Thimpu, Bhutan (11/23/2013-11/24/2013; 11/25/2013-11/26/2013)

Thimpu is Bhutan's largest city and capital. It provided a glimpse into the ongoing modernization of the country -- alongside temples, community markets, and traditional houses, we witnessed emerging apartment buildings, night clubs, and heavy traffic.  What is interesting is that the development seemed to retain a strong local flavour, and certainly hope that this will remain the case going forward.

In Thimpu, we had a chance to visit the central government (no photos, sorry), sample a lot of local foods, and experience a bit of nightlife.   One thing I'd like to focus on in particular is Bhutanese cuisine, which I really rather enjoyed.

Where the Italians use tomatoes as a staple, the Irish, potatoes, and the Indians, onions, the Bhutanese use the chilli pepper - and you can see from the photos just how prevalent it is. I can understand how many visitors may have difficulties with this. They also use a local variety of red rice as the staple grain - which is higher in protein and has a more nuttier flavour.  My favourite dish by far was ema datshi (literally chilli cheese), and could not get tired of it. I might return to Bhutan just for this. Other notable dish was the momo, which isn't explicitly Bhutanese (can be found in Nepal and Tibet, and related to the various steamed dumplings/buns across Central and East Asia), but was done quite well here.