Happy Children's Day Baobei!!!

Today children celebrates children day by not going to school. Teachers did some performances at school where my son studies. According to him, during Teacher's Day, it was students who performed for teachers. So on Children's Day, it was teachers' turn to perform.  Fair and square, wasn't it?

My son had already asked me few times on what gift should I give to him on this special day. He reminded me that he drew card for me on Mother's Day this year and he expected me to at least to do the same, if not, buying him a real present.

We bought him a pair of track shoes last weekend as he didn't have one. So I told him that track shoes were our present for him. He seemed dissatisfied with it as he thought he was entitled to get one. Hahaha... However, he loved the track shoes so much and he chose the color himself.

Yesterday on my way back home from office, he had already told me that he wanted to cycle. Even the day before he already told me about it but I went out after work therefore I couldn't fulfil his wish. But yesterday I was free. So I told him to prepare the bicycle and we would go cycling after I had my dinner.

At 8pm last night we departed from home. I never saw him as eager and motivated like that before. Perhaps in my absence, he didn't have a chance to go cycling at all. That's what I thought though.

Baobei ready for cycling - with his new track shoes ;)

Then, he wore his pair of socks, and took out his new pair of track shoes from the box. Aaaahhhhh...... Then I knew why... hahaha.... Other than being so long never went for cycling, he was also exciting to wear his new track shoes! :)

During cycling, I let him cycling in front of me. He put in lots of efforts and energy this time. He was so.... motivated. Usually he would cycle slowly and take his own sweet time behind me. Hahaha...

We cycled for an hour then went back home. I asked him if he wanted to do this everyday but he didn't dare to promise me and chose to keep quiet Hahaha....

It's a nice bonding session dear... Hope your spirit won't stop here or just because your shoes were new. About Children’s Day card, I won't promise you too, but I will see what can I do later ;)

Happy Children's Day Baobei!!!

Life of young and educated Bhutanese - in my perspective

This post is just a thought of mine, based on what I observed and encountered during my 3-week trip in Bhutan. So, I might be wrong with my judgement or opinion here. Please pardon or correct me if you think it is not right. It's just there in my mind that suddenly I want to write about things that young Bhutanese couple (those in their late 20s and beginning of 30s, both in relationship and married) face in today's environment.

I noticed that those couple (either in relationship or married), who both worked and highly educated (at least with a diploma or degree), were often staying separately (in different city or village, or even country), due to their work or to pursue their study. They might have different type of work to do, e.g. one is civil servant, while the partner is teacher, etc.

Those who were in relationship, when asked, they were often unsure about getting married with their partner as they still have many dreams not yet realized yet, such as pursuing Master degree (which they usually aim for overseas study), to work few more years to gain more experience, to earn more money so that they can purchase a car or have more stable income, etc.

Those who were married, and even had children, were also often trapped in this kind of situation where the husband and/or wife went overseas to pursue their study (Bachelor or Master degree), and they had to put their children under the husband or wife's parents. I felt a bit disheartening to know this as usually children, at that age (usually very young, below 5), needed parents' love and care so much. Now they had to live on their own, together with their grandparents.

At first, I thought, "Wow, Bhutanese people are so great!! They know and practice about impermanence more than anyone else in the other part of the world. They are also able to face this kind of separation in their lives, like nothing big ever happened into their life, just like, it's very common for them to have this kind of life."

Seriously, for loving couple, if you were separated for a day, you would feel like you were separated for a week, don't you? If you were separated for a week, you would feel like a month. And if you were separated for a year, what would you feel? Do you still feel for anything between both of you?

Usually those who pursue the Master degree would require at least one or two years. For those who study for three years and more (those married couple with a child or children), I really don't know how you can face it in your daily life. Wow!! I really take my hats off to all of you!!

Even if they don't pursue their study, when they work in Bhutan, they were usually be located into specific area based on the government's requirement (for those work as civil servant). Again, husband and wife, sometimes children too, would have to live separately.

But I have also encountered those families who chose to stay together as families (husband, wife and children) whenever and wherever the husband (who works as civil servant) was allocated by the government to certain area. For this kind of case, usually the wife works as housewife only. Even if they get bored at home, they still can do other kind of job, such as weaving kira and gho at their home, making home made jam or pickles, etc.

Kedar and his families

I don't know how many percentage of these type of families compared with those high educated one. Definitely it brought different kind of life and happiness to both families. I could feel the warmth feeling for those who chose to stay together.

