Trongsa
Posted July 16, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 0 Comments
Trongsa was the last big city that we visited. We stayed at a beautiful resort called Yangkhil that is situated along a a hill that looks across a valley at the massive Trongsa Dzong. There was a prayer wheel that automatically turned from river water. While we were there, an important dignitary came to stay. …
Punakha
Posted July 11, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 0 Comments
Punakha is situated in the central part of Bhutan so it was a pretty long drive to get out there from Thimpu which is in the Western part. We broke up the drive with a lot of really cool sights though. First up was Dochula Pass, the site of 108 Bhutanese Stupas that were built …
Thimpu
Posted July 9, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 1 Comment
As we drove to Thimpu, we saw construction everywhere due to a big housing shortage. There are only 700,000 people in the whole country and a lot of them want to move to the more modern city of Thimpu. “City” is still a stretch though as it is basically just a bigger village where people …
Tiger’s Nest
Posted July 7, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 0 Comments
Early in the morning we drove to Taktshang Goemba, which translates to Tiger’s Nest Monastery. It is one of Bhutan’s most famous monasteries, sits on a sheer cliff face. A goemba is a type of monastery that is in a remote location. When a monk wants to become a master or lama, they go …
Paro
Posted July 2, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 0 Comments
Bhutan: The Land of the Thunder Dragon. This country is most famous for three things: 1) Being the last Shangri-la, 2)Tracking their citizens Gross National Happiness (GNH) instead of the standard Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and 3) Severely restricting the amount of tourists that are allowed to enter. We expected the daily tariff to be …
Luang Prabang
Posted June 27, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 0 Comments
Luang Prabang has been high on my list of places to go ever since I had to skip it due to time constraints on my last trip to South East Asia in 2006. I had heard so many great things about it during and since that trip. The entire city is a UNESCO World Heritage …
Tree Top Explorer
Posted June 26, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 0 Comments
Despite Amanda feeling terrible, she decided that she wanted to go ahead and go on the Treetop Explorer jungle zipline trek. She loaded up on medicine and we went back to the Green Discovery office in Pakse where we met up with the Israelis and two more fellow travelers: Damien from Austalia and Sarah from …
4000 Islands
Posted June 24, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 0 Comments
The 4000 Islands (Si Phan Don) are in Southern Laos in the Mekong on the border with Cambodia. Several of the islands are populated with sleepy little riverside villages where local fisherman and their families stick to the traditional way of life. A few of the larger islands (Don Det and Don Khan) now even …
Pakse
Posted June 21, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 1 Comment
Pakse is a small town that serves as a transport hub for southern Laos. It is the home a few bus stations, the only airport in the region and not much else. Before we arrived in Laos we had been trying to arrange a zip-lining trek in the jungle through a company called Green Discovery. …
Siem Reap
Posted June 19, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 1 Comment
Siem Reap is the closest city to the ancient Khmer ruins of Angkor. I had been there in 2006, but Amanda had never seen it, and it is such a spectacular site that I was happy to go back with her. Around this point in the trip, scheduling was really starting to stress us …