In the Land of the Flying Penis

Last month I was travelling in the weird and wonderful kingdom of Bhutan. Officially the happiest country in the world and arguably also the strangest and most beautiful, this Shangri La tucked away in a sheltered niche in the Himalayas, is a true land of superlatives. I’ve always been reluctant to name a favourite country, perhaps because I’d never been here before, but now I’d have to say Bhutan is it.

This tiny country on the southern border of Tibet is ruled over by a king on the principles of Gross National Happiness. The last king, who abdicated in 2008, was married to four sisters. Why marry FOUR sisters you might ask. Well, the reason is because the fifth one refused to marry him. Here you will also find the cult of the Holy Madman, whose symbol is the flying penis, usually with a ribbon on it. Apparently, he preached to his followers wearing nothing but a ribbon around his organ. His sexual prowess was legendary as attested to by a vast number of the kingdom’s women. Nowadays, you will find depictions of his erect penis painted on the walls of many of Bhutan’s houses and wooden carvings of it above doorways. You will often look up and see one above your head.

The scenery, architecture and culture of Bhutan are all stunning.

I am in Bangladesh

I have been travelling in Asia for the past month. I have been in India and Bhutan, and I am currently in Bangladesh. I'll restart my blog, with a lot of new travel tales and photos, when I get back to Oman in a month's time.

Corner View 10

The theme of this week's Corner View is Street Fashion.

Please visit the other Corner View bloggers:

jane, kim, ladybug-zen, ian, sunnymama, kyndale, samantha, karen, kristina, angelina, dorit, goldensunfamily, sophie, janet, nicki, ruth, mcgillicutty, desiree, di, travelingmama, aimee, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad, caitlin, joyce, ani, couturecoucou, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t.,jeannette, outi, schanett, ritva, dongdong, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemian girl, ruth, dianna, isabelle, amber, girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, jenna, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, mon, victoria, crescent moon, erin, otli, amy, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa, britta, virginia, april, rebecca, b, jenell, guusje, juanita, pamela, inna, daan, myrtille, cris , ibb, susi, jodi, lily, gillian, doobleh-vay

Corner View 9 Salalah

The theme os this week's Corner View is the view out of your back window or door. As the whole of mine is blocked by a great big new villa, I decided that the view out of my office's rear window and back door, which opens onto a balcony, would be more interesting.

For the last few weeks I have watched a Rüppell's Weaver making his nests and trying to lure females into them. I have become quite attached to this little fellow and have lived through the emotional rollercoaster of his life, cheered his triumphs and shared the sadness of his disasters. During this period he has made more than ten nests. They are all woven from the fronds of one coconut palm tree which he flies backwards and forwards to. Oddly, it is not the nearest one, but he only seems to want the palm fronds from that particular tree. He then ties a series of knots around a thin branch and weaves the globular-shaped nests which he suspends from it. The female bird, when he attracts one, then inspects the nests, chooses the best one and lines it with leaves and feathers.

Rüppell's Weavers, given the chance, will be polygamous. In spring, he briefly managed to attract two mates. One of them laid eggs, which hatched, and he divided his time between building new nests and helping her to feed the chicks. This was his best time. but, then one day, I stared out of the window and sensed that something was wrong. He was alone and looked crestfallen. The females had gone. On a large branch just behind him, I saw a metre-long lizard, with a red and black head. I guessed it must have eaten the chicks because the feeding stopped and the chicks never emerged.

Since then, he has made several new nests and when he has failed to attract a mate to them, he has destroyed them in frustration, then started all over again in an attempt to make new, improved versions. On a couple of occasions recently, female birds have looked inside his newest nests and he has got very excited, fluttering his wings like crazy in a mating dance. But, to be honest, his newest nests are not as big or as well-constructed as the earlier ones. I fear his mating season will end without him producing any further offspring. I hope I'm wrong because I know he would be so elated if he had a mate and a new batch of chicks to feed.

In the top photo, you can see him feeding his ill-fated chicks, in the second he is building a new nest and in the third you can see some of the sadly-unoccupied finished products.

Please visit the other Corner View bloggers:

jane, kim, ladybug-zen, ian, sunnymama, kyndale, samantha, karen, kristina, angelina, dorit, goldensunfamily, sophie, janet, nicki, ruth, mcgillicutty, desiree, di, travelingmama, aimee, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad, caitlin, joyce, ani, couturecoucou, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t.,jeannette, outi, schanett, ritva, dongdong, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemian girl, ruth, dianna, isabelle, amber, girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, jenna, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, mon, victoria, crescent moon, erin, otli, amy, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa, britta, virginia, april, rebecca, b, jenell, guusje, juanita, pamela, inna, daan, myrtille, cris , ibb, susi, jodi, lily, gillian, doobleh-vay

Corner View 8 The Beach

I'm posting this week's Corner View earlier than usual because I'm going to be travelling for the next couple of days. The theme is the beach, and Salalah has some of the finest beaches in the world. There are literally hundreds of deserted sandy beaches in the Salalah area, some of them palm-fringed; some backed by dramatic cliffs. Currently, there are just two resort hotels, the Hilton and the Crowne Plaza, which attract mainly Swedish tourists, but five more hotels are planned as part of the Salalah Beach Project.

