Saturday, January 04, 2014

Bhutan trip day 8 - Thur, 12 Sep 2013 - Night in Thimphu

Reached Thimphu at around 5.30pm from Haa. At night, after taking some rest and did some laundry at home, Riku's besties, Pema and Sonam, came to Riku's house. Finally I met Riku's closest besty, Sonam Dendup, known as 'Rinpoche' as he used to be vegetarian and known to be a wise man amongst them, also 'Love Guru' as he is good in giving advise to his friends on the love relationship :) He is indeed a sweet and charming guy who sticks to his life's values and has big dreams to be fulfilled in his life. Nice meeting you Sonam!

View inside the meat and fish stall at neighborhood area in Motithang, Thimphu
Before they came, Riku bought fish from the meat stall nearby his house. I followed him to the shop as I wanted to see how it looked like. I didn't even know there was such a shop just nearby where he lived. He decided to buy fish and asked her sister to cook fried fish and dhall for dinner.

We had dinner together, with Pema and Sonam too. Pema was hesitating to take mountain of rice this time hahaha... He was shy to eat lots of rice in front of me. I told him, "Please, go ahead and never feel shy to eat a lot of rice." In fact, he was not the only one. Most of Bhutanese men eat lots of rice, even take second or third serving of rice. Bhutanese women eat slightly lesser rice than them.

Had Bumthang and Luntshe ara at Pema house

After dinner, we went to Pema's house. There, he mixed the pink color ara from Bumthang with another ara from Lhuntse, and cooked it with butter and egg. Nice!! I had two bowls of it as they said, the guest had to drink the second serving. Thank you Pema for the ara!!

Thimphu view at night from Sangaygang and Kissing Point
 
We went up to Sangaygang after that, to see Thimphu at night. It was beautiful view with great accompanies. Bhutanese people love to go there at night, usually with their group of friends, by car. They will stop their car at the roadside, turn on the music from inside the car, have few bottles of alcohol on hand, drink there, chit chat, sit there, relax, play around, and so on. What a good life they have there! You don't have to spend enormous amount of money to drink inside the pub or night club, but you can create your own environment with most importantly, great accompanies- like besties, buddies, good friends, maybe girl/boy friend. On the way down to town, we passed by the Kissing Point and stopped for a while to take photo of the beautiful Trashi Chhoe Dzong lighted at night.

Sonam played few wonderful songs inside his car. All the melancholic and quite latest songs, such as: "Marry me" by Train, "What are words" by Chris Medina, "Wherever you will go" by The Calling,  "Let her go" by Passengers, etc. Now I know why I sang lots of sad songs during my last Karaoke session with my friends. Lolx!! They were all good songs. I loved hearing it over and over again. It reminded me of the beautiful time I had in Bhutan :D I also learned to know "the Honey Bunny song" from Sonam. When you called his mobile, that song what you would hear until he picked up the call. It sounds like this :D

"You're my pumpkin pumpkin, hello honey bunny
I'm your dumpling dumpling, hello honey bunny
Feeling something something, hello honey bunny, honey bunny
Toko toko..."

Midnight coffee time at Thongsel Restaurant inside Taj Tashi Hotel in Thimphu, Bhutan

We headed to Taj Tashi Hotel, a five-star hotel with 66 elegant guest rooms, with its deluxe room rate starting from US$400 per night. Pema invited us to drink coffee there. We sat at one corner of the Thongsel Restaurant, a beautiful place with a high ceiling and transparent big window overlook a magnificent prayer wheel. We were served a cup of coffee with few range of delicious cookies. Hhhmmm... it was so relaxing, peace and serene. We reached there at midnight. Not many people were seen at the restaurant. After filling up our stomach, we went outside and took photos with the prayer wheel. After that we went into the lobby and took photo with the Buddha's picture and the bells above us, then went back home.

Thank you Riku, Pema and Sonam for bringing me around in such a short time!!! I enjoyed your accompany very much! Keep in touch and hope to see you guys again in the future! Take care! :)

2 comments:

  1. cute song... hahahaha..
    what relation between pumpkin and dumpling? :)
    yz

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    Replies
    1. The relation is both can be eaten hehehe.... :P

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