OUR LAST TRIP BEFORE EVERYTHING CHANGES! THIS IS BHUTAN

Six months ago we quit our jobs to travel the world. We didn't know how things would go but we knew we wanted to see places that were a bit further off many travelers radars. What we didn't expect was this though. A sponsored invitation from the department of tourism to visit the kingdom of Bhutan. Welcome to Bhutan. Thank you so much. Locally known as the land of the thundering dragon, Bhutan is a small country tucked away in the Himalayas bordered by the Tibetan region of China to the north and India to the south. The Bhutanese love their country, their king and their culture. It's no wonder that they consider happiness one of the most important measurements of success. We'll be spending seven nights here in Bhutan starting with the capital region of Thimphu. We'll be visiting a festival, trying Bhutanese national dishes, dancing with locals, and taking in some amazing cultural sites. Come with us for part one of our trip to Bhutan, a country that welcomed us with open arms and happy smiles. Welcome to Bhutan. Thank you so much. We're officially in Bhutan now. I know I can't believe we got a ceremony. Okay I'm already happy. So first stop is Thimphu then in a few days we'll be going over to Ha. And after Ha we'll be coming right here to Paro before we leave. So I'm excited to explore this country. Seven days, well eight days, three locations and just like a lot of fun to come. My name is Tula. Okay actually my name is Tula Rambistha. So you can always call me Tula. Okay and here so our friend here is known as Shacha. Okay Shacha. It's hard to pronounce but by the time you finish the tour you'll remember. Okay and two of us will be there with you throughout your tour here in Bhutan. We are very flexible. Okay it's not that you have to follow whatever is written in an itinerary. Okay so you just browse the internet and if you can find some place which you want to visit you let us know. Okay we are very flexible. So we are a small nation so Bhutan with a land of 39,394 square kilometers. Okay it's with a population of approximately around 800,000 people. Okay and even though Bhutan is a small country so we have lots of lots of diversity of languages. So in Bhutan people speak 15 different dialects. 15? Yeah 15 different dialects. So and 70% of people here in Bhutan they depend on agriculture. Okay so like in the north or in the west people grow rice, people grow apples. Okay so but the highest revenue generator of our country is hydropower project. Hydropower? Yeah exactly. Now first thing is that whenever we meet somebody right we say hi or good morning right. So in Bhutan commonly we can say So that's informal. Okay so if you say formally we say So our very first stop. We just stopped by a little mountain river. A mountain river. Close to the airport and there's a beautiful monastery and we're gonna take a little hike just to get a quick experience of what this country is all about. Okay so we just stopped by a local street side market and we just came to explore and see what kind of products they're selling. But our tour guides basically told us that people really love three things. They love cheese and they love chili and they also love curry and also rice. So more than three things. So they have the things that you'll see hanging right now. It's actually cheese from either cow or from yak and Simas wants to try the yak cheese but I'm not really a cheese person. Cheese delight or what's the greek name? Lukumi. Yeah it looks just like Lukumi but this is cheese believe it or not. So let's try it. Ready? It's really hard. The whole thing? Don't bite it. I'm not a cheese eater okay. You won't think it's cheese. I can't believe it's cheese. First of all it tastes like a rock. Like I have a rock in my mouth. Tastes like milk. A little milky. Tastes like a milk powder. It's slowly coming off. Exactly. We are here at the Thimphu Deluxe Hotel. So we are really excited to actually be staying here for the next three nights. So this is going to be home in Thimphu for three days. So let's see how it goes. If we look refreshed it's because we are. Look at that. We just took a shower. We took a nap first then a shower and now we're gonna go out with our tour guides to the town of Thimphu to buy the traditional clothes. So they're actually called Go and Kira. Go is for men, Kira is for women. Because we have a festival tomorrow that we're going to be attending and you usually wear the traditional clothes to the festival or you have to wear like a long sleeve blouse and skirt but we wanted to wear the traditional wear just because you know you think it looks so cool. So we are here at Sange Arts and Crafts and we're gonna check out some traditional wear here. Looks so nice. Can you buy it now? Their Go has the largest pocket in the world. This is what we meant. Oh you could definitely you could definitely put a baby in here. No problem. So it is the next day and we're super pumped because we just so happen to be here around the time where Thimphu is celebrating their Thimphu Jomcho festival. So the Thimphu Jomcho festival is a Buddhist holiday. It's