[Post-Edit Note: All pictures and written content in this post was originally created in 2018, unless otherwise credited.]

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Bhutan is a cartographical curiosity.

I’ve always had that thought in my mind as a figure of speech, but just yesterday, I learned that Bhutan literally won the first jury’s prize at the Cartography Conference in Paris 6 years ago. Which makes my thought no longer a thought, but a fact.

Bhutan is a cartographical curiosity.

The first thing you will learn before you land, is that Bhutan’s mountains are some of the most prominent natural geographic features of the country. After all, it shares the Himalayan view with a sacred select handful of other countries; and one of the two nations it shares geographical borders with cannot even be accessed by land because of said mountains.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg mountain top.

Bhutan is incidentally also the first (and only) country that rejected the Gross Domestic Product Index in place of Gross National Happiness, where development is measured based on non-economic factors like health, psychological well-being, cultural and ecological diversity, among many other things. Education and medical care is free for all citizens, and no policy is enacted unless it passes the happiness filter. Since 1971, the country has championed the belief that well-being should take precedence over material growth; and as much as of a global oddity this has made it become – in today’s world of collapsing financial systems and wide-scale environmental destruction, perhaps, Bhutan is having the last laugh.

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Flying into Bhutan is quite the spectacle in itself.

Towering out of patchwork agricultural plains, your peripherals during landing will be framed by craggy peaks and massive escarpments and this spectacular view goes on for a good fifteen minutes as the plane cruises through a curious roundabout detour. It’s got to be pre-meditated – the country’s deliberately serving up a first-hand experience of its national aesthetic in place of a manufactured tourism video; and I can’t see anyone who isn’t impressed. Welcome to Bhutan, she’s telling us. Welcome to what is going to be the start of a really sublime experience for you. 

Bhutan will not deviate far from the travel pieces you read or photographs you see. Of all Himalayan countries, it is perhaps the most alluring, but also the most predictable to the tee. Lush mountains and valleys, remote monasteries and fortresses and temples. And very, very nice people.

My 7-day tour with Druk Asia began the second I landed at Paro International Airport, the only international airport in Bhutan and which serves all of two airlines – both Bhutanese-owned. I was greeted by my guide, Sherab, and driver, Jimmy; both of whom were in their Gho, the traditional Bhutanese costume for men; which consists a long robe hoisted up to knee-length and held in place at the waist with a woven cloth belt. In fact, everyone was (the female equivalent is the Toego and Kira); and whilst I’d initially assumed that to be some kind of a tokenistic ideal for the tourist, it didn’t take me long to realize how terribly conceited that assumption was.

Everyone dresses traditionally in Bhutan and if you don’t, you stick out like a sore thumb; which makes it painfully easy to tell a tourist from a local – no matter how ‘Bhutanese’ you look. In fact, even if you’re local and you’re dressed in T-shirt and jeans (which happens once in a while), you still stick out like a store thumb and people wonder where you’re from. The only ones who are more likely to get away with it are the kids, and even then, it isn’t all that common to come across one.

“It’s like they’ve all been drinking the same Kool-aid. A bit too Stepford-ish maybe.”

I’d read that line somewhere prior to the trip, but this is a sentence you will not fully comprehend until you’re here. In one of my Instastories’ response to a question about Bhutan, I remember describing the place as ‘almost communistic’, and I mean that only in the rawest, most theoretical sense:

This is a country that seriously takes peace to a whole new abnormal level. And this sentiment was something that continued to haunt me for the next few days of my trip until finally, somewhere around the fourth day, I blurted out a question that had been burning at the back of my mind – and in the most politically incorrect way one possibly can: if there was crime in Bhutan.

Crime? Sherab parroted quizzically. It took him a while to ponder my question before he replied.

Indeed, real crime in Bhutan is uncommonly low compared to the rest of the world. Petty crimes are typical, as expected; but things like rape, drugs, murder and other more serious offences are almost unheard of. In fact, serious crimes were very uncommon in Bhutan throughout most of the 20th century, and the marginal increase from the 1980s to now is believed to be mainly due to the influx of foreign labourers, widening economic disparities, and more contact with foreign cultures. The introduction of television to the country in 1999* has also been seen as a leading cause behind the increase in crime rates, as the whole idea of TV itself is often regarded as incompatible with Bhutanese culture.

And even then, crime in Bhutan still stands a huge fraction below any world average.

*Bhutan holds the record for being the last country in the world to be introduced to TV. 

I don’t know why any of that was important. Perhaps my inherent curiosity will give you some insight on just how… peaceful, these people are.

Don’t get this wrong though, Bhutan is not a country of uber-friendly extroverts waiting at the pavement to make small talk with you or provide directions when you’re lost. Apart from your guide and hospitality staff, few – if any – will bend over backwards with overzealous effort to make sure that all is fine and dandy for you every second of the day. Rather, it is that you rarely chance upon unkind, impatient, nasty people; and there is generally a feeling of very little… bad energy here, if that makes any sense at all. Humanity is first nature for these people. They have immaculate manners, immeasurable patience, and a strange zen-like demeanor that is highly infectious in its nature; often exhibiting a spontaneous hospitality typical of a farming family. Sincere, ingenuous, and unimposing.

