Bhutan Trip, Day 1

March 31, 2006-

I had a near celebrity encounter in the Bangkok Airport today. We were waiting to board the plane to Paro, Bhutan, when we noticed a group of people in soccer uniforms holding what looked like a press conference. They were close enough to speak to, and I knew that they were a famous team, but I didn’t know who they were, and while I was trying to find out who they were, they left. Finally, I found out from one of the reporters that they were Arsenal football, and that they were recruiting in Thailand.

The food on the plane was a lot better than the food on other airlines, because it tasted like Indian food. On the flight I read the book “Collapse” by Jared Diamond, more specifically the chapter on the Vikings in Greenland. The book said that the Greenland Norse didn’t survive because they didn’t experiment with different food gathering tactics.

We had a short stop in Kolkata (Calcutta), India before we landed in Paro. The Airport there was very simple. There is only one runway, one baggage claim, and one metal detector, which is kind of weird for a national airport. We met the tour guides just outside the airport; their names were Karma and Nim. We tossed our luggage in the back of the van and drove down a winding and bumpy road to the Capital city of Bhutan: Tienphu, the only capital city in the world without stoplights. The hotel was very nice, it had a nice sort of friendly smell to it and, since I was sleepy, I slept through the afternoon.

Dinner was good. It tasted surprisingly unlike Indian cuisine. It wasn’t quite as hearty or spicy; A bit of a disappointment there.

No comments: