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Bhutan

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The fabled Tiger’s Nest monastery.

What the travel brochures omit about ‘the world’s happiest nation’

Bhutan is often sold as a real-life Shangri-La. But what’s life really like beyond the postcard?

  • Nina Karnikowski

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Druk Cafe is an all-day Bhutanese restaurant now open at Waterford Plaza.

When ingredients are king: New cafe brings Perth a taste of the Himalayas

Bhutanese yellow rice and butter tea for breakfast, noodle soups in savoury beefy broth, momos in spicy, creamy gravy – affordable food to enjoy on the run.

  • Max Veenhuyzen
JA Manafuru has launched wellness packages.

These six transformative trips will enrich your mind and body

Much-needed time out is even better in an exotic location. If you’re in need of some cup-filling, you can’t go wrong with these revitalising journeys.

  • Julietta Jameson
Punakha dzong

The land of happiness that few tourists ever visit

Want to lose the crowds on your next holiday? Tourists are still something of a novelty in Bhutan, the country that invented Gross National Happiness.

  • Trudi Jenkins
Beauty outside and in.

New luxury lodge makes this remote country more appealing than ever

Some 600,000 people visited the Himalayan nation of Nepal in the first eight months of 2023. Less than a tenth of that figure visited the nearby Kingdom of Bhutan.

  • Julietta Jameson
Bhutan is still waiting for visitors to return post-COVID.

The country that didn’t want you to visit has changed its mind

The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is to halve the $311 daily fee it charges tourists in an effort to boost a sector still struggling to recover a year after the end of COVID-19 restrictions.

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Ema datshi: Here, chilli is not considered a spice. It's a vegetable. It's something you cook with as if it were a potato, or a zucchini.

What is ema datshi? The curious origins of Bhutan's beloved fiery cheese dish

In this country, chilli is not considered a spice. It's a vegetable. It's something you cook with as if it were a potato, or a zucchini.

  • Ben Groundwater
Om Dhungel tackles his back yard at Fairwater, Blacktown.

How the Bhutanese beat Sydney’s soaring house prices

This small refugee community is doing things differently to get into one of the toughest housing markets in the world.

  • Mridula Amin
A village in Bhtan.

The country that doesn't want you to visit

Here is a country, essentially, that is upfront about the fact that it doesn't really want tourists. Or at least, not many tourists.

  • Ben Groundwater
The Trans-Bhutan Trail, a more than 400-kilometre-long hiking track leads clear across the centre of the country.

Trans-Bhutan Trail: Epic, 400-kilometre hiking trail set to become one of the world's best

A 403-kilometre trail high in Bhutan has been revamped and reopened and is destined to become one of the great tourism experiences of the world.

  • Ben Groundwater

Original URL: https://www.theage.com.au/topic/bhutan-6z2