Demure, is perhaps the closest word I can think of. This country of eight hundred thousand people who don’t believe in harming insects or cutting down trees.

It didn’t take long before we reached our first stop, Paro’s Tachogang Lhakhang Bridge (or more simply known as the Iron Bridge); nothing will stand out until you learn that it was constructed in the 1400s and then you start to wonder how. Apparently, the 15th century was a lot more entrenched in engineering than we imagine. 

Thangtong Gyalpo, the guy who is thought to have built this bridge, also built a hundred and eight other such bridges around Bhutan and Tibet; and he was kinda known as the Grandfather of Iron Bridges around town.

This is such a grand faux pas to admit to, but I think somewhere around Nepal in 2013, I developed an obsession with prayer flags and prayer wheels and I have had to try VERY hard since then not to go out there and get some. I’ve been successful so far (having only bought a string of prayer flags once for a Buddhist friend); but every Asian trip since then has been a battle. People underestimate the resolve needed to not want to turn these beautiful, sacred things into home decor. The agony is palpable.

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Thimphu is about an hour’s drive away from Paro. After the short pit stop at the Iron Bridge (which is at Paro), we continued on to Thimphu, checked in, had lunch, and then made a visit to the Memorial Chorten right in the heart of the city centre.

This Memorial Chorten is what happens when a mother loves her son and has enough money to tell the world about it. This building serves primarily as a memorial to the third king (the current King’s grandfather); and was built by his mother (not literally of course) after he passed away from cancer at the tender age of 43.

The chorten is a blaze of architectural intricacies and religious symbolism; and is definitely one of the most iconic structures in the city. Like a free-spirited old folks’ home, the place seems to always be littered with packs of elderly whom, I was told, spend much of their days circling the chorten in prayers and lighting butter lamps for blessings. Many simply sit around the grounds to hang out, occasionally rotating the prayer wheels – presumably for more blessings.

What might fascinate you more than anything however, is the inside of this chorten; which currently houses 36 huge wrathful deities in the yab-yam pose – which, so I’ve learned, is a symbolic Buddhist pose of a male deity in… union, with his female consort. It’s supposed to depict compassion or wisdom or something enlightening like that; but let’s just say. It definitely wouldn’t look that way to anyone at first glance.

We ended the day with a visit to the Buddha Dordenma, which is perhaps my most favourite landmark in the city.

I’m pretty sure the Buddha Dordenma wasn’t designed to showboat; but boy does it know how to dominate its settings. Sat atop a prayer-flag-festooned forested hill, this statue is crafted from solid bronze, and measures in at a whopping 51.5 meters tall; making it one of the largest Buddha statues there is in the world.

Apart from commemorating the centennial of the Bhutanese monarchy, the building of this statue supposably fulfills two prophecies. In the twentieth century, a renowned yogi prophesied that a large statue of either Padmasambhava, Buddha or a phurba would be built in the region to bestow blessings, peace and happiness on the whole world. A reference to the statue was also made in the 8th Century by Padmasambhava himself; later recovered by Terton Pemalingpa in the 15th Century.

And so it came to be.

Making it up to this hillpoint gives you a magnificent panoramic view of the city. Although, to be honest, one of the reasons I loved it so much was because you can spot this for miles when you’re down below; and it fast became a figure of comfort during all those daily long drives.

If you’re coming into Bhutan from Singapore, expect yourself to be completely pooped out by the end of Day One. Basically all flights from Singapore to Bhutan only depart at an unearthly 6am+ from Changi Airport; and it does this intriguing, almost comical two-sector flight to Bhutan via Calcutta. More specifically, the plane pitstops at CCU where some people get down and more people get up; after which it continues on to Bhutan almost like a bus making its rounds. The entirety of the flight clocks in at roughly 6hrs, the stopover itself typically 30-45 minutes – and no, you’re not allowed down or out during the stopover because it’s not a transit. You just stay in your seat – much like you would in a bus at a bus stop.

I didn’t even know that this would happen (that’s how much pre-trip research I do); and I was freaking out at check-in because I was like, omg do i stay do i get down what do i do where do i go why doesn’t it state on the ticket that there’d be a transit; and I was so confident that there’d be this massive delay because, you know, Indian timing. It didn’t help that the time difference between Singapore & India and India & Bhutan and Singapore & Bhutan were all over the place; and in one particular miscalculation, I was horrified to learn that we’d be delayed for two hours.

Needless to say, it was just bad mental calculation on my part and no, there was no delay. In fact, the entire thing went on like clockwork and we didn’t reach a second late, so it seems like the Bhutanese really do have it all down to the tee.

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Until we meet again, on the second day.