The More Things Change, the More they Stay The Same
Our friend Martha gave me an old book by the essayist and travel writer Pico Iyer, which included a chapter about his travels in Bhutan. B orn to Indian parents in England, he often tells stories of his travels to far-flung places around the globe . Though this book, Falling Off the Map: Some Lonely Places of the World , was written over 30 years ago, I was fascinated that many of his experiences and observations of Bhutan in 1989 were not very different from much of what we went through more than three decades later. I learned some interesting things that added to what I already knew and had observed about Bhutan: He comments that, "in Bhutan, trips are decidedly more a matter of traveling than arriving.” Still so true! That was one of the most challenging aspects of living there. Every time I got into a vehicle I knew that the journey could take any form. If nothing else, I would steel myself for likely motion sickness - but also felt vindicated whe...