more Thimpu

Went to the National Memorial in Thimpu. By the way, check out a fabulous picture of it here. I can't get over how amazing that photo is. Wow.

You must walk around with the stupa on your right 3 times. 

I love the colors in Bhutan. They go so well together and they're all strong vibrant colors. I love how Bhutan's landscape is so naturally beautiful and the people dress up in traditional clothes. Their temples feel simple yet dressed with many colors but not overdressed.

Saw some cultural dances

Apparently those hats they're wearing are made of yak hair

I don't normally like hiking but for views like these, I think it's pretty worth it

Saw these adorable cats too:

Bhutan's national animal is the thakin. Described as having 'a head of a goat but the body of a cow', it's a very extraordinary animal for people who haven't seen it before.

There was a large sign saying things along the lines of 'please do not feed the animals' and 'please do not harrass the animals' but there was a big bunch of people from China making a lot of noise and poking the thakin with grass and plants trying to get the thakin to pay attention to them...it kinda pissed me off...i guess they're lucky thakin are not violent animals...i think they should just ban tourists from China really...although that would be very discriminatory hahahaha im sure not all of them are idiots...but most of the ones i've encountered are sooooooo noisy!!

Thimpu

The landing announcement went something along the line of "don't be alarmed if we fly very near the mountains. This is standard landing procedure.

 I can't really explain what the first glance of Bhutan was like but..Wow.

The Bhutanese airport:
Landing into clear blue skies and lovely weather's a good sign.

Beauty is very pleasing to the eyes

This is the largest mall in Bhutan

I took this photo because it struck me that we were so high up that the clouds cast shadows on the mountains

We visited a paper factory. The left is the plant they use, I think it was something called Daphne (well it sounded like that anyway). And they boil it in a stove.

They then remove the water and you get some pulp like mush.

It's then made into a sheet

And then they're laid on metal boards that heat and dry the sheets

We also went to a weaving place:

I think it's great these arts are still surviving. The products are really beautiful too. And it must be really hard to do this work, so meticulous choosing each string to lift or not based on the patterns for each line..

The products are of course, not that cheap hahaha...

le kitten

Still no one seems to want the kitten. I think it's growing on me. Especially since I think it's finally getting rid of all it's ringworms. We'd to give it medicine to make it purge itself of ringworms through its poo poo...and yea it was qt gross..I got a new camera! So I decided to take some pictures of the kitten:

It's quite playful. My brother wants to name it Tsubasa -.- which I said is a gay name for a kitten. Anyway no one calls it Tsubasa so far. We all just call it 'the kitten' or 'the cat'. What do you think? Is it cute? SOMEONE PLEASE ADOPT IT...hahahaha...

Oh by the way, hope everyone had an awesome Mid-Autumn festival! Do you guys know the significance of water caltrop and why we have it during the Mid-Autumn festival? I've been trying to find out but no results so far..