Dunkhar, Bhutan

Michael was right about the leeches. When they bite, you tend to bleed a lot - I'll make a point to be extra careful about midnight bathroom runs in the future. They are all over the ground where we are camping because it has been raining quite a lot in Dunkhar, which is pretty much the end of the road in Bhutan. Our guide, Sonam, is from here as is the King's ancestral family - but it is a small, little visited village near the Tibet border. Now I'm back in my sleeping bag, and I am surprisingly clear headed after all the locally brewed ara (moonshine) and Bhutanese whiskey that I drank last night. The villagers that came to greet us last night welcomed us with some very sweet  woman's songs, sung in a circle with swaying and shuffling of feet. Our group responded with attempts at songs that everyone might know, which was mostly limited to Amazing Grace, and Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog.
The following day, the process repeats, with the villagers coming to welcome us, sing songs and offer ara, but we are able to add Row, Row, Row Your Boat to our repertoire under the rising full moon that illuminates the snow on the high peaks near us.

On our way here, we traveled about six hours, first along the main (only) East - West  road which  is one lane and little trafficked but then we turn north along a smaller road that follows a spectacular river valley North to our campsite. Long stretches of the road are paved recently,  but the unpaved sections are ... interesting.

Everyone that we meet are sweet and considerate,  and the Buddhist premise of living a compassionate life seems to permeate the country.

Auspicious Number

108 is an Auspicious Number. Our guide Sonam explains that the number is important in Buddhist culture - Sonam's name actually means Auspicious. There are 108 verses in the teachings of Buddha.  A family will erect 108 tall white  prayer flags to commemorate the death of a family member. At he the top of a mountain we pass  we visit 108 white stupas that were erected by the king's mother who was actually visiting them also while we were there.

Today we set off to visit local holy site. We drive, but then start to walk after our bus has difficulty navigating a washed out bridge workaround. The walk turns into a hike and finally into a climb to find a cave that was once a shelter to Guru Rinpicne when he brought the reform form of Buddhism to Bhutan maybe a thousand years ago.  Once we reach the small temple erected in the cave, Sonam leads us in a chant of 108 repetitions of the guru's mantra. He keeps count on his prayer beads, which has 108 beads. As we repeat the mantra, thunder echoes outside. In the land of the Thunder Dragon - heavy stuff.

Later, traveling on the bus, someone starts a round of 108 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, but enthusiasm fades quickly.

Festivals

After a long day and evening at the big Cherry Blossom Festival in Kitikami, we are on our way to a smaller village festival at Kakunodate. We take the bullet train one hour north for our day trip to the town with a large neighborhood of original Samurai houses, built in perhaps the 1600's. During the day, lots of visitors flood in via tour buses and the streets are full of selfy sticks. Roads are lined with blooming weeping cherry trees. I walk the town in the heat of the day and it wears me out so I walk the riverbank and see some of our group lounging on the grass, so I join them and watch the blossoms grow. They are not yet in full  bloom, and I  swear they are fuller than this morning.

As the sun sets, many of the visitors have left the area around the food vendors, and things quiet down a bit until the local high school lets out and the students swarm the area. Bikes are left unattended, and backpacks are left on the ground as the uniformed students wander in groups - boys over here, and girls over there. The boys look a bit militaristic in trim, dark uniforms and the girls are a bit giggly in their groups. 

 Now that the sun is setting, the festival has a local feel and we are able to try chatting with some of the crowd. There is a man who is selling puffed rice that he roasts himself and then fires the rice out of a cannon (Do I remember Quaker puffed rice being shot form guns?) - he blows a whistle as warning before shooting the thing. 

I see some schoolgirls that I had met walking in town, and they are taken by our group and want to try their English on us. Our group is camped at the table in front of the liquor vendor, and Arthur is inspired to get us all to buy masks from the stall across the way. The girls think this is great and many, many cell phone photos are taken. I try some barbecue wild boar, and find that it pairs quite nicely with the sake that's sold in the individual glass jars with pop-off tops

At the end of the evening, we have to say goodbye and make our way back to the train station for the return trip. At the station, George panics when he thinks he lost key to the locker that has all our rail passes, but it is found and we return safely to the hotel.

Leaving Tokyo

We leave Tokyo and head north, first to Sendai and then west into the mountains, but it is a little more complicated than that. The sleek Shinkansen bullet train leaves Tokyo and arrives at Sendai exactly on schedule. From there we transfer to a local train set to leave in 20 minutes, until George hears an announcement and explains we have to get of the train right away. Our route through a mountain pass is closed due to a storm, and the train we are on has been redirected elsewhere. So we get to a public intercity bus full of businessmen and take that around the mountains to another local train, now heading back toward Sendai. 

