Gross National Happiness

We arrived into Bhutan yesterday afternoon. The minute we deplaned, we were in awe of this country. We arrived into Paro Airport. We have never seen a more beautiful airport with their architecture and cultural ornamentation.

We drove for 1.5 hours along twisting, winding roads towards the capital of the country, Thimphu. The country is like a Buddhist Switzerland. Karel says that even the unique Bhutan architecture is very Swiss with intricate woodwork.

Today, we had our first day trip around the city. Everything is still decorated for the 5th King's coronation which took place on November 6th. This King is only 29 years old. Everything has bright colored flags and banners and today was a holiday for the 4th King's birthday. Everything is very festive.

We visited government buildings and the coronation site which was one of the few venues open today. The coronation site is the main temple in the city which houses over 500 monks. We got to see and touch the King's throne and see the large Buddha. Unfortunately, we are not able to take picture when we enter the insides of temples.

Tomorrow we have a long drive ahead of us. We will be heading into the center of the country. We will be making several stops along the way to see some of the other famous temples and sites.

We will be reaching 13,000 feet within 2 days. We learned today that there will be a big festival in the town we are heading towards.

We learned that the 4 pillars of Gross National Happiness are 1) Preserve Culture/Architecture, 2) Health, 3) Environment, 4) Education. The unmentioned 5th one is that there are no lawyers allowed!!!

The Bhutanese value Gross National Happiness over Gross National Product and it shows. Most of their income comes from selling hydro energy from their rivers and wind and from tourism.

All the best, we'll see how far the Internet stretches beyond this point. We have had great success with cell phone service and have been in almost daily contact with Karel's sister.

Deb & Karel