Category: Asia

Journey to Kaohsiung

Kaohsiung was my most ambitious day trip from Taipei – it’s basically on the other side of the country! It would be about a four hour drive, but the bullet train cuts it down to about an hour and a half. I was also looking forward to taking a bullet train in Taiwan. I’ve taken them before in China and Japan, and I’ve always been impressed at the pinnacle of what train travel can be.

The train itself is beautiful and clean, with seats that remind me of a domestic first class plane experience. The scenery out the window was really cool – the majority of the cities in towns in Taiwan fall on the same spine in the west, and we passed right by Taichung and Tainan, among smaller towns and cities.

My first stop was one of the most famous sites in Taiwan: the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas! It was about a half hour walk from the high speed train station, Zuoying. It was a nice enough walk but it was very hot and humid, and the final part goes over a giant road (although thankfully they built an overpass).

Still, I was relieved to make it to the temples! They’re on the shore of Lotus Pond, which has several beautiful temple complexes nearby. It made for a nice morning to explore the various buildings and statues nearby.

It’s free to enter the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas and you can climb to the top, which I did. It was a nice view. And more importantly, there was a breeze at the top!

Once I had my fill of the temples, I called an Uber to get to my next destination. I didn’t need Uber very often while I was in Taiwan, since the public transit was so good, but it was nice to have it when I was out late at night or the routes that didn’t have great connections!

I headed off to Pier 2 Art, the arts district in Kaohsiung! It was a great area to walk around and explore. It’s full of art installations, restaurants, and museums, so it was where I spent the rest of my time in Kaohsiung until I headed back to the train station to make it back to Taipei for the evening.

I spent some time in the Taiwan Railway Museum, which was a fantastic break from the heat, with the best air conditioning I experienced all day, and had a very charming diorama representing the trains across Taiwan. There were some interesting relics showing the history of the train as well, although I spent most of my time in the miniatures room.

From there, I did a little more exploring and found a local brewery to try, which was a real highlight of the afternoon!

I made one more stop on the way back to the Zuoying high speed rail station to see the world’s largest glass art installation! The Dome of Light, at the Kaohsiung metro station, shows Taiwan’s history alongside the stars and the broader history of humanity. It was a pretty easy detour while I was already in the Kaohsiung metro station, and definitely worth a stop. It’s absolutely stunning. It’s probably the most beautiful metro station I’ve ever seen.

I’m glad I made it out to Kaohsiung! If I’d been more strategic going into this week, I could have spent a night or two down in the southern part of Taiwan, and maybe made it out to Tainan as well, but that would have required a lot more planning than I did for this leg of the trip. Even with just a day, though, I felt like I got a chance to see some of Kaohsiung and a lot more of Taiwan from the train’s window, which definitely made it worth it. It was a pretty great week in Taiwan overall!

Asia Taiwan

Day Trips in Northern Taiwan

Post author By admin
Post date December 20, 2025
No Comments on Day Trips in Northern Taiwan

With how well connected Taiwan is, it was really easy to explore other parts of the country! I visited a couple other areas near Taipei. Some of these might even technically count as the Taipei metro area, but they did still feel distinct enough that I wanted to include them here instead of my main summary of Taipei.

Jiufen

This is the first day trip to come up on almost any list of recommendations. It’s about 45 minutes to an hour east of Taipei. I was absolutely delighted to find that there was a bus that picked up about five minutes from my hotel and went directly there, so it was the first place I went outside of the city!

Jiufen was originally a gold rush town! There is a museum there about this time period, but I wasn’t able to go because it was closed while I was there. When Taiwan was occupied by the Japanese, their time in Jiufen made a big impact on the architecture as well.

The mine shut down in 1971 and the town fell into decline, as so many old mining towns do. However, it was revitalized because it was a filming location for a Taiwanese film, A City of Sadness. The tourism boom from that movie led to a lot of development there, including the cafés and teahouses that remain popular today.

