Speaker 1: You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Guess what, Mango? What's that? Will? All right? I know
Speaker 2: we've got this long list of all the places we
Speaker 2: want to go, but one of the places I've always
Speaker 2: wanted to go but I've heard can get pretty pricey
Speaker 2: actually is Bhutan. Now, I know this is on your
Speaker 2: list as well, and we've always wanted to do an
Speaker 2: episode here. But anyone who knows anything about Bhutan knows
Speaker 2: that the Himalayan kingdom is known for being gorgeous and pristine,
Speaker 2: but it also has a reputation for being pretty expensive.
Speaker 2: And that's because, with only a handful of exceptions, foreign
Speaker 2: tours who visit the country are required to pay a
Speaker 2: fixed amount for every single day that they spend there.
Speaker 2: It's typically the equivalent of about two hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: dollars a day, or what they call the sustainable development fee.
Speaker 2: But once you get past the initial sticker shock, it
Speaker 2: actually works out to be a pretty good deal. You know.
Speaker 1: I obviously study abroad into Pollitoba, and like I knew
Speaker 1: it was a expensive and especially as a student, it
Speaker 1: felt like just exorbitant, But I had no idea. It
Speaker 1: could actually be a good deal. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the price not only covers meals and accommodations, it
Speaker 2: also provides you with a state appointed tour guide as
Speaker 2: well as a car and a driver to help get around.
Speaker 2: So that price down when you think about its.
Speaker 1: Feel incredible, especially like, you know, considering it's a pretty
Speaker 1: small country, getting a car to drive around is pretty amazing.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The whole of Bhutan is less than half the
Speaker 2: size of the state of Indiana, And as you know,
Speaker 2: I always like to measure things in Indiana's you know,
Speaker 2: whether I'm eating a meal and it's like one one
Speaker 2: millionth of an Indiana or whatever it may be. Anyway,
Speaker 2: but you're right, the fee structure helps prevent the country
Speaker 2: from being overrun by tourists. So, for instance, there's this
Speaker 2: whole subculture of budget travelers who backpack all over Asia
Speaker 2: on the cheap, and there's this unofficial route that they
Speaker 2: tend to follow called the Banana Pancake Trail. Have you
Speaker 2: heard of this?
Speaker 1: I have had banana pancakes in that reason, but but
Speaker 1: I didn't realize there was a trail.
Speaker 2: It's yeah, a little bit well, I mean it's sort
Speaker 2: of along those lines. There's a lot of street vendors
Speaker 2: and guesthouses that cater this crowd and serve banana pancakes
Speaker 2: for breakfast, which seems like a fantastic idea. And the
Speaker 2: Pancake Trail runs through Nepal and into China, but rather tellingly,
Speaker 2: it avoids Bhutan, and that's because the high fixed price
Speaker 2: for visitors tends to price out the bargain backpackers there.
Speaker 1: I loved idea this like Hansolin Gretel, like like banana
Speaker 1: trail that's just waiting for you. Uh. But I assume
Speaker 1: all of this is by design, right, They're trying to
Speaker 1: keep people out.
Speaker 2: It definitely is. And for the longest time, Bhutan was
Speaker 2: completely closed off to foreign visitors because the government worried
Speaker 2: that foreign influence would erode the unique culture and sort
Speaker 2: of rekavoc on the environment there. And while the country
Speaker 2: did eventually open its borders in the nineteen seventies, it
Speaker 2: remained extremely selective about the kinds of tourists that it welcomes.
Speaker 2: The Bhutanese government calls this policy quote high value, low
Speaker 2: impact tourism, and it's a big reason why Bhutan's air, water,
Speaker 2: and landscapes remain untouched, even with hundreds of thousands of
Speaker 2: tourists passing through every single year. Day's episode, we thought
Speaker 2: we'd sneak into this pristine country and tore you through
Speaker 2: some of Bhutan's most fun facts. So put on your
Speaker 2: hiking shoes, it's time to dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners,
Speaker 2: welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
Speaker 2: always I'm joined by my good friend Mangesh hot Ticket
Speaker 2: and on the other side of the soundproof glass wearing
Speaker 2: a hat with a scrawny looking dragon, I think on wheels,
Speaker 2: that's our friend and producer Dylan Fagan. Now, at first
Speaker 2: I thought Dylan had lost the plot a bit wearing
Speaker 2: such a random hat, But then I realized that's not
Speaker 2: just any odd looking dragon. That's the same one that's
Speaker 2: on the front and center of the Butan Knese flag.
