06.05.12

Just arrived in Thimphu. It seems like yesterday I was here - time has passed very quickly. Aksel from the plumbing department and I did the long travel out here together, leaving Copenhagen Friday night at 11 pm and arriving at the Khang Residency in Thimphu Sunday at 11.30 am. We spent Saturday night in Bangkok - at the airport hotel, which is excellent by the way.

Bangkok was very hot and humid and the temperature was higher than 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) but of course they have air condition everywhere.

Somebody in Denmark told me that it was possible to rent a car and a driver for a few hours and go sightseeing in Bangkok so Aksel and I asked in the reception of the airport hotel and it turned out that they had a concierge service. It was pretty cheap - we had to pay 100 kr. (13,5 Euro) an hour - for both of us, so we booked a car for 3 hours to take us sightseeing. It was a holiday in Bangkok so the traffic wasn't so bad and we went to see a very big exhibition of gems and jewelery. It was amazing! There were people working there making the jewelery with small hand tools and there were SO many different necklaces, bracelets, rings, and pendants in all the different metals and jewels: diamonds, gold, silver, amethyst, quartz, jade, etc. None of us had ever seen so many diamonds in one place!

After the exhibition we saw a very beautiful temple and a woman came up to us and wanted to sell some very colorful paintings. Her brother had made them she said. She showed us many different ones and I found some red and golden ones especially beautiful and bought 4 - I hope I'll find somewhere to hang them ;-) After the temple our driver took us down to the river and it was great fun watching the boats and also very beautiful when it grew darker and darker and all the lights came on - along the river, from the temples and all the boats. I took some pictures in Bangkok and uploaded them if you want to see. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures at the gems exhibition L

Carsten picked us up in Paro on Sunday morning and we drove all the way to Thimphu and the Khang - 54 km (33,5 miles) = one hour's drive. The mountains were amazing as always! And I could see that everything has become greener here during the last 5 weeks. The temperature is also higher here now so it is very nice during the day.

We were both exhausted from the travel and relaxed for a couple of hours and at 6.30 we went downtown and met Carsten again - at the Taj Hotel - where we enjoyed a very nice dinner and Aksel got to taste some of the HOT food here - he likes hot food. I am sure he'll be able to get as much and as hot as he wants here ;-)