Beautiful Bhutan & Early Birthday Cake

With a blog post title like that, you would hope that I would have pictures to share. Unfortunately, the internet speed is too slow to upload now so for now your imagination will have to do... (but they will be posted soon!)

Bhutan is a wonderful, peaceful, beautiful country! It's hard to know where to begin to describe everything that I've seen over the past 12 days. It is a peaceful hamlet sandwiched between India and China. While it is definitely a hilly, mountainous terrain it feels completely different than Nepal. Mostly because there are not 6,000+ meter Himalayan peaks staring at you around every corner! (But I did get to see several on my trek.)

What makes Bhutan unique? The people here are very warm and friendly, and welcoming to tourists. That said, there are only about 700,000 of them TOTAL in the country. They learn English starting early but the mastery of the language varies widely. I'm re-learning how to talk in short, simple sentences, BUT they are so kind and generous and almost everyone has beautiful, happy smile lines. They definitely reflect the essence of Gross National Happiness.

So now you're surely asking, just what IS Gross National Happines?? Gross National Happiness (GNH) reflects Bhutan's belief that economic prosperity is only a means to achieving the "end", which is happiness. It's a deeply Buddhist culture, and GNH reflects those spiritual values. The four main pillars are 1) Equitable and sustainable socioeconomic development; 2) Preservation and promotion of the culture; 3) Conservation of the environment; and 4) Promotion of good governance. Basically, it's a Triple Bottom Line country, or at least they are trying to move in that direction. It's very apparent in everything I've seen. Love this motto and culture!!

One thing you will surely notice if and when you come here: the architecture. Every office, hospital, school, museum, post office, airport, out-building (barn or shed), store and home is built with attention to preservation of their culture through design. I was surprised to see that old and new buildings alike all mirror the Swiss tudor, colorful and detailed design style.

Creative Buddhist solution! As a largely Buddhist society Bhutan promotes equality for all sentient beings. So when the stray dogs started multiplying in the big cities (Paro and Thimphu), the government started collecting the animals, spaying or neutering them and then re-releasing them out into the streets. So unlike many other third-world countries, you don't see really mangy, permanently pregnant dogs here though there are still a large number of stray dogs. But, if the program is successful in a few years the population of them should decrease significantly. Brilliant! Take note rest-of-the-world!

While I'm still a bit confused by the economy of Bhutan (and working hard to understand it), I think that it is a really wonderful destination for anyone who wants to experience a pure, mostly un-Westernized culture. The number of tourists here is significantly lower than most other Asian countries (their goal is 100,000 per year but currently they are closer to 30,000) due certainly to the high cost of being here. Currently that cost is $200 per day, but in 2012 it will increase to $250 per day. According to the Tourism Minister for Bhutan, that price includes: all internal taxes and royalties (about $95/day goes to the government), three-star hotel accommodations, meals, all travel with a licensed tour guide, internal transportation, and camping equipment and haulage (read: horses) for trekking tours. So, when you do the math, it's not as bad as it first appears. That said, if you desire nicer accommodations or more services, it will cost more.

Trekking in Bhutan. I did the Jhomolhari Trek, which there are several versions of. I took the route that went up and over three passes (!), sleeping five nights at over 13,000 feet. We hiked an average of six hours per day over terrain that varied from quite rocky and flat to wildly steep and treacherous. Those were the not-so-good times. The good days (which were most of them!) included walking through yak pastures at high elevation, being stunned at every turn by a breath-taking new vista of a 6,000+ meter mountain, hanging prayer flags at 16,400 feet and chanting Om Mani Padme Hum with our Buddhist trekking crew. I'll be blogging more about the trekking experience on the Grand Asian Journeys' website within the next few days. Be sure to check there (and register for our newsletter!) for more details. I will be leading two trips next fall to Bhutan - including one cultural tour and a separate trekking tour - and also a trip to South India that will include ayurveda, yoga, cooking and markets. (Be sure to email me at pam@grandasianjourneys.com if you want to receive more information on any of those 2011 trips!)

This was my first camping trek, and I have to say it's a much better experience than I expected, and a much nicer (assuming your sleeping bag is warm enough - mine was!) experience than lodge trekking. The food was outrageously good and included a great deal of fresh vegetables, eggs, porridge, rice and even fish. Every morning we were woken up at our tents with a cup of hot steaming tea and every night we had dessert of some kind. The best was on the last night when I was presented with a homemade (!) birthday cake which was an amazing feat consideringthe single propane stove and limited pots, ingredients and utensils! The cake was delicous, and was made quite creatively with crushed corn flakes, white bread, eggs, milk powder, hot chocolate mix and coffee. TASTY! and certainly much more so because I knew what a task it was to create. Probably the nicest birthday cake ever!!

