Alan Lessik
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Buddha is big here, obviously, super big. So big that the world’s largest Buddha statue is being constructed on a hillside over looking Thimphu. But that is not what I mean about being big. I mean big as imbued in people’s lives at all levels. Officially Buddhist temples and the religious hierarchy are part of
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It is 4 am and we are already in our car headed back to Paro from Punakha where we famously met the King and Queen the day before. 4 am because the road is closed between 8 and 10 am or later for construction and an early departure will guarantee we will easily make it
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I just double checked our itinerary and indeed there was no planned meeting with the King or Queen today. The only items were a long drive from Trongsa where we stayed the other day for a festival and a visit to the Punakha Dzong. Like Europe and churches, at some point the dzongs all start
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It is always a wondrous day when you eat pancakes. Even more so when you thought you finished a small breakfast and unannounced one more plate with some pancakes, thinly sliced fried potatoes and a local apple is brought out. When the mountains outside your window are suddenly revealed to be dusted with snow from
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My friend Dave and I arrived in Bhutan five days ago now. I had read up, I knew what to expect…Okay, not entirely. I did not expect the country to have such a thing for penises. Many house have ones painted on the outside, hairy or hairless, ejaculating or not.. I did not expect at
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The mailbox sums up life nicely–Bangkok or other places. That’s kind of the nature of perception. We are here and not somewhere else. Memories, traumas and desires might try to take us away from here and the present, yet all we really have is this moment to experience. Buddha is big here in Bangkok. The
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There is a sense of can-do optimism that permeates the not too polluted air in Shanghai. It has three of the largest buildings on earth, all within a few blocks of each other, all built within the last 10 years. The oldest the Jinmai , metal clad and starwarsian, ready to burst into space. The
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Shanghai is to noodles as well Shanghai is to noodles (still trying no comparisons which is far more difficult than I thought-already making comparisons when I am trying to be aware of not doing that!) No comparisons: Crab dumplings-little pockets of dough stuffed with hairy crab meat and a broth. How the broth gets injected,
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My path to Bhutan took me to Dallas first to catch a plane to Shanghai. The flight path was due north flying by my former home Minneapolis into Canada and eventually over the top of Alaska. I famously could really see Russia from there or at least clouds over Russia. Just a few days after
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It was a wonderfully sunny and warm day in San Francisco today. It always does that when I leave on a trip as if to say, “don’t leave me, it is so nice here, unlikely to be this nice anywhere else.” But I know the city is fickle and today’s lovely weather will change, the
Alan Lessik 