How to visit Bhutan?

- As mentioned on the introductory page, you are obliged to book a guided tour and also fly into the country. To get out of the country, you can go overland.
- The price for this tour is fixed at 200$ per day for all operators, although discounts of 20$ are readily given, and another discount can be given for low season. If I say 200$ per day, this is actually 200$ for each night you spend in the country. If you are a single traveler, you'll have to pay 40$ extra, if you are with 2, you'll have to pay 30$ extra each. Also add 20$ for the visa.

Where to book your tour?

First of all you need to decide whether you will book your trip with an operator in your own country, or book a trip in Katmandu, or book directly with a Bhutanese operator. Personally I opted for the last choice, but there are pro's and con's for every option.

Operator in your own country

- For some people this will give the advantage of being able to join a group of people from their own country. Also a known operator in your own country may give you more confidence. The program will be fixed, and for people who don't like to plan everything on their own, this can be an advantage.
- Disadvantage is of course that you'll have to pay a commission for the work of the operator, and such a trip will usually be more expensive. This can sometimes be compensated by the fact that in group, you don't need to pay a single supplement of 40 US$ per day, although most operators still charge this if you want a single room. Another disadvantage is that you are not free to decide on your own program, and for me this is not acceptable. Often it happens that you want to stop along the road for a picture or a walk, this is of course more difficult if you are in a group of 20 people because everyone has to agree with the change of plans.
- When booking a tour like this, you should realize that your own operator is still obliged to have a Bhutanese partner, and once you arrive in Paro, you will be guided by the Bhutanese operator. Also carefully check the period they are going. One operator here in Belgium f.i. does 2 trips, 1 in July and 1 in February. These 2 months are both low season, and this will lower the price they have to pay their Bhutanese operator, but there are no festivals then and the weather is not too good.

Operator in Katmandu

I think this is only an option when you are in KTM and suddenly decide to go to Bhutan. Otherwise you could better prepare your trip on beforehand and book a trip with a Bhutanese operator.

Operator in Bhutan

- With the internet, it is nowadays very easy to contact a Bhutanese operator and book a trip. The advantage here is that you can put up your own program as you wish, and at the time you wish. If you don't want to put up a program on your own, you can of course also ask the Bhutanese operator to make a proposal.
- Disadvantage is of course that through the internet, it's not always easy to know which operator is reliable, and which will give the best quality for your money. In practice all Bhutanese operators are government controlled, so you  should be OK.
- You might also feel unconfident about sending money to an operator you don't  know. This is a good point, because after I had sent the money to the US bank account of the Bhutanese National Bank, the operator mailed me they still didn't get my money. The same thing happened to an American couple we met. So I had to fax them the bank details, and then they quickly found the money on this account, but still it can be stressing.

How to choose your Bhutanese operator

1) I mailed all the operators which I found on Yahoo and in the LP book and asked them 2 questions:
- How much does a trip cost?
- What program do you offer?
2) I immediately skipped all operators charging the full price of 200$ a day, as most operators give a discount nowadays with a price of 180$ a day. To this they always add 40$ if you are single, or 30$ a day if you are with 2, no supplement starting from 3 people. Beware, in order to avoid this supplement, these people need to travel together and apply for a visa all together. Most operators also give a discount if you go in low season.
3) Then I looked at the program they offered. Operators sending me a standard program not taking in the Punakha festival were dismissed. Of the few that remained, I asked more detailed questions like which hotels they offered.  I also put in some extra things I wanted to see, and also asked whether on some days we could leave very early at 7 am f.i. Some operators will say they only start driving at 8 am. I also tried to see which operator answered right away, dismissing those where it took days before I got an answer.
4) You'll also have to decide whether you'll take a big operator (who usually works with bigger groups) or a smaller one. The biggest operator is Etho Metho, they have 20% of the market, the you have Yangphel, BTCL, International Treks and Tours, and Bhutan andala Tours. Smaller ones usually deal with individual tourists, like f.i. Yu-Druk.

What happens next?

