Day 72 - Thimphu, Bhutan

Our day started early with the alarm clock sounding at 3:45 am.  We had a pot of coffee delivered to the room at 4:00 am for a quick hit of caffeine.  We met the Silversea Shore Concierge at 4:15 am and we were escorted to our driver and excursion escort.  We drove to the Bangkok airport where another of the excursion escorts had already checked us in and he made sure we had seats on the best side of the plane for pictures flying into Paro.  We were given instructions on going through security and immigration to document our exit from Thailand.  Things went smoothly and we arrived at our departure gate at about 5:45 for our 6:45 am departure.  The flight was divided into two parts with a landing in India but we did not have to disembark.  Soon we were flying over the Himalayas.  Here are a couple of pictures.

We were met at the Paro airport by our 3 person hotel escort team from Amankora Lodges - guide, driver and luggage person.  We set off on our 1.5 hour drive from the airport in Paro to Thimphu - the capital city.  The drive was beautiful!  At the hotel we were greeted with a drink in the lobby and then escorted to our room.  The room was huge!  So much more space than our ship suite.  Here is a picture of part of the room.

We had lunch with a gentleman from the cruise who is also on this tour and then met our guide and driver at 2:00 pm for a tour in Thimphu of some of the cultural craft places - a paper making facility, a weaving studio and a painting studio.  Here is a picture from the painting studio.

And here is a picture of Thimphu from just outside the painting studio.

When we came out of the weaving studio the air was thick with smoke from a forest fire.  They have had 4 of these fires recently.  Here is a picture of the smoky air.

We got back to the hotel around 4:30 pm.  At 5:00 pm we attended a Bhutanese dance performance on the patio of the hotel.  They had a fire pit going and we were given hot water bottles in bags and a blanket for our laps.  We were served a wonderful warm tea and then offered cocktails with an amuse bouche.  It was wonderful!  Here are a few pictures from the performance.

We met our 3 fellow cruise excursion passengers for dinner and had a great meal.  We hit the hay early after our long day.

Tomorrow we move on to Paro.....