It’s a strange life we live here. Bhutan is a developing country that pretends it’s developed. We have electricity and all the conveniences it brings – fridge, washing machine, kettle. We eat out at restaurants which serve a variety of international cuisines – local, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, even an attempt at Mexican. One of the banks has an ATM. People drive brand new Toyota Land Cruisers and have broadband internet at home.
But none of it is quite right. The one ATM doesn’t help much when it’s not linked to other banks or to international accounts, and visa cards don’t work. The food has something missing. The broadband internet is restricted by a low international link. We have to boil all our water. And the washing machine attachments don’t work.
At least in this house, we’ve managed to attach the washing machine input hose permanently to the tap, rather than using rubber bands each time as in the last house. But the hook on output hose is too small to hang onto the sink, so we have to weigh it down with a saucepan or other heavy kitchen item. And if we forget, as I did this morning, we have to wade through the kitchen to put it back in place. Luckily the kitchen has a marble floor with a marble lip at the door, or the wooden floor of the rest of the house would be rotting through by now. Then again, we’d be able to see what our neighbours do when they think no one’s watching.