Day 2 - Blogabond

Ellery awoke at about 3:30 a.m. and didn't really to back to sleep, so we were both up quite early surveing the view from the hotel. Breakfast at 7:30 a.m. consisted of toast, butter and some bananas and, for me, horrible "baked beans."

Eventually we set off for the National Museum. As a former watchtower, the structure was interesting, as were many of the buddhas inside. The balance of the museum consisted of trongsas (banners) and other artifacts. The stairs in all the buildings are steep, built like the land.

Then it was to the dzong -- much larger up close. There was to be a special ceremony this evening so there were many people and monks about. Ellery and I bought cords knotted by the lama -- hers blue for water, mine red for fire. Monks as young as 7 moved about. The weather was perfect so we walked down the road, across the fortified bridge over Paro Chhu (river), near a chorten where our car and driver Dorji met us.

However, we weren't done with Paro yet because just as we were leaving we passed several men practicing archery, Bhutan's national sport. Even more interesting, they were using tratiional bows and arrows and were shooting arrows very, very far away. Fascinating.

written by

shoshtrvls on August 22, 2006 from Paro, Bhutan

from the travel blog: Bhutan and India (2006)

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