Here we come Bhutan

It won’t be long until we head to Bhutan. We just received our visas and our final itinerary. We will fly into Bangkok (thank you United frequent flyer miles) and stay overnight. The next morning, we will leave to fly into Paro. Other stops will include Thimphu (for the annual festival at the Thimphu Dzong), Punakha, and the Phobjikha Valley. One of the highlights of the trip will surely be the Taktshang Monastery, more popularly known as the Tiger’s Nest. It is built into a cliffside, and hiking there is definitely on our schedule. I am also excited about the Thimphu Festival. There should be lots of wonderful sites for Stephen to photograph.

Phobjikha Valley is the home of the black-necked crane, so I am hoping we get to see those. Supposedly they are somewhat tame due to being revered by the Buddhists, so maybe Stephen will be able to get close enough to take some good pictures. I managed to find a book on the Birds of Bhutan, which will be nicer than lugging the much bigger book I have on the birds of India. I never know what kind of bird watching opportunities we will have. In Peru and Costa Rica, we saw a huge variety of birds. In Hong Kong, most of the birds we saw were in an aviary, but my book on birds of China came in handy there anyway.