It is also known for its resemblance to the town in the Ghibli movie Spirited Away. While Miyazaki has denied that Jiufen was any sort of inspiration for the town in the movie, it’s still a popular destination for the many fans of Ghibli’s films.

I had a really nice day in Jiufen. I loved the teahouses and ended up waiting out a massive rainstorm at one of them – it had such a beautiful view from the patio when it wasn’t pouring rain! There are a ton of souvenir shops, as well as a lot of paths to walk around the city and see the views over the valley. It definitely has enough to stay busy for a day. I imagine the lanterns would look beautiful at night as well.

Beitou

This was even easier to get to, as it is on the red line of the metro. Beitou is known for its hot springs, which smell very strongly of sulfur.

Wikipedia informs me that Beitou has one of the largest concentrations of hot springs in the entire world! What was fascinating to me was how accessible they are. From the metro, it was a short walk to a public park that went right into the Thermal Valley area.

I also visited the library while I was there, which was beautiful and peaceful, and had a really delicious lunch at a local restaurant. It was one of those where I walked in right after it started pouring rain and I was feeling somewhat overwhelmed at figuring out what I wanted to eat, and they were so kind and made sure I got an English copy of the menu and knew where I was supposed to go to get service.

I didn’t go to any of the actual spas, which I think would have been fun, but there are always trade offs in travel and I paired Beitou with Tamsui, which was just a little farther along on the red line.

Tamsui

Tamsui sits at the mouth of the river where it meets the sea, and the Old Town is primarily located alongside the water.

Tamsui was one of my favorite areas to walk around – I found it very charming, and it also felt a lot more walkable than some of the other areas where I was. Most of the Old Town was closed to cars and the areas right next to the river functioned more like a boardwalk.

One other fun note – I love the instinct in East Asia to make these kind of charming, personified characters out of everyday objects. This one was the best that I saw on this trip!

Tamsui was a solid half day, although there is probably enough for a full day if you keep going to the fort or end up having a leisurely lunch along the river. It also was rainy while I was there, so my walk could’ve been longer if I hadn’t been trying to beat another potential downpour.

All of these were so convenient from Taipei and I would say they were all worth it. You could give Beitou and Tamsui their own full days, but I do think it was sufficient to do a half day for each due to their proximity if you’re short on time, like I always feel like I am. That said, I feel like I got a good sample of a few different areas in the north!

Asia Taiwan

Exploring Taipei

My next trip started out with a week in Taiwan! I based myself in Taipei the whole time and explored the city, with a few day trips outside of it. In hindsight, I might have considered spending part of the time in a different city just to get another perspective of Taiwan, but I also didn’t want to plan that much in advance. From Taipei, there were so many good options of what to do each day and I wasn’t locked in to any one itinerary in particular.

One of the things I love about East Asia as a region is the level of public transit that’s available. Taiwan was no exception! I used the metro and buses to get all over Taipei, and I also took a bullet train all the way to the southern tip of the country. The options were frequent, clean, and efficient. It made this whole week so easy to put together.

I was staying in Ximen, very close to the Ximending Night Market. The night markets are one of aspects that Taiwan is best known for, which was really fun to explore. It was always lively near my hotel. Even in the middle of the night, it was a fun vibe and felt safe to walk around.

There are a few bigger sites in Taipei that are well-known, but a lot of the fun of the city is just walking around and exploring the neighborhoods. I would try to pick an area of the city that looked fun, get to that metro stop, and walk around.

One of the more well-known sites is the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and the surrounding square. The memorial itself is a monument to Chiang Kai-shek, who was a former president of China. The memorial hall reminded me a lot of the Lincoln Memorial in DC in its structure. It’s surrounded by a square, which has the National Theater, National Concert Hall, and the Liberty Square Archway. Liberty Square has been the site of a number of mass gatherings and demonstrations throughout Taiwan’s history.

Taipei is also home to the National Palace Museum, which is generally one of the top things on most Taipei itineraries. It’s a massive museum, with a very impressive collection of art, pottery, relics, and plenty of other things that I probably didn’t even get the chance to see while I was there!