Speaker 2: Now did you catch that Mango?
Speaker 1: I could actually tell by those four round jewels clutched
Speaker 1: in the dragon's feet. They kind of look like he's
Speaker 1: on wheels and he can't keep his balance. But I
Speaker 1: do love it. It is pretty distinctive and adorable.
Speaker 2: He's got such good taste at Dylan, So Bhutan's national
Speaker 2: symbol is a thunder dragon or druk, and it's a
Speaker 2: big deal. In Bhutanese mythology. The druk is associated with
Speaker 2: these fierce storms that often roll in from the Himalayas,
Speaker 2: and according to legend, the sound of the thunder is
Speaker 2: actually the dragon roaring.
Speaker 1: It's also the country's namesake, right, Like, I feel like
Speaker 1: I've read that Bhutan literally means thunder dragon.
Speaker 2: You know, that's actually what I thought too, But the
Speaker 2: truth is that nobody really knows what Bhutan means. The
Speaker 2: best guess is that it's an adaptation of a Sanskrit
Speaker 2: phrase meaning the end or edge of Tibet. But it's
Speaker 2: kind of beside the point because the Bhutanese themselves don't
Speaker 2: use that name anyway. They call their country Druk Yule.
Speaker 2: Now that's a name that translates to land of the
Speaker 2: thunder Dragon, which is much cooler than the edge of Tibet,
Speaker 2: don't you think?
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally. It's definitely cooler for your country known by
Speaker 1: this awesome mythical creature than like being some other country's
Speaker 1: boundary line.
Speaker 2: I think I think that's safe to say. Alrightego, So
Speaker 2: we're headed to Baton, where do you want to start today?
Speaker 1: Well, one of the most interesting things to me about
Speaker 1: Bhutan is that everyone is encouraged to think about death
Speaker 1: there at least three times a day, including anyone who's
Speaker 1: there on vacation.
Speaker 2: Really, I mean that feels a little more of it,
Speaker 2: especially if you're on vacation. But Bhutan's considered one of
Speaker 2: the happiest places on Earth, right I remember us covering
Speaker 2: them in an episode. It's been quite some time, but
Speaker 2: do you remember.
Speaker 1: That, right? Yeah, we did the Happiest Place on Earth
Speaker 1: episode forever ago, and people can go back and listen
Speaker 1: to it. But Bhutan's definitely made a lot of news
Speaker 1: over the last few decades for developing something called the
Speaker 1: GNH or Gross National Happiness Index, And the way it
Speaker 1: works is that a government commission goes out every five
Speaker 1: years or so and knocks on the doors to conduct
Speaker 1: a big survey, and they actually ask one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty different questions that are designed to gauge whether a
Speaker 1: person is happy or not, and then the government studies
Speaker 1: the results and factors them into various aspects of public policy.
Speaker 1: It's pretty cool and unique. Actually, less than eight hundred
Speaker 1: thousand people live in Bhutan, But according to the most
Speaker 1: recent report from twenty twenty two, a staggering ninety three
Speaker 1: point six percent of them define themselves as either narrowly,
Speaker 1: extensively or deeply happy.
Speaker 2: Isn't that amazing? Wow? That is amazing. And yet these
Speaker 2: are the people encouraging me to think about dying while
Speaker 2: I'm on vacation.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, one thing the gnah's report doesn't tell you
Speaker 1: is that part of the secret to this national happiness
Speaker 1: is purposely thinking about death each and every day, so
Speaker 1: once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and actually
Speaker 1: once at night. And that's because the Bhutanese attitude towards
Speaker 1: death is pretty different. Like in the West, we try
Speaker 1: to avoid thinking about it as much as possible, because
Speaker 1: you know, we're scared of it. But in Bhutan, they
Speaker 1: recognize that shying away from the reality to death can
Speaker 1: often be more painful than facing it head on. And
Speaker 1: because of this cultural mindset that they have, you can
Speaker 1: actually spot reminders of death just about everywhere you go,
Speaker 1: so some of them are hard to miss, like these
Speaker 1: gorgeous artistic depictions of you know, wrathful deities, or things
Speaker 1: like piles of skulls that turn up in Buddhist iconography.
Speaker 1: But they are also subtle reminders, including lovely memorials called sasas.
Speaker 1: And they look like these small cylindrical cones, and they're
Speaker 1: painted white or red or gold, and they're actually molded
Speaker 1: from clay mixed with the ashes of a loved one.
Speaker 1: And you see rows of them all over the country,
Speaker 1: lined up on prayer walls, or like nestled in public
Speaker 1: parks and squares, and even on cliff sides way up
Speaker 1: in the mountains.
