It’s hard to contemplate leaving Bhutan. This isn’t the kind of place you say, “We?ll be back next year.” We’d be fooling ourselves to think it was that easy. Yet, there is something here indefinably rich, attractive, and even compelling. I want to return next year, and I don’t know for sure, if I’ll ever be back. You don’t just go online and buy an airline ticket and show up. It’s perhaps the most complicated country on Earth to visit, as well as the most expensive. Yet, I think I will be back, soon. I don’t know what I have to offer Bhutan, but I want to contribute something, as well as absorb something.
We went to the oldest temple in Bhutan today. It was a last day treat after the hike to Tiger’s Nest. The first building was started in the eighth century, and the main temple dates from the early 1600s. The small, inner temple is filled with statues three tiers high. The top tier occupies the space from 12-18′ on the wall. I don’t find that more statues are better, but this array if statues did touch me. As I stood in this intimate space, tears did come, quite unexpectedly. Something that contains the essence of what makes Bhutan a place of such peace, quiet joy, and gentleness, exists here. I hope some of that sweet feeling will stay with me through the years.
We just had our last afternoon tea. On the deck in front of the dining room of our manor house/inn, a young couple is just starting their Bhutan journey. I would love to be them, just starting, tasting a bit more each day of this extraordinary, last Himalayan kingdom, and having the chance to fall in love with it all over again.