All that said, if you had to pick the symbol of Taipei, it would probably be Taipei 101. It was the world’s tallest building from December 31, 2004 until the completion of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It’s by far the most recognizable building in Taipei’s skyline! My friend Lucy joined me at the end of my time in Taiwan, and our first stop was to go to the very top for the views of Taipei and the surrounding area.

Ultimately, a lot of big cities have a really tall building where you can go up to the top for an observation deck. The views of Taipei were great, don’t get me wrong, but if you’ve done something like Tokyo Skytree or the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai, it’s not going to be a unique experience. That said, what I was pretty excited about was seeing the damper. Taiwan is prone to both earthquakes and typhoons, so the structural engineering that went into Taipei 101 had to be pretty impressive. The tuned mass damper is designed to offset movements within the building, and when you go up to the observation deck, you can see it in the core of the building. Thankfully, it wasn’t moving too much while we were there!

I also visited Lungshan Temple and the nearby Bopiliao Historical Block. I was in the area both during the day and at night, and was more impressed at night, as the lighting was very well done and highlighted how intricate the architecture of the temple was.

Since so much of my week was wandering and exploring, it’s hard to even pinpoint all the places that I thought were cool! I definitely visited the Songshan Cultural Park, the Red House, and walked all around a lot of other neighborhoods. The great thing about Taipei is that type of exploration is a really rewarding way to see the city. There aren’t the types of sites where you have to schedule or buy tickets in advance, so it can be a very organic experience of discovering a cool area and trying food from all the different stalls in the night markets.

Speaking of, a big shout out to the final meal I had, which was at Ningxia Night Market. This one was my favorite of where I went, as it felt really intense with the amount of stalls in such a small space and the variety of food on offer. It was such a fun week in Taipei.

I did also get the chance to explore a few places outside of the city, with a couple day trips in Northern Taiwan and one long day trip all the way down to Kaohsiung, but those deserve their own post!

Asia Yemen

Ending in Aden

The initial itinerary for this trip ended with two days in Socotra. Socotra is certainly the most popular place in Yemen for travelers – it’s an island that’s quite far from the mainland, so it doesn’t have the same instability as the mainland, and it has a lot of beautiful nature and unique plants. But as we got closer to the trip, it became possible to go to Aden for tourism, and so the itinerary shifted so we could take advantage of that opportunity!

Aden is located on and in a caldera, so whenever we could get to high ground, we ended up with spectacular views of the city! Climbing up to the high ground in the abaya was not as fun, but so it goes.

It felt as though Aden was a much more relaxed city than some of the ones we had visited in the east. Women were walking around in just hijabs instead of niqabs, so we didn’t have to cover up quite as much even when we were in busier areas! We saw more men wearing western clothing as well.

One of the best activities was climbing up to Sira Fortress, which had amazing views. We hiked up to the top a little before sunset so that we could see the city in its best light.

The first night we were there, we went out to the night market, which was a late night. We ended up staying there until 2 or 3 am, and when we left, the market was still in full swing. It’s so interesting to see how the city becomes fully nocturnal during Ramadan. I am curious what the balance of normal life looks like when it isn’t Ramadan – even when I was in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, there was still definitely more life at night and less people out during the day just due to the sun and the heat. But it might not be quite so stark.

After the late night, we had a chill morning and did a little more sightseeing in the afternoon. We went to the Cisterns of Tawila and the Aidrus Mosque. We were going to try to go to the beach, but it seemed like some sort of VIP was already there and there were too many military checkpoints for us to continue. We ended up just going back for an early dinner, and then we found shisha and nonalcoholic beer (since Yemen is a fully dry country) that we could have on a nearby rooftop. It was a relaxing last day.

A film camera has never failed to make me look like a vampire

Our final morning was an early flight out to Cairo. We got a military transport for that last journey to the airport – I’d seen the men in front of our hotel, but I thought it was just some sort of hotel security or military that were based around the city. I hadn’t realized they were there for us!