usually a one-day holiday that is celebrated around this time of year which is autumn and it happens at the Tashicho Dome which is where we're going to be heading to next. So at the festival we're going to be seeing like sacred dances that are dedicated to this deity here in Bhutan which I don't know I didn't think that we'd be experiencing something like this but our guide said it's not on your itinerary but we know this is happening today so let's scratch that itinerary and go straight to the festival and that's where we're going. So oh by the way if you're wondering what I'm wearing it is called a kira which is a traditional Buddhist outfit that I think they use for ceremonies and the male version is called a go. The woman's outfit is fairly easy to put on. I hope I did it right but the male outfit is a story for another day. So they're helping me because I didn't do it right. I think this is the best outfit I've seen Thank you. So this is actually kind of the opening ceremony or purifying the ground okay so after three days from today so today's Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday from Sunday the three-day annual festival of Thimphu will start that is for three another days so that's known as Thimphu Techu where also they will showcase all kind of Marx dances and all. So we're here at the festival and one thing I must say it is very crowded and I think the whole entire city and zone of Thimphu is actually here and we are just literally trying to get through and we'll see how it goes. How do you feel about when foreigners wear Bhutanese clothes? We feel very proud when you all wear such kind of dress. This is our national dress. We really respect our national dress and this is how the Bhutanese people should wear the dress daily. Okay every day? Every day yeah. Okay thank you. We've been here at this festival for maybe an hour now probably more yeah and I must repeat it that everyone that I've met so far have been so nice like genuinely nice and everybody wants to take a picture with us but the kids mostly they're so open and like curious about like us as foreigners and the babies I'm saying hi to literally every baby that I see and I get some mean mugs from them but it's okay I love babies anyways but yeah we've been having a good time here so far and I'm so glad that we came. We're over here taking pictures and like if you pan there they're just there looking at us. Last thing, do you like when tourists visit Bhutan? Yeah I like it very much. Too much? Yeah okay. Tourists come here for a good business for everybody. Okay. In our country all over we have 20 districts and the population is already you know and all the tourists visiting and tourist management everybody and public likes too much. Okay that's good to know. Thank you sir. We are done with the festival we're about to head to lunch but our guides told us that pre-pandemic this time in Bhutan especially going to this festival there would be so many tourists and it would be even more overwhelming than it was today but after the pandemic a lot of things just weren't revised so there's not much tourists here anymore so we were lucky to experience it with mostly locals but it's definitely something to experience and we are glad that we got the opportunity to do it. So far we love the guides we love the experience and the guides are so significant in being able to tell us exactly what we're about to experience why we're wearing these clothes and just like why people do what they do here in Bhutan and it has been great. The experience would definitely not be the same without these tour guides. So we just came back from the Jomtro festival here in Thimphu and they cleaned our room. We're staying at the Thimphu Deluxe Hotel and I wanted to show you guys this room before we ransack it again later. So the room is $132 a night and breakfast may be included but don't quote me on that but we ate breakfast for free this morning so it may be included. The room is huge and we have a tv we have a huge bathroom with a standing shower and the bed in here I think we can both lay like across the bed and we'll still fit. I'll just show you how huge this bed is this is probably the biggest bed that we've ever had in any place that we've stayed in. There is a restaurant on site and I must say that the food that they serve is pretty good. We had dinner here last night. The menu has a Norwegian section there is Nepali food on it Indian food on it and of course they have their local cuisine their Bhutanese cuisine which I think it's just a great selection for like a hotel restaurant and they take a little long to prepare the food but I see why they take so long because that food was bomb.com. Okay so let's talk about the room a little bit. So if you come over here you'll see that we have a nice size tv there is a kettle here for you to make your tea which I've never really seen a whole little setup like this before. They put two water bottles here for you so if you get thirsty like we always do and there's a little selection of like coffee and tea and that's it for that. There is a fridge here actually. It is not plugged in but I think they do