Speaker 2: And that's all super interesting, But I'm curious, how does
Speaker 2: any of this actually make people happier?
Speaker 1: So maybe if we tie into Western science, it might
Speaker 1: make a little more sense. There was a study at
Speaker 1: the University of Kentucky, and this was back in two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven, but the psychologists there split a few
Speaker 1: dozen students into two groups. Now, one group was instructed
Speaker 1: to think about a painful visit to the dentist, and
Speaker 1: the other was asked to contemplate their own death.
Speaker 2: So it's kind of a horrible time for everybody involved,
Speaker 2: it seems.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know. But here's the thing. So the death
Speaker 1: thinkers later reported feeling happier and more fulfilled compared to
Speaker 1: the dental group. And here's what's fascinating. When asked to
Speaker 1: complete a series of stem words, the death group was
Speaker 1: far more likely to construct these positive words. So you
Speaker 1: get a prompt like a jo and then a blank,
Speaker 1: and they'd write things like joy, while the other group
Speaker 1: would form words like job. And this led researchers to
Speaker 1: conclude that quote, death is a psychologically threatening fact, but
Speaker 1: when people contemplate it, the automatic coping system begins to
Speaker 1: search for happy thoughts.
Speaker 2: Oh that's super interesting. So maybe the botanies are actually
Speaker 2: onto something here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, the idea really goes back to the
Speaker 1: foundation of all these Buddhist teachings, which is that everything
Speaker 1: changes and nothing is permanent. So the thinking is that
Speaker 1: the more we make peace with our own impermanence, the
Speaker 1: more like we are to appreciate everything in the present.
Speaker 2: Just to be clear here, your first travel tip for
Speaker 2: visiting Bhutan is to think about death three times a day.
Speaker 2: Do I have that right?
Speaker 1: At least three times a day. You can do more
Speaker 1: than that if you know more. Okay, just know you
Speaker 1: should probably pace yourself. Will what are you gonna talk
Speaker 1: about next?
Speaker 2: All right, we've talked about death now, Mango let's talk
Speaker 2: about stamps. So we're off to just a crazy start here. Now.
Speaker 2: One of the things that's really fascinating is that Bhutan
Speaker 2: has some of the most beautiful stamps in the world.
Speaker 2: It has this interesting story behind it, actually, which I
Speaker 2: learned from a magazine called Works that Work. Anyway, the
Speaker 2: story goes, button really didn't have a postal service before
Speaker 2: the nineteen sixties, but in nineteen sixty two it launches
Speaker 2: this tiny little post office and a town on the
Speaker 2: border with India. Now the country also opens up its
Speaker 2: first paved road and kickstarts other types of infrastructure changes
Speaker 2: there and really starts to open itself up to the
Speaker 2: world a little bit more. Right, So at this time
Speaker 2: it's it started to be less of a hermit kingdom. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's exactly right. And it was around this time it
Speaker 2: applies to the World Bank to fund these modernization programs
Speaker 2: and to build more things like hospitals, to also build
Speaker 2: an airport, and the country gets rejected. There. Now, one
Speaker 2: of the people who's advising on the loan is this
Speaker 2: American entrepreneur and friend of the royal family named Bert Todd,
Speaker 2: and he comes up with this alternate scheme like why
Speaker 2: don't we start selling stamps to make a few million
Speaker 2: dollars and then start putting that into the economy.
Speaker 1: But that feels hard, right, Like Bhutan doesn't have a
Speaker 1: postal system, people aren't sending mail within the country, so
Speaker 1: like why stamps.
Speaker 2: Well, he wants to make a collector's market around the world.
Speaker 2: And to be fair, the Bhutanese themselves are skeptical that
Speaker 2: this will work, but they have another reason for okaying
Speaker 2: the project. As this tiny nation that sits between India
Speaker 2: and China, two countries that kind of have a history
Speaker 2: of annexing neighbor states, Bhutan has a little anxiety about
Speaker 2: maintaining its independence and stamps are kind of a way
Speaker 2: to raise their international profile. So his works that work
Speaker 2: puts it quote, even if stamps failed to generate substantial funding,
Speaker 2: they could help to build awareness of the country, raising
Speaker 2: at least political capital. And so Todd sets up this
Speaker 2: Bhutan Stamp Agency and he does this from the Bahamas
Speaker 2: because he wanted to really focus on selling the stamps internationally.