But in today's environment, I think more educated people chose to work and live independently. A bit sad ba? What family means if you don't stay together? Yes, you can argue that you do all this for family's sake. But happiness does not derive from how much money you earn, how big your house is, how many car you have, how high post you hold, and all this wants will never end. Even you have house and car, your wants may increase to have your own business, this and that.

No matter what or which way you choose, at the end of the day, when we leave this world one day, we won't bring anything with us to our graves. What remains will only be memory. How much happiness you brought in your loved ones' lives, your families (including parents), and it will not always related to money matter. A family picnic, playing football with your son, recreation with your wife and daughter will be priceless and remain in their mind forever. 

Bhutan trip day 3 - Sat, 7 Sep 13 in Thimphu

After few days in Bhutan, finally I could have a long and good sleep. Before reaching Thimphu, I was so busy working as I wanted to finish my work before taking a long leave. I didn't have enough sleep too as the flight was so early in the morning, also due to time difference between Singapore and Bhutan. Therefore, I was so happy that I finally had 8 hours sleep at Tashi's house hehe... They didn't disturb my sleeping too... Kadinchela :)

I was even happier after knowing that Tashi and his wife had prepare a breakfast for me. Yay!!!

Breakfast prepared by Tashi and Dechen :)

I loved the toast heated with butter. It was so crunchy and smell nice... Nyummy!!! I ate three or four slices of bread, couldn't really remember hahaha... He had lots of potatoes given by his Mom from Bumthang and he made some spicy potato chips with it. He fried sunny egg too and we ate together with the beef leftover from last night's dinner, plus sambal chilli and sweet soya sauce from Indonesia. It tasted even better hahahaha... (Indonesian couldn't leave their country without these two ingredients :D). Oh, with a coffee with milk too to complete my sumptuous breakfast. I was so full with all that food, and happy :)

Tashi was asking me to cook some Indonesian food. To be honest, I am not a good cook. I only know how to cook simple dish, and the only thing that came out from my mind was... Indonesian fried rice! Hahaha... Since they had leftover rice from last night's dinner, I decided to cook it for them. Tashi ate it right away and he packed it in plastic container and brought it to his office for lunch, I think, or otherwise might be given to his colleague.

In the afternoon, I went to Centenary Farmers Market or called weekend market in Thimphu with Karma, his daughter, Chimi, and his sister. They went there to buy vegetables and fruits. I followed them around and took some photos. In fruit stall, the owner gave me an apple :) so happy!

View inside the vegetable and fruit sections of weekend market in Thimphu

After that we went to buy groceries in one of the shops in Changangkha then went to Karma's house. He just moved in to his rented house for about three months. From there, we could view the Changangkha Lhakhang.

View of Changangkha Lhakhang from Karma's house :)

Since it was nearby his house, I paid a visit to the temple again. This time, Chimi accompanied me there. We bought some incense sticks and butter to light the lamp inside the temple and passed it to the monk there. This time, I went to throw the three dices. It came out with numbers and the monk said, it meant good. Hehe.. We then went out happily again :)

In front of the Changangkha Lhakhang

Karma went to get some massage on his injured hand. I stopped outside the Dept of Youth and Sport. From there I thought of waiting for Riku who was coming back from Nepal that day, but later on I found out that the flight was delayed. Therefore, I tried to find my way back to Motithang, and this time, on foot.

Riku told me that he loved to walk. Personally, I love to walk too. It's a much better exercise than running. Hahaha... I had no energy to run la!! He always said that he walked from home to his office and vice versa everyday. Well, I was quite new to the place and had a little knowledge on how to walk from his office to his house. But, afraid not. You could always ask to anyone anywhere in Bhutan!!! Like Indonesian verse said, "Malu bertanya, sesat di jalan,"which means, "If you are too shy to ask, you will get lost on your way." After all, most Bhutanese were so friendly and helpful.

First, I was asking the way to get to the short cut. Second, the other guy showed the way by walking together with me as he was also on the same way there. We had a small chit chat and got to know that his name was Yeshey.

Me and Yeshey

We separated right where we took this photo. Who knows one day he read my blog and found his photo here. Hahahahaha.....

I finally reached Riku's house. Due to the flight delay, I waited there for quite some time. I took this chance to chit chat with his youngest sister, Lachhe. I asked her if she remembered when she was small she ever asked her brother to buy baloon  but he bought a gun instead. Read the full story here. She shook her head and said she couldn't remember. I also asked her if she knew that her brother was a very good writer, one of the famous blogger in Bhutan. Again, she shook her head. So I opened her brother's blog on my hand phone and showed it to her the post that he wrote about her.

