Having always wanted to see the Himalayas, I decided -- at age 74 and with two hip replacements -- it was now or never time. So with veteran mountain trekker and friend, Toronto lawyer Kathy Robinson, I joined a small group of international tourists (four Portuguese, five Americans, we two Canadians and a guide) and undertook the journey of a lifetime.
The trip, arranged by Mountain Travel Sobek out of California, took 17 days and covered the two countries and Tibet, an "autonomous region" of China.
We were lucky. Apart from two initial days of pouring rain in Bhutan, the remains of a typhoon, the weather was glorious -- clean, hot sunny days and cool nights. Weather is important on a trip where the gigantic mountain ranges you've come to see can be visible one minute, hidden by clouds or fog the next.
We were also lucky that our trip-long guide, a Nepalese Hindu, is an expert on the intricacies of Buddhism, with its myriad deities and Buddha in all his mystic forms. He managed to make each of the monasteries and temples we visited daily somehow different from one another.
He also had a sense of humour and a welcome cynicism about some of each area's customs. That was tested when after numerous entries into security-ridden Tibet, his trusty Lonely Planet guide was confiscated because it has a foreword by the Dalai Lama.
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The difficulty level of our tour was billed as "moderate," which meant many climbs up steep, muddy narrow trails or scores of wooden or rock steps to see the sights -- monasteries and temples, mostly. These are invariably built at the tops of mountains, our guide noted, since Buddha expects his pilgrims to exert some effort to achieve enlightenment!
I found the treks strenuous but doable (with the help of walking poles). Two or three optional climbs in Bhutan and Tibet -- like the famed Taktsang (Tiger's Nest) monastery in Bhutan, perched precariously on a crag 822 metres above the valley -- I left to the fitter members of our group.
The monasteries and temples visited are uniformly magnificent, especially the few remaining in Tibet, where thousands had been "liberated" (read destroyed) during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Several hundred have since been rebuilt because they have become a tourist draw and a cash cow for Beijing.
Frustratingly, the most gorgeously decorated inner sanctums with their giant golden statues of Buddha and dozens of lesser gods, are off limits to photography.
In Lhasa's fabled Potala palace, where only a handful of its 1,000 rooms are open to the public, no photographs are allowed. With up to 2,300 visitors per day and admission ranging about $15 to $30, that's a lot of tax revenue for the government.
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We began our journey in Bhutan, which is so determined to keep its customs and environment pristine, it restricts the number of tourists (currently about 6,000 annually) and insists on each visitor spending about $225 US per day, which sounds expensive but includes hotels, most meals, guides, transportation and so on.
Twenty-five years ago Bhutan had no airport and it was a five-day trek into the remote Himalayan country. Now one flies in two hours from Bangkok, Thailand.
Aboard our Druk Air flight, the crew kept referring to His Highness. After landing, we learned His Highness was a distinguished monk visiting from North America who was greeted with traditional white scarves and prostrating admirers.
The country's young king -- Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck -- is something of a rock star. His portraits, and those of his predecessors, are everywhere. The fifth king took the throne in 2008, two years after his father abdicated in order to establish a modern constitutional monarchy in Bhutan.
Despite political reform, Bhutan has maintained its traditions. Only buildings that are brightly painted and adorned with intricately carved wood are allowed. The capital city, Thimpu, is tiny, with one traffic island, and relatively few cars. Rice paddies tumble from every hill, bright red chilis dry on tin rooftops, and marijuana grows at a local police station!
The marijuana is used routinely for "health," even on animals, and perhaps explains the country's famous claim that its gross product is "Gross National Happiness."
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One doesn't see the seriously high mountains (7,300 metres and taller) until one gets to Nepal. It has most of the world's highest ranges and while we flew over Mt. Everest and had great views on three separate occasions, perhaps the most beautiful view was at Pokhara, where we saw the Annapurna range with its cone-shaped 7,300-metre Machhophuchhn (Fishtail) mountain lit up by a rose-coloured dawn.
Staff at the Shangri-la hotel will wake guests up at 6 a.m. if the mountains are visible.
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Hotels, by the way, were mostly luxury accommodation. The Zhiwa Ling Hotel (Place of Peace) in Bhutan's Paro village has heated marble bathroom floors and a spa to die for.
In Lhasa, we were the first group to stay at the newly opened Kyichu Heritage Hotel, which is a traditional Tibetan building that was once the home of the 11th Dalai Lama -- picturesque to the nth degree, but the solar water heating system needs work.
Meals were almost all buffet style and ranged from delicious to barely edible. We eschewed the delicacies advertised on one Tibetan hotel's elevators -- Chicken and Cheese Fungus with Yak Bones, Boiled Sheep's Head and -- my favourite -- Picked Yak Pennis.
Here are some other interesting facts gleaned from the journey:
- Bhutan's national sport is archery. The country outlaws cigarettes, although lots of people smoke anyway, and doesn't allow booze on Tuesdays in an effort to curb drinking. Some inhabitants chew "doma," a betel nut paste that stains and rots teeth.
- In Kathmandu, capital of Nepal, traffic -- especially motorbikes -- is lethal. Crosswalks and traffic lights are routinely ignored. Left to its own devices, most of Nepal's sights would be in ruins. Generous grants from Europe and Japan have helped rebuild and maintain places such as the medieval villages in Bhaktapur and Bodhnath.
- Tibet is a region under siege. The capital, Lhasa, is now 65% inhabited by Han Chinese and with the opening of the railroad from Beijing to Lhasa, and increasing crackdowns on protests, Tibetans see the beginning of the end of their unique religion and culture, despite the rebuilt monasteries.
On our last night -- while viewing the gorgeous spectacle of the Potala lit up in the darkness -- one of our guides summed it up sadly: "We Tibetans are proud of three things. One is the Dalai Lama. Another is the Potala. And the third is YOU," he said, pointing to me and meaning that as long as the world keeps coming to Tibet, his country's past will never be forgotten.
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