 

 

A quick stop at Yamadera to visit a celebrated potter and make some dishes and cups under his direction. The results run across the spectrum of styles and refinement and they will get glazed and make our way to us in time. Back on another chartered bus that George scrounged up to get us to our hotel that is on the closed section of train line. Snow on the sides of the road and the wind is fierce and cold. The hotel is known for its natural hot springs, but I can't keep my eyes open after a multi-course private dinner and will have to try them tomorrow.

 

In the morning, it is still windy, and in the lower 40's but the rain and sleet is gone. Back to Yamadera on the working train line and a visit to the Mountain Temple complex on the top of the mountain behind the small town. One thousand steps, says the sign but there is so much to see along the way - small shrines and offerings to both Buddhist and Shinto structures, tall aromatic cedars cover the mountain, a huge troop of high spirited school kids races past us on their way to the top.

 

 We do see some cherry blossoms, but for the most part, the trees are bare or are just budding. Looking for more along the way over the next week.

Tokyo is Working

My first impression of Tokyo is 'oh my god - everything is grey!'. That is the view out the limo bus window that is streaked with rain from a spring storm. But it spite of the gloomy weather, it seems like the city is drab and grey as well. I get to my hotel with enough time to grab a quick shower before joining some of my group for a jet-lagged extended sushi dinner. I stay up as late as I can, but my sleep is fitful and I am up at 4:00 to go outside and see if I can photograph anything interesting in the rain but it really is too wet and no fun at all and I head inside and wait for 6:30 breakfast.

 

The rain lets up and I decide to explore with a possible destination in mind. The streets are full of all the office workers in identical dark suits and leather briefcases - the women are similarly attired with large purses in place of briefcases. There is a lot happening, and I take note of all the activity - window washers, street repair crews, moms with kids in the parks, a street crew flagman directs traffic with a wand and white gloves and gives a little bow to each passing car. The crew at a firehouse are doing warm up exercises next to their fire truck, with one man calling out directions. I realize that the city is not so grey after all and I am intrigued with the architecture and the massive overhead highway system. 

After about an hour of wandering I reach my destination with a gaggle of tourists outside a sumo training stable and realize something remarkable. Up until then I don't think I had seen a foreigner, had not seen a hat of any kind, nor a camera, or a t-shirt, but this group is the exception. Behind the windows of the sumo stable, the trainees are grunting and sweating their way through the early morning exercises. One of them has taken a break and is sitting dejected in the alley holding an ice bag on his ankle.

 

By this time, I am getting tired and head more or less directly back but this time I do pay a little more attention to the crowd. I spot one older gentleman wearing a fedora, and one man with a grey pin stripe suit. I also note that the younger hipper office workers have black leather backpacks instead of briefcases.

Tight Fit

This is the part where I pat myself on the back for my packing prowess. I have a new smaller carry-on bag that will fit in the overhead of smaller planes, and is less bulky to carry - downside is no wheels. It looks more like a briefcase than a photo bag or a backpack, although it does have hidden shoulder straps, just in case. When I loaded it up, I was pleasantly surprised to find how much gear was squeezed in the shallow main compartment - easy to access:

Olympus camera body and lenses, lens filters, battery charger, portable backup drive, Pentax 8x43 binoculars, small tripod with ballhead.

Other compartments contain my laptop, misc photo gear case, toilet kit, carry-on liquid bag, umbrella, rain shell, miscellaneous cables, batteries & adapter case, "travel office" bag with money, pens, paper, passport, e-tickets, hotel confirmations, etc.

Some things that I might wish to have in my carry-on were sacrificed to checked luggage - basically hiking poles, hiking boots. 

Two Destinations

One of these places is not like the other...

They have some things in common, but could not be more different. They are ancient Asian nations, are both strongly influenced by Buddhist beliefs, and are governed as constitutional monarchies.

So what's the difference? A look at the national flags is interesting.

One is ornate, with the likeness of the traditional Thunder Dragon of the Kingdom of Bhutan. I had to look a little deeper to be sure that it is not on roller blades and not juggling tennis balls - the spheres in its claws are actually precious jewels. The yellow half of the flag represents the authority of the ruling Dragon King and the orange represents the Buddhist faith of the country.