She read it slowly and was smiling while reading it. After finished reading, again she told me that she couldn't remember it as it happened long time ago, which was 20 years ago. Wow... However, I was happy that I could share his story to her and to let her know how much her brother loved her :)

My stomach was hungry and Riku hadn't arrived yet. I asked her if she wanted to have momo and we went to nearby shop to have cheese momo there and a cup of hot coffee for her and ginger water for me.

At 7.30 pm, finally I met Riku but I didn't stay long as Karma had asked me to go for dinner at his cousin's place, who just opened a small restaurant. I had my dinner there together with his friends. We had Bhutanese food. It was nice :) He fetched me back home for rest as the next day we planned to go to Taktsang Monastery at Paro.

However, once reached Tashi's house, there were few people there and they just started drinking. Just nice I bought Bhutan Highland from the groceries shop that afternoon. So, some were drinking Druk 11000 and I had Bhutan Highland mixed with coke.

We had a nice chat that night and I was amazed with Tashi's cousin, a monk, who was also drinking the same drink with me. Hahaha... I took his photo as memory :) and asked him if I could post it on my Facebook hahaha... Other than that, he fixed his eyes on his hand phone almost all the time, perhaps he was Facebook-ing too.. Lolx!!!

After taking a bath and few glasses of whiskey, I had a great night sleep again. I guessed I was staying in a right country, a GNH country... zzz... zzz.....

Bhutan trip day 2 - Fri 6th Sep 13 - Sangaygang, Takin, Thimphu city and night life

It was a great morning. Weather was so cold. The sun was not up to the sky yet. I decided to go out before the sun turned so bright and had a walk by myself. I packed my water bottle, umbrella, some sweets, camera, and there I went!!!

I stayed in a friend's place in Motithang. I often heard that this place was located near to Sangaygang, a famous place for dating, jogging and having a walk, surrounded by beautiful pine trees. Oh, pine trees are my favorite!!! I love it soooo.... much :) How wonderful it was to stay in Bhutan, being able to see it everyday!

Short-cut way that I took to the top of the valley (Sangaygang)

It was my first time in the area so I had to ask around and luckily there was a student who showed me the way how to go there. Along the way I asked few people too. As it got near, someone asked me to go through the short cut to reach the top as per shown on the photo above.

I often heard my friend telling me on the short cut road that he took, so I decided to climb up through the short cut. Yallama!!! It was quite steep ya!! I climbed up as fast as I could but stopped many times to catch my breath.

Each time I stopped, the height had been greater, and the view had been getting more beautiful. I couldn't stop praising the beautiful view of Thimphu city from afar. I kept climbing until it reached the motor road and walking up again until there was no way to go (reaching BBS tower).

I had a sit on a grass facing the Thimphu city, taking snaps using my handphone and posted it on Facebook :) While resting, I took my travel journal out and tried to write. However, it didn't last long as it started to rain. It was raining lightly so I started to walk down. While walking down, I was so mesmerized by the beautiful pine trees.

Beautiful road full of pine trees at Sangaygang

It decorated the valley nicely and beautifully. Oh how I wish I could stay there so that I could go to this place again and again, each and every day... :) Since I couldn't, I could only record it inside the camera and hold it into my memory sadly. As I walked down, I was again talking to myself, thinking on what should I do on this 3 week trip in Bhutan. Would it be beautiful memories along the way? Or would it be something that I have to go through it all alone?

I kept thinking until I saw there was a gate with fake Takin (Bhutan's national animal) on top. Oops... I was planning to see Takin in the afternoon, but never expected that the place was actually located in front of me!!! Wow, really! That's the place that I planned to go!! So I went in and found them inside.

Motithang Takin Preserve, Thimphu, Bhutan

Cool!!! I finally saw them :) Didn't manage to catch their view last year. There was one nearby that we could see clearly on how it looked like.

After that I continued walking down back to where I stayed. Oh, it was so good exercising like that early in the morning :)

In the afternoon I had lunch with Tashi. We ate Indian food in one of the restaurant opposite of Bank of Bhutan (BOB). The food was so colorful and delicious too.

Thali chicken and mutton

I tried my first suja here. It was salty. Hahaha.. I didn't get used with the taste, therefore didn't finish it. I also tried the curd and got used with the taste of dhall there. Oh, my first experience with dorle (Indian round chilli) too.. It was sooo spicy!!! Just took a bit, it could make your lips burnt! Tashi had already warned me but I insisted trying it.

After lunch, I had a walk around Thimphu city. I went to see Changlimithang Stadium and archery ground from afar, went to DSB Book store to find some Bhutanese story books, visited Clock Tower Square (where I used to stay last year), saw the 'police dancing' junction, and finally flocked myself to Ambient Cafe to have a good cup of coffee and a slice of chocolate cake. I continued writing my travel journal there while waiting for my friend to pick me up.