All in all, Yemen was an amazing trip. One of my favorites, which is really saying something. It’s rare to find a place that feels completely unique, but Yemen absolutely does, between the culture, the history, the architecture, and the natural beauty. It was worth the constant heat and the heavy layers to get a chance to explore a place that does not see a lot of tourism or cultural influence from outsiders. I hope that things continue to get better in the north and that the country finds more stability in the future!

Asia Yemen

Going Viral in Mukalla

When we were in the airport in Cairo, before we boarded our Yemenia flight to Seiyun, we were told not to post on social media live. Not for safety reasons, but because it is so easy to go viral in Yemen that it would be a pain for us to be recognized in the streets everywhere we went. We wanted to keep a low profile. And we did a pretty good job of that… until we went to Mukalla!

The first place we went into Mukalla was the fish market! It was interesting but very smelly – I ended up having to wash out the hem of my abaya in the hotel sink to try to get the scent of fish out of it. I had never seen a market that sold stingrays before. We also headed next door to the market that sold fruits and vegetables.

The markets were cool, but the highlight of our time in Mukalla was the boat tour at sunset. Most cities are best viewed from the water, in my opinion!

The sun was about to dip over the horizon as we got back to land, which meant it was time for iftar! There was a big spread set up near the harbor, and the local people invited us there. A large group of foreigners caused a pretty big stir. Locals were taking photos and filming us as we sat down to break fast with them.

By the next day, we found out that one of the local Yemeni guys who was filming was an influencer, and videos and photos of us were everywhere. I even got recognized in Aden two days later! It was a strange experience, to say the least.

We got dinner, had shisha on the beach, and then headed to the night market. The night markets were so much fun. It felt like the whole city was out and about, buying and selling and bargaining for everything you could want to buy. I didn’t enjoy wearing the abaya, for the most part, but it was nice at the markets because I was entirely invisible while wearing it. I could look around without any extra stares.

The next day, we went back to the same area, and found it completely deserted! It was so strange to walk the same exact streets and find them empty, with no evidence of the chaos of the previous night. When we were done exploring, it was off to the airport for our next destination – Aden.

Asia Yemen

Into the Desert

It’s been a busy few months of moving apartments (again) and traveling a lot. Things are settling down again, so it’s time to get back to my irregular & not-scheduled travel blogging! When I left off, we were in Seiyun, Yemen.

From Seiyun, we headed into the desert to Wadi Dawan! The landscapes were reminiscent of Arizona, but with incredible Yemeni architecture at every turn. We had a few stops for viewpoints and exploring the towns before we made it to our next hotel.

Our hotel was amazing. It was on the edge of a cliff that reminded me of the Grand Canyon, with small towns dotted below. We even had an infinity pool that overlooked the canyon. Sometimes, when I go to places that are really off the beaten path, I think about how well these establishments would do if they were in more touristy places. The views from the pool were so nice. It would definitely be a luxury option if it was at a canyon that got more people visiting.

After enjoying the pool and relaxing for the first evening, we headed out to tour some of the surrounding communities the next day. It was interesting how the landscape changed going down into the canyon – suddenly, there were palm trees and a river bed, giving the whole area a feeling like an oasis.

There weren’t many people out and about, given that it was Ramadan, but the locals who were out were friendly and excited to see us. It is one of the best things for me of going to places that aren’t typically tourist destinations – I feel like places that have a lot of tourism can get jaded, because they see more of the negatives of having constant visitors, but regions that don’t see a lot of tourists are excited to share their culture and tell you about the places where they live. That’s how it felt in Yemen. People were so happy to say hi, and asked how we were enjoying our time here.

Some of us also went for a hike into the canyon to one of the villages! To be honest, I would not recommend hiking in an abaya – it was hot, it was difficult to figure out where my feet were under the dress, and I was stressed about tripping over the hem of it and skinning my knees on the rocks. But despite the less-than-ideal outfit, I’m glad I went on the hike, because it was gorgeous. We got down to the village close to sunset.

I like hiking. Not as much as some of my friends in Utah, but it’s always nice to add a short hike into an itinerary and have the chance to be awed by nature.

