Out in the open | The Australian

  • Date:November, 2012

The Australian, 13 August 2011

The once-closed Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is evolving at a lively pace

MY guide, Thinley, tells me: ‘‘We Buddhists believe that you must work for the good things in life.’’ We are trudging across a vibrant green paddock dotted with grazing ponies, thickets of pine trees and a gurgling stream.

Above us is Bhutan’s most popular and recognisable attraction, the Tiger’s Nest monastery, or Taktshang Goemba, perched precariously atop a sheer cliff. It’s been an arduous five hours climbing through mud and rain. Thinley mentions that the Tiger’s Nest burned down and was rebuilt more than a decade ago, and a cable car erected to expedite building materials to the mountaintop was dismantled in 2004.

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