Seven Years in the Making - Singapore, Singapore
Singapore, Singapore
Where I stayed
Mimosa Park
Bhutan has been a place I'd dreamt of visiting for many years. In 2006, I had seriously started looking for photography trips to the kingdom - I found a company called Rainbow Photography Tours owned by Robin Smillie. It sounded perfect - a small group of photography enthusiasts, travelling in 4WDs, photography students to carry one's gear and help set shots up, access to areas otherwise inaccessible (tsechu - or festival - dressing rooms, inner sanctums of temples, etc.) A flurry of emails with Robin ensued, with Robin sending me a promotional CD and festival dates, and assurances of tailoring something if the standard dates didn't work out. My potential travel partners ranged from Renu (who wanted to do a cooking tour more than a photography one) and Brendan (who was veering towards a motorbike tour through the mountains of Bhutan), to Renu, Brendan and their friends Janice and Noel, to Shobs and at some point, as it got too difficult to coordinate dates, I seriously contemplated going by myself.
As it turned out though, all plans for Bhutan in 2007 came to nought. Between being around for the children's school term and Vinodh's O Levels, and personally checking out Singapore's oncology services (which were excellent, I'm glad to report!), travelling to Bhutan got relegated to the back burner.
Nothing much happened by way of re-planning a trip, till January of 2013, when Shobs said "Shall we go to Bhutan?" I said yes, we blocked out some dates in March, and proceeded to look for companies doing trips to Bhutan. Country Holidays had a great itinerary but flight dates didn't work out. Eventually we went with Druk Asia, on the recommendation of a friend of Shobs'.
The initial itinerary sent by Mindu of Druk Asia was an extremely involved one which had us crossing the length and breadth of the country in 7 days on roads that, we read, weren't "the best." I ended up doing some online research, and proposed an itinerary that I thought would be more do-able - an itinerary that was more about photography than about hard treks and birds. Mindu confirmed that it was indeed 'do-able' and so bookings were made, and the preparations started in earnest.
We (I?) may have read a bit too much about altitude sickness and the climb to Tiger's Nest...practically all accounts described it as a 'hard trek', and I was more than slightly worried - especially given my fear of heights. The gym routine kicked in with a vengeance, with Mattew including more 'stamina building' routines and tips on breathing. We got our hiking boots, and hit the stairs at our respective apartment blocks; I eventually was doing 80 floors up and down in half an hour or so, without too much problem (...eventually!). One Sunday morning, we went up and down Bukit Timah Hill twice...the highlight of that morning was the prata and mutton curry breakfast we had at Rail Mall after our walk.
We also visited Campers' Corner - and, given the amount we spent on 'gear', are now set for all manner of mountainous holidays for the rest of our lives.
Finally, it was the day before we left on our Trip to Bhutan. We'd read that Druk Air is strict about cabin luggage so I reluctantly removed my laptop from my backpack...which left me still over the 7kg limit. After dinner at home, it was off to Shobs' for a few hours sleep before getting to the airport at 4.30AM the next morning.