- You will need to send money to a US-based bank account. Once they've received the money, you will need to send your passport details to the Bhutanese operator, and they will apply for your visa. They will of course also book you on a flight to Paro.
- Your visa will be waiting for you at arrival in Paro. you still need to pay 20 $ for this.

How to get to Bhutan?

- The only way you are allowed to do this is to fly in. As there is only 1 company flying to Paro, namely Druk Air, your options are fairly limited.
- They have 3 main routes which they operate:Delhi via Katmandu to ParoBangkok over Calcutta to ParoBangkok over Rangoon and Dakha to Paro
- These flights are not really cheap. A one way flight from KTM, Calcutta or Dakha costs 190 $ (3/03). Fares for Bhutanese are much cheaper. There are about 2 flights a week. At times of a festival, it's best to book well ahead as flights may be full. Your travel agent in Bhutan will make sure that your flight ticket will be waiting for you at the Druk air desk of the airport from where you leave.
- Check out their website at http://www.drukair.com.bt/.

Arrival at the airport

- This should normally go very smoothly. Your name will be on a list of people who are allowed to get a visa (if not you wouldn't have gotten a Druk air ticket in the first place). Normally your travel agent will also have sent you a duplicate of this paper together with the flight tickets.
- He then gives you a paper, and with this paper you go to the visa office. You'll have to pay 20$, and they'll give you a visa for the number of days you've paid for, not 1 day longer.
- Then you go through immigration.
- While you wait for your luggage, you can change some money. Don't change too much because you won't have many costs since most things are included in your 200 $.
- Then you go through customs. This whole process will take no longer then 45 minutes.
- IMPORTANT: When coming from Nepal, don't forget to put your watch 15 minutes later !!

Money matters

Different sorts of money

Ngultrun: at the time of writing 1 Euro = 50 Nu and 1 US$ = 46 Nu
The Ngultrun is the official currency of Bhutan. It has exactly the same value as the Indian Rupee, and in fact Indian Rupees are accepted everywhere.  For an idea of the exchange rate, go to Oanda's currency converter. Be sure to have enough small notes with you, because often, especially in smaller places, people do not have enough change. 

Cash
It’s really useless to first change your Euros. at home into dollars, and then converting them here into Rupees. The rate for the Euro follows the official market.

You can change cash in the bank. There’s a bank in the arrival hall at the airport. 

ATM
This is of course a very handy system, which is spreading fast around the world. Most bankcards belong to the Maestro/Cirrus system nowadays, which allows you to withdraw money directly from your bank account. Exchange rates are usually good, but you have to pay a certain amount of money, which depends on your bank for each transaction. This is in the order of 2 or 3 Euros. Sometimes the local bank announces they also add some costs.

This system is now slowly spreading in Bhutan. I didn't see ATM's myself, but I saw advertisement by the Bhutanese bank saying they had ATM in Puentsholing and Paro. But as I said, you will need so little money since everything has been paid for in advance that this will not be a problem.

Credit cards
I didn't use this.

Where to change
Banks are the safest place to go, but it'll take more time. The bank at the airport gives reasonable exchange rates

Transportation

By plane
For the moment, Bhutan has only 1 airport in Paro, although their next 5-year plan includes a new airport somewhere east of Wangdue Fording. However, there is a helicopter service, but for the moment I don't have info. This is of course expensive, but if flying from Tashigang to Paro can save you 2 days, it also saves you 400$, so it may become worthwhile. Ask your travel agent.

By private car
 As your 200 $ a day fee includes a private car with driver, it's no use talking here about buses and so on. Your driver will take you anywhere.

