lacobib: March 2011

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Our group

was 16 plus the tour guide. There were two other Americans, from Boca Raton and Tulsa, and one Australian. The rest were Brits: one from Ireland, one from Wales,one from the Lake District, some from Birmingham, London. There was one other couple. Ages were from the thirties to 76.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Oh Holi night.

A Holi celebrant we met in an outdoor cafe in Kolkata.
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Saturday, March 19, 2011

A Jain Temple on Main Street, Disneyland

Another pictue of the Paresnath Temple, the Jain temple, built in 1867. In the sunlight, it is blinding.
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Dakshineswar Kali Temple

We visited this group of 13 temples on the second day of the Holi Festival (the Bengalis celebrated yesterday; the rest of India today). People were pouring into the temple bearing flowers and sweets to use as offerings. This temple was founded by a 19th century mystic, Ramakrishna. His most famous follower, Swami Vivekananda, has a Chicago connection. The block of Michigan Avenue in front of the Art Institute is named in his honor. Why you say. He came to Chicago during the Columbian Exhibition in 1893 and introduce yoga to the US.
The first image is of Kali.
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Bridge over River Hooghly, Kolkata.

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Picture of the king

I have had a request for a picture of the king of Bhutan. Since I could not take a picture myself, here is a picture of his picture on a 50 ngultrum note.
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Oh Kolkata!

Well we had a shock when we reached Calcutta, and it wasn't just the dramatic rise in temperature. The streets are empty. It's the Holi Festival.
This celebrates Krishna. It seems that Krishna was dark (blue) and his consort was fair. Krishna felt bad about this, so the festival involves throwing colored paint on fair people and people dressed in white so Krishna will not feel bad. Sometimes the color is washable; sometimes not. I was wearing white. I was not pleased. But I made it through the tour without incident and now I am wearing one of Jim's orange t shirts. I look very smart.
The first picture is of a street scene the day after the Holi Festival, when things were getting back to normal. The parade scene is a Holi parade. Some of our group received face paint.
The last picture is of an over-the-top Jain temple that we visited.
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Friday, March 18, 2011

Air Druk

Tourists to Bhutan, besides paying the $250 day tariff, must enter and exit the country one way by road and the other way by air.
There is only one airport, at Paro, with only one runway served by one airline, Druk Air. (You may recall that Druk is the name of the Buddhism that is the state religion of Bhutan.)
Druk Airlines owns only 2 airplanes and leases a third. Only 8 pilots are cerified to land at Paro Airport.
Tomorrow morning we fly from Paro to Calcutta on Druk Air.
We did not merely arrive at the airport at 5:15 am for our 7:00 am flight. We got up to have our baggage ready at 3:15 for a 3:30 departure so that we could see the unfurling at the Paro Festival. The ceremony began at 2. The banner painting of Guru Rimpoche had already been unfurled when we climbed the hill. But the ceremony was still taking place as we waited to board our plane. We watched it on TV.
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Almost there.

Opposite the Tiger's Nest. We then had to go down a large number of steps and then up again to the monastery. This was the hardest part both going and coming.
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Still climbing.

Almost as high as the monastery.
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Tiger's Nest

We climbed up to Tiger's Nest- about 4 1/2 hours including 2 tea breaks and a tour of the monastery.
The monastery was founded at the site of a cave that Guru Rimpoche meditated in for 3 months. It is called tiger's nest because in his most ferocious reincarnation Guru Rimpoche's consort changes herself into a tigress.
It was quite a walk, both down and up. This is a view from partway up.
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We went to Bhutan and met

the King!
This is his car surrounded by his handlers. We decided to leave the dancing and go to shop. As we crossed a bridge from the Para Dzong we spotted his car- the license plate is "Bhutan". We started to take pictures and we were pushed up against a wall and told to put away our cameras and take off our hats. Out he came. He spoke to some young women from Japan- gave his condolences about the tsunami and asked about their families. He then moved to 3 young Bhutanese who were helping at the festival. He thanked them for their help. The faces of the young women were moist with tears. Then he came to us. He asked us where we were from. We said Chicago and Oklahoma. He said he had never been to either place, but he had gone to school in Massachusetts and had not travelled any place else, but that he would like to return to the US and visit places like Chicago and Oklahoma. We told him he had a beautiful country with wonderful people. He said enjoy your visit and moved on. Then he got in his Range Rover and went on with a royal wave.
For our readers who are not familiar with the King of Bhutan, he is 31 years old, is unmarried, but he has a girlfriend who is studying at Oxford. He studied in the US and England. His father, who married 4 sisters and fathered many children, abdicated so his eldest son could be king. The King is tall and quite good looking and, as we found out, has excellent social skills. He worked a line as well as any politician.
The rest of our group was extremely jealous. One had only seen his ass and others had only seen him from a distance, if at all.
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