Elite Traveler November-December 2015

INSPIRE BALLOONING

elite traveler NOV/DEC 2015 ISSUE 6 114

Below top: Prayer flags at Tiger's Nest Monastery in the Paro Valley Below bottom: Guest room at the Gangtey Goenpa Lodge

Himalayas – for a suitable place to launch balloons. Neither the rocky plateaus, snowfields of Bhutan's highest peaks, nor the dense southern jungles, were suitable for taking off or landing. Phobjikha, at 9,800ft, was the only valley sufficiently wide and open. The Melzers promised the authorities that they would not fly until the black-necked cranes had left the valley each spring, then set to work addressing a second obvious problem: accommodation. Phobjikha is a five-hour drive along the twisting, one-lane ribbon of crumbling road that is the national highway from Bhutan's only international airport, so in 2013 they opened a luxurious $4m, 12-suite boutique hotel in this most unlikely of locations. Gangtey Goenpa Lodge is reached by a dirt track. No signs denote its presence. From the outside it looks like two traditional farmhouses connected by a low barn, but inside it is a masterful blend of Bhutanese style and custom with untrammeled western luxury. The Melzers used local stone and timber, but imported wood- burning stoves from Switzerland, fabrics from Australia and the $100,000 balloon from the UK – all shipped to Kolkata then trucked up overland into the Himalayas. Floor-to-ceiling plate glass windows and a south-facing balcony offer views of the sublime, cloud-wreathed valley almost as stunning as those from the balloon. A European chef provides sumptuous breakfasts and dinners, but most of the 45 staff, even the masseurs, are villagers trained from scratch and longing to please – they serenade all new guests with a Bhutanese song. A traditional stone bathhouse for spa treatments opens in spring. It is a natural addition, given that Bhutan is gradually joining the modern world. Foreigners were barred until the 1970s, and the government still discourages the sort of mass tourism that has ruined Nepal by requiring visitors to pay a fee of at least $250 a day, which includes accommodation, all meals, a tour guide and internal transport, but visitor numbers are slowly increasing (to 116,000 in 2013). The international hotel group Uma by Como has opened luxurious hotels in both the Paro Valley, close to the international airport and the gravity-defying Tiger’s Nest monastery, and the lush Punakha valley with its spectacular dzong (fortress). So far Bhutan has managed to preserve its unique culture and its pursuit of happiness over wealth is no myth. Its festivals and masked dances are still staged primarily for the Bhutanese and have not morphed into commercial shows for tourists. The gho – the colorful national dress for men – remains compulsory in public buildings. The constitution requires 60 percent of the country to be forested. Plastic bags and tobacco are banned, and Tuesdays are the dry day. Buddhism still dominates Bhutan's way of life, and mountaineering is forbidden because it angers the deities who live on the snowy peaks – at 24,835ft Gangkar Puensum is the world's highest unclimbed mountain. The Phobjikha Valley itself remains particularly unspoiled, and if anything the sight of a huge red balloon drifting silently overhead actually enhances its natural beauty. But Gantey Goenpa Lodge offers access to numerous other unexpected delights. We watched villagers compete with astounding skill in archery contests – archery being Bhutan’s national sport – young maroon-robed monks hurling home-made darts at a distant post in a game called kuru , and elder monks performing rituals with horns, drums and mournful pipes called kangling that are fashioned from human thigh bones. On one glorious spring day we biked to a hilltop at the far end of the valley, where the lodge had prepared a picnic lunch served on a linen-clothed table, laid with glassware and china. We hiked through