'Bhutan? Where's that?' This is the response you can expect if you say that you are going to Bhutan. Most people have never heard of it. Bhutan does not make the headlines - it rarely makes a small paragraph in a, Western newspaper once in every ten years.
Hidden in the eastern Himalayas between India and Tibet, as big as Switzerland, with a population of only 700 000, Bhutan exudes charm. The mountains are magnificent, the forests are dense, the people are delightful, the air is pure, the architecture imposing, the religion exciting, the art superb. There are no beggars, little violent crime, and a traveller's personal safety is guaranteed. For the cycle tourist Bhutan is truly Shangri-La.
Favourite Memory
Apart from fabulous scenery I will always remember being kidnapped by 5 children on a mountain walk. It came as a pleasent suprise to find this photo, as one of children, carrying my camera, took this shot without my knowledge, not bad for one so young, well done.
Our group of cyclists had taken the 'tour bus' into town and I decided to walk back to camp, twas a rest day, something to do. Five excited children burst out from nowhere; to join this 'exotic westerner' complete with big western noise. This doesn't happen to back in England, kids don't go up to strangers, in fact, I was initially frightened by the experience.
As we walked together, they demanded to hold hands and sing Bhutan songs, gosh it was so sweet, even for a tough dude like me, cough. No TV here, so I guess sing comes as a natural form of entertainment here. When they asked me to sing, all that came to mind was the theme to "Hong Kong Phooey", but they loved it anyway. We joined the others at the camp-site, then I had to walk 'em home to their relatives, the last was came from a monastery.
We could communicate a little, they were walking back from school; 90 minutes each way, tough kids!!! Keen to show their pencil cases and exercise books with notes from English lessons, they woz keen to go through da english lessons and pratise their prononsiation, and mi help wid it, na wat i mean in it.
Up, Up, Up
We worked out the total height gained over 19 days, coming in at a cool 16 miles! I was struggling towards the back end of this tour, most days were solid uphill as the down-hills are relatively quick, and there is no flat land in this country. All 16 of us were amazed when we saw a full sized football pitch, being the biggest area of flat land we'd seen in weeks since the airport runway. Was all worth the effort, fabulous scenery and a charmingly un-touched country.
A couple of the group with altitude meters said we'd done 16 miles of vertical height gain in 19 days of cycling. The longest downhill was a staggering 50 miles the road truly awesome clinging over big vertical drops. Would have liked to have been fitter, as I was struggling at the back end of the tour, as soon as I reached the group at some scenic spot, everyone's saddled up the mountain again ;)
More Background
Until the 1970s the country had only very limited contact with the West. Although tourists are now allowed into the country the policy is to restrict their numbers. The purposes are threefold. First, it preserves the natural environment and the lifestyle of the people without upsetting their socio-economic balance.
Secondly, it recognises the lack of infrastructure and tourist facilities, the rugged character of the terrain and the problems of communication. Third, by charging all travellers a daily package fee for tourist services, Bhutan is able to earn the foreign currency it needs for vital expenditure in other areas of development.
The latter ensures that less than three thousand visitors are entertained each year. These package charges for every day spent in the country are very high and therefore a trip to Bhutan will always be expensive.