it to save power of course and the only thing that I don't see in the room is a microwave. I don't think there's a microwave in the room but there's a restaurant on site so I think if you want to heat something up you can just go down and ask them to. And oh if you're wondering why I dressed like this it's because we just came back from the drum chew festival and this is the traditional a traditional outfit known as the kira and I'm wearing my kira because I paid a lot of money for it and I just want to wear it because I know I look nice in it. Anyways if you come over here there is a mirror there's a closet to store your clothes and then the bathroom is right by the door. The bathroom is huge like one of the biggest in any place that we've ever stayed in and I think it's a nice little cozy spot if you're here in Tempu for a few days so definitely check out Tempu Deluxe if you're here for a few days in Tempu. We're driving through the streets of Tempu we're actually in the downtown area and I don't know Bhutanese architecture is just so vibrant and colorful. Before say a decade back so this area was just a village not with all buildings so this had some terrace field and all so later on this house belongs to people local local people from here okay so this house was just abandoned so there was nothing to do with this house later on they decided to convert it into a restaurant which is known as Bavesa village restaurant so where they have all kind of authentic foods whatever we get in Bhutan like local dish and all right so we're here at the Bavesa village restaurant to try some traditional Bhutanese food and I hope I'll be trying the cheese chili dish that I've heard so much about. We have to take this Bhutanese elevator to go up here. So we were told that if we don't like it we don't have to continue drinking it so yeah it does smell like butter. Salted butter tea. Actually I think I might like it. I'll make my comment before I dive in but I think so far Bhutanese food is full of spices like it is definitely spicy and tasty and juicy and dry all at the same time but my upper lips are burning and I didn't even eat any of the chili and so definitely if you're not a spice person you better watch out but so far so good. 10 out of 10. So this is the only flyover, one of the best flyovers in the world we just experienced once in a lifetime experience right here in Bhutan so when you come to Bhutan do not miss the flyover bridge in Thimphu we just made it to the Simply Bhutan museum and we're super thankful for our friends over at Bhutan Mountain Holidays for just taking us around Bhutan and showing us the spots that are top tourist spots but also some spots that locals may visit as well. Gonna check out the museum and see I heard that we get to dance here too so super excited for that. Oh first question what is your hat called? This one? This one is known as Jamu in our language and this represents a temple there in Thailand. Highlanders here in Bhutan will wear this kind of dress and hat with them. My name is Punso and I'll be your in-house guide for the short duration. I hope you'll enjoy the tour with me. This is a friend of mine. Wow best singing I've ever heard. The name of this festival is known as Techu so usually men will wear this kind of mask and perform mask dance here so you can see a red colored mask here this one is the mask of Atsara and Atsara is known as Acharya in Sanskrit that means he is basically a master. We were so interested in Bhutan we were watching a lot of videos on Bhutan and the picture of a they call the phallus here was a reoccurring image and we're wondering why in the world does this country just have a bunch of phallus like hanging out and now we got to learn that there is actually a meaning to it and it is hung in places no pun intended to chase away evil spirits so and there is a fertility god that they believe that his strength or his power is in the phallus yeah so I never expected that but it's really good to know like now that I know I feel better about seeing phallus everywhere How long do you have to do this for? So maybe for six to five minutes. Oh okay. I can't even use my hands to do that. So his name is Timah Tsering when he was at the age of two he had a brain disease named cerebral palsy since then you can see both of his hands are paralyzed now he's 36 years old and only his two feet are working so everything he does like painting and carving everything is done by his feet only. From him he will put on his initial and give his autograph as well. You look better with my hair. Another one? Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Okay, I have a question for you. Who is the better dancer out of us two if you had to pick one? Be honest. You have to pick one. I think you'll have to learn from me. Okay, thank you for your I really appreciate it. Yes, we're at our last step here at the Simply Bhutan Museum. We just had some food, we got entertainment, we tried to entertain people, totally failed. That was like the best dance that I've ever done but I did not know what I'm doing. You weren't the worst dancer on the floor. Yes, because you were here. So now it's time to try out archery which is your national sport here in Bhutan, right? Yeah, national game here in Bhutan. So, we only get two tries. I know I'm gonna need more than that but let's see what we can do with two tries. That was worse. We are in the center of the town here in Thimphu and we've been to so many cities like we've been to like four or five different countries in Asia and Southeast Asia and we've been to a few places in Europe, we've been to the Caribbean, Latin America and there is no place I've been that can compare to here like we can always draw so many comparisons but like the architecture, like the style, the feel, I don't think that there is anywhere that I've been that feels like Thimphu. So in summary, Thimphu is a one-of-a-kind capital city because I've never experienced something... Yeah, it's totally different. Yeah. If somebody from a village, a rural area comes to Thimphu, okay, the first thing that you learn is block tower. Okay. Wow. Okay, if you just happen to lost a trail, say, okay, so they can say that I mean block tower. Easy to remember. So first impressions of the city, it's totally unique. Nothing that we've seen like it before. There are no chain restaurants, no chain hotels, no like major international imprint of anything. So a lot of what's happening is local and like Tula, our tour guide said that like they pretty much rely on importing many of their goods that come to the country. Which I think in turn kind of make certain things expensive like for example the clothes that we bought yesterday but they do that specifically because they do not want to contribute to the pollution that's already going on in the world. So in order to stay carbon neutral, they don't have industries which is a great thing. It's a very selfless thing to do. It's good for the environment but it's not great for your economy but they're choosing their environment over economy which is probably a good thing in the long run. So our dad aka our tour guide said guys stay here. I'm gonna get something for you and then I'll come back so stay right here. So what we're gonna do is actually go right there and break the rules a little bit and go to the cafe. We're just gonna check out a cafe. I guess local life is here in Tungkusu. Because there's a lot of youth out here and they seem quite rebellious compared to the culture that we've seen. It's really like any other coffee shop but I think the youth here they're so much different from people that are in the age group of our tour guides and then the older people are completely different from the tour guides you know. So it's becoming a little bit more westernized as people like the younger generation like grows up. Yeah it seems that people here like the younger people really embrace like western t-shirts and shorts and like vaping and hanging out and like kicking the ball around and things like that which is actually I mean why not like their culture they do whatever they want but it's just so unexpected after seeing so much like culture and everything and it's like here we are and it really is kind of like a regular city it just doesn't look like it. So one thing we've learned in Bhutan is that there are actually no traffic lights in the entire country right? There's no traffic lights in all of Bhutan or just Thimphu? None. Okay so no traffic lights so they actually tried this. Hello! They tried this approach in the 90s and they tried to put a traffic light here and the people simply did not accept it and what happened is they actually went back to the old school method and they put a policeman who controls traffic in the street so you can see there's actually a lot of traffic. I've never seen this much traffic anywhere in Bhutan since we got here. I think it's pretty interesting to literally have just a policeman sit there or stand there and control all traffic because where I'm from we're used to just you know green light go red light stop. It's very interesting. No wife, no son. I'm only parents. You only have his parents. No tension. No wife, no son. And no problems. No problem. You're a smart man. Oh yeah good decision. Do you like being a monk? Yes. How long have you been a monk? Oh 21 years. 21 years. You look like you're 21 years old. Okay so bucket list item checked off. We just met a monk, interviewed a monk and took a picture with a monk. And he let us take a video of him too which is great. So he has been a monk for 21 years and he looks like he's 21 years old to me. But he started at age 10 so that makes him 31. So I couldn't imagine like just being a monk for 21 years of my life. No wife, no problem. All right. Bye. Where are you from? Where are you from? I'm from Hyderabad, South India. Oh have you been to Jamaica? I know that some countries I know but I didn't live in Jamaica. Oh okay. We have a lot of people from India in Jamaica actually. Yeah. You don't want to be a part of my video. You just recorded me. He just want to give his post. He's the cameraman all right. So we just wanted to like I guess emphasize how close India is here to Bhutan. So these guys actually drove from Hyderabad in India. Really far