Next stop Bhutan!
So after my brief sojourn in Bangkok with the illustrious Bjorn, the next stop on my trip is to the land of the Thunder Dragon—Bhutan. This was actually the genesis of this entire trip through Asia. In an idle moment I decided to play a game I made up called “Where in the world”. It’s like googling yourself with a purpose. Basically, you look up your initials on world airport codes and wherever it is in the world is where you should travel to next. Fortunately for me, PBH is the airport code for Paro in Bhutan; a country I’d always wanted to visit, and the rest of the trip was kind of roughed out around it.
Deciding to go to Bhutan is really only the start of it. Unlike most places in the world, you really can’t be an independent traveller there. Well, you can; but you can’t travel on a whim. In order to travel through Bhutan you have to apply for a permit in advance through a travel agency and have a detailed itinerary. Your permit tells you where you can go and when, and you have to have a guide with you at all times. On top of that, the fee for the permit as a single traveller runs to $320 a day so this wasn’t going to be the budget portion of the trip. That said, the daily fee covers a guide, hotel accommodation, a driver and food, so it’s not too bad a deal. Besides, this trip is about once in a lifetime experiences, and Bhutan has those in spades. In the next few posts I’ll share the little taster I got of this amazing country, from prayer flags to giant penis murals, yak cheese to butter tea, week-long dance festivals and more…
