Bhutan Frontier

Next leg of the trip: Bhutan!

Places my first Grab aka Asia Uber booking today, first Uber ever for that matter. It was cheaper than a taxi too. I left the hotel at 1am to get to the airport for my 5am flight. Managed to snag a 2 hour nap but the flight was a struggle.

The plane wasn’t full and I had my own row. Caught a short nap before we were awoken for breakfast. I’d actually scarfed down some McDonald’s before boarding so wasn’t hungry at all. We made a quick stop in Dhaka, Bangladesh to pick up more passengers before continuing on.

More food came and I ate even less. The sun is now up and not much of flying time left so couldn’t sleep more. The Paro airport is small but the descent is quite cool as we coast into the valley. The mountains looked close enough to touch.

All our meals are included so after lunch a few of us wandered into town. Thimphu is the capital city but it feels like a mountain town. It is definitely bigger than we could see but we only wandered the Main Street.

Met the rest of our group tonight and received a great culture lesson from our tour leader right off the bat. There’s certainly things here we never expected. For one, the tradition of night hunting. This is where during the day boys would ask girls where their houses/rooms were so they could sneak in at night. It seems like a very open society here and you got married if you stayed the whole night and the parents caught you the next morning. Apparently divorce is practical just as easy. People could have as many wives/husbands though likely just one at a time.

It’s a very matriarchal society as assets are passed down the female line. Daughters are the treasures as they bring the boys in and everything the boys earn becomes the girl’s. Its also common for brothers to share a wife especially in rural areas where one has to move their flocks. There’s also cases where 2 sisters might share a husband so the family’s assets don’t get split.

We also learned where our tourist fee ($200 per day) goes. The government collects it but it goes right back to the people as education and health care are state provided. Citizens also get subsidies to travel for medical procedures and post secondary education.Read more