Bhutan Travel Guide

Bhutan, the regulated free
The Bhutanese authorities have directed its tourism to a select audience. They hope that travellers will spend at least $ 100 per day. In the country, they coexist resorts exclusive Amankora or Uma Paro, who host design rooms, decorated in an exquisite minimalism, with correct and basic hotels, only to meet the basic needs of the traveler. I slept in the second, replacing forces for the hustle and bustle of the next day and I visited the first, noting that the juxtaposition of luxury and simplicity, nobility and exclusivity, it was really successful. At all times, a guide and a driver, embedded my visits and regulated my curiosity. Respectful and gentle far a hardly imaginable in the West, they marked the limits of my free will. In Bhutan, all travel must be organised as a regulator controls the main aspects of the same itinerary, payment of fees or accommodation.

The castles of the Himalayas
Another single, portentous, element of Bhutan are the Dzong. Majestic fortresses, exponent of traditional architecture and religious, military and administrative centres. They symbolize the particular identity of Bhutan and are a poignant beauty. They arise, unwieldy and refined, between the green hills and valleys. They are the epitome of Bhutan, the territory that some referred to as the last Shangri-la - the. Was the military of Tibetan origin Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal who initiated the construction of the castles of the Himalayas, in the seventeenth century by establishing a political-religious system, which has been maintained to the present day with specific modifications.

A portion of the imposing Thimpu Dzong houses offices of the King of Bhutan while on the opposite side, is a monastic Center. Real officials are confused and intermingled with the appeased monks, giving the best example of the dual function, politico-military and religious, of these great structures. Tour of parsimony by both enclaves. The monks repaired even in my presence. Walking wrapped in an aura of mysticism and sobriety. Officials, for their part, have just been jovial your workday, as mature and educated children have such a day more than College.

The Kingdom of inner happiness gross Bhutan

While the Western States compete with each other in terms of GDP, Bhutan, gross domestic product unmarked this universal current measuring their wealth according to their FIB, gross happiness inside. What might qualify, at first glance, like an eccentricity of its monarch, is taken very seriously by its inhabitants, that incidentally, profess a quasi religious by their King worship. Some of the indicators of such happiness are culture, education, health, psychological well-being, sustainable development or environmental diversity.

A practical expression of this doctrine was in 2004, when Jigme Singye Wangchuck forbade the consumption of tobacco, which was replaced in the population by the consumption of dressage, a nut of areca stained with lime powder and wrapped in a betel leaf. In Bhutan the world masca dressage, staining your teeth of a deep red. A woman accompanied me to buy dressage. I felt curiosity to unveil its flavor. It took me a few seconds to spit it and an unpleasant sensation clouded my mouth for several minutes. The manna of Bhutan, and other parts of Asia and Oceania, is not prescribed for the exquisite Western palates.

Bhutan and the nest of the Tiger
Legend has it that Guru Rinpoche came to riding on the back of a Tigress to what is now the monastery of Taktsang Goemba, better known as "Tiger Nest", the nest of the Tiger. The complex stands in the Valley of unemployment more than three thousand meters of altitude. It is a sacred enclosure and place of pilgrimage for Buddhists.

Start a climb on foot for three hours, after which I attend a show of obvious beauty. A monastery hanged, literally, of the mountain. A sanctuary of peace that defies the laws of gravity and rises, tiny and glorious, on the back of a rocky massif.