Speaker 2: And the stamps that come out are incredible. Now, some
Speaker 2: serious stamp collectors look down on these Bhutanese stamps for
Speaker 2: being a little too gimmicky, but Bhutan ends up creating
Speaker 2: the first metal stamp, the first three D stamp, the
Speaker 2: first scented stamp, ended up making a stamp called the
Speaker 2: Talking Stamp that you could play on a record play.
Speaker 2: I mean, they got really creative here and had Bhutanese
Speaker 2: voices and folk songs along with these, and so decades
Speaker 2: later a stamp that works on a CD Rahm came out.
Speaker 2: But anyway, today the stamps are commissioned by the Bhutanese themselves,
Speaker 2: and they are really gorgeous and also they're still very
Speaker 2: unusual there of course, beautiful stamps of animals and the
Speaker 2: first textured sort of brushstroke painted stamp. But also you'll
Speaker 2: never guess what the best selling stamp right now is.
Speaker 1: Like a stamp of Lebron James or like a like
Speaker 1: a Korean boy band.
Speaker 2: You nailed it, Mango, It's Lebron And now it's actually
Speaker 2: a series of stamps with fallises on it. Now apparently
Speaker 2: fallises are a common motif and Boutanese art and as
Speaker 2: a way of warding off evil spirits, and they're considered
Speaker 2: funny and naughty around the world. So the series from
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen sells a ton abroad. I'm just gonna show
Speaker 2: you a few pictures here, but you can imagine, like
Speaker 2: you can know the people all around the world just
Speaker 2: being like, that's funny that that's what they put on
Speaker 2: their stamps. I'm gonna buy some, right.
Speaker 1: You are not joking. These are amazing.
Speaker 2: No, this is for real. And actually, one detail that's
Speaker 2: really cute from the article is that there's basically one
Speaker 2: person who's responsible for all the art and design of
Speaker 2: the stamps, and his favorite thing to do is go
Speaker 2: to the post office and watch tourists gawk at the
Speaker 2: stamps and watch which ones they're most drawn to, and
Speaker 2: then he comes up with a few new ideas, which
Speaker 2: is I don't know, I just think it's kind of
Speaker 2: sweet and wonderful.
Speaker 1: Oh I love the So for my next fact, I
Speaker 1: want to talk about mountaineering and Bhutan and did you
Speaker 1: know it's actually against the law to climb a mountain there?
Speaker 2: I did not.
Speaker 1: Apparently the peaks are considered sacred ground because they're home
Speaker 1: to gods and spirits, so they don't want a bunch
Speaker 1: of mountaineers trapesing through and wrecking the.
Speaker 2: Place, which makes sense, you know, when you consider the
Speaker 2: amount of trash that's left on mountain trails these days,
Speaker 2: and I know places like Mount Kilmanjaro Mount Everest have
Speaker 2: had serious issues with litter, especially in recent years with
Speaker 2: so many people visiting there, and it's just really sad
Speaker 2: to see this happening.
Speaker 1: Yeah, people sometimes refer to Everest as the world's highest
Speaker 1: garbage dump because of all the canisters and tents and
Speaker 1: food containers that people abandoned on the way, which is horrible,
Speaker 1: and of course Bhutan is trying to avoid this. So
Speaker 1: people used to be able to climb mountains in Bhutan.
Speaker 1: In fact, despite the objections of local religious groups, you
Speaker 1: could previously climb any mountain that you wanted. But in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four the government finally bowed to pressure within
Speaker 1: the country and banned the climbing of all mountains higher
Speaker 1: than nineteen thousand, eight hundred feet, and then in two
Speaker 1: thousand and three it settled the matter for good by
Speaker 1: by banning mountaineering altogether. So while plenty of climbers have
Speaker 1: actually conquered Bhutan's peaks in the past, it's unlikely that
Speaker 1: anyone will do it again, at least legally. But that said,
Speaker 1: there is one mountain left in the country that's believed
Speaker 1: to have never been successfully scaled by humans. It's called
Speaker 1: gun Car Puensum and at twenty four thousand, eight hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty six feet, it is the highest mountain in
Speaker 1: Bhutan and the fortieth highest mountain worldwide. But most impressively,
Speaker 1: it's also thought to be the world's highest unclimbed mountain,
Speaker 1: and because of Bhutan's ban, it probably always will be.
Speaker 2: I actually wouldn't have guessed that there even would be
Speaker 2: a mountain that hadn't been climbed at some point in
Speaker 2: the world. So I really love that.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 2: I kind of hope that's where all the abominable snowmen.
