Farmhouse lunch

November 8, 2009Posted inEconomy, People
We had lunch today at Aum Sonam’s house. Aum Sonam, who was a member of the last National Assembly before the introduction of parliamentary democracy, served us a sumptuous meal of kharang, sikam, aima datsi, mushrooms, farm eggs, cottage cheese and papaya. I enjoyed Aum Sonam’s cooking thoroughly. It was clean, wholesome and traditional. So I asked her if she would be willing to make lunch for other travelers between Bumthang and Mongar or Trashigang. Her answer was “yes!” quickly qualified by “but they should call me first”. Her farmhouse is located among Thidanbi’s bucolic paddy fields about five…

Consulting tourists

November 5, 2009Posted inEconomy, Government
So the government has accepted and decided to implement McKinsey’s recommendations for the tourism sector. And it seems like we are paying a lot of money – almost 10 million dollars – to a consulting firm to tell us what we already know. Attracting high end visitors, promoting ecotourism, making Bhutan a destination for international meetings, easing ticketing, simplifying visa procedures, improving hotels, domestic air services, developing infrastructure, investing in marketing … these are more or less the same recommendations that a series of earlier consultants have made. More importantly, they are the same ones that ABTO and tour…

In total darkness

July 21, 2009Posted inEconomy
We'll be up by five tomorrow morning, to take in the total eclipse of the sun from Kuenselphodrang. Many of my neighbours – indeed, many Bhutanese – will also enjoy this very rare natural phenomenon when the moon completely blocks out the sun. Bhutan, after all, falls bang on the path of the total eclipse. But you won’t find many tourists. We didn’t market the occasion. The heavens have blessed Bhutan with the longest total eclipse, of about three minutes, in the 21st century. And we have not used it to boost tourism. The Finance Minister reported today that,…

Saving industries

December 16, 2008Posted inEconomy
I applaud Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk’s tour to Pasakha to assess the crisis gripping the steel factories. And factory owners welcomed his visit as signs of possible government support for an industry which is seriously affected by the global financial crisis.The government should support the steel industry, but provided it is of strategic importance to our country. That is to say that the industry should be socially, politically or economically too important to our country to allow it to collapse. So if, due to a failure in the steel industry, many jobs for nationals would be lost, or national security…

HTMT Institute

November 22, 2008Posted inGeneral
The construction of the Hospitality and Tourism Management Training Institute is finally making progress.The institute, located in 16 acres of sprawling property in Motithang, is estimated to cost Nu 385 million. That’s a lot of money to convert what had earlier been used as the Youth Center and, before that, as a government hotel to a training institute.And that’s a lot of money to train only 50 people a year.The good news is that once the institute is in full operation it would offer two-year courses in tourism and hospitality leading to diplomas that may be offered jointly with…