Page 47 - BHUTAN 2007

Everest, in all its majesty, we had seen on flying into Paro and would see it
again as we left the Land of the Thunder Dragon. But seeing it from the air is

distinctly different from seeing the high Himalayan Mountains from the

ground. Looking out from the passes, these mountains appear as monstrous

earth-born eruptions of living stone, rooted clearly in the ground of our

planet. Everest seemed to float above the earth on a frothy sea from the
airplane. Of course, even with the cloud cover lifted, the mountains we saw

from the pass did not include Everest which was too far to the east to be

seen from where we visited.

THE QUIET NATION

Many of the sights and impressions I have described so far are fairly evident

after only a few hours or a day or two in the nation. The most salient

characteristic takes a few days to register on the busy Western traveler who
is gaping, exclaiming, and snapping photos of all the exotic features of the

land. Then a realization bubbles up into one’s conscious mind—how quiet it