This entry starts Thursday, May 21.

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Whenever we are in San Francisco, we have a standing 5:30am coffee date with some friends. We got up in time to do that. Then another friend dropped us at the airport around 8am for a 10:22am flight to JFK.

We made a stop at a Priority Pass lounge for breakfast…

…then over to an American lounge for showers.

We had a nice, uneventful flight in Economy Plus. We watched the first season of A Knight of Seven Kingdoms, a Game of Thrones prequel. I finished it; Ash has one episode to go.

As I type we are in the SoHo Lounge at JFK.

Ash LOVES watching the planes.

They have quite a spread. We had a little to eat since we didn’t get much on the first leg given the class we were in. For the next flight we will be in Premium Economy so the food should be better. Which is good since it’s like a 14 hour flight.

Delhi is 12.5 hours ahead of home.

The flight info essentially says that we leave at 9pm and arrive at 9pm. So I want to sleep some on the plane but not a lot because we will have to go to bed again once we land. Thankfully our next flight isn’t until Noon so we won’t have to get up too early.

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Friday, May 21

It is now approaching 10pm in Delhi. As a point of comparison, it is approaching 9:30am at home in California. Friday in both cases. We had an easy flight and landed almost an hour early. But still almost a 13.5 hour flight. Ash slept for a lot of it. I tried to stay awake so that I would be tired now when it’s time to go to bed. And I am! Mostly I watched some documentaries and listened to music. It was pretty relaxing.

Other photos along the way…

We are staying at a Holiday Inn Express at the airport just for one night.

Current situation. Getting a bite to eat before bed and Ash can watch the plane activity behind me. 

Funny: Ash gets a club sandwich and I get a traditional Indian dish. In this case aloo gobhi, a spicy potato and cauliflower dish which I know well and love.

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Saturday, May 22

We were up about 5am so maybe 6 hours sleep. Went over for breakfast, same guys working as the night before. It’s a 24 hour restaurant.

Mostly ate fruit and stuff from the buffet. Ash ordered me dosa, this fried bread served with coconut and tomato chutney. How can you go wrong with fried bread?

The window in our room looked out into the airport.

It took 90 minutes to check our bags and get through immigration.

We were on Drukair – Royal Bhutan Airlines. Druk means dragon – which explains what’s on the tail of the plane.

It was less than 2 hours to Paro.

We deplaned on the tarmac and got through immigration pretty easily.

The baggage carousel had a model in the middle of it. In assuming a monastery and figure we will find out.

The airport was beautiful. Behind that bush on the left Ash is at an ATM getting cash.

It was about an hour drive through mountains to Thimphu.

We are staying at The Capital Hotel. That’s our driver and guide standing in front.

It’s a simple room but certainly adequate. We are just here one night but then come back later in the week.

We met the group at 6pm for the intro meeting. Just 6 people total: in addition to us, a woman from Philadelphia and a family of 3 from Vancouver.

After we had a family style dinner. Pretty basic but good: red rice, rice noodles, chicken, vegetables. And this chili cheese sauce they apparently eat with everything which we all agreed was too hot. It tasted good though – reminded me of Texas.

It is now approaching 8:30pm. Ash is already asleep and I will be any moment. But very glad we are here.

Let the adventure begin!