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Showing posts from July, 2013

Arrival

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After more than 24 hours of traveling, three different planes, 4 hours of waiting at the transfer lounge of New Delhi airport and one stop-over in Kathmandu, I finally arrived at the Paro airport in Bhutan four days ago. View from the plane landing Paro airport One of the three planes of the Drukair flight company King and Queen wish welcome to Bhutan All the five kings of the Kingdom of Bhutan are watching people queueing for their visa First working days have largely consisted of filling out at least a dozen of different forms: for bank account (both in USD and local currency ngultrum ), ATM card, SMS service for the bank account, work permit, medical clearance for the work permit, post-paid telephone number...you name it. Different handling fees and official stamps (costing 15 cents each) have been indispensable in this process. I would have never survived the paperwork without the infinite help from my colleagues at the UNDP. Very warm welcome

Wonderland

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In my mind, there can be no cooler country than one issuing postal stamps which are vinyl records that can actually be played! The stamps were issued already in 1973, but 40 years later I am  myself going to Bhutan for one year contract as a UN volunteer. Yay! (Photo: http://creativeroots.org/2009/08/1973-record-stamps-of-bhutan/) Listen to the Bhutan record stamp short sound clips, a) brief description of Bhutan: http://mp3archives.wfmu.org/archive/FL/bhut1.mp3 and b) Bhutanese music: http://mp3archives.wfmu.org/archive/FL/bhut2.mp3 Besides phonographic stamps, there are other peculiarities in Bhutan - which is your favourite? tourists can only enter the country after paying tour operators 200-250 USD per day (all inclusive), backpacking is not allowed  television broadcasting was begun in 1999  no traffic lights in the whole country  first Western schools founded in the 1960s, first university in 2003  reputedly only 8 pilots are able/allowed to land on the airport b