away right? Yeah and they came to Bhutan by car. We came by plane from Bangkok but here they are by car. So we just wanted to know how long did it take you guys to get here? By train. We came by train. Oh train. You're a train driver. Oh. Did you drive the train here? So we're literally just walking through. I ran into food stalls where people are just selling fresh produce. We see like women dividing up their chili on the street. I've seen food stores, clothing stores. I've seen it all and I've seen these harbordashery looking stores where people are selling multiple things like cheese, toothpaste, chips, shoes all in one place. Kid's stores. Yeah which is just uh I guess similar to um places in the Caribbean and Asia that we've seen. What a day. We had a crazy day. So it all started at the festival which is the Thimphu Dromchod festival. Then we went to the Barbesa Village restaurant to have like traditional Bhutanese dinner right? Or lunch I'm sorry. And then what? And then we went to Simply Bhutan museum and had the time of our lives. Yeah so we learned some Bhutanese dancing. Yes. We admired the dancers first actually so thankfully they showed us how it's done and then we were just mad at it. Um what else? We learned archery which I am apparently I'm pretty bad at it and you're pretty good. Yeah I only took two shots and I made both of them. So my first shot I made it, second shot I made it and then I had this they came out to celebrate it and we had the dance. Twice. And I had to do the dance twice because you know your girl is good with the archer. You know it's not one percent. It's not one percent Native American DNA in me. Like the Arawak DNA. Oh the Arawak. The Arawak. I knew my ancestors were calling me. Man. But yeah what about your ancestors the Vikings? We're more like. Wait are you guys Vikings? We're more like axe people you know. Oh okay okay. Yeah but anyway then finally we went to the city like center in Thimphu just to kind of explore and we saw a much more modern like the modern life of the city. The younger people. Yeah so younger people are like hanging out wearing western clothes and like chilling on corners on Instagram and doing things like that. It was quite an experience. I think the most memorable and humbling part of today was seeing that guy that carves stuff with his feet. He actually has cerebral palsy and I can relate to that like very closely because I have a cousin that have the same condition and the fact that he was able to do arts and crafts and carvings and he was able to write his signature on the thing that he sold us and I gave him a high five. So I don't know. Today was like such a good day. Let me let me tell you something. The his foot writing is better than my handwriting. Absolutely. And that's pretty sad but he's he seems like a really nice genuine person just like everybody else in Bhutan. Yeah and um yeah I don't know today my favorite part other than him was probably Simply Bhutan. Simply Bhutan was for sure fun. We already took that one so I guess the festival was also really exciting because that's literally where we got to meet the people and truly like talk to them, take pictures, take their videos. Everyone's coming up to us and taking pictures of us. Yeah so the Bhutanese people everybody speaks some English at least. Even babies like. Yeah but most people actually speak English pretty well which is really amazing like from the we spoke to somebody who's definitely a senior and we speak we spoke to people who are like four years old. Yeah and like oh nice camera. Yeah I got a compliment on the camera. He was like nice camera. He was such a sweet little guy. Like I don't know Bhutan is definitely definitely top of the bucket list. You guys should definitely check it out and we're not only saying this because we partnered up with the Bhutanese government but we are obviously like a couple of differences and in some places that we visit believe it or not we're not treated as nicely especially me and it is such a breath of fresh air for people to accept you on face value for what you are and not think about the color of your skin and in Bhutan it is just like the acceptance is at like a hundred percent like I haven't gotten any mean stares or. Except from babies. Oh yeah the babies they mean mug me but I just I love it anyways. Oh I we can't we can't praise this place enough. We can't. So big thanks to our tour guides as well from Bhutan Mountain Holiday. Yeah it will not be it would have never been this interesting exciting and fun without having actual Bhutanese people telling us where to go what to do what this means like we have so much more appreciation for the things that we're doing. Yeah yeah and so yeah so Tula and these guys are great amazing we learned so much from them like also like laughed about a lot of stuff that they told us and they learned from us as well so yeah definitely amazing and we couldn't recommend a better tour company. Yeah our tours are not done yet this is our second day in Bhutan we have a huge day ahead of us tomorrow where we're gonna visit the Buddha statue and we're gonna go to the Dutch of La Paz tomorrow