May – June 2013
Intro
Tibet. Nepal. Bhutan. Another epic trip that I’ve dreamed of for years!
Tibet, I’ve wanted to see ever since I was a kid, hooked on Tintin comic books (especially ‘Tintin in Tibet’!). Nepal — thanks to ‘Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego’, I’ve always wanted to go to Kathmandu, as it seemed like she was always hiding there! Bhutan had fascinated me as well, ever since I’d learned that it was a ‘forbidden country’, and closed to the outside world.
The time had finally come to see them all for myself. Tibet‘s status had been in flux in recent years, changing from closed to open to closed again. I took a chance and was lucky to find it just barely open again when I was hoping to visit. Even still, I would only know if I’d been granted a Tibet travel permit upon arrival in Chengdu where I would (or would not) catch a flight to Lhasa the next morning! Nepal has been open and welcoming for years, and wasn’t a problem. Even Bhutan, relatively new to tourism, was wide open after decades of isolation – its tourism industry strictly controlled but highly promoted as a model of sustainable tourism — and proud to showcase its philosophy of Gross National Happiness to the rest of the world.
The Potala Palace in Lhasa is an absolute wonder, towering over the city – and seeing it
Galleries
Featured Image
Yamdrok Yumtso, Tibet