Guidebooks

Tibet/Bhutan Footprint Handbook
- Price 21.95 $
- Published 1999
- The footprint guide on Bhutan is actually a very small part of their book on Tibet, so unless you want to go to Tibet as well, I'd opt for the LP.                        
                       

Order the Footprint Tibet/Bhutan now for only 15.37 US$

Bhutan: a travel survival kit Lonely Planet
- Published in June 2002
- Price 21.00$
- This is of course the classical book of every Bhutan traveler, and you can also buy it in Bhutan (although it'll often be a previous edition). Their maps are especially good. A good point is that they have a map with highlights, so you immediately see which places you should visit, and in about 1 day you can design your holiday. The book is written by Stan Armington. He is based in Kathmandu, and regularly goes to Bhutan (in fact he was on our plane). He knows the people of Yu-Druk very well, and he's also involved in the American Himalaya club. This has a disadvantage as well: if he wants to retain his good contacts in Bhutan, he'd better not write too negative about the country (see also chapter on political situation).
- Don't forget to go to their fantastic website where they have the "Thorn Tree". You can add your posting with practical questions about your trip: http://www.lonelyplanet.com
- They also publish an update of this book on their site at http://www.lonelyplanet.com/upgrades/index.html, you need Acrobat Reader for this.


Order the Lonely Planet  Bhutan now for only 15.39 US$ 

Safety

For the tourist, Bhutan is an extremely safe county. Bhutanese however are advised not to criticize the king.

Costs

Apart from your basic 200$ fee per day, other things you'll have to pay like drinks are pretty cheap.

Accommodation

- Hotels are OK, but it's not because you pay 200$ per day that your accommodation will be accordingly! Most hotels look like they were built in the fifties, although in reality they are rather new. Furniture and bathroom will look rather old, but service is always friendly. A lot of these hotels are owned by people related to the government like an ex-governor or something.
- Some big international chains were buying and restoring some hotels like the Four Seasons in Paro. I guess that with the current crisis in tourist industry, it might take a while.

Political situation:

Is Bhutan a dictatorship or a kingdom?
This is really a difficult topic, and you won't find a lot of info on this. Most guidebooks like LP and Footprint merely give some facts like:
- The king is head of state and he appoints the ministers
- There's an assembly of 150 people, 40 directly appointed by the king, 100 appointed by the governors and 10 appointed by the monasteries, so none are directly elected by the people. They come together once a year.
- Only the head of villages are elected by the people.
- The judges are the governors, so there are no separate judges. In fact, there are no lawyers either. So there is no distinction between judicial and executive power.

So the question is: can you have a democracy with these kind of institutions? The answer is obviously no. But maybe we shouldn't be so harsh for Bhutan and it's rulers. In fact, it is a very poor country, so maybe they can't afford a democracy like we know it in the west, and after all a lot of developing countries are not real democracies.

There are other things which crossed my mind:
- Maybe the 200$ per day fee is not just to "preserve culture" as we always hear from the government. Maybe this 200$ fee serves 2 purposes:
  -you avoid too many people coming into the country, so it's easier to give all of them an individual guide (watchdog?), so you can control where they are going and with whom they talk. Example: I was watching guys in Paro doing archery. They were obviously well off because they all had American bows of 1000$ a piece. I started talking with 1 of the guys about the rules of their game. Suddenly he said: "With which company did you come", "where is your guide?".
  - At 200$ per day, you also avoid that people stay for too long time in the country. This makes it of course impossible to start talking with people who might disagree with the government.
- The people you will meet are:your guide who works for a company which is government controlled. If the company looses it's license, their business is finished.people working in hotels. Most of the hotels are owned by people belonging to the government. This is because only they have the money to build a bigger hotel for tourists. This is also a way to keep all the big money from tourists within this elite clique.
- There's 1 newspaper Kuensel which is published by the government once every week.
- In 1989, all antennas in the country had to be dismantled, so that foreign TV channels could not be received anymore.
- There are plenty of checkpoints along the road where you have to report each time.
- There are no political parties, let alone political parties. The Nepalese refugees have some parties, but they have no representation in the government.
- When you drive through the country, you'll see there's a large difference in wealth between people driving big 4x4 Pajeros and Landcruisers on the one hand, and the poor people carrying heavy loads on their back, or working on the road.
- Why don't the guidebooks write more openly about it? That's easy. These writers go to Bhutan very often, they have a lot of friends there. If they would start writing about politics in their book the way I do, they could forget about the next edition of their book AND they would jeopardize a lot of the people they know in Bhutan.
- Does religion play a role in this? I don't think it does so deliberately, although there is clearly a link between government and church. Still, Buddhism is a religion which suits the king and his government very well, because if you don't protest against your current situation and you lead a devoted life, you will have a better reincarnation.
- On the other hand, I must admit it's probably not an easy task to lead such a poor country into the 21st century. Remember that till 1962, there were no tarmac roads, and till 1973 there were no tourists allowed. And probably a real dictator would have done a much worser job....

