Eugene - Private Guide in Thimphu
Member Since 2006
Country: Bhutan
City: Thimphu
Airport Transfer: NO
Hotel Reservation: NO
Translation Service: NO
Languages:
Gelay and Anan went to high school together where they often day dreamt about life, During their school vacations, they would work as part time tour guides. After graduating college in 1999, they became full time free lance guides. In 2002, after guiding for other companies for nearly 10 years each, they formed Keys to Bhutan.
Our guides
In Bhutan, there are about 200 tour operators, just like us. What sets us apart are our guides. Guides can make or break your trip to Bhutan. You are with your guide the moment you set your foot in Bhutan, and your guide will be there to wave you goodbye when you leave Bhutan. Besides showing you around, he will be your weather man, your complaint box, you best friend, and your language interpreter. He will order your meals, reconfirm your flight, recheck your hotel bookings and coax you to climb that pass. We cannot stress more on the importance of having a good guide.
All our guides have at least a university degree. Because of their intimate knowledge on Bhutan and their efficiency, we are frequently asked to loan them out to other governmental and private agencies, when they have a need to impress their guests. Our guides have led groups for all the big names in the travel industry, besides giving ambassadors, diplomats and other government guests a good time.
Culture of Bhutan
Cradled in the folds of the Himalayas, Bhutan has relied on its geographic isolation to protect itself from outside cultural influences. A sparsely populated country bordered by India to the south and China to the north, Bhutan has long maintained a policy of strict isolationism, both culturally and economically, with the goal of preserving its cultural heritage and independence. Only in the last decades of the 20th century were foreigners allowed to visit the country, and only then in limited numbers. In this way, Bhutan has successfully preserved many aspects of a culture which dates directly back to the mid-17th century.
Guide Butanh
Bhutanese culture derives from ancient Tibetan culture. Dzongkha and Sharchop, the principal Bhutanese languages, are closely related to Tibetan, and Bhutanese monks read and write the ancient variant of the Tibetan language known as chhokey. Bhutanese are physically similar to the Tibetans but history does not record when they crossed over the Himalayas and settled in the south-draining valleys of Bhutan. Both Tibetans and Bhutanese revere the tantric guru Padmasambhava the founder of Himalayan Buddhism in the 8th century.
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