The next day, we headed to our next destination! We were heading from Wadi Dawan to the coast, which meant another few hours in the car for a quick road trip.

This region was probably my favorite in Yemen. I loved the natural beauty that was all around us, and it was nice to get into the smaller towns, where it felt like we could get better interactions with the locals than in the bigger cities. I will never forget sitting on the edge of the canyon, drinking tea and watching the sunset!

Asia Yemen

Welcome to Yemen

After Sarajevo, I flew to Istanbul, then Cairo, where I spent the night at an airport hotel. The next morning, I donned a black abaya and a headscarf and I boarded a Yemenia flight to Seiyun.

Yes, the US State Department warnings are pretty aggressive. And parts of the country are definitely not safe to travel to, but I felt safe where we were during our trip. I went with Wander Expeditions, and we took lots of precautions, including wearing local clothing to blend in. Plus, the areas where we went have military presence from Saudi Arabia and the UAE to help keep things more stable. The region considers themselves South Yemen, and have a unique flag with a blue triangle and a red star to differentiate themselves.

The very first thing we did was get our local clothing! For the women, it was pretty easy – there’s not a lot of variation in what you get to wear there. I had bought a black abaya online in advance and then had a couple headscarf options, one to cover my hair and one full niqab to cover everything but a narrow slit around my eyes. For the men, though, they have a fairly elaborate outfit that we had to buy at a local market.

One other facet of our trip is that we were there during Ramadan. During Ramadan, the entire rhythm of life changes, because there’s fasting from sunrise to sunset. The people operate more nocturnally, with life beginning the moment that the sun goes down and the call to prayer begins. Iftar, which is the breaking of the fast, began as we were driving from the market to our hotel to check in, and there were people on the side of the road passing out water and juice and snacks to everyone that drove by.

This was our first hotel in Seiyun, which I loved. It was beautiful, with an extensive garden, a pool, and a rooftop where we could sit and talk late into the night. Being in the hotels was also very freeing, because it was the only place where we didn’t have to wear the abayas or scarves.

Because of Ramadan, walking around during the day felt like a ghost town. We often wouldn’t see anyone around. In a few places, like the markets we visited later on in the trip, we would get the chance to go while it was lively and then we would walk the same streets the next morning and marvel at how much it had changed.

One of the strangest things was how familiar the landscape felt. It looks just like Arizona, where my grandparents lived for several decades. I used to visit every spring, and if I turned my head away from the buildings, I could practically imagine I was back there for a visit.

From Seiyun, we also visited Shibam, which has been called “the Manhattan of the Desert.” It’s the oldest city in the world to use vertical construction, making these the original skyscrapers.

Shibam was spectacular. Our first introduction of it was from a nearby hill, where we watched the sun set and heard the call to prayer. We went back the next day to talk to a few shopkeepers and take some photos.

The beaded mask is meant for weddings. The beadwork was so intricate and beautiful!

In general, the level of handicrafts was so high. I got a small woven bag and a carved wooden house that matches the style of the ones in Shibam, which are both incredible – I can’t wait to display them in my home.

They also spoke with us about the unique challenges of preserving these buildings. As one might guess about a building made from mud, it is vulnerable to water, including the condensation from retrofitted air-conditioning window units that they use in the hotter days.

One of the things that I love in foreign countries is seeing the brands, whether they’re familiar, knock off, or local. Oreo advertising about celebrating Ramadan in the Saudi Arabian Carrefour, for example. Yemen didn’t disappoint. The knock off Cheetos logo for their “Hot Fire” flavor was one of my favorite things I saw over the course of the week! And the bottom picture is a Fanta, in one of the cooler soda bottles I’ve ever seen.

I also would like to give a shout out to one of the people on my trip, Chad, who brought disposable cameras along with him and had us all use the film with some very cool results. Some aspects of visiting Yemen had a dreamlike quality to it, and the film development emphasized that in all the right ways. That last photo of Melhim and I standing on the top of a building and taking photos of the Shibam skyline is one of my favorites from the whole trip! Also, yes, I still look like a vampire when flash is used in photography. Some things never change.

