When I traveled to Bhutan two years ago, that's exactly what I did and had a great experience. But now I am questioning my methodology...
A few months ago I saw a tweet from the Cleveland Council on World Affairs promoting a documentary about Bhutan. Cool, I thought. I've been to Bhutan, the land of Gross National Happiness and "real" Buddhists. I thought I may meet some like minded and interesting people at the movie and immediately registered (cannonball, not even reading the title of the movie) put it on my calendar, and didn't think much about it.
The night of the event I arrived at a small theatre in Cleveland to see the documentary "The Refugees of Shangra-La" and, just as advertised, it was about refugees from Bhutan who "resettled" to the United States, many in Cleveland. There were was a bunch of refugees in the audience and after the screening they shared their experiences of the transition moving half way around the world to Cleveland.
Whoa...refugees from Bhutan?!? How can that be? Bhutan touts "Gross National Happiness". I was there first hand experiencing the happiness! But now I understand that my trip was filtered, edited, propaganda, and I didn't really pick up the extent of it. If I would have done some research before going to Bhutan I would have known about the refugees. I feel duped.
Would have I gone to Bhutan if I had known about the refugee problem? Had I known before I went would I have had a different experience? I'll never know.
I do know this, Shangra-La doesn't exist.
Interesting observation! I tend to do as much research about an area I'm visiting as possible, only because I don't want to miss something that I may not have known about (or found, on a lark, in the limited time I would be visiting a new location). Once I have a general sense of the place - culture, and history, and a basic lay of the land - that's when I feel ready to jump in with both feet.
ReplyDeleteI agree that sometimes it's fun and exciting to go in blind, like driving to an unknown location without a map. But I think it's almost always better to have looked at the map, and then fold it up and put in in your pocket.