Speaker 2: And yet you have their annual conferences. I'm guessing that's
Speaker 2: where they gather.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely a gathering place for them.
Speaker 2: All right. Well, Bhutan might straddle the line between old
Speaker 2: and new in most ways, but when it comes to fashion,
Speaker 2: the country is firmly planted in the past. And that's
Speaker 2: because there's actually a mandatory national dress code that's meant
Speaker 2: to help preserve its cultural heritage. Basically, if you work
Speaker 2: in the public sector, it's compulsory to wear traditional Bhutanese
Speaker 2: clothing every single day, and for everyone else, the outfits
Speaker 2: are only required on certain occasions, like visiting a government office,
Speaker 2: attending a formal event, or participating in a religious ceremony.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I actually saw that this applies to the
Speaker 1: tourist industry as well. So when you meet that guide
Speaker 1: that you were talking about in the capitol, they definitely
Speaker 1: won't be wearing blue jeans, that's.
Speaker 2: Right, But I can tell you what they will be
Speaker 2: wearing instead. So for Bhutanese men, the traditional attire is
Speaker 2: called the go, which is kind of a woven kneelengk
Speaker 2: robe that's wrapped around your body and secured by this
Speaker 2: thick tight belt. It's a little tough to picture, but
Speaker 2: when you cinch the material like that, it forms this
Speaker 2: pouch right over the stomach. So it forms the sideways
Speaker 2: Napoleon style pocket where guys can keep their wallllets or
Speaker 2: small children or whatever else they've got with them.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of like a kangaroo robe for the men.
Speaker 1: But what about ladies.
Speaker 2: Well, so women wear something called the kira, which is
Speaker 2: basically an ankle link dress paired with a long sleeved
Speaker 2: blouse and a short silk jacket. It looks elegant, and
Speaker 2: it's said to be super comfy and best of all,
Speaker 2: it also has a deep pouch in the front that
Speaker 2: can serve as a pocket.
Speaker 1: They love their pockets, equal opportunity pockets. I love it. Okay, So,
Speaker 1: since I decided to talk about what the first don't
Speaker 1: do while visiting Bhutan, don't climb a mountain, I also
Speaker 1: wanted to follow it up with another which is, don't
Speaker 1: ask somebody when their birthday is.
Speaker 2: Don't ask somebody. So is it considered offensive there or what?
Speaker 1: No, It's kind of like a waste of time because
Speaker 1: most these people don't celebrate their birthdays.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, so you're telling me that in the Kingdom
Speaker 2: of Happiness, where everyone thinks about dying all the time,
Speaker 2: there is no such thing as a happy birthday.
Speaker 1: I mean, every day is not happy, I guess. But
Speaker 1: they do have birthdays, it's just not something that is
Speaker 1: typically celebrated. So supposely most residents over forty can't tell
Speaker 1: you their true date of birth because it was never
Speaker 1: considered especially important in this culture. But for a long time,
Speaker 1: the majority of parents simply didn't keep track of it.
Speaker 1: So even the parents didn't know.
Speaker 2: Wow, I mean, but there has to be some way
Speaker 2: to keep track of how old everybody is, right, what
Speaker 2: does it say on their birth certificates or ID cards
Speaker 2: or whatever they have?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the birth year is noted on these birth
Speaker 1: certificates and citizenship cards, but for the month and day,
Speaker 1: most people are just assigned the default date of January first.
Speaker 2: Wow. So on New Year's Day, everyone in Bhutan is
Speaker 2: considered a year older.
Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty much, But it probably won't be that way
Speaker 1: for much longer, because you know, in recent years, younger
Speaker 1: generations have started keeping better track of their birth dates
Speaker 1: and holding celebrations just like we do around the rest
Speaker 1: of the world.
Speaker 2: But this is all a pretty big cultural shift, so
Speaker 2: I'm curious, how is that going over with the older
Speaker 2: set there?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean this like modernization and world coming into
Speaker 1: Bhutan has been a little worrisome with this values there,
Speaker 1: but the initial concern has actually softened over time and
Speaker 1: today this wonderful blend of Western birthday culture and traditional
Speaker 1: Bhutanese customs. So after cutting the cake and opening your presence,
Speaker 1: you might head down to the local temple and make
Speaker 1: an offering for your birthday so you can still celebrate
Speaker 1: your own life without losing sight of the bigger spiritual picture.
Speaker 2: I think that's one of the most interesting things as
Speaker 2: we study the country more because you can see that
Speaker 2: kind of balancing act going on all over the country.
