Valentines in Bhutan

Our 3:30am wake up call came way too early this morning, but despite the early start, it has been a pretty great day for many reasons.

1. Our hotel not only gave us a wake up call at 3:30 to ensure that we made our flight, but they also brought us fruit salads for breakfast and hauled our huge bags downstairs for us.
2. The new airport in Delhi is sweet! It has nice bathrooms and it's like a little mall that is open 24 hours a day :) There are not too many places where you can buy chocolate, souvenirs, smoothies, and/or ice cream at 5am.
3. Drukair has even better service/flight attendants than Emirates and more comfortable seats--no movies or star lit ceilings, but still, pretty nice.
4. Bhutan is awesome!
5. Our tour guides are not only the nicest Bhutanese guys I've ever met (...not that they have a lot of competition), but they also laughed at all my jokes--whether they understand them or not I think ;)
6. The king here is 30 years old and single. I could live here...

Bhutan is a magical piece of history brought to life. It's like opening a book and stepping inside. I couldn't believe the breathtaking views of the mountains as we flew in, and then it was even cooler once I saw the cliff side dwelling and unique style of architecture. I was saddened to see that the mountains did show signs of forest fires and that the air still had a bit of smoke in it, but still, the tranquility of this place is hard to match.

We drove to Thimphu today and saw lots of cool things...Temples, a sweet Fort, a Stupa, The Kings house (we didn't exactly get invited in for a tour... but we admired it from afar), craft shops (weaving, painting, carving, and paper making are a few of the local specialties), and amazing views of the city. However, my favorite part was the new animal I met--a Takin. Naturally, I instantly fell in love with the deer/mule/moose-like creature and wanted to take a few home with me... but I settled for a picture. Before my brothers get any big ideas, I should mention that these animals are considered sacred to the Buddhist people; therefore, it is highly unlikely that they would let you hunt them.

To top off the day, Heather and I even land ourselves a romantic Valentines dinner-date at our awesome guest house/restaurant (the Yeedzin Guest House where, apparently, Prince Charles himself has been a guest). Actually... I might have exaggerated a bit on the "romantic" part of our dinner-date, but we did have a lovely dinner with our fabulous tour guide and our "jolly" (meaning funny, not fat) driver who met us outside of the restaurant, helped us with our chairs, insisted that we dish up first (even dishing up some of it for us), helped us with our coats, paid for dinner, and have already planned how they would like to spend the rest of the week with us in Bhutan--what more could a girl want?

The architecture is awesome, the culture is rich, the beliefs are fascinating, the company is excellent, and the guest house is charming. Not a bad way to spend Valentines Day :)