A Hike To Meet a Rinpoche...

My friend Mei was visiting Bhutan for almost two weeks and when here we got to do some nice hikes together. A devout Buddhist, seeing temples and meeting lamas and rinpoches was high on her list.  In Thimphu there is a young rinpoche who it is very difficult to meet with but she got an audience to talk briefly to him.  I went up for the hike as I don't get to go on many hikes here and hardly meet holy men. Not that I necessarily believe in them or what they have to say, but it's still nice to experience other cultures.  I also thought that if I was going to meet a holy man that I should dress in traditional garb, even if the dress I had borrowed was a bit small for me. The hike itself was very nice and the temples beautiful as always.  The rinpoche didn't speak english but he said some things to us (mostly to Mei as she was the reason we were there and I was just a hanger on.) and gave us something to chew on and a string around our neck.  Afterwards we left and walked back down. It's truly a shame that I don't get out much more as the nature here is truly breathtaking and the air is oh so very clean.