Category: Countries

I’ve always loved mountains, though as an Australian, I’m easily pleased. Where I come from, 1000m is a mountain. So when I go to a place like Cochabamba in Bolivia and see a mountain at the end of every street, my mood is bouyed. Then I’ll visit a place like Grenoble in France and find… Continue reading Mountain Towns

A couple of months ago, while my parents and brother were here, the whole family went shopping at the market. Brady was looking for that useful souvenir that he could still carry on his travels, Mum and Dad were browsing and Marie ended up finding a necklace she liked. It looked African to me, but… Continue reading Treats

I pushed myself through writing 8 pages yesterday, when it turns out I should have been down watching the archery contest. While I sat here, I saw the owner of the recently blessed car pulling it all to bits. This car was being vaccuumed, scrubbed and polished to the state it had been before anyone… Continue reading Tool Love

I went to see a friend play in his band last night. It was a bit of a struggle because everyone seemed to be busy beforehand and if I’m home at 8pm, I’m home for the night. But I’ve never seen a Bhutanese band and Pelden is a great guy and known as a good… Continue reading Band

I took Marie to the airport on Sunday morning. It’s an early flight because Druk Air needs to get the plane up before the wind starts. Marie had spent a sleepless night worrying about all that she still needed to pack, what she would do with said bags for the 14 hours she was in… Continue reading Petrol problems

One of the best things about volunteering to help in a developing country is how much you can learn. Just because we’re here to give Bhutan the benefit of our years of experience and modern education, doesn’t mean that we’re better at everything than everyone here. I had this attitude when I was learning martial… Continue reading No help at all

As soon as summer began, a wave of new t-shirts appeared in Thimphu, Bhutan and in India with upbeat or humorous slogans. The most common is ‘Smile a lot, it costs nothing,’ but close behind that are ‘MBA: Master of Bad Activities’ and ‘I’m not totally useless. I can be used as a bad example.’… Continue reading T-Shirts

I’ve just finished reading a fantastic local book called ‘Dawa: the story of a (stray) dog in Bhutan.’ It’s another book that Amazon is lacking, but it’s worth the read if you can find it. As well as having some fun observations about the characters of stray dogs, the author shares some cultural insights on… Continue reading Dawa

There’s another side to yesterday’s entry and I don’t have an answer to that yet. Should I set an example by driving ‘properly’ according to international rules or should I let Bhutanese find their own way and just try to fit in? According to recent articles in the Kuensel, new drivers are having to pass… Continue reading Driving Test

We had brunch with a couple of new Aussies on Sunday. Marilyn is only here for a short time, working on Psytology (can’t find the real spelling) and Christine is the new director of SNV. Michelle, who’s been here for most of this year, also joined. An early hot topic was the driving skills of… Continue reading Road Rules – Feeling Guilty