April 24, 2008

ASIA | BHUTAN | HIMALAYAS

Kingdom Come

By Nicole Cotroneo

The world’s youngest democracy has a mountain to climb. You want in?

view map

Gourmet dinners and personal masseuses may sound like standard five-star luxuries –- but not when you’re trekking the Himalayas. That, however, is how it rolls on Uma Paro’s new small-group trek through Bhutan’s mountain wilderness, May 12-24. For the first six days, the 29-room Como Hotels retreat is home base for relaxed day hikes in the Paro valley, where you’ll visit the country’s most revered Buddhist temple — the 7th-century Kyichu Lhakhang — and the cliff-clinging Tiger’s Nest monastery. Once you’re acclimated to the altitude (the valley rises to nearly 7,400 feet), the adventure grows a little more intense: During the last six days, you’ll hoof and camp along the base of Mount Jhomalhari, one of Bhutan’s highest peak. Though, even then, you’ll be pausing for lavish picnic lunches and hot ginger tea breaks.

With only a dozen hikers or less, the trek is designed to provide “a deep experience of the Bhutanese people and their culture.” And it couldn’t come at a more monumental time: Next month the world’s youngest democracy will hold its first parliamentary session and draft a history-making constitution. But that’s amid growing concerns over Bhutan’s human rights issues, not to mention the erosion of one of Asia’s most traditional and isolated societies. File this one under: Go There Now.