In The Pursuit of Happiness

Druk Air, the only airline which fly into Bhutan

Happiness…

To some it could mean having lots of money.

To some it could mean having a happy and loving family.

To some it could mean having a high flying career.

But to the Bhutanese, it is more important than the economic development of the country.

Bhutan also known as the last Shangri-La, is a small country landlocked between India and China, only recently opened her doors to tourism.

In Bhutan, there are a few distinctive features which differentiate her from the others.

In Bhutan, all buildings are only allowed the maximum of 5 storeys high and required to be Dzong design, even the airport is using the same design as the normal house in Bhutan.

Yes..this is the airport and we spend 15 minutes taking photo at the runway

In Bhutan, all the Bhutanese are required to wear their national costume to work and school whereby men are required to wear gho and women, the kera.

In Bhutan, Gross National Happiness (GNH) is used to measure the happiness of the people rather than GDP.

In Bhutan, crime rate is very low, almost zero and we never saw a single beggar while we were there for 5 days.

In Bhutan, the national sport is achery but strangely they never win any Olimpic medal. The archers need to shoot the arrow from a distance of more than 10 feet and the Bhutanese play in teams. Both teams can insult or distract their opponent and dance of victory if one of their members managed to hit the target.

Archers celebrating their shot to target

In Bhutan, the ‘official’ food is chili cheese. We tried some, it was way too hot even for Malaysians like us.

In Bhutan, the current King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck is loved by all the Bhutanese. Unlike William and Kate, his union with Jetsun Pema was only a close country affair. And my travelmate has a huge crush on him!

The current king and queen of Bhutan (credit to bbc.co.uk)

In Bhutan, most importantly we learn that sometimes having a simple life is happiness itself.

A morning market. This is some of the stunning scenary we saw during the trip.

More than 80% of Bhutan still covered in forest