Posts

Showing posts from 2021

Bumdra - Bhutan's Paradise πŸ”

Image
As I was doing photoblog on my trips to beautiful places in Switzerland, I realized I hadn't written about my trek to Bumdra in Paro, Bhutan. U nquestionably, i t is one of the most beautiful places on earth.  The two days Bumdra trek and camp, I took in October, 2019 was one of the most exciting and one of a kind experience, I got to explore in a long time. We drove till Sang Choekor Buddhist College in Paro from Thimphu, after which our hike started. It took us (average walkers) almost six hours to reach Bumdra.  Despite the distance, the hike was quite an easy one through stunning oak and rhododendron forests, not very steep ups, breathtaking views of the forest and the Himalayas and clean/fresh air to breath.  Standing elegantly at 3,800m above sea level,  Bumdra, which literally means, the 'Rock of One Hundred Thousand Foot Prints' is the name of a place where a monastery today stands.  Legend has it that, following Guru Rinpochoes's order, a hundred thousand Dakin

Trip to Niesen Mountain, Spiez and Gstaad πŸ‡¨πŸ‡­

Image
Note: Since this is the second half of the article, please read the first part of my trip  Trip to Iseltwald, Lake Brienz & Lake Thun, Interlaken and Sigriswil . I divided it into two parts to make it more convenient for my readers:) Thank you for reading! Red Funicular train and the railway  Day two was equally exciting, rather more adventurous than day one. After having heavy breakfast, we started our journey from Bern around nine in the morning. It took us an hour car journey to reach  MΓΌlenen from Bern.  From MΓΌlenen, we climbed up to  Niesen Kulm  on a funicular train. It was an amazing, one of a kind experience; I thoroughly enjoyed the train ride despite having massive adrenaline rush moments several times during the ride. The Niesen railway is one of the oldest funicular railways in Switzerland.  The historical funicular railway began its services in 1910.   Way back from Niesen Kulm The first 15 minutes train journey took us from the lower station in MΓΌlenen to the middle

Trip to Iseltwald, Lake Brienz & Lake Thun, Interlaken and Sigriswil πŸ‡¨πŸ‡­

Image
Let me start by stating, Switzerland in Autumn/Fall is a Paradise, perfect weather, colorful leaves/forest, a touch of snow on the mountains, autumn flowers (especially the wild ones), blue sky turning into pink after sun set – truly truly a Nature Heaven. Fall, especially the second half of September till the first half of November is the best time to visit Switzerland, I strongly recommend. We started our journey early in the morning from Geneva in a car, so that we have enough time for sightseeing, we planned to visit many places. Our host was a lovely Bhutanese family in Bern, where we stopped for a cup of tea on the way and unloaded our stuffs. From Bern, we were joined by the host family. We drove to Iseltwald first, a beautiful, serene and a colorful village  on the south shore of Lake Brienz,  well known for the filming of popular K-drama, Crash landing on you. It looked more beautiful in real, deep blue lake, snow capped mountains, stunning landscape and colorful forest th

Trip to Zurich, Lucerne and Bern, Switzerland

Image
I went for a nice three days trip to Zurich, Lucerne and Bern cities of Switzerland in September last year with my three equally excited girl friends. I wanted to do a photo blog right after the trip but somehow got busy. However, w riting an article long after the travel has its own charm, when you have almost forgotten the details, it makes us relive the moment and feel grateful. Th ank god for my dairy, my Instagram account and the pictures on my phone, I have all details captured. Switzerland is a very very beautiful country, I am sure no one would deny; I am constantly amazed and awestruck by its beauty. The pictures speak for themselves. In Switzerland, it really is “pictures speak louder than words”; there are really no words to describe its beauty. Well to start with, on day one, we started our train journey from Cornivan Station, Geneva at around 6:00 AM to Zurich; it took us a little more than three hours. Our host, a kind gentleman and a fellow countryman came to pick us up

Covid-19 impact on Tourism in Bhutan

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a global economic crisis with tourism being one of the worst affected of all. Tourism has been one of the fastest growing and most resilient socio-economic sectors of this era. In Bhutan, it is one of the most important growth sectors as it earns the highest amount of hard currency reserves and provides employment opportunity to a growing number of Bhutanese youths. The contribution of the tourism sector to Bhutan’s GDP is estimated to be around 9% and the sector is estimated to employ about 6% of the population. Like elsewhere, tourism was the first sector of Bhutan’s economy impacted by the pandemic. The tourism industry in Bhutan has continued to grow over the years. The country’s `High Value, Low Volume` tourism policy anchored in promoting sustainable tourism makes Bhutan a unique and an exclusive travel destination. The revenue generation from the tourism sector has increased from over USD 2 million in the late 1980’s to over USD