During my lunch break I went downtown today to pick up the lasts gifts to bring back home. At the same time I visited the post office and brought with me an USB with my photo on it. I got 4 stamps valued 20 NU, 4 stamps valued 15 NU and 4 stamps valued 10 Nu with my own picture on them :-) If you add the values you'll see I got stamps worth 200 NU - but I only paid 180 NU. So it is cheaper to get stamps with your own picture on than it is to buy normal stamps???? I don't get it. "So they are just for fun," you say. No, they are real stamps and can be used as such. I really don't get it but it is great fun and on my next visit I'll send some cards home with my own photo on just to show you. Let me know if you want one ;-)

The post office is right next to the bank where they change cash. I talked to a Bhutanese man there. He was a bit frustrated because he wanted to change some Bhutanese NU into Thai Baht but he wasn't allowed to do this. As part of the approach to keep Bhutanese money in the country people now have to show a ticket to be able to change money into a foreign currency. This makes life difficult for many, because they often send money with friends and family travelling to India or Bangkok to get things - or even spare parts - that they can't buy here.

Thursday morning I met the kind American couple who is also staying at the Bhutan Suites and working here. Well she is - her husband is just having a good time while she is working. And actually they turned out to be Canadians ;-) Anyways, I met them and they told me that on the way between Paro and Thimphu they had seen a monkey sitting next to the road! I know Bhutan has a lot of different animals living wild such as tigers, leopards, monkeys, the black bear, the red panda, the one-horned rhinoceros (though rare) and Asian elephants but I never saw a monkey myself. But I once saw a yak ox! On my next trip to Bhutan I am going to another part of Bhutan called Bumthang - maybe I'll see more animals there. They tell me this is the most beautiful part of Bhutan so I am looking forward to that!

Thursday night Carsten and I went to the Taj hotel to have dinner - they serve very delicious food. We were celebrating our last evening together this time around - early Friday morning Carsten is leaving for Denmark. We took a taxi down there and the driver asked where we were from.
"Denmark," we told him.
"I have been to Copenhagen," he said, "for 15 days."
We were surprised - most taxi drivers don't even know Denmark (and who can blame them - we are such a small country). So we asked him about this and it turned out that he served in the royal government before the old King decided to change Bhutan into a democratic country. He ran for government at the first democratic election in 2008 but his party lost and then he had no job. He started driving a taxi. What a life story! He seemed content, friendly and happy though - as almost all Bhutanese people. Sometimes I wonder how they deal with their negative emotions? (Surely they must have some - they are after all humans) ;-)