We arrived in Bhutan today after an all night train from Kolkata. Arriving about 1/2 hour from the border and being picked up by folks from a company I work with here.
If you haven’t heard my description of crossing this particular border at Phoensholing, it’s like this.
Imagine being in a washing machine where the top is open and you are inside. You’re being tossed around while you watch the dirt and possibly detergent being tossed on top of you. All the while having the washer alarm going off every ten seconds, screaming in your ear and you just don’t know when the wash will end, if you will be clean when it’s finished, or if the washer may break. Not to mention not knowing where the water came from. You may even have the person that put you in the washing machine yelling at you.
Then, all of a sudden, you are ejected into this pool of (mostly) calm, clean water. Somewhat soundless. You feel energetically different. There isn’t this energetic grab you feel as though your life source is being drained. For a second, you feel as if it just might possibly get replenished instead. But you don’t know. Is it real? You’re not sure yet.
14 plus years ago I experienced that feeling and now Camila has. It’s wild.
Bhutan was a Kingdom until 2008 when the King advocated towards switching to a more democratic rule. Imagine that. A country of 800,000 people wedged between India and Tibet (China). I called it the Switzerland of the Himalayas. Chhimi corrected me to call Switzerland the Bhutan of the Alps!
My good friend Chhimi, whom I met at Humboldt State in 2008, invited me in 2012. This is my 5th visit and Camila’s 1st.
I am an investor and on the Board of Directors for Microfinance Bhutan Private Limited. MBPL.bt Something i wrote about in grad school (combining it with clean energy) and have gathered more knowledge and experience about it after.
I’ve traveled mostly solo (and without a guide or having to pay) by either a friends/family visa or a work visa. I’m lucky. I feel close to many people here with whom I will reconnect and Camila will meet first hand. Some are in my book either with a picture or a story. Bhutan is a place I could never fit in for long. But I love coming. If you read this blog, you can look back at old ones from 2017 and 2019 to see my impressions and stories. And you can see a recently re posted video on Facebook of me and my friend Sikkim’s first rendition of “Buddhist Roads”. A song I penned in my mind while hiking with Sikkim as he’d asked me about John Denver’s “Country Roads”. Still one of my favorite videos of all time.
Bhutan measures their economy by Gross National Happiness. Look it up. What a way to measure an economy! Geez, most people don’t even read my blog let alone look up what I suggest!
It’s been 7 years. Things have changed. Maybe.
I can’t wait to pick Chhimi’s brain and see some old friends whose lives may or may not have changed!
Kuzudzongpo and Tashidelek!
