Hi everyone, this is SuperCapy!

Dobby heard that The Bartender took me on his trip to Bhutan and Nepal last fall and he suggested I write a blog about my adventure. So, here it is! I stowed away in carry-on so I didn’t have to buy a ticket. I was so good during the trip, never pooping inappropriately even once.

We first flew to New Ark from Seattle. I didn’t see any other animals there so I don’t get what kind of Ark it is, but we saw the new World Trade Center from there.

Then we flew to India over the North Pole and the next morning took a short tour of New Delhi while waiting for a flight to Bhutan. Isn’t our taxi cute?

Then we flew to Bhutan where everyone is required to be Happy. I sure was, except for the scary landing. We traveled with several other people who were older than The Bartender. And that’s really old! But they all did fine. We drove in a cute little bus from the Paro airport to Thimphu, about two hours east of Paro, the capital city of Bhutan.

They are all a little bit mixed up.

The next day we saw the National Memorial Chorten (it’s a religious building), a textile museum, and a hand-made paper factory. We also watched some Bhutanese archers and visited what looked like a relative of mine they call the Takin. His legs and neck are longer than mine, but otherwise we could be brothers. The Takin is the national animal of Bhutan. We’re so handsome!

The next day we drove on narrow mountainous roads to the Dochula pass where we saw a Chorten memorial to soldiers who died fighting Indian terrorists who had infiltrated Bhutan a few years ago.

The roller in the foreground is used on the paving being done on our road. We continued on to Punakha to see a Dzong (another type of religious building), visit a nunnery, pause in some rice fields, see a typical Bhutanese home, and then raft back to Punakha. I passed on the rafting, not wanting to get wet. This is what a Dzong looks like –

The next day we drove back to Thimphu, via the Dochula pass again, as it is the only road between the two cities. We saw more road work –

and some interesting local vehicles.

We stayed overnight at the Kichu Resort in Paro and the next day we hiked to the Tiger’s Nest. That was really fun, and scary. It was hard to breath at 10,000 feet. We stopped at a tea house both directions for some refreshment. We had tea, too. The climbing poles were a bit long for me so I rode in a day pack most of the time.

When we got to the Tiger’s Nest Buddhist Monastery I had a chance to look around and make some new friends.

The next day we flew to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, and where that big earthquake happened recently. During the flight we had great views of the Himalayas, including this view of Mt Everest. In the foreground is the Lhotse-Nuptse massif.

In Kathmandu we stayed in a fancy hotel called Gokarna Forest Resort.

We toured Ason (a local market), Kathmandu Durbar Square, and took a rickshaw ride.

Then we toured Patan Durbar Square, had a healing bowl demo and received a blessing from a living goddess.

We closed out the day with a talk by a young woman who had climbed Mt Everest several times, both before and after she had children.

The next day we toured the Boudha Stupa which was heavily damaged in the earthquake earlier this year.

We had a little time for shopping at the Stupa so I went wild. This is a photo of me with a nice shop-keeper where I got some fabulous material for Dobby. Too bad she blinked. She was a little nervous holding me.

We also toured Bhaktapur Durbar Square and Pottery Square. They like squares.

Then we saw the five roof temple and ended our first stay in Kathmandu with a home-hosted dinner in a local home. Dinner was much like the food we had in Bhutan – chicken parts, red rice and mixed vegetables, though on occasion they went a little wild and served white rice.

The next day we flew to Pokhara, met our guide, and bused to the beginning of our trek to Mala Lodge. I had pretty much free rein of the bus. The Mala Lodge was pretty nice and I had my own bed. It was a little cool in the evening so I wore my hand knit wool hat to bed as a nightcap.

From the lodge we visited a local village and a primary school. We also had some pretty amazing views of Annapurna and nearby mountains.

The next day we trekked back to the bus to drive back to Pokhara and the Water Front Hotel.

After checking in we went to town for dinner (chicken parts, red rice, and mixed vegetables) at the Moon Dance restaurant. The next day we canoed to an island temple and almost saw a goat sacrifice. That was really scary. Fortunately they wouldn’t let us watch. It was a religious holiday and lots of native tourists were at the temple to pray. They also had lots of little shops to sell stuff to the tourists. I made friends with some of the plushies on sale there.

Later we went to the International Museum of Mountaineering, and then had a terrifying, yet interesting, presentation during lunch about vultures. I stayed mostly out of sight when the birds were around. Some of our group went paragliding with the vultures.

The day ended with a tour of an expatriate Tibetan village, visiting the home of a Tibetan family, and doing a little shopping. The Bartender got lots of good stuff for Dobby during the short shopping trips. Here I made friends with a Tibetan shop-keeper. She thought I was really special.

The next day we drove to the start of our raft trip down the Seti River.

We had lunch on the river bank and then stopped at a river camp. We were transferring to a new location and I was not able to escape the rafting. It all worked out though because The Bartender got sick and had to be transported to hospital; so, we didn’t get to finish the raft trip. The part we did was lots of fun and everyone got wet, except me. I was hiding in the luggage inside a water-proof bag.

The food was good at the hospital. This is apples and pomegranate.

After an overnight at hospital we traveled to Chitwan National Park to take an elephant ride. That was the best part of the trip.

We saw a rhino with her baby. That was really special.

Here they are again:

The elephants were pooped out at the end of the day. This one fell right over when I climbed up on her. (Just kidding)

Then we flew back to Kathmandu, toured Pashupatinath (a Nepalese word that means “tongue twister”) where they do cremations out in the open, and returned to the Gokarna Forest Resort for a final trip dinner in traditional Nepalese attire. I had a fabulous dinner (chicken parts, WHITE rice, and vegetables) and especially liked the dessert, a cinnamon yoghurt something with a mint leaf and dollop of whipped cream. Yum!

Some of our group who joined us after the Bhutan trip left the next day for a tour of Tibet. The rest of us flew home. I was pretty tired after the trip and slept most of the thirty hours it took to get home. * Yawn* I can hardly wait for my next trip.