Thimphu has been the capital of Bhutan since 1907 and lies at 2,400 metres. The Parliament is here and the rather modest royal palace. The area is very mountainous and reminded us of Scotland. The houses looked a bit Swiss. Not a poor looking place so much as simple. We were met by Tashay our guide and he and the driver were dressed in traditional dress ( as was most everyone) of......this looks a bit like a knee length dressing gown in a checky material which is worn with knee length socks. In the space of the next 24 hrs I came to see these as not at all odd but in fact rather dignified. Bhutan is a constitutional monarchy and Tasha's our guide assured us that everyone respects the king and queen and none of the 5 parties that will be vying in the next elections will be seeking to depose them. Interesting! The old king had, in keeping with old Buddhist practice, several wives and some of the men here still have 2 but Tashai tells us that from now on king and commoners alike will only have 1. The present King and Queen live fairly modestly and even take the regular air flats along with everyone else which I thought had a certain charm to it .
We visited their library which only had old Buddhist texts and was a bit dull. Their so called zoo only had) one specie cross between goat and cow but as T pointed out even one animal in captivity is unusual for Buddhists. This animal is endangered and cannot survive in the wild hence it's captivity.
We also visited art and craft school where students continue to produce traditional Buddhist works for monasteries and homes. We spent 2 days here and then moved on to Gangtay at a height of 3000 metres. Gangtay I found a bit difficult because of the height. However worse than that was the car journey there. The very worst part which lasted about 1 hr was an unprotected narrow road which hovered about 1000ft above the valley. Full of pot holes and loose stones. Horrible! Our driver would swing us round 90 degree bends at regular intervals where we would come face to face with huge trucks and a great blaring of horns. The drivers would then have to negotiate how to pass one another on a 5 metre wide road when our combined width was 4.9 metres. Or was that 5.1 metres? Our guide, who was front seat passenger, kept looking out his side window, no doubt checking how far our wheels were hanging over the precipice. When we reached base and he realizes how terrified I'd been he cracked the first smile of the trip and assured me the road on the east side was even worse. He then took us to a hotel with no electricity and damp beds. Dad eventually got that one sorted and at last we turned up at a rather splendid hotel where we expired with 2 large G and T's........ and they were just for me! The name of the hotel was Amankora Gangtey. I am recording that because I want to remember it's name for ever. Will probably leave it something in my will.