Dear Fellow Adventurers,
I have just returned from joining our Trekking the Trans Bhutan Trail & Black-necked Crane Festival adventure in the Kingdom of Bhutan for 10 days, and what an adventure it was!
Flying in from neighbouring Kathmandu in Nepal, Mt Everest at 8,849m soured above the clouds in the sunshine and I felt a knot of excitement in the pit of my stomach, which at no point left me throughout my continuing journey. What is so striking to the visitor upon landing in Bhutan is just how aesthetically beautiful everything is:
Compared with the happy chaos of Nepal or India for example, Bhutan feels far more like a ‘first world’ country like Japan, with people taking so much pride in their homes and everything they put their minds to. In fact as families live together multiple generations in large ornately carved and painted houses, it’s often genuinely hard to distinguish them from the temples.
For those who have seen the famous film Spirited Away (highly recommended), the country has the same dreamlike feeling of living in a spirit world. The energy is different and it remains a deeply spiritual country. There have been five kings in Bhutan and the fourth king was celebrating his 70th birthday; welcoming thousands of people (including Modi the PM of India) for a 19-day peace prayer festival in the capital of Thimphu as a giant bronze Budda perched high up on the mountainside looked on serenely.
Most of the local peoples wear their traditional outfits – the men a kind of tartan-patterned kimono with white sleeves called a ‘goh’, the women an ankle-length dress of woven fabric in beautiful designs called a ‘kira’. All the monks in orange and burgundy robes sitting for hours praying and meditating at the festival.
[Here pictured are our excellent guide Lhab (left) & friendly driver Ghimpu]
On our first day of walking we drive up to a high pass (the country is unbelievably mountainous and has never been conquered – you’d never get an army in there) with 108 white stupas on the top looking out to the messy snow-smeared peaks of the High Himalaya beyond forested foothills where grey langur monkeys cavorted with their young.
Bhutan joined the UN in 1971 and listening to Tshering Tobgay, PM of Bhutan addressing the UN General Assembly last year, it is incredible just how far the country has progressed in this time. Much of this is due to the leadership of the monarchy. The current fifth king Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck came to the throne in 2006, after his father peacefully abdicated whilst also establishing the country’s first parliament for a mostly reluctant population.
The country’s story is deeply inspiring – it is a carbon negative nation thanks to its vast forests, hydroelectric dams and solar projects, and also founded the philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH). The people are mischievous, fun, peace loving and caring. Bhutan is just different. It’s got it’s shit together (I can’t think how else to say it).
All of this aside it is simply just a lovely place to be. Our group stayed in a mixture of exquisite hotels and homestays run by families; I preferred the latter where we got more of a chance to really chat with our hosts as English is widely spoken. The food is always similar and always good – a collection of dishes brought out in round pots so everyone can help themselves to bacon cooked with radishes & chilis, the famous chilli cheese (you can see red chilis laid out to dry across every immovable surface in the country) red rice, beans, spinach, cauliflower cheese, more cheese, locally fermented wine, hardened cheese (forgettable), eggs, buckwheat noodles, soups and a few meat dishes.
Each district has an overwhelmingly impressive Dzong normally perched over a precipice or at the icy confluence of two glacial rivers which act as military fortresses; split into both local government administrative centuries, religious shrines for the nuns and monks and also stopovers for the royal family. People and tourists bustle about beneath the sacred bees in their hives hanging overhead and this is also where the masked festival dances take place – an exercise in stepping back in time a few centuries.
I will be shortly recording a more detailed podcast on my experiences in Bhutan (watch this space) and am also scheduled to give a talk at the upcoming Adventure Travel Show in London in January if you are in the UK. We also have two new Bhutan adventure itineraries in the pipeline – one for a base-camp trek to Mt. Jomolhari (7326m) on the Tibetan border - the second highest mountain in Bhutan - and also a culturally-focussed adventure to the Highland Festival in the highest mountain villages which the king attends every October. More to come.
Tashi Delek – I wish you good fortune.
བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས
Until next time,
Sam McManus, MD
And the reviews speak for themselves:
