Before you delve too deeply into our blog, here are a couple of maps to help you get your bearings. In Bhutan, we flew into Paro and covered most of the ground noted by the red squiggly line to Jakar, with stops in Thimphu, Punakha, Wangdue, Phobjikha Valley, and Trongsa, as well as a side trip to the Tang Valley (all in the west-central and central part of the country). Click on any of the photos to embiggen them.
Bhutan is a little bit larger (about 15,000 square miles) than the size of Maryland, although it seems larger than that because it's so difficult to drive from place to place. It has roughly the same population as North Dakota (about 700,000). It's a primarily Buddhist country. It became a monarchy in the early 1900s, and they are currently on their fifth king. Bhutan was never colonized by another country. Bhutan has stronger economic and diplomatic ties with India than with China.
In Nepal, we were only in Kathmandu.
Nepal is roughly the size of Iowa, with a population roughly equivalent to Texas' (about 27 million). Kathmandu has a population of 1.5 million in the city, and 5 million in the greater Kathmandu Valley. It's a primarily Hindu country. Its political history has been more fraught, especially recently, but it was never colonized, either. It became a republic in 2008, after a civil war which resulted in the end of its monarchy.
OK, that should give you some background. If you want to just look at the full photo album from the trip, here's the link for that.
No comments:
Post a Comment