This was the start of a truly special trip, and I’ll have more photos of it soon!

Asia Nepal

Stopover in Kathmandu

This time, Chelsea and I managed to sit on the correct side on the flight between Paro and Kathmandu. And wow! The views were spectacular. I think this is the best window view I’ve ever gotten on a plane, full stop. We got to see the Himalayas up close, and the pilot came on over the announcements and pointed out various significant peaks, including Everest. I read Into Thin Air at a formative age and have a great degree of respect for the Himalayas, so it’s always been a dream of mine to see Mount Everest from a nice safe distance.

Kathmandu has a very different vibe from anywhere in Bhutan – it’s a lot more populous and a lot more chaotic! The most similar place I’ve been would probably be Hanoi, and the skills I learned trying to cross the street there came in handy in Kathmandu. We made our way to our accommodation, which thankfully let us check in even though it was mid-morning.

Once we had stored our luggage and gotten our lives together a bit, we headed out to explore the city. We wandered around Thamel for a bit, got lunch, and spent a portion of the afternoon in the Garden of Dreams, reading and going through the various exhibits in the surrounding buildings. Our first lunch was fantastic – in general, I was very impressed with the food in Nepal. It didn’t hurt that we had mostly had buffet food in Bhutan as part of the tour, which wasn’t bad but was also…. just fine. I also had never had momos before! The Nepalese place that Sam and I used to get takeout from never had vegetarian ones, so I tried those for the first time on this trip and they were incredible.

The next day, we headed to two of the three Durbar Squares around Kathmandu Valley! These are royal squares, and they’re UNESCO sites that have some of the architecture from previous kingdoms that used to rule Nepal. A lot of the buildings were damaged in 2015, and you could still see some areas that had fault lines or damage, but I was impressed how much of it had been rebuilt. We went through a few exhibits in the one in Kathmandu, which had a pretty comprehensive history of how they transitioned into their current form of government. I didn’t realize how recently they transitioned to democracy.

From there, we headed out to Bhaktapur, which has one of the other Durbar Squares! We took a taxi there and back, which was pretty straightforward, and then we just wandered around. If you want a guide, there are a lot of people around who offered to take us around for money. There were lots of markets and restaurants as well. We only had a half day here, because Chelsea’s next tour had a meeting and dinner that evening, but it was definitely a worthwhile trip out from the Kathmandu city center.

I knew this was going to be a short time to explore Kathmandu, because it was really just a stopover and I had to fly home so I could get back to work, but I was still disappointed to have to leave so soon! I really liked Kathmandu. I have a few other places I would love to see in Nepal as well, and I will need to figure out a way to get back here again.

It’s a long series of flights out there from the US, but definitely worth a visit. Looking forward to my next trip to Nepal!

Asia Bhutan

Hiking to Tiger’s Nest

If you’ve ever seen any pictures of Bhutan, there’s a very good chance it’s been a picture of Paro Taktsang, aka Tiger’s Nest Monastery. It’s probably the most famous building in the country. Most itineraries place it on the final day, making it a sort of grand finale to a trip to Bhutan! The monastery is only accessible by hiking, which is a 3.5 mile out and back trail with an elevation gain of 1,948 feet. Alltrails considers it to be a hard hike, which is mostly from the elevation and the sheer number of stairs.

We woke up very early so we could get started before the sun got too hot. This was the right call – it was a lot less busy when we were hiking up, and by the time we were heading down, the trail was crowded and it was getting quite warm. We had our packed lunches from the hotel. The hike started with a short flat walk through the woods, and then we came around a corner to start the stairs.

From there, the hike was a lot of stairs! The halfway point, more or less, is the café. One of the wildest things is how far away the temple still is when you’re at the café – the picture below hopefully captures the scale. Still, the stop to eat a little and get some coffee helps a lot psychologically, even if it’s right back to more stairs. At some point, you get to the end of the stairs and it flattens out for a bit.

