A Virtual Drive Through Bhutan

This is a great set of pictures, reminds me of a home I once had. 

A Virtual Drive Through Bhutan

Such a great country to travel through and be in. My home is just off camera to the right on Number 10 - The Phuentsholing-Thimphu Highway. 

The first time I drove this road I was being dropped off at the school I had been assigned to for the year - Pakshikha MSS. It was winter time and the landscape was all brown and scrubby, like I imagine California to be. As the year rolled by I went up and down the road many times, sometimes in a packed out bus, sometimes in hitched rides or taxis, sometimes in the cars I borrowed from the Principal and the Vice-Principal (such generosity). Each new journey was different from the last as the landscapes changed with the seasons. 

I was amazed when I first saw this waterfall barrelling out of the forest. They came from everywhere  of course - the landscape dripped from all directions where once it had all been dry. The water brought leeches, clever ones that knew where to sit in wait - door handles, banisters etc. The banked up muddy-loose rocks ran with rivulets that burst from the undergrowth and scuttled across the road. Of course they brought landslides with them. The Himalaya is a shifting landscape. The roads of Bhutan are always falling apart and being put back together.

I'd love to travel them again.

New Website!!!

After years of being in the webbie wilderness, I've finally thrown together a website. It can be found here:

davegreen.org

It's got writing. And music. And pictures. And stuff.

Why now? Well, I'm sitting on 3 novels, some travel literature and a few non-fiction titles, and I've got over 40 songs recorded, so it's time to stop navel-gazing and get out there.

The first travel piece is available now through Amazon kindle or via Createspace as a paperback.

They say that most doomed romantic relationships end too late, that all the messy stuff happens in those clingy months of denial when you know it’s over but you won’t let go and face the uncertainty of whatever comes next.

The same can sometimes be said of travel; there’s a time to go and a time to return.

After nine months in Asia, the author lands in Australia to find that all the air has escaped from his adventure balloons. Desperate to avoid going home he embarks on the rudderless trajectory of a lovelorn idiot. Luck and happenstance guide him into (and out of) love-at-first-sight romances, near-death experiences and a spell as a crime-fighting superhero.

Anything to avoid the plane home.

Amazing Documentary About Bhutan.

Such a beautiful landscape. Such great people. Such change happening, and yet still so.... Bhutanical!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b040y72t

Bhutan to Scotland.....

Recent article posted on the Bhutan Canada Foundation site. 

http://bhutancanada.org/update-from-an-alumnus-dave-green/

As I stride on into my next adventure in Scotland, thoughts stray back often to Bhutan. Whenever I see that picture of my house up on the hill, nestled in jungle, light streaming down the valley, I fly back there and hear the chirrups, smell the lush clean high air, hear the voices of the kids from downstairs, the creak of my floorboards, smell the earthy woodness of my home, see the mists rolling up, loitering over the school, drifting towards me. The walk to school is something I will always remember - 10 minutes of disappearing into the forest, birds of prey 20ft above me, water trickling and gulping around me, gravel crunching, then breaking out into a chorus of smiles as I ventured into the school. Such great friends made, such good times had, despite the difficulties that every now and then felt as tho they were besetting me. All growth. Extension. Experience. I hear now of teachers going back, some to teach, some to visit, and I wish I'd managed it before leaving Asia, but at the same time, it's probably not going anywhere.

Now I'm in Scotland, having somewhat landed on my feet in a very good school in the countryside (I've heard it referred to as remote several times... remote it ain't!). Who knows what's coming next. Trips into the mountains, no doubt, and hopefully, visits from friends :-)

Dollar Academy - my new school

View From My New Home

That's My Home Up There on the Left

Up on the left Again... passing in a blur