196
to climb up to it.
Being an official Royal Asiatic Society group, coupled with Brian's immense knowledge, experience and influence, had a number of advantages. One of these was being able to go inside the Kyichu Lhakhang, a 7th century temple, noting the obvious Buddhist nature of the place but also the significant differences from the Chinese temples that most of us were more used to. It seemed to be much calmer, generally less busy.
p.m.
The high valley walls meant that the sun left us at about 4:45 and so photography became a bit of a challenge. But once again the children and older people were very accommodating about being flashed at, or waiting that much longer for correct exposures and shutter speeds to be estimated.
By the time we hit the shops of Paro High Street it was completely dark. On our way up the valley we had seen the orderly row of shops, about 30 or 40 of them, all looking the same but all looking inviting nonetheless. What was a surprise, however, was that they were virtually all the same - well stocked with the goods they had to offer, but I couldn't help wondering why one would use any one of them as opposed to another. As I still wanted my post cards, I was delighted to find a store that stocked them. I also wanted a small book to write notes in, so I asked the young lady behind the counter, very slowly and clearly: ‘Do you have a writing book?' I was most surprised when she answered in perfect and accent-free English: "You mean a note book? What about this one here?' I did not want to sound patronising, but I had to ask her if everybody in Paro spoke English as well as she did, to which she replied: 'No, most of them are uneducated.' Well, there you have it.
I was very ready for dinner, after which, on returning to the hotel, I was delighted to find out that some kind soul had already turned on the electric heater in my room.
Ha Haa
The destination for the second day was Haa, the principal town in Bhutan's western Haa Province. The road from Paro would take us