Ever heard of a Takin?

We left Paro and headed towards the capital of Thimphu, the only capital city in the world without any traffic lights. It took us about an hour and half as the speed limit is 40kpm. It was nice to know that when the driver overtook on a blind bend neither vehicle would be going fast when they collided. Fortunately this only happened twice – the overtaking not the colliding!

We went to see a stupa first erected by the Queen Mother to her son the 3^rd king and then to the local market, which was amazingly clean and well organised. Bhutan is certainly on the right track and not taking after its neighbours Nepal and India. There are waste bins everywhere and recycling and an education campaign about littering is about to start in schools. The Bhutanese people are friendly and helpful and the crime rate is low. Nobody hassles you on the streets and people are happy to have their photo taken so long as you show them the picture.

From here we went to lunch, which for me meant 2 slices of toast and then to see the construction of a giant Buddha overlooking the city. The others went on a walk but it was blowing a gale and I feigned indisposition and stayed in the car. The next activity I was not going to miss, as we went to the takin preservation park. The takin is Bhutan’s national animal and is unique in the world being a mixture of a head of a goat on a cow’s body. I don’t think its head looks much like a goat but more like a moose. The takin doesn’t fit into any animal genus so they are out there on their own. They are seriously endangered and only a few are in the wild in Bhutan, Tibet and Myanmar. The other odd animal that you are likely to see here is the dzo or zo (useful to remember for scrabble!), a Himalayan cross between a yak and a cow.

On the way back to the city centre we stopped at the government handicraft store and went shopping. Surprisingly everything is really expensive, which is a shock after some of the bargains to be had in other Asian countries. I saw a beautiful wall hanging but the cost of $500 meant it would never be mine. I did buy a necklace of silver and garnets however for under $100.

Tomorrow we head towards western Bhutan, which should be interesting as we are going into an area few tourists get to see. Bhutan has only been open to general tourism since 1974 and with a levy of $200 a day imposed on tourists you don’t get backpackers here. More in my next edition.