IS BHUTAN A SHANGRI-LA?

Is it easy to enter Bhutan?

“Bhutan is one of the hardest countries to enter in the world. Ranking amongst the likes of Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Eritrea, Syria and Russia.”

Uhh, actually no it’s not!

Unlike the other countries listed above, to which any trip would worry even the toughest of mothers, Bhutan’s stringent border control isn’t the result of danger, corruption or even bureaucracy. Bhutan’s reputation as an exclusive travel destination, saved for the adventure craven’s money lined pockets, is actually the symptom of an unusual sustainable development policy:

To visit Bhutan you must pay at least $250 per day of your visit, which of course is to be paid upfront before you even think of applying for your visa! This money goes to (well… $65 does) securing the country’s sustainable development and education for all. Though of course, it helps that tourism alone adds $2,000,000 to Bhutan’s annual revenue.

Unless of course you are Indian, in which case you are exempt from Bhutan’s wallet stomping fees! For the shoe string yankers among you, there are a few ways to add discounts to your bill. You can get $50 off if you brave the impassable winter and landslide monsoon seasons, or travel in a group of more than two to avoid the extra $40 penalty.

As it stands, the daily fee covers your accommodation*, food, private transport, guided hikes, entry fees, permits and visa. (Additional costs may be incurred if you upgrade from the standard 3 star accommodation or request more off the beaten track activities)

TIP…You can request a different hotel as long as it boasts the same number of stars!

Why is it so isolated then?

Bhutan’s relative isolation stems from a deep seated fear of cultural dilution. The Bhutanese officials have gone to great lengths to keep the outside world at bay and protect indigenous culture. Some of their most impressive feats include…

Bhutan did not open its borders to foreigners until 1970!

Development that characterises the modern world has been discouraged, to the extent that not one single traffic light exists. Instead, there are helpful homemade road signs reminding drivers to be careful! e.g. ‘Peep peep, don’t sleep’.

Tattoos and smoking are banned, whilst consumption and purchasing of alcohol is only banned on Tuesdays.

TV and Internet has only been legal since 1999!

But it’s not just development and the waves of western culture swept in by tourism they fear. It’s also dilution of culture from within.

The official government line is ‘high value, low impact’ as a monetary deterrent against the influx of cheap tequila wielding tourism that rules over South East Asia. Depending on which itinerary you choose, this slogan could mean one of two things. Highly valuable experiences with low environmental impact, or less favourably… a bloody expensive tour which had little impact on your life other than depleting your travel funds.

I truly hope that by taking the time and effort to tailor your itinerary to your interests, the second outcome can be avoided! Either way, Bhutan is one of the few countries in the world to have not just a neutral carbon output, but a negative one.

But… It’s still the happiest country in the world?

Despite making a point of measuring progress in Gross National Happiness (GNH), and thus curating (accidentally or intentionally) a Shangri-La reputation, the ‘Happiest Country in the World’ is not without human rights violations. The Land of the Thunder Dragon (as Bhutan is known to natives) is in reality socially divided. A few outspoken citizens have even said the tours only show you what the government want you to see. This suggests there are some places the King doesn’t deem ready for the Happiness test.

In the 1990s, 100,000 Nepali-Bhutanese residents were forcibly expelled from the country after several protests against the now mandatory dress code. A dress code which favoured Buddhist traditions. Many of these refugees remain in camps, as neither Bhutan nor Nepal will embrace them. Other minorities remain within Bhutan such as Hindus and Christians (20% of population) who are marginalised and treated unfairly as they fall into the lower realms of the 7 categories of the Bhutanese Citizenship ID.

No country is without blame when it comes to civil rights issues, but segregating an already divided population in such a visual way seems a step too far.

Despite this ‘murkier side’, Bhutan has been honoured with pioneering the now recognised ‘International Day of Happiness’ (March 20th) …. and is cited as a key source of Yale’s popular module ‘How to have a happy life’.

Scandinavia is also a world happiness destination. See what makes Denmark, Norway and Iceland the place to be truly content.

How do you measure happiness?

Though originally brought about in the 1990s, the Gross National Happiness Index was only made official in 2008. The king and queen (often referred to as the Will and Kate of the Himalayas) introduced it to encourage ‘development with values’.

The questionnaire participants are visited individually over the course of half a year by official interviewers who extract 750 answers over the course of a three hour interview (originally 9 hours). Supposedly the 8,000 households who participate are chosen at random and a representative answers for the happiness of his entire family! (Keep in mind 8,000 households represents less than 1% of the population, 20 % of which aren’t even given full national citizenship status). The process requires the representative member of the household to take a day off from work, for which they are compensated.

Within a few months of being interviewed the participant will find out wether they have represented their family as ‘deeply happy’, ‘extensively happy’, ‘narrowly happy’ or less (which tellingly has no categorisation).

The results from the 2015 survey show that 8% were deeply happy, 35% extensively happy, 47.9% narrowly happy and the other 9%… not on the happiness scale? Results like these (from such a subjective and abstract questionnaire) make me wonder if Bhutan really is a leadership model of happiness.

47.9% were narrowly happy

If one of my lecturers at uni had asked me to design a questionnaire to assess national happiness and I had presented them with this I’m pretty sure I would have failed the module. Here’s why…

That’s not even including the questions which read like a physchiatric assessment for a suicidal patient! Whilst some of the questions do make an effort to address waste, fuel and environmental hazards, there is also a heavy focus on Bhutanese cultural identity and material assets. This not only shows Bhutanese fears of cultural dilution by outside influences, but also challenges their claim that their low ranking (94th out of 156) on the International Happiness Index compared to their own survey cannot be due to an exclusion of material wealth as a criterion.

The point of this post

The point of this post was to educate myself about a mysteriously isolated country, more than blame Bhutan for not being unrealistically happy and perfect. I hope this semi-structured babbling has made you interested in this beautiful country, or even brought another country in to your internal globe.

As a photographer who doesn’t currently have a driving licence, the idea of a tour agency offering me a tailored trip with private transport really takes the edge off of the $250 a day fee! Also, the idea that an itinerary of mine may actually be contractual appeals to my need to see as much as possible (as I usually have to sacrifice destinations to fit with a public transport itinerary).

The best advice is to make the most of tailoring your route, as the agreed upon itinerary must be adhered to. Though you can add little things along the way as they pop up, it’s imperative the overnight accommodation and visa entry and exit dates remain the same.

Enjoy the adventure!