Bhutan, Getting There (Continued from last week)Prepared by Harold Stephens
Travel Correspondent for Thai Airways International
As I mentioned in my last Travel Feature, Bhutan is not a large country, less that 47,000 sq. km with fewer than 1.3 million inhabitants. Until recently it was a country that was almost forgotten. When I visited Bhutan not many years ago, the total amount of visitors that year was 2,000.
But now it seems everyone wants to visit Bhutan. We can attribute this to Crown Prince Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, son of King Jigme Singye Wangchuck when he stunned Bangkok society with his gracious manner and good looks while representing his country during the celebration of King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s 60th year on the Thai throne. The Bhutanese are great people, but remember girls, not all the men are as handsome as the crown prince.
Unlike most countries around the world, Bhutan is not hungry for tourists. What the government emphasizes is tourism based on "high value, low volume.” The plan is to limit foreign visitors so as not to hamper the country's culture and way of life. In Thailand, the country uses a different formula. This Kingdom prefers “high value, high volume." That means the more they come, the better for the country. Last year Thailand had 12 million foreign visitors and this year its target is 4.5 million more. In Bhutan control is exercised through a visa requirement process and the imposition of a US$165-200 daily tariff on foreign travellers. Does this limit the number of tourists? Not quite. Last year, Bhutan welcomed 13,600 foreigners.
The Bhutanese government is deeply concerned about the effects of tourism. They are worried that it might bring the ills of the outside world with it. They want selected tourists under a carefully regulated programme. To preserve their lifestyle, they insist upon no tipping and there are signs everywhere warning about the hazards of smoking, a foreign influence. To preserve their tranquility, other signs remind motorists not to blow their horns.
There is another restriction to visiting Bhutan and that is the weather. Due to weather conditions, tourist travel is restricted to certain months. The peak periods are March, April, and May in the spring and October and November in the fall. During the other months it's either wet or the country is snowbound.
The biggest attraction to Bhutan is its scenery. It’s overpowering, not only the towering lofty mountain ranges but also the wide valleys that open up like a Cinerama screen as you cross over from one pass to another. Each valley differs from the other.
Another attraction are the fortress-like monasteries. Many are closed for fear visitors many disturb the monks. Special permission is needed to enter some. As I wrote last week, to visit one is truly an unforgettable experience.
There's good shopping for local crafts and, for the adventurer, the choices are river rafting, camping and canoeing, trout fishing and trekking to the borders of Tibet. I had some doubts about Bhutan’s outdoor activates until I met Lennie Dorji, ex-prime minister of Bhutan and uncle of the king, and was invited to his residence for dinner. If there was ever a character out of a Rudyard Kipling novel, Lennie Dorji would be it. He is married to a beautiful White Russian lady and they have two of the most beautiful daughters I have seen anywhere in the East. While sitting in his elaborately decorated home, with skins of tigers and tusks of wild boar on the walls, the ex-prime minister had me mesmerised with his tales about hunting wild boar and leopards and mountain thar and game I never heard of before. To prove a point, he rolled up his trousers leg and showed me scars from a wild boar that had charged and gored him before he could finished the boar off. And he had fishing stories to tell, about trout bigger than New Zealand trout, giant carp, and mashseer which grow up to five feet in length. Then he laughed. "In the rivers in the lowlands you might snag a crocodile."
That night back in my hotel room I checked my reference book on Bhutan for the facts. Lennie Dorji is right. There are crocodiles, and Bhutan is the home of the snow leopard, tiger, elephant, sambar, barking and swamp deer, rhino, wild boar, wild buffalo, gaur, thar and Himalayan bear. The index of birds in Bhutan goes on for pages. And there are cobra and mountain pit vipers, banded adders and coral snakes. It all became real when the next morning I heard that bears were spotted behind the Motithan Hotel on the hill where I was staying.
After my visit to Lennie Dorji's home, I soon realised that parts of this grand world in which we live have not changed. There is still a Bhutan.
The Bhutanese are a magnificent, proud and extremely friendly people. I had not seen one hostile person all the while I was there.
But perhaps, above everything else, the real appeal of Bhutan is that here is a land seen by so few outsiders. It is still, mainly, a closed land, access to it limited to only a few.
Getting a visa can present problems. However, this is not the case when signing up for a tour with Royal Orchid Holidays. The Bhutan Extension from Kathmandu in Nepal, ROHE24, is a five-day, four-night package that includes airport fees, hotel transfers and air-conditioned hotels with full board. From Kathmandu you arrive in Paro and from there make a picturesque valley motor trip to your hotel in Thimpu. You spend the next morning visiting the fort from which the Bhutanese repelled Tibetan raiders, and in the afternoon tour the National Museum, housed in an ancient watchtower. In the evening, you go for a drive through the Thimpu valley. The third day you spend the morning viewing ancient Buddhist manuscripts and discover centuries old healing arts. After lunch you visit the Tashichho Dzong (fortress of the glorious reign) built without using plans or nails.
The fourth day you drive from Thimpu to Punakha-Paro and tour the forts of Punakha Dzong and Wangdiphodrang Dzong. Then on to Paro through the Dochula Pass, which offers great views of the Bhutanese mountains. On the fifth day, after breakfast, you fly from Paro over the Himalayas back to Kathmandu.
Next week, in reply to many questions I receive, I would like to tell readers something about place names in Asia. A name is a name, as Gertrude Stein would say. Or was that a rose?
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q. Dear Mr. Stephens. Do you know of any short train trips we can take around Bangkok for a few hours at the most? My husband and I promised our two children we would take them on a train ride when we get to Thailand this summer. Thank you, Maggie Goh, Vancouver, Canada
A. Dear Maggie. There such trips, but an unusual one I suggest, and that few people know, is the train to Mahachai. It departs from Thonburi, the suburb across the river from Bangkok, and takes one hour and fifteen minute to reach Mahachai, a small town south of Bangkok on the Gulf of Siam. For those who want to see Thailand in a capsule, this is the train to take. It has everything in a nutshell that a long, two-day train journey can offer.
Harold Stephens
Bangkok
E-mail: ROH Weekly Travel (booking@inet.co.th)
Note: The article is the personal view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the view of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited. | 
