the other art craft shops in town which also sold imported things.

Then we went to a very nice coffeshop that Lasse knew from a visit with Carsten and we enjoyed some cappuccino and very good piece of cake each - mine was carrot cake - mmmm. The owner was a Bhutanese guy who had been to Amsterdam and seen little places with international atmosphere and nice cakes and coffees and decided to make one like them in Thimphu. It was easy to see that the young girls in Thimphu enjoyed it and there were many tourists in there as well, so the guy had created a good business. Nice to see.

We went back to the hotel and on the way we passed a lot of construction as always. They are building SO much here in Thimphu! I took a picture of one building under construction and you can see many Indian guys working on the roof of it. Almost all construction here is made by Indian workers coming to Bhutan to make a living. And they work hard! They work 7 days a week from 8 in morning till 11 - 12 at night. I can hear them hammering and making noise from my room.
And right outside my window there is also a roof where people are drying chili. This is very normal and it is a funny sight to see chili spread out on all the roofs here! So I took a picture of that, too.

In the evening we went to Carsten's apartment and had a very nice dinner that he had prepared - with home baked rye bread and a home baked cake as well!!! It was so tasty. We spent some nice hours together on Lasse's last night here. Tomorrow morning he'll go back to Denmark. I'm going to miss him - we had a great time here, but I'm glad that Carsten will still be here :-)