We got home Friday night to a dark house. Based on my TIVO recordings, we lost power about the first of October. Needless to say, the refrigerator and the freezer stank to high heaven. We called DP&L about the outage and went to a hotel for the night. Saturday the power had been restored and we spent the day cleaning out the fridge and freezer.
I really enjoyed the trip. It was a bit rough on Michael between the steamy weather in Bangkok and the bout of tourista, but he also found it interesting.
Bhutan is a small country with only 700,000 people. There are no cities as we know them. They are trying to balance development with maintaining their traditions, which is not easy. New buildings have to use the traditional structure and decorations. People who work with the pubic have to wear traditional dress. But there are satellite dishes on houses in even rural areas. Houses in towns are heated with electricity. People in in rural areas where electricity may not be reliable are allowed to cut down 2 trees per year for heating. They are proud of the fact that 70% of the country is forested. Protecting the environment is one of the goals for Gross National Happiness.
The biggest export is hydroelectric power, which they sell to India. They have 5-6 more hydro projects in the works. The heavy trucks are tearing up the roads as they bring construction materials from India and from quarries in the mountains. Buckwheat is another export.
In 2010 they had 40,000 tourists - more than 5000 more than anticipated. Considering the population of 700,000, this is a lot. They have some control over the number of people from outside in that there are only 3 flights in and out a day and a visa is required. One article in the Druk Air magazine talked about how only guests of the royal family were originally allowed into the country. Gradually, they started allowing others in, but at a high cost - $200 per day. But this rate has not kept up with inflation (it goes to $250 a day next year) and now there are a lot more people arriving. And these people have expectations about hotels, restaurants, etc that are bound to change the atmosphere. There are no McD's or KFCs, but you have to wonder how long that will last. You can get Lay's potato chips and Coke.
I am also still struggling with the photography issue. Those of you who followed last year's trip may remember my quandary about photographing people. I like to capture an image as a memory for me and to share with others. But I still have trouble with that feeling that I am treating these people like an exhibit - like animals in the zoo. Dick had an interesting analogy. Imagine yourself working in your garden and a group of aliens lands in a spaceship and the leader asks if they can watch you and take photographs. They hang around for 20-30 minutes, clicking away, then hop back into the spaceship and take off. While these people have certainly seen tourist buses before, it still feels intrusive to me. Many of the kids seemed to enjoy having their pictures taken and asked to have prints sent to them.
I took more pictures than usual. I played around more with exposures and composition. I'm going to have to sit down and filter, process and create albums before I can share more of them. And there were still photos that I would have liked to have taken given more time, better light, etc.
I hope you enjoyed following the trip.
I really enjoyed the trip. It was a bit rough on Michael between the steamy weather in Bangkok and the bout of tourista, but he also found it interesting.
Bhutan is a small country with only 700,000 people. There are no cities as we know them. They are trying to balance development with maintaining their traditions, which is not easy. New buildings have to use the traditional structure and decorations. People who work with the pubic have to wear traditional dress. But there are satellite dishes on houses in even rural areas. Houses in towns are heated with electricity. People in in rural areas where electricity may not be reliable are allowed to cut down 2 trees per year for heating. They are proud of the fact that 70% of the country is forested. Protecting the environment is one of the goals for Gross National Happiness.
The biggest export is hydroelectric power, which they sell to India. They have 5-6 more hydro projects in the works. The heavy trucks are tearing up the roads as they bring construction materials from India and from quarries in the mountains. Buckwheat is another export.
In 2010 they had 40,000 tourists - more than 5000 more than anticipated. Considering the population of 700,000, this is a lot. They have some control over the number of people from outside in that there are only 3 flights in and out a day and a visa is required. One article in the Druk Air magazine talked about how only guests of the royal family were originally allowed into the country. Gradually, they started allowing others in, but at a high cost - $200 per day. But this rate has not kept up with inflation (it goes to $250 a day next year) and now there are a lot more people arriving. And these people have expectations about hotels, restaurants, etc that are bound to change the atmosphere. There are no McD's or KFCs, but you have to wonder how long that will last. You can get Lay's potato chips and Coke.
I am also still struggling with the photography issue. Those of you who followed last year's trip may remember my quandary about photographing people. I like to capture an image as a memory for me and to share with others. But I still have trouble with that feeling that I am treating these people like an exhibit - like animals in the zoo. Dick had an interesting analogy. Imagine yourself working in your garden and a group of aliens lands in a spaceship and the leader asks if they can watch you and take photographs. They hang around for 20-30 minutes, clicking away, then hop back into the spaceship and take off. While these people have certainly seen tourist buses before, it still feels intrusive to me. Many of the kids seemed to enjoy having their pictures taken and asked to have prints sent to them.
I took more pictures than usual. I played around more with exposures and composition. I'm going to have to sit down and filter, process and create albums before I can share more of them. And there were still photos that I would have liked to have taken given more time, better light, etc.
I hope you enjoyed following the trip.
