chantal mueller

So, it rains, I am again in the tent, it’s 2:30pm and we are already 1:30h in our camp. It is raining and we are supposed to see three big big mountains but maybe tomorrow. We’ll see. Since we gonna sleep for two nights here for some acclimatization reasons (we are at 4100m) we took a long time to make ourselves comfortable. We even did blow up our own mattesses, since until today, we slept o the ones privided by the trekking company (which we didn’t know were provided). So tonight I gonna sleep like the princess on the erbs. We will have coffee time at four and diner at seven, those two things will be the most exciting thing happening for the rest of the day. Oh stop, this is not true: As some of you know, we don’t plan to take the ordinary Trekking route but another one over two more passes. The last one of them is, since in between mountains still quite covered with snow. It snowed unusually heavy and often this winter. Seven times in Paro and also Thimphu when in ordinary winters it does once. Due to climate change selon Tenzing. Bhutan is the only country being not just CO2 neutral, but they have even a negative consumption. Due to water energy and a lot of trees. On our trek there are electricity poles everywhere. They built them two years ago, so the trek didn’t look pretty and tourists complained. Incredible, it is such life- quality that electricity brings. That arrogance of some to have all the luxury of what the western world can offer you but please not in those countries I as a rich tourist go to because it looks ugly. So, where was I? Oh yeah, our trek is not likely to happen how it is planned because the horses won’t be able to pass through the snow. And without the horses, we are lost. So Tenzing will have three propositions on how to continue the trek.
Today we started a bit later, after another warm night in the tent. The weather was gray but dry. There is another group of two doing the Jomolhari and they add another on, the Laya-trek (oder so). They are from Austria. We probably gonna meet them more often. Otherwise it is quite a lonely trek. After a couple of times we reached a settlement of Nomads who were playing arrow. I just forget the right word for that sports. Anyway, it is their national sport but at the Olympic they get beaten by the Corean because Bhutanese are very laid back and therefore not so successful (Tenzings words). Aah doctors make around 25’000 Ngultrum, which is noteven 500$ a month. Highly underpaid but still happy. Good money according to Tenzing you make in the army. Bhutanese army is connected to the Indian ones (as is their currency, it is 1:1 to the Indian Rubies). So if you do career in the army to get a higher rank you go to India. And when back here you are well paid. Economically they rely a lot of tourism nowadays. There is joke in Bhutan that you are either a guide or working in a travel agency. There are 4000 guides in this country. I was wrong about the control of the tourism. They don’t, it is limited by the amount of hotel rooms and flights toand out of Bhutan. I already mentioned the Visa. You haveto pay 250$ a day to go to Bhutan. Around 200$ are left after hotel and eating, so this goes to the state for cultur, edication, infrastructure. Interesting way to do. According to our book US people stay 6.4 days, German 7 days and Swiss the longest with 10 and a bit days in avarage.
So, we were observing the arrow thing and were having lunch at the same time. There were some kids around so I could give away the stuffed animals I got from my cousine Christa back home. A bit earlier there were men constructing a bridge to keep the river from the way. I asked Tenzing if I could give them some Swiss chocolate, he said I could. He made an offering of money so since they were cleaning and taking care of our way, they would pray for us to get all the obstacles out of the way in our lifes. They have a lot of things like that in their culture. A lot of stories on how things happend and why they happened like that. I am very impressed by this country. Tenzing also said, that five days in the country you stop being a tourist and become a guest. After more then 5 days of trekking you start to be family.
So after diner the three options went down to one since there is a zyklone hitting India sometime and bringing unusual heavy amount of rain. Tenzing said we could go over the pass the day after tomorrow to Lingshi, then doing the second one, heading up to the third, coming the same way down and somehow getting to Thimphu. It would be raining all the time. So. Lilian and me discussed a lot about if it was clever to go higher in the mountains when the weather gets worse. It isn’t just about us being comfy and warm but where is the sense going up three times to 5000m when we would just get grey and rain and fog? We were also a bit scared of being wet, also the tents. We asked if there was also the possibility of turning around. There was of course. We could go back, not exactly the same way, spend a night in Paro and two additional ones in Thimphu. It is quite clear that they don’t want to do that. Tenzing said he had once someone come with a lawsuit since it didn’t went according to plan. We assured him that we were happy with whatever we can take, and tes we used the lame phrase of rather be safe then sorry. Or rather be dry then sorry? Anyway, tomorrow lazy day ahead with a walk to a lake. Let’s see how this goes, it looks like I’ll be back in civilization earlier then wanted.Lue lisää