Medical matters

Altitude sickness
- This is a problem, which a lot of tourists will experience. It consists of shortness of breath, headache, heart beating etc. once you descend above 3000 m too rapidly (it has been described at lower altitudes as well). If taken lightly, it can progress to more dangerous forms like HAPO (high altitude pulmonary edema) and HACO (high altitude cerebral edema). It is a potentially lethal disease, and statistics from CDC show that people traveling in-group have a higher mortality, probably because they are less eager to split from the group to descend.
- You'll only get problems if you do a high altitude trek, otherwise you should be OK. Most cities are below 2000m, there are only certain passes like Dochu La which go above 3200 meter.

Malaria
There's no malaria in Bhutan except in the lower areas bordering India (WHO area A).

Hepatitis A
- If you travel with a backpack and don't mind eating in cheap restaurants, it's easy to catch Hepatitis A. Chances of getting infected range from 1/300 to 1/50 per month depending on your standard of traveling.  It's not dangerous, but you will be sick for some weeks. 
- There is a good vaccination for Hepatitis A nowadays, so ask your doctor. You need 2 shots (used to be 3 shots) at 0 and 6 months, although if you can it's even better to postpone the second shot till after 12 months. They are expensive, but they protect you for 10 years.

Hepatitis B
- You can only get this through sex and blood transfusion. Since prevalence of Hepatitis B is much higher in SE Asia then in the Western world, it might be wise to get vaccinated.
- Get your shots at 0, 1 and 6 months. They are equally expensive as hepatitis A.

Typhoid fever
There is also a good vaccination consisting of 3 pills to be taken every 2 days. Take them early enough before you leave since it's better not to combine them with malaria pills, although these guidelines have recently changed (meaning you can combine them). The vaccination works for 3 years.

Travelers diarrhea
 We always have antibiotics at hand in case of severe diarrhea. We take Ciproxine 250 mg two tablets at once and then another 3 tablets, one tablet every 12 hours.

Polio
This is a disease which is often overlooked. Most Westerners were vaccinated after birth, but since the disease doesn't exist anymore in Western countries, antibodies have fallen to a very low level at adulthood. Therefore it's best to get a boost every 10 year before going to developing countries. The injection costs 3 to 4 Euros. 

Outdoor activities

Bhutan is now also promoting some outdoor activities. Trekking was of course already longer developed, but it is of course much more primitive then in Nepal (no tea-houses f.i), and much more expensive as the fixed tariff of 200$ per day is still in order.

There is also 1 section of river (near Punakha Dzong) where rafting is possible during or after monsoon season. Lotus Tours is specialized in that.

Finally mountain biking is in the stages of development, and Yu-Druk f.i. was busy educating their staff to become guides.

When to go

- Traditionally, it is said that the best period is October to November, especially if you plan to do some outdoor activities as it doesn’t rain a lot, and views in the mountains are clear. During these months, there are also some festivals.
- Another good period is March-April. I went in March, and this was indeed a good period, although not really excellent. Views were often obscured, it did get cloudy after 2 pm and we did have rain in the night now and then. It did get cold at higher altitude (I even had snow in Phobjika valley at 2700 m). It's a good time for festivals.
- I would definitely avoid monsoon (June till August) for several reasons.
 
!! Make sure there's a festival included in the planning of your trip !!

Article Comments:

06/20/2006

Denis (5)

I simply like this type of travel recommendation / explanation than the sanitized version from most published books out there. They all read the same and no further ahead. To me it's clear and straingt forward. Thanks, happy to have read you.

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