Gedu

As if I wasn't busy enough at the end of the semester, the Royal University of Bhutan (of which RTC is an affiliate college) decided to hold their bi-annual research meeting the weekend before the last week of classes. The announcement and call for submissions occurred two weeks ago, the location was moved once, and the meeting was held this weekend. It was all a little crazy, but I'm glad I went and presented some of my preliminary findings from my dissertation research. It was both an opportunity to receive feedback and confirmation from other Bhutanese, and also a chance to network and get to know some of the top researchers at other colleges all over Bhutan. Emily came with since she has not yet started at the hospital and wanted to see another part of Bhutan.

The meeting was held at Gaeddu College of Business Studies in Gedu, Bhutan (yes, I spelled those both correctly). Gedu is in the southern dzongkhag (district) of Chhukha, about 30 km from the Indo-Bhutanese border. Originally, the meeting was scheduled to take place in Phuentsholing, which is on the Indo-Bhutanese border and the second largest town in Bhutan. Here's a map that can help you see where we went:

Click to enlarge. 

The distance between Thimphu and Gedu is about 126km (78 miles), but it actually takes about 4 hours to get there. As is any road travel in Bhutan, it is incredibly slow, arduous, tedious, and at many turns scary-as-hell. The Timphu-Phuentsholing "highway" is the main road in Bhutan and all goods and trade use this route, i.e. many large trucks go barreling up and down it. Many stretches of the road are only 1.5 lanes wide, which is incredibly nerve-racking in that there are really no straight stretches of the road, many blind-curves, and almost no guard-rails. Oh, and usually it's about a 200-1000m drop off the road.

We decided to take a bus, which left from the Thimphu bus station and ended in Phuentsholing. The buses in Bhutan are locally and internationally know as "the vomit comet." I took plenty of Dramamine to make sure the bus didn't live up to its name. Surprisingly, no one else vomited on the bus which, Samir informs me, happens about 50% of the time in his experience. The bus driver, typical to Bhutan, kept pulling out his mobile phone and making calls enroute, all while careening down the 1.5 lane blind-curves. We had many close calls with Indian and Bhutanese trucks that are covered in auspicious symbols and pictures and feature the words "Good Luck" on their trailers. Also in typical Bhutanese fashion, the bus driver made many stops: for tea, for doma, to trade goods on the side of the road, etc. Eventually, you let go of your Western expectations of what people are supposed to do and just relax and (try) to enjoy the ride.

Here's a few pictures I snapped on the road:

We arrived in Gedu after dark – about 6:30 – and tried to figure out where we were supposed to go. Fortunately, my friend Samir was also attending (actually, he gave the keynote address for the meeting) and I called him and he helped us straighten it all out. Gaeddu College is actually housed in the old Tala Power Company headquarters, which built one of the hydroelectric stations nearby about 20 years ago. There was a guesthouse in which we were housed, which was decent – certainly not hotel standards – and mostly clean. There was a dinner that night in the guesthouse dining hall, after which Emily and I crashed in the room – exhausted after a long and stressful afternoon of travel. 

The next day we were greeted to a beautiful and sunny morning. Gedu is warmer than Thimphu and much greener still after the monsoons. Actually, we have been told that Gedu has terrible weather and a very long monsoon season in which it doesn't stop raining for weeks and weeks. It's the kind of monsoon where you just can't stay dry and clothes and things start to get moldy. Fortunately, we were there during the right season! 

Sunrise over Gaeddu College. The view from our guesthouse room. 

Typical Indian/Bhutanese breakfast: Milk tea, puri (fried bread),
and subji (vegetable curry).

The entrance to Gaeddu. 

Gedu's prayer wheel. 

Emily. 

Samir. 

The Gaeddu clock tower. 

Nice mural at the entrance. 

