Celebrating with The iDare Collective:

"I wrote this because the calm of Bhutan refused to leave me even after I returned every time I looked at the pictures, my body still protested at having to come back to ordinary life. Putting these feelings into words felt like the only way to hold on to that peace a little longer. If you’re reading this and feeling a quiet longing for somewhere slower, quieter, or more real, I want you to know that it’s okay to want more of that feeling in your everyday life. I am someone who came back changed by mountains, silence, and a first trek that rearranged something inside me. iDare has become a space where these quieter shifts the ones that don’t make noise but stay with you can be shared and held."
No grand revelations, no dramatic shifts, just Bhutan being effortlessly extraordinary.
My recent trip to Bhutan has me stunned and obsessed at the same time. Even now, when I look back at the pictures, all I feel is peace. Looking away from these pictures to type this on my screen has my body protesting vehemently.  
 
I think my co-workers, family, friends, and everyone are taken in by the stories I cannot shut up about, and I feel impish admitting that many of them are now planning their own trips to Bhutan.  While a part of me desperately wants to gatekeep this place to ensure people do not spoil it, I cannot bring myself to stop talking about it. So much so that our content creator had to throw her hands up and say, ‘Write, yay!! 
 
Where Every Turn Feels Slightly Unreal 
Think of mountains, greenery, blue water streams, no honks, my god, absolutely no honks or traffic, just a deep sense of calm that engulfs you the moment you step through the border.   
When my trip captain said it would be apparent, I think he was exaggerating. Boy, was I wrong! Buddhism is something I’ve felt drawn to since my grad days, when my friend and I used to sneak out during our lunch breaks to eat free food at the monastery down the next lane. The sense of calm, however, is enthralling. It pulls you in, and you succumb, never wanting to let go. This was also my first time facing cold like this, though. I mean, I’m from Bangalore, and to endure -5 degrees was an experience.  
 
The food, the people, the landscape, what do I say to you guys? It’s simply put, heavenly. I’m no great photographer, and I was on a mission to disconnect from the outer world on this trip, but the few pictures I have taken from a moving vehicle nonetheless look like paintings, I kid you not. The dzong, the monasteries, the prayer wheels, the flags, none of us are ready for Bhutan.  
 
We have been raised in a different world, and this right here, in Bhutan, is what living feels like.   
Taktsang was the first trek of my life, and it has changed my life in a way that I can never go back to how it used to be.   
Travel has a way of bringing us closer to ourselves, sometimes gently, sometimes not.   
Some journeys don’t end when you return; they stay, shift you, ask more of you. If this piece stirred something up for you, you don’t have to sit with it alone. We’re here to hold that space with you.

Image Credits: Self-Clicked