Tomorow I depart Bhutan and spend a half-day in India before departing to South India to scout for the above-mentioned tour. I will fly back to Delhi on Friday for a certainly celebratory reunion with Gerdien! We're planning to travel for about 2.5 weeks together through Rajasthan. I'll keep you posted on all of my adventures...

With love,

Pam

Holy Mother of Close Calls

Or, the Day I Almost Didn't Go to Bhutan.

Getting to Bhutan today ranks up there with the most stressful days of my life. Some of you may have heard last Tuesday that my passport hadn't been returned from the India visa office. Not only hadn't it been returned but they were reporting that they had never received it despite my tracking number that told me it'd been delivered 12 days earlier. Anyway, that situation was resolved as my passport with India visa were delivered to me last Thursday, just in time for my Sunday departure.

But that was nothing.

Here's the approximate timeline of my day today:

6:00 Wake up in Delhi / pack for Bhutan
7:15 Breakfast
7:30 Pickup by my amazing India tour provider and driver
8:00 Arrive at Delhi airport - 3.25 hours early for my 11:15am flight and the first in line
8:15 Still waiting for the ticket line to move
8:20 Druk Air ticket agent tells me that my Bhutan visa and passport don't match (Visa was issued in June, got a new passport in August) and that I will not be allowed entry into Bhutan without a copy of my old passport (reflecting the old number)
8:21 Looking for a computer with internet access in the Delhi airport
8:25 Find small security office with eight men sitting in a small crowded room. Explain my situation and he gives me the famous India head bob (which indicates that it's OK for me to use his computer)
8:30 Still waiting for Gmail to load. He reboots it. It works. I thought I might have emailed myself or my mother a copy of my passport in 2008 before my last big trip.
8:40 Find out I didn't
8:42 Call friend and neighbor Michele. Despite it being bedtime and homework time for her kids, she runs down to my cabin to rouse my subletter Howard and begin the search for my actual old passport. (I honestly did not know where it was.)
8:55 I call her back and she's knocking at Howard's door, explains the situation and begins to dig through drawers, files and miscellaneous things.
9:00 She LOCATES MY PASSPORT! I tell her to urgently go find a neighbor with a scanner and email me the passport.
9:20 After watching the India security officers do something (solitaire?) on the computer and giggling to themselves he sees me staring at him and offers me to use the computer again.
9:21 Gmail issues again. Won't load. He reboots twice. Finally switches all cables to laptop computer that he had on a table behind his desk.
9:28 After much hassle, and a slow print job, I have a copy of my passport in my hands! I ask him to make another copy so that I'll have two (just in case).
9:30 I arrive at the Druk Air desk, see my agent, rush to the front of the line so that she sees me. She nods to indicate my arrival, but that's it. I wait.
9:40 Her supervisor arrives and tells me that I need two copies of the visa (I had two copies of the passport now). She sends a lackey to make the copies. He saunters away from the desk.
9:52 He arrives back at the Druk Air counter, still holding a single copy of my visa. He tells the person there that the printer is out of paper. Can he please get a sheet of paper. He leaves.
9:10 He returns, this time holding the visa and a blank sheet of paper.
9:11 My amazing agent grabbed the visa out of his hands to make the copy himself.
9:12 He returns, and we have to wait in line (again).
9:25 The very quiet agent wants her supervisor to see the copies and she's now disappeared. We wait.
9:45 The agent comes back and tells me that I need to sign a disclaimer that if the Bhutanese government doesn't let me into their country that I will not hold Druk Air liable for any costs incurred. I sign.
9:58 I get to the front of the security line, and on my form I'd written "tour operator". He decided to take the opportunity to tell me why India is the best place in all of Asia and why was I bothering with Bhutan anyway. Had I been to Rajasthan? What about Sikkim? No I said, can I please go now?
10:35 I arrive at my gate, actually 10 minutes early for the 10:45 departure.
11:35 Plane departs for Bhutan (gorgeous flight, by the way!)
12:15 I'm filling out my customs paperwork and realize that my visa only goes through Oct. 17, but my departing air ticket is not until Oct. 18. ARGH!!!\
12:16 I silently panic through the absolutely stunning landing and all the way through the customs line.
1:59 The customs officer asks me why the numbers don't match, I tell him (calmly, of course, "new passport"). Unphased, he stamps my passport and hands it to me.
2:01 My second "Pam Perry" sign in three days made me smile. I then told our Bhutan tour operator about my visa expiring before my departure, and he told me that he'd noticed and already taken care of it. Thank you BUDDHA!

So, I'm in Thimphu, Bhutan now and it's a beautiful place. I'm traveling with an exceptionally interesting group of folks from the New England area and we just shared a beer over dinner. I explained the story of my angels that have apparently taken care of me for the last 8 days, and everyone agreed that they were buying beer tonight.

Phew. I'm chalking this all up to good experience to share with other travelers so they don't have to go through what I've gone through the last eight days.

Good night~
Pam