The other flag is the flag of Japan and is the opposite of ornate; whichever word you choose to use. Maybe the most recognizable flag in the world. The simple rising sun motif is an acknowledgement of the emperor's descent from sun goddess Amaterasu. The country's name, Nippon, means "The Sun's Origin" or "Land of the Rising Sun".

If these images from the internet are any indication, visiting one country immediately after the other will cause me some major cultural whiplash. Japan is a thriving modern nation with strong roots to ancient cultures. But Bhutan is only now emerging from self imposed isolation, and is just beginning to find its connection to the modern world.
I will be in Japan on a photographic workshop tour with Arthur Meyerson. I've been on several amazing trips with Arthur - to Cuba (twice) and Mexico - and I know this one will be special too. After that, I will be in Bhutan with my friend Michael Ellis who leads natural history tours around the world. I've been with Michael on so many trips that I loose track, but they are all unique,  amazing, and fun.

I will try to post along the way and people can check what's happening on my website at http://www.johndhunter.com.

 

Cherry Blossoms

How cool.
Japan's weather forecasting agency includes a cherry blossom forecast. I will be arriving in Tokyo on April 17th, and it looks like peak of the blossoms will have passed by then. But the forecast shows we will catch up as we move north over the next two weeks.

Our trip starts in Tokyo and moves north with stops along the way, ending in Hokkaido.























The April 6 Forecast update!

Just Words?

I am gearing up for more travels, this time to Japan and Bhutan in mid-April, so I've recently been thinking about other cultures, other languages and other ways of thinking. Some of the moments that have stuck with me from past trips are those when I gain a fresh outlook on something that I had taken for granted. Other countries and other cultures obviously may see things in their own way but sometimes it is just different, and not so much foreign.

What is Liberty?

I think I know what liberty means, in connection toUnited States history, the American Revolution and democratic government. So during my first visit to Cuba a few years ago I was surprised to find the concept woven into the culture there. Surprised and a bit confused - isn't this a repressive communist government? But I think the connection goes back to the time of the popular rebellion against colonial Spanish in the early 1900's. Their sense of liberty is much the same as ours, and seems not to be in conflict with the goals of the revolution. I think it is also possible that some people may thumb their noses at the government just a little bit, without being too rebellious.

The following year I had another revelation speaking with our Cuban guide about government in Cuba today. Someone was asking him what it is like to live under communism - his English was a bit limited and he seemed confused by the question. A little back and forth and he eventually understood and expressed surprise that we thought his government was communistic - No, no, we are a Socialist state! A difference that we don't notice, but was very important to him.   

You Are Welcome

When I respond "you're welcome" it comes as second nature. I don't think of a relationship between the act of greeting someone to my home, and the response to someone's "thank you". But in English, it is the same phrase - is it the same in other languages? I never gave it a thought until I was struggling to pick up a few words in Kiswahili, on my way to Zanzibar. In that language I noticed the phrase "karibu" matched the English usage, even though the language derived mostly from Arabic. I must remember to study further for other possible connections. 

In another language, Spanish, I am most familiar with Southern California / Mexican usage and the natural response is "de nada" - basically "it's nothing". A few years ago I was pleasantly surprised in Costa Rica to hear "con mucho gusto" or "with pleasure" used often. Both very gracious responses that made me realize subtle differences in Latin America cultures and made me wish we had more choices in English.

The Reach of Popular Media

You almost cannot speak about Petra, Jordan without saying The- Ancient-City-of-Petra. It is a popular place for visitors, but it truly is ancient, and new archeological finds are unearthed from the desert each year. We were touring with our guide when he looked up and shouted "Look - it's Johnny Depp!", and indeed the camel driver was a dead ringer - I'm sure he worked on the image in his mirror in the morning. So here in the ancient city there are Bedouins who emulate the Pirates of the Caribbean look. 

Being a Liberal

Egypt is still struggling through a transition in government that rocked a society that had been used to strongman rule since the time of the Pharaohs. My only visit there was a few years ago, in the middle of a time of optimism and uncertainty between the first several rounds of free elections after the Arab Spring uprisings. We were fortunate to have a guide who was both scholarly regarding the thousands of years of Egyptian history and also thoughtful about the present and the future. During one discussion he described himself and some of his friends as Liberals, but I couldn't connect him to the definition of liberal that I'm familiar with in the US. Although he was politically aware, I could not see him as a liberal that would be recognized here. He talked some more to describe his liberal views to mean being receptive to thinking of all things in an open manner, without preconceptions. That is a definition that I immediately liked. Sometimes we should go beyond labels and think to ask what someone means when they use a word.