Being surrounded all the year round by such wonderful beaches may be one reason why I'm not taking a beach holiday this summer. Instead, I'm heading for the Himalayan 'Shangri-La' of Bhutan, and I'm really excited about that.

Please visit the other Corner view bloggers:

jane, kim, ladybug-zen, ian, sunnymama, kyndale, samantha, karen, kristina, angelina, dorit, goldensunfamily, sophie, janet, nicki, ruth, mcgillicutty, desiree, di, travelingmama, aimee, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad,caitlin, joyce, ani, couturecoucou, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t.,jeannette, outi, schanett, ritva, dongdong, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemian girl, ruth, dianna, isabelle, amber, girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, jenna, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, mon, victoria, crescent moon, erin, otli, amy, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa, britta, virginia, april, rebecca, b

Ghost Town in the Prairies

My favourite subject at school was Geography. I enjoyed every class, but the ones I liked the best were the ones about the Canadian Prairies. I come from a country where everything is small, including the landscape. So, the vastness of the Prairies seemed wonderful to me.The place that caught my eye on the map was a place called Medicine Hat.When I finally got the opportunity to go to Canada, I flew into Vancouver, hired a car and decided to drive all the way across the Rockies and the Prairies to Medicine Hat. I was not to be disappointed. The Canadian Prairies were everything I expected them to be and more. I got out of my car in the middle of a seemingly endless sea of flat wheatfields and savoured the moment. It felt as if the sky was so big that it was almost touching my head. It is something that I will never forget.

Just before I finally reached Medicine Hat, I came across a ghost town. Whitla is a truly off the beaten path place. It is a place that before I started my journey across the Prairies I had never heard of, but it is a place with a unique, wistful atmosphere. There was a heavy summer silence, broken only by the cry of a kestrel soaring above the grain elevators. I couldn't better this evocative description of the place: "Whitla is a whole street of abandoned buildings. Located 20 miles southwest of Medicine Hat, it is a real ghost town. The town began with the opening of the area to homesteading in 1908. It was named for R. J. Whitla, a Winnipeg merchant who visited the district in 1885 when it was a mere siding on the newly built Turkey Track Railway. In 1910 there was a general store followed by a lumberyard, a hardware store, a farm machinery firm, a Union Bank, several cafes, and three auto repair shops. During 1917 drought, dust storms, grasshoppers, and rabbits began consuming the crops and chasing the settlers away. The exodus from Whitla had been gradual throughout the 1920s and increased noticeably through the ‘30s and ‘40s. By the end of World War II, the town had all but vanished." H.B. Chenoweth.

Twenty years ago, when I was there, only two grain elevators remained. Now, even they are gone, but hopefully the descendants of that kestrel still patrol the Whitla wheat fields.

If you'd like to read more about the ghost towns and disappearing grain elevators of the Prairies, these are two of my favourite sites: Ghost Towns Canada and Grain Elevators Canada .

Corner View 7 Cityscapes

7

The theme for this week's Corner View is cityscapes. Oman's only real city, with a population of one million, is the capital, Muscat, so I've selected a few scenes from here. Muscat means 'anchorage' and it is actually a string of villages, forts, souks and mosques wedged into a narrow strip of land between the mountains and the sea. Some people say, it doesn't really have a city centre, but I would say the harbour area of Mutrah, featured in the photos, around which the city grew, is it's real centre. If you were expecting an ultra-modern city full of skyscrapers, like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha or Manama, you'd be in a for a big surprise. Sultan Qaboos likes to conserve traditional Omani architecture, and any modern development is very strictly controlled.

Please visit the other Corner View bloggers for views of their cities:

jane, kim, ladybug-zen, ian, sunnymama, kyndale, samantha, karen, kristina, angelina, dorit, goldensunfamily, sophie, janet, nicki, ruth, mcgillicutty, desiree, di, travelingmama, aimee, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad,caitlin, joyce, ani, couturecoucou, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t.,jeannette, outi, schanett, ritva, dongdong, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemian girl, ruth, dianna, isabelle, amber, girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, jenna, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, mon, victoria, crescent moon, erin, otli, amy, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa, britta, virginia, april, rebecca, b