so stay tuned for that part of the video but we just had to come on here and tell you guys like how we're feeling we love Bhutanese people we love Bhutanese food and the culture is just it's just so pure and exciting and vibrant and I'm just happy to be able to experience it and you should definitely experience it as well. Good morning guys so today is another day here in Thimphu and unfortunately today it's raining I can't believe we're still in the same city because I actually got sunburned yesterday and today it's cold and rainy literally in the same place but today we're actually going to be going even higher up to the 3100 meter elevation point called Dutch of La Paz in between Thimphu and Punakha so our guide recommended us to bring warm clothes, long sleeves, hoodies, jackets, whatever we got because it's definitely going to be even cooler up there and unfortunately it's raining but because we're already here and we won't really be spending too much time in this part of Bhutan it's a must-see. The memorial was actually built in 2003 to commemorate Bhutan's victory against an invasion yeah it's really recent history and it was actually built by the elderly queen mother and there was actually also a monastery built right next to it to honor the great fourth king so these are two sites that we definitely must see while we're visiting Bhutan and we can't wait to actually go check it out I just hope that the weather clears up and we'll get to enjoy our time there. So we just pulled over at like a viewpoint to see the buddha statue before we actually go up there today but I'm just looking down and the construction of the houses and the landscape I feel like I'm in a fairy tale yeah like it doesn't feel real Bhutan is so beautiful you guys don't even know what you have here just look behind me guys it looks unreal a cross between like Switzerland meets Asia it's just guys I can't say it enough come to Bhutan there's there's no other question the camera will never show you what we're seeing you have to see it in person but the buddha is like all the way up there and that's where we're gonna try to go later we just have the best advice to share with you right now apparently our tour guides just told us I wish they told us beforehand that if you happen to come to Bhutan pack some earplugs with you because Bhutanese dogs are solar dogs and by that they mean they charge from the sun in the daytime when they're sleeping and they will bark straight throughout the night so you probably won't get much sleep because they will be charging in the day and barking in the night so bring some earplugs but they're very friendly dogs for me and Simas we're scared of dogs and we've been fine so far and their battery dies by the morning and then they charge and then they charge again for the night we just made it and look you can see it behind me of course this doesn't do any justice we have to get closer but while coming up here our guide told us this story of why this was built and I think it's a really interesting story and we're gonna try to summarize and translate it to you guys later on but let's go see the so is this called Dachula Pass or it's just a pass that's called Dachula and this one is called the stupa so it's 108 stupas here and we asked what 180 or 8? 8, 108. Oh, I thought it was 180. Oh, I'm sorry. See, I was right. I'm always right, okay? so 108 stupas and we asked why 108 and they basically told us that 108 is an auspicious number in buddhist culture and auspicious just means that it will bring good faith or good luck so gonna see this uh the stupas here okay so we are actually 3,100 meters elevation and it's I definitely feel it because as we were driving up here I felt my ears popping a little bit and if it was a clear day uh you would actually see snow-capped mountains in the back unfortunately uh it's not raining anymore thankfully but it's not a very clear day so we can't actually see it but our guide showed us a picture of what it really looks like and we'll try to insert it here but it's a really amazing viewpoint and it's so peaceful it's so peaceful and calm it really is and not only it would be um snow-capped mountains it would be one of the highest peaks here in Bhutan that we'd be able to see but we were late so well it was raining all day so I'm losing breath as we're climbing and it's finally hitting me that we're so high above the ground I sound like an unfit mom but trust me it is really high oh it's so beautiful up here oh my god oh and then there is like a bigger stupa right there so absolutely it is the mind of buddha actually okay stupa so we have we just say the mind or in some terms we say it is a lot of sitting position of buddha himself okay okay so like we have different eight different types of stupas from the day he was born from where he got enlightened okay so where he passed away so we have eight different like it's just kind of short biography about the buddha oh okay all right so we finally made it to the dachala pass and it's just stunning it's completely stunning and you have to see it for yourself and also one good thing is that Bhutan is slowly rolling back