Kingdom of Bhutan
Bhutan (map) is a tiny, landlocked kingdom in the Himalayan Mountains visited by less than 7000 tourists each year. The country's unique identity helped it remain independent of the colonial powers, although the King is convinced that the national identity is threatened by outside influences. This attempt to remain an unspoiled Shangri-La is not popular with many world tourists (who wish to see the kingdom cheapen the country--literally). What makes Bhutan unique, however, is that its institutions--its monasteries, its temples, its commercial areas--are all living institutions not packaged for Disney-style tourist consumption. Misbehaving monks are flogged by dzongs' Discipline Masters, holy works are recited by nuns, and deals are made in the markets--not because it makes for pretty tourism, but because this is the way Bhutanese live. To the extent that the tourism policy limits protect the Bhutanese culture from foreign exploitation, I support the policy. [More: Bhutan Department of Tourism]

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The interior of the dzongs is always brightly decorated with hand-drawn paintings and wood carvings. Bhutanese houses and shops are also commonly decorated like this.

Bhutanese building decorations often feature the auspicious symbols of Buddhism as well as erect phalluses, a symbol of fertility. One of Bhutan's folk heroes was Lama Drukpa Kunley (1455-1529), aka "The Divine Madman," a Tibetan Buddhist leader legendary for his sexual exploits ("my meditation practice is girls and wine"). His phallus can be found hanging from rooftops and painted on buildings throughout the country.

The Divine Madman has a temple built in 1499. A monk there blessed me with The Divine Madman's wooden phallus and says that I am now quite fertile because of it.

Trongsa dzong, built in 1644, overlooks a high valley from elevation 7150 ft. This picture was taken from a point still 30 minutes away by car.

Bhutan has a single east-west highway, a muddy and potholed one-lane road that meanders around the sides of mountains, over passes, up and down switchbacks, etc. When that road was just a mule path, it used to run directly through the dzong, giving the local governor complete control over the country's east-west trade.

The Takshang Goemba (Tiger's Nest Monastery) hugs a sheer cliff 2500 ft above the Paro valley (elev 10,300 ft). There is a deep chasm between me and the monastery in this pic, and there is a steep 1800 vertical-feet hike to the viewpoint.

The monastery's original lakhang (temple) was built in 1692 on the site where Guru Rinpoche flew on the back of a tigress before meditating 3 months in a cave. A fire in 1998 destroyed much of the monastery, and reconstruction should be finished in May 2003.

Bhutan has no traffic lights. Traffic sorts itself out at most intersections, although there are two traffic circles in the capital, Thimpu, that are manned during the day by traffic police. They use long, exaggerated waving gestures to direct traffic. The white gloves worn on the hands accentuate the gestures.

Thimpu (elevation 7600 ft), made the capital in 1961, is a city of 46,000, although it is growing rapidly as people move in from the hinterlands.

Bangkok, Kingdom of Thailand
Bangkok is the hub of Southeast Asia, a chaotic, steamy, and hedonistic city awash with fun-seeking young people from around the world. The city can be as cheap as anywhere (such as 25 cents for a watermelon), but it also has the world's best hotel, the $300/night Oriental. Traffic is but one maddening element of the city; I waited 30 minutes to get through a single traffic light during a traffic jam. I would have enjoyed Bangkok more had I not involuntarily emptied the contents of my digestive system over 3 hours on Night 4, the night before a long flight to Beijing. I think it was food poisoning picked up at a cafe during a side trip to Lao PDR.

The golden chedi at Wat Phra Kaew at Bangkok's Grand Palace, built in 1782, the year that King Rama I moved the capital to Bangkok. Previously, Ayuthaya (see next series) had been the Siamese capital since 1350, but Ayuthaya was sacked by the Burmese in 1765, prompting the move.

The wat hosts the Emerald Buddha, a two-foot-tall jade Buddha for which a massive temple was built (red roof in the back of the picture). The Emerald Buddha's origins are unknown, perhaps around the 11th - 13th centuries. It spent time in Luang Prabang (see below) and the Lao capital, Wiang Chan (Vientiane), as well as Chaing Mai and Ayuthaya in Thailand, before being brought to Bangkok.

The sun sets behind Bangkok's blanket of haze over the Chao Phraya river. Riverboats are an important transportation medium since the river isn't as congested as the streets.

There are many half-built or empty buildings in Bangkok that were suddenly halted when the currency crisis hit in 1998. Especially in newer areas of the city (were I stayed), a taxi ride takes one past dozens of concrete and metal skeletons of buildings in various stages of construction that has since been stopped.

Ayuthaya today lies in ruins, but in its heyday the city had dozens of grand wats (temples). This ruin is the remains of Wat Phra Ram, which was built in 1369 by King Ramesuan on the site where his father was cremated. The tall prang seen in the picture is in Khmer style and reminds one of the ruins at Angkor Wat.

Luang Prabang, Lao PDR
The Lao People's Democratic Republic (aka Laos, map) has been called the most enigmatic of the Southeast Asian nations. The country has been bombed more than any other country in history despite keeping a low profile through much of its history. Communist since 1975, Lao has been opening to free market reforms since 1989 but has not embraced development headlong as nearby Vietnam and Thailand have.

Luang Prabang (pop 16,000) is the old capital of the Lan Xang kingdom, founded in 1353. After being sacked by the Chinese Black Flag Haw in 1887, Luang Prabang accepted "protection" from the cheese-eating surrender monkeys in Paris. (Why accept protection from a country that won't even defend itself?) The local monarchy remained, however, until the 1975 communist revolution, when the royal family was locked in a cave, where they died one-by-one from the various maladies that afflict people locked in caves. Today, Luang Prabang's temples have earned it UNESCO World Heritage designation, while French cafes and French colonial architecture dot the city.

The sun sets over the Mekong River at Luang Prabang, seen from the hill at Phou Si. This was not an easy shot to get: it involved climbing over several Swedish blondes to get the view from a rock ledge atop the hill.

Photo published by CNN

The Great Wall was surprisingly (pleasantly!) devoid of the tour groups that plague other areas of greater Beijing. The Great Wall is Great because of its length--over 2000 miles in various sections--but not necessarily because of great height or width. However, only small sections are restored and therefore open to tourists. Much of the wall is in danger of returning to dust if not preserved.

This is at Mutianyu, which dates from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). The "original" wall was constructed over 2000 years ago, and the Ming resurrected the project, even though the wall never did serve its original function as a defensive wall very well (Mongols bribed the guards). Moreover, historians speculate that constructing the wall took more Chinese lives than a Mongol invasion could have. The wall was forgotten after the Ming until tourism came along.

The hutong are the old neighborhoods of Beijing, often dating from just after the invasion by Genghis Khan. The hutong are generally small alleyways linking courtyard homes. Along the larger alleyways are small shops, 3-table restaurants, fruit stands, one-chair barber shops, etc.

Although home to 1/4 of Beijing's residents and a popular tourist attraction (but not group tours, whose busses don't fit down the alleyways), the writing is on the wall for the hutong. Many hutong like this semi-razed neighborhood take up valuable real estate in central Beijing and are being demolished to build luxury apartments, glittery shopping malls, and other neon-lit buildings as Beijing desperately attempts to firm-up its weak modern facade before the 2008 Olympics. Modernization schemes will displace tens of thousands of residents from their ancestral homes and places of business into bland Soviet-style apartment blocks.

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