Exotic destinations

I just got an email from a Singapore-based travel agency selling Bhutan for November. Bhutan – that tiny mountain kingdom on the Himalayas, between Northeast India and Tibet. The language is a mixture of Chinese and Tibetan.

Then there’s Tibet, a mystical place high up on the Himalayas that has given rise to the concept of “Shangri-la.” Since it is still a China-protectorate, known as the Tibetan Autonomous Region, visa may not be that easy to get…which brings us back to Bhutan, a semi-independent State attached to India. There’s the rub!

The cost of applying for a visa to India is more expensive than applying for a U.S. visa – it is ridiculous. I complained about how tedious it is to apply for an Indian visa with so many requirements, to an Indian Embassy official I had dinner with during their tourism caravan in Cebu some years ago. He assured me they were making it better…but it is still the same! I just learned that if you are required to apply for a business visa, then the cost doubles! Maybe they are too populous to care whether they have tourists or not? Or they know that people don’t really go to India unless for a specific reason – like viewing the Taj Mahal or experiencing Himalayan Kashmir?

I have always had Bhutan in my bucket list of destinations…oh, well! As to Tibet, another bucket list destination, it is now more accessible with a train line that goes all the way there. One can also take a flight from Chengdu (PROC) to Lhasa, the capital. James Hilton’s 1933 novel entitled “Lost Horizon” that was subsequently made into a Broadway play, then into a movie, placed Tibet on the tourism map. There are now some places in Tibet that they have named “Shangri La” to attract more tourists. One such place is the Tibetan county of Zhongdian in northwest Yunnan Province. But the closest to Hilton’s “Shangri La” is Yading Nature Reserve.

Yading is quite remote and remains unlisted in guidebooks to this day. One can take a bus or drive a car from Chengdu to Yading Nature Reserve (best season is between June to early October) in 20 – 25 hours over 865 km (540 miles). A better way is from Chengdu to Kangding (Dartsendo in Tibet) as there are many buses plying this route daily, over 33o miles in 8 – 10 hours. It is advisable to stay for two nights in Kangding (2,600 meters elevation) to acclimatize for the high altitude. There is one bus that goes to Daocheng (3,700 m elevation) where entrance tickets can be purchased (75 m south) in Riwa. Riwa, 35 km from Yading, has hotels and guesthouses where one can stay while enjoying the best Shangri La experience in Yading.

And, who knows? With the Kingdom of Bhutan next door, one may try to get a visa from there to crossover. This occurred before, bypassing the ultra-bureaucratic Indian government processes.

Then, there’s Kashmir and Nepal…these are the places that collectively make up “the roof of the world!” Tibet however possesses that title, being the highest of all and perhaps the most ancient. They are like baubles decorating the summits of the Himalayas, that mountain range that was “The Far Pavilions” in a novel I read in college. That book was the start of my exotic fascination of the places that occupy slices of the Himalayas.

Who knows? I may find myself breathing the thin air of the Himalayas…one can always dream. Meantime, stay safe while on the road or in flight!