At night, I went to sleep at Tashi Namgay's house. You can find out more about this man here. I knew him from Riku and we supposed to meet at Kolkata in February. But due to his health, he was unable to make his journey on time to meet me in Kolkata. Therefore, we were only meeting up there in Thimphu.

Tashi Namgay and families

I finally managed to see him and his families (his young and beautiful wife, Dechen, and his cute and pretty daughter, Sangay). He cooked me dinner - Bhutanese food using local butter and cheese. It tasted good ya!! Then Tashi picked me up and it was time for me to experience the night life of Thimphu city.

Charroz - Karaoke Pub in Thimphu, Bhutan

First, he brought me to Charroz, a karaoke pub located at Norzin Lam. When I saw the logo, it looked very familiar. I then remembered that once Chimi R Namgyal, the Bhutan Observer caricature artist, posted on Facebook and let us choose which logo was the best chosen for this pub and I thought I was choosing one of the choices as well. Haha.. so coincidence. We sat there only for a while, singing few songs, then went to Ace Club in Phendey Lam together with two girl friends of Tashi.

There, we were dancing. Oh, it's been so long I never went to this kind of place, let alone dancing. I was feeling old too when I was there. Hahaha.... The rest were all youngsters, the most at their 20s only. Not long after, Karma and his friends came. Only after that I felt better (since they were all older than me) Hahahahaha....... :P Actually I wanted to visit Drayang too to see how it looked like, but my friend was too shy to go there. Therefore we didn't go to that place.We stayed there until about 1am, then went back home.

Finally I could see a little bit of the nightlife in Thimphu. Who were the party goers, what songs they were playing, how big the place was, how 'live' and 'fun' the place was, etc. It's just for experience, nothing else.

I was so tired. Once reached home, I washed my face, brushed my teeth and immediately slept on my bed and covered myself with comfortable blanket. That was how my day 2 gone....

Gratitude Concert 2013 by Sat Sun Class at Kong Meng San Phor Kark See (KMSPKS) Monastery

KMSPKS Gratitude Concert 2013

Yesterday marked the last day of Baobei's Buddhist class at KMSPKS for this year. The class was opened to anyone from P1-P6, and S1-S4, held on every Saturday and Sunday. It was divided into Chinese and English class. To date, it has been going on for 30 years since year 1983. From only few students, it has grown up to 800 students. There were many teachers and volunteers too in making this class successful. Thanks to all of them. Without them, we wouldn't be able send our children there to learn about the Buddha Dhamma and many other life values in life.


All P1-P6 students participated on the concert. They were all mostly singing and dancing. My son was so eager to attend the Gratitude Concert held yesterday. After coming back from his school camp (3 days 2 nights camp), although he was very tired, it didn't stop him to attend the concert. He asked me to pick him up from school at 12 pm and to fetch him to the temple at 3pm. I never saw him so excited about this before. What a great achievement!! Haha... :P

I think he only started participating this since last year. I remember watching him participated on the drama last year and he was so proud knowing that we watched him from the audience's side.

Like usual, the concert started from P1 students' performance and gradually increased to P5 and P6 joint performance. I was sitting at the side together with other parents. The above song (佛陀的眼睛 fo tuo de yan jing - means Buddha's eyes) was played and sung few times during the concert and by hearing it, made me realize how fast my son has grown up. I almost cried hearing the song and whenever thought about it.

Gratitude Concert by students at KMSPKS

He has joined this classed since P1 until now, P5. It's been five years he attended the class and it's been five years too that I've fetched him to and from the class every Saturday afternoon. Wow!!! This temple is not so close from our house. We need at least an hour to reach (by MRT and/or bus) plus he needs to take the shuttle bus provided by the temple from Ang Mo Kio MRT station. Just hope there were some values learn by him at the end of the day so that our efforts won't go in vain.

The concert was going on naturally. You know, kids were not easy to handle. No matter how many times they had rehearsed, things might still go uncontrollably. But I could see that every students have tried their best to make themselves proud in front of their parents. Well done students!!!

Showing gratitude to their parents :)

At the end of the concert, there was a session where few parents were invited to the stage and their children showed their gratitude to their parent by cleaning their father's or mother's hand, then give him/her hug and flower. Yalama!! I was so touched although I was not invited to the stage. Once the concert was over and Baobei went out from the room, he hugged me to show his love and gratitude. Oh, what a lovely feeling becoming a mother :)