The most amazing moment of the whole hike is when you round the corner and the monastery comes into view! After marveling at it, and taking all the pictures you could want, there are two more sets of stairs. The worst is the staircase going down, because you know you have to immediately go back up again to actually get to the temple.

Touring the monastery was a great reward for the hike. We’ve seen a lot of cool Bhutanese architecture while we’ve been here, so it wasn’t especially different from the dzongs and temples in other places, but we appreciated it more here after the effort it took to get here! The hike down wasn’t too bad either, because after the one staircase up, it’s all downhill. We had a relaxed afternoon and then a cultural show with dinner, and then the next morning we all headed out for our international flights to our next destinations.

And that’s a wrap on Bhutan! It’s a fascinating place. Years of isolation from the rest of the world has left Bhutan with a truly unique culture, and I’m glad I had the chance to learn more about it.

Asia Bhutan

Going Over Dochula Pass

The next morning, we headed out of Thimphu and went over Dochula Pass! Our first stop was the 106 memorial stupas, and a viewpoint that probably would have been amazing if the clouds weren’t so low. The drive through the mountains was beautiful and gave us a much better sense of the countryside of Bhutan.

From there, we had lunch and then took a nice walk out to the Chimi Lhakhang Temple, which is perhaps better known as the Fertility Temple. One of the aspects of Bhutan that is so fascinating is the part of its history dealing with the Divine Madman. Basically, he helped people reach enlightenment through intercourse, and so phallic symbols are a way for Bhutanese people to protect themselves from the evil eye. It’s hard to describe how many phallic symbols you see across the country. They’re painted on buildings. They’re sold in shops, with elaborate paintings and shapes and carvings. Our driver had one as his compass. Needless to say, I have a number of photos that I cannot show publicly from this trip.

It’s strange to have to edit my pictures in this way. I had to do that a little in PNG, because some of the tribes have traditional outfits for sing-sings that are more revealing than the West is comfortable with, but this is a whole different level – most of the photos from this area are unpostable because of the phallic imagery!

Once we got to the temple, our guide asked us if anyone wanted to do the fertility ritual. Two women in my group did, which was very cool to be able to watch! Basically, they had to put on what was essentially a backpack made out of a large dildo, walk around the courtyard clockwise three times, and then receive a blessing. This included rolling some sort of dice to learn about the gender and name of their future child.

From there, we kept driving to the Punakha Dzong! This one is often considered the most beautiful in the country, and I would have to say I agree. Seeing it over the river was stunning.

We had one more stop before we got to our hotel in Punakha, which was the longest suspension bridge in Bhutan. It’s beautiful over the river in Punakha – I loved the view from our hotel room while we were here!

The next morning we did the whole drive in reverse (with less stops) and headed back to Paro. Our first activity was the National Museum in Paro, which was an interesting experience. I’ve never seen a museum designed quite like this – it was in a cylinder, and you started around floor 3 or 4 and then went up to the top and then all the way down. There was a prescribed path that felt a little bit like a labyrinth, especially in areas where it took you down a staircase and then immediately back up another. Eventually, I ended up sort of separated from the group and I was working my way through the historical artifacts of Bhutan all on my own. It felt a little surreal.

After the National Museum, we headed down the hill to the Paro Dzong, which was smaller than the other ones we’d been to. We also stopped by some local archery grounds! Archery is Bhutan’s national sport. This was underscored when we arrived and our driver reached into a compartment in the bus where he kept his own bow and arrows, and he joined in. I’ve seen archery on TV before, like at the Olympics, but I don’t think I’d truly understood how far the distances were that they were shooting. It’s pretty incredible, I’m definitely glad we got a chance to see it.

We had a little free time to wander around in Paro, which was nice. Chelsea and I found a market and a path along the river. I love the chance to get lost in a city (or at least try, Paro isn’t big enough or windy enough to truly get lost). We had dinner at the hotel and then had a chill night – we knew we had an early rise the next morning so that we could hike to Tiger’s Nest!