into a high tourist destination so coming here around this time you will have this place to yourself and it will be completely empty you can take all your selfies you can do everything you want because it's not crowded and crawling like other places but the history behind this dachala pass or these stupas is that there was in 2003 there was an Indian tribe known as the Assamese tribe or the Assamese that invaded Bhutan and they were actually just living in a portion of the country for a time before they even started the invasion so they were just living there and they started terrorizing the local people in the area that they decided to settle and apparently the fourth king of Bhutan went there and tried to talk to the tribe and say you guys just leave go back we don't want to fight and they did not want to leave and the king decided like we have to fight so they went to war with this tribe and ended up being very successful at that war and in commemoration of soldiers that died in that war the queen mother which was the wife of that fourth king decided to build this at the dachala pass because the dachala pass is actually the pass and the stupas is what we are at right now so the queen mother decided let's dedicate something to the people who fought in the war and helped us to keep Bhutan for ourselves and it eventually turned into 108 stupas on one of the highest mountains here in Bhutan. We are clearly not mountain people but I'd come back here any day just if you have like breathing problems definitely bring your asthma pump when you lift your hand you just inhale okay okay hold hold totally different yeah your body is fully getting oxygen wow it really worked I feel like even my breathing sounds better I think you gave us the fix for our life thank you don't get tired I think he's busy just eating so we're back from dachala pass it took us 45 minutes to get back to Thimphu town and we're about to go try some mumu right is it mumu or momo momo I'm terrible we're gonna try some momo and he basically explained to us that it's a Tibetan dish but it's similar to dumplings so I'm gonna try it because I'm starving and I'll tell you the name of the restaurant that we try it out at because it's supposed to be the best quality of momos not mumus that you can get here in Bhutan. Unfortunately two of the restaurants that our guys recommended were closed today and we are here at momo tower because we actually have to try the local momo so it's like a it's a popular dumpling type of dish in Bhutan in Tibet and other like nearby countries here so uh we're gonna try that they also offer us french fries so how could we say no and I already see the chili that's in there so we got to try that as well so I'm excited to try the food we're hungry let's go and dig in all right now this one can you smell it remember something do you remember something yes absolutely it made my tongue tingle yesterday people really eat it yes so sweet pepper which is dried and crushed okay so what we do is that there's a plain soup that you see here right so you just taste it they don't have any salt on it I think you can add some salt and if you like you can add not more a little bit of that one and it goes very well with the momos okay now we do like this okay okay okay this is the thing here I'll watch you demonstrate you just dip in the chili paste here oh my god good all right other than Thai people Bhutanese people are some of the craziest eaters I know they eat so much chili that it is almost insane we don't eat spicy like like it's nothing and we're just trying to catch up like we like spicy but this is just a different level of spicy so chili first that's okay you like spicy food yeah but not like so ready okay one two three oh it's already in my mouth it's pretty good what's inside I know there's like some beef but yeah there's an onion some cabbage it's a mix of yeah yeah how are you holding up I know you don't like onions anymore it's really good we are at the great statue of buddha dordenma and I have to say it's what do you think majestic grand it doesn't even do justice yeah it's a huge statue covered in gold it seems I'm about to go in the shrine and I'm out of breath I have to take my hat off we also have to take our shoes off there's like a lot of shoes just outside and this is where the recording ends so this is what we meant when we said that those dogs charge in the daytime and then they have multiplied energy at night if you can listen outside I don't know if you guys are going to be able to hear it but like all the dogs in timpu are barking right now at this very moment so tonight is actually our last night here in timpu and hopefully the dogs will allow us to sleep we're heading off towards the west tomorrow we're heading to ha and we're gonna be staying there for the next three days checking out for the next two days sorry checking out food culture and just seeing more of like uh less developed uh portions of bhutan because this is the city and we're going to I guess a more um rural area tomorrow yeah they said it's way less developed than timpu so yeah so um this is it for timpu and we'll see you guys in ha