The road to NIRVANA

Editor Georgie Abay lands in the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan for the adventure of a lifetime

You don't expect drama as you fly into Bhutan, the remote Himalayan valley perched on top of the world. Yet it's the most dramatic entrance I've ever experienced. I don't mean in the Western sense. No one fainted or fought. There was no crash landing.

It's the beauty of the landscape that's so unbelievably dramatic. We sat in our seats, speechless as we peered out at sprawling rice paddies, dense green forests, snow-dusted mountains, swirling aqua rivers and layered, hilly terrain. It suddenly dawned on us that we were about to land in a country unlike any another.

It has been just over 50 years since Bhutan first opened its borders to the Western world, back in 1974. In typical Bhutanese style, they did it ever so carefully. In the first year, Bhutan welcomed 300 visitors. In 2019, 315,600 people visited. The government charges a "Sustainable Development Fee", a tourist tax of $US100 ($150) per visitor per night (pre-pandemic it was $US200), and uses the money to off-set the carbon generated by visitors. Bhutan is the world's first carbon-negative country (which means it removes more greenhouse gases from the environment than it's generating).