Speaker 2: They're trying to keep pace with the modern world to
Speaker 2: some degree, but also really committed to preserving that traditional
Speaker 2: way of life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like you mentioned with the clothes and other things.
Speaker 1: But that's also what makes it so special. You know,
Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier that there were no paved roads until
Speaker 1: the postal system came in. There are also no cars
Speaker 1: until the nineteen sixties, and even today, more than sixty
Speaker 1: years later, there's actually only one major intersection in the
Speaker 1: capital city and it doesn't even have a traffic light.
Speaker 1: There's just a single policeman who stands there all day
Speaker 1: directing traffic.
Speaker 2: So a world capital with no traffic lights.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's pretty incredible.
Speaker 2: So I actually found a few other surprising cases where
Speaker 2: Bhutan was either way ahead or way behind the rest
Speaker 2: of the world. So, for instance, Bhutan was the first
Speaker 2: country to pass a nationwide ban on plastic shopping bags.
Speaker 2: It did this back in nineteen ninety nine, But that
Speaker 2: same year it also became the last country in the
Speaker 2: world to legalize television and the Internet. Now. Similarly, in
Speaker 2: two thousand and three, Bhutan became one of the last
Speaker 2: nations on Earth to introduce cell phone service, which again,
Speaker 2: you know, feels a little in the past. But in
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen it became the first country in the world
Speaker 2: to achieve a carbon negative status, which is crazy impressive,
Speaker 2: and that means that Bhuton actually absorbs more CO two
Speaker 2: than it produces.
Speaker 1: That is insane. So how is that even possible?
Speaker 2: Well, it's largely thanks to the country's extensive forest cover.
Speaker 2: Bhutan's two thousand and eight constitution mandates that at least
Speaker 2: sixty percent of the land must remain forested at all times,
Speaker 2: and not only has the kingdom stuff to that goal
Speaker 2: of the last two decades, it's actually exceeded it by
Speaker 2: planting more carbon eating trees and as a result, roughly
Speaker 2: seventy percent of Bhutan is now forested. So while the
Speaker 2: air is pretty thin in the country's high altitude, it's
Speaker 2: also among the cleanest in the world.
Speaker 1: That is amazing. So just to recap Bhutan does have
Speaker 1: TV and the internet if you need it, you should
Speaker 1: probably bring a reusable shopping bag when you visit. Check
Speaker 1: and a jar to collect that fresh mountain air, because
Speaker 1: it'll make a great, budget friendly souvenir.
Speaker 2: All important things to remember. All right. We've got two
Speaker 2: more travel tips to share, but before we get to those,
Speaker 2: let's take a quick break. You're listening to part Time
Speaker 2: Genus and we're serving up nine heartwarming facts about the
Speaker 2: Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. All right, mango, what do you
Speaker 2: want to do for your last factor?
Speaker 1: All right? Well, As an avowed chili head, I love
Speaker 1: this because it turns out spicy chilies are a crucial
Speaker 1: part of Bhutanese cuisine. And that's really no surprise given
Speaker 1: that the country has wedged between India and China.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But while those other cultures tend to use chili's as
Speaker 1: a seasoning or as a condiment, the chefs and Bhutan
Speaker 1: treat spicy peppers like a full fledged vegetable. In fact,
Speaker 1: that the star of the country's official national dish, which
Speaker 1: is a flavorful stew called Ama dachi. It's made with
Speaker 1: equal parts chili peppers and soft yak cheese, and it's
Speaker 1: served at every main meal of the day.
Speaker 2: Every main meal. Nothing wakes up like a big bowl
Speaker 2: of chili pepper stew I guess, and does everyone start
Speaker 2: their day off like this?
Speaker 1: Yeah, even the kids, but they're kind of weaned onto it.
Speaker 1: Like Budanese parents train them from a young age to
Speaker 1: tolerate high levels of spice, and then they start by
Speaker 1: mixing in tiny portions of the chilies into their food,
Speaker 1: and gradually the dosage gets high enough that the kids
Speaker 1: can take on this heat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and spicy food. But why are chili peppers such
Speaker 2: a big deal there.
Speaker 1: Well, most of the culinary experts think it's because eating
Speaker 1: spicy foods can produce a warming effect, which is especially
Speaker 1: nice during Bhutan's freezing cold winters. But it's also just
Speaker 1: the sense of tradition. Peppers first made their way to
Speaker 1: Bhutan from South America during the sixteenth century, so they've
Speaker 1: been a part of this diet for generations, and the
Speaker 1: chilies are so ingrained in the culture that they even
Speaker 1: have a place in the country's prayer rituals. So if
Speaker 1: a family member falls ill, you might burn some of
Speaker 1: these peppers as a way to fend off evil spirits
Speaker 1: until they get well again. In fact, it's like kind
Speaker 1: of a side But when I was studying abroad, my
Speaker 1: friend Dave and I tried to brew this homemade barley wine.