The research meeting lasted all day Friday and all day Saturday. There were lots of interesting presentations in all sorts of different disciplines. Most of the 10 colleges in the Royal University system were there – including the Paro College of Education and Samtse College of Education. I was particularly interested in meeting people from those institutions. Dr. Dorji Thinley, the research director for RUB, was also there. Dr. Thinley was actually the first person I ever contacted about coming to Bhutan, and we had had sporadic email conversations before I arrived. I sat next to him for most of the conference and we got to know each other better. He is an important contact to have here and now that we've met face-to-face, I think we can have a long and rich collaboration. 

While I was stuck in a conference room for most of the day, Emily explored the Gedu area and came to the occasional research presentation. In typical Bhutanese meeting style, there were several tea breaks and the schedule was about an hour behind. Here's some pictures of Emily's wanderings around town: 

You can see the road we drove into Gedu on running across the bottom. 

Downtown Gedu. 

The Bhutanese use of the word "cum" is different than the
American use of the word "cum" – with always hilarious results!

Typical Bhutanese general store front. 

Public health promotion at its finest -– a rusty old sign.

Path up to the guesthouse (white building in upper lefthand corner).

A house curiously not in the Bhutanese architectural style,
but typically Bhutanese nonetheless. 

We think these are Bhutanese watermelons, but not 100% sure.  

Bhutanese lawn mowers. 

Sunset on Gedu. 

On Friday evening, we had dinner with our new friends Istvan and Nancy, who are from Canada. Istvan is a professor at Gaeddu and we met in Thimphu several weeks ago. They are really nice and fun to talk to. Samir also joined us for dinner. We ate a new restaurant in Gedu that served Indian food. There was no menu to be found, so we just let them make whatever they wanted to make us. It ended up being pretty good – momos, roti, rice, a paneer curry, a veg curry, and a spinach curry. 

This is a plate from the restaurant. Hilarious!

Me, Emily, Nancy, Istvan, and Samir. 

Samir shares his doma. This was Emily's first doma experience, and my second.
Neither one of us like it. 

I gave my presentation on Saturday morning. It went really well and I got lots of encouraging and helpful feedback on my dissertation work here. Again, Emily came to a few presentations and then spent the day walking around Gedu. 

Starting my presentation. 

After the presentations had finished (an hour later than scheduled, as per tradition), Dorji told me that he was leaving for Thimphu and we could get a ride with him if we wanted. Emily and I jumped at the chance, not because we were anxious to leave Gedu, but mostly because it meant we could ride in a car on that crazy road and not have to put up with the bus. We quickly packed up our things and met Dorji in the guesthouse lobby. Samir was also getting a ride back with Dorji, so it was a good group to travel with. Driving at night in Bhutan actually isn't so bad, because there are less trucks on the road (although still quite a few) and you can see the headlights around the sharp turns so you can prepare to pull on the side of the road to let the trucks past you. Plus you can't see the steep drop-offs ... ignorance is bliss. Dorji was a good driver and we made it back to RTC by about nine o'clock. 

This week I will wrap up my classes and then the next week is all final examinations. Emily and I were invited to a Thanksgiving celebration next Saturday at the house of the American "wardens" to Bhutan. They apparently invited all the Americans living in Bhutan. I'm not exactly sure what "warden" means in diplomatic parlance, but since America has no official diplomatic relations with Bhutan, I guess that's the next-best-thing. Apparently they are importing a turkey and all of the other traditional fixings for an American Thanksgiving. It should be fun to meet other Americans living here, since we have only met a small handful outside of RTC (although there aren't that many anyway). 

The semester is officially finished by December 6th, and Emily and I leave for Darjeeling on December 11th. I'm looking forward to the long break (spring semester doesn't start until February) as it will give me a break from dealing with RTC, allow me to focus on dissertation research and other writing, and give me adequate time to plan for my classes next semester. Once the semester wraps up, I'm planning on writing a blog entry summarizing my first semester at RTC and my dissertation research in Bhutan so far.