Speaker 1: It was called chang which one of our Tibetan instructors
Speaker 1: gave us the recipefore, and one of the things you
Speaker 1: do for the month that you're waiting for it to
Speaker 1: ferment is you're supposed to dress the barrel in clothes.
Speaker 1: So we had these like tubs of chong that were
Speaker 1: like wearing our thermals and had sunglasses and spring jack
Speaker 1: gets on them. And then you have to take chili's
Speaker 1: to the top to make sure that the evil spirits
Speaker 1: stay away and leaves your fermenting alone. And it really
Speaker 1: is funny that, like in different cultures, all these pungent
Speaker 1: flavors are supposed to keep everything out, like you know,
Speaker 1: garlic and vampires or chili peppers and these spirits that
Speaker 1: are meddling in the East.
Speaker 2: Actually, I'm really curious to try this dish now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know me too, But there's a caveat on
Speaker 1: the chili dishes, because I want to mention if you're
Speaker 1: visiting Bhutan and you're offered a pepper dish or really
Speaker 1: any kind of food, you're supposed to politely refuse to accept.
Speaker 2: It first and why is that. Is it because it's
Speaker 2: so spicy or what?
Speaker 1: No, it's just custom to refuse food the first time
Speaker 1: it's offered to you. You're supposed to say mashoe mashu,
Speaker 1: and you're supposed to cover your mouth while you're doing it.
Speaker 1: And this shows that you're grateful, but that you don't
Speaker 1: want to be an inconvenience to the host.
Speaker 2: I sort of feel like you're pranking me, mango, and
Speaker 2: I'm going to go there and say.
Speaker 1: That's come back a lot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're going to be like, this guy is so rude.
Speaker 2: But now we actually, I do believe you on that.
Speaker 2: And so what if they insist that you eat it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the rule only applies to the first offer,
Speaker 1: and so they will likely offer again. And at this
Speaker 1: point you're free to chow down, but bear in mind
Speaker 1: whatever you're about to eat is probably packing some heat.
Speaker 2: Wow, all right. From my last tip of the day,
Speaker 2: I wanted to recommend something to do while visiting Bhutan.
Speaker 2: At first, I was going to suggest that the people
Speaker 2: try out archery, which is the country's national sport, or
Speaker 2: maybe go yettie hunting, since everyone knows he lives out
Speaker 2: there in the Himalayan mountains. But in the end, I
Speaker 2: decided to go with something that feels a little more
Speaker 2: historically significant, which is to explore the recently reopened trans
Speaker 2: Bhutan Trail. So if you've never heard of this, it's
Speaker 2: this ancient two hundred and fifty mile hiking trail. It
Speaker 2: was originally part of the Silk Road. This was thousands
Speaker 2: of years ago, of course, and it runs east to
Speaker 2: west across the entire country. And before the government started
Speaker 2: building a highway in the nineteen fifties, the trail was
Speaker 2: the only way to get from one end of Bhutan
Speaker 2: to the other. Unfortunately, once the highway was pleated and
Speaker 2: buses and cars became more prevalent, people stopped walking the
Speaker 2: trail and it eventually fell into disrepair. So over the years,
Speaker 2: many of the trail's bridges and stairways sadly collapsed and
Speaker 2: a lot of its footpaths became unusable.
Speaker 1: And so what exactly gets lost when this trail falls
Speaker 1: into disrepair, Like, did that impact the local communities or
Speaker 1: economy or was there something along the trail that you
Speaker 1: couldn't be accessed from the highway.
Speaker 2: Actually, both of those things, you know, without bridges and footpaths,
Speaker 2: some locals were totally cut off from their relatives on
Speaker 2: the other side of the valleys or from the lands
Speaker 2: that they'd been farming. And on the cultural side of things,
Speaker 2: the trail had once connected hundreds of historic sites, including
Speaker 2: sacred temples and this amazing series of fortresses or songs
Speaker 2: as they call them, which had been used to fend
Speaker 2: off foreign invaders roughly five hundred years ago. And while
Speaker 2: the highway does run along large portions of the original trail,
Speaker 2: it was difficult to actually reach those sites due to
Speaker 2: the crumbling footpaths and stairways that we talked about.
Speaker 1: It. It does seem like a waste to have all
Speaker 1: these historic landmarks visible but out of reach like that.
Speaker 1: But you said the trail's been reopened.
Speaker 2: Now, that's exactly right. So the project kicked off in
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen and it involved rebuilding or restoring eighteen major
Speaker 2: bridges and more than ten thousand stairs. So, as you
Speaker 2: can imagine, it was a huge endeavor to clear and
Speaker 2: clean all two hundred and fifty miles of this mountainous trail,
Speaker 2: But the Bhutanese people got the job done, and in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, the trans Bhutan trail officially reopened for
Speaker 2: the first time in over sixty years, and this time
Speaker 2: the plan is to make the trail a central part
Speaker 2: of life in Bhutan, just like it used to be,
Speaker 2: so hopefully it won't fall into ruin ever again. So
Speaker 2: to do that, Bhutanese leadership is making the trail part
Speaker 2: of the national curriculum, so young students will hike portions
Speaker 2: of the trail to identify local plants and wildlife, and
Speaker 2: every citizen under the age of eighteen will spend a
Speaker 2: full year working on and walking the trail as part
Speaker 2: of a national service program. And the coolest part, at
Speaker 2: least to me, is that anyone who who completes the
Speaker 2: entire link of the trail, they earn a snazzy new metal.
Speaker 2: Everybody knows that's the incentive to get things done.
Speaker 1: But can you imagine how wonderful that would be the
Speaker 1: like have as part of our curriculum, like you have
Speaker 1: to go spend time on the Affalascian Trail or national
Speaker 1: parks or whatever. It really would be a beautiful thing
Speaker 1: for this country to embrace. But I'm curious. Is the
Speaker 1: trail open to tourists as well? Or is this really
Speaker 1: just something intended for locals.
Speaker 2: No, No, it definitely is. I mean, foreign visitors are
Speaker 2: totally welcome to hike or bike the trail as long
Speaker 2: as they're accompanied by their local guide. But keep in
Speaker 2: mind it would take approximately twenty seven days to walk
Speaker 2: the entire thing, So at that daily rate we mentioned earlier,
Speaker 2: you're looking at just under seven thousand dollars if you
Speaker 2: want to hike it straight through. So kind of an
Speaker 2: expensive metal to earn.
Speaker 1: Well, Will, I am fresh out of medals, but I'm
Speaker 1: going to give you the trophy today for telling us
Speaker 1: about the post office fact, because you know, now I
Speaker 1: want to hunt down a bunch of these Budanese stamps
Speaker 1: and add them to my vinyl collection.
Speaker 2: I love it. That's pretty ridiculous, but I do love
Speaker 2: it all right, Mango. This week, I've been looking for
Speaker 2: analytics on the show, and I've found something incredible. Now,
Speaker 2: we've got plenty of listeners in the US and Canada,
Speaker 2: even quite a few in England and Australia, but people
Speaker 2: have actually been listening to this show from all over
Speaker 2: the world, and it's so fun to see. Oh.
Speaker 1: I actually love seeing the reviews from like Canada and
Speaker 1: Australia and places like that. But it makes me so
Speaker 1: happy that it's being listened wider. So where are you
Speaker 1: seeing people come from?
Speaker 2: Well, just this morning I saw that people had tuned
Speaker 2: in from Cape Verde, one person in Swatini, and people
Speaker 2: from Curacao and Papua New Guinea. It's amazing to see this,
Speaker 2: but sadly no one from Bhutan. But if you are
Speaker 2: King of Bhutan or Minister of Tourism over there and
Speaker 2: you do happen to listen, just know your Royal highness.
Speaker 2: We'd love to get a little trade here going, so
Speaker 2: just hit us up on our Instagram at part Time Genius.
Speaker 2: We're happy to send over some atomic fireballs, the spiciest
Speaker 2: science tasting candy, and the official treat of Part Time Genius,
Speaker 2: and in return, maybe you can ship over some chili's.
Speaker 2: I like that trade all right, but in the meantime,
Speaker 2: that's going to do it. For today's episode of Part
Speaker 2: Time Genius from Mary Gabe, Dylan Mango and myself, thank
Speaker 2: you so much as always for listening.
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: This show is hosted by Will Pearson and me Mongas Chatikler,
Speaker 1: and research by our good pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan
Speaker 1: with support from Tyler Klang. The show is executive produced
Speaker 1: for iHeart by Katrina Norvell and Ali Perry, with social
Speaker 1: media support from Sasha Gay